What is a Personal Fall Arrest System?

Confused about what is a personal fall arrest system (PFAS) and more importantly, the rules for anchorage of PFAS?

OSHA defines a PFAS in at least three separate documents:

• 1910.66 Appendix C (I) (b) [for General Industry]
• 1915.151(b) and 1915.159 [for Shipbuilding]
• 1926 Subpart M Appendix C [for Construction]

OSHA's definitions are as follows, in the same order as above:

• "Personal fall arrest system" means a system used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an anchorage, connectors, a body belt or body harness and may include a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or suitable combinations of these.
• "Personal fall arrest system" means a system used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an anchorage, connectors, body belt or body harness and may include a lanyard, a deceleration device, a lifeline, or a suitable combination of these. As of January 1, 1998, the use of a body belt for fall arrest is prohibited.
• "Personal fall arrest system" means a system used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an anchorage, connectors, a body belt or body harness and may include a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or suitable combinations of these.

As one can see, these are practically IDENTICAL definitions, for each of the three industries. However the rules for anchorage are different across the industries - leading to a source of confusion. We'll discuss this more in a separate post.

The intent of PFAS is that when and if the primary suspension line(s) break or fail, the secondary or safety lines that CATCH the falling worker must absolutely NOT FAIL as this becomes the ONLY thread that is SAVING the worker's life.

All parts of the system as described in the definitions must not fail, particularly when the dynamic loads are applied as the falling worker and / or his equipment decelerates when his connection (hopefully via a shock absorbing type of lanyard) to the building anchor comes tight.

It's what (may) protects an employee from (serious) injury or death in the event of such failures. This is what a lot of people may overlook when building maintenance is being performed.

The PFAS should be designed to prevent the worker:

• from falling more than just a few feet
• from contacting a lower level or obstructions
• from swinging in such a way as to contact the building with a significant force
• from being injured by the impact of his body harness against his body
• from being injured by overly excessive deceleration (e.g., shock, impact, whiplash, etc.)

Additionally, none of the equipment (tools, etc.) or the suspended platform or staging or scaffold should be allowed during such events to fall onto bystanders below or to damage property or building by swinging wildly out of control.

One thing is certain, the laws of physics and their effects on the PFAS system components do not change, regardless of what industry you may find yourself, therefore, it is imperative to follow "Best Practices" across all industries to raise the bar on SAFETY as the #1 goal of any suspended work.