OSHA Annual Inspection - Don't Forget to Inspect *AND* Keep Records!

Don't forget your OSHA Annual Inspections of your roof anchors and engineered fall protection systems and window cleaning equipment - a competent person (qualified person) shall inspect roof anchors, davits, horizontal lifelines and other permanently installed fall protection and prevention and window cleaning equipment on buildings each and every year.

See our post about the OSHA requirements per the ANSI/IWCA I-14.1 from August 2008. See also the OSHA code 1910.66 at http://www.osha.gov/, regarding inspecting. And,

ZERO TOLERANCE!

Canada appears to be stepping up its efforts to prevent fatalities from falls. Recently companies have been fined quite severely in Canada for accidents and for infractions of safety regulations. The great news is the Pro-Active approach to prevention and protection - saving lives.
Here in the USA we suffer from

ANSI / IWCA I-14.1-2001: an OSHA National Consensus Standard for Window Cleaning (Highlights)

The ANSI / IWCA I-14.1-2001 is an OSHA National Consensus Standard. It has been referenced in several OSHA CITATIONS (found elsewhere in this blog) -- buildings new and old need to meet the requirements of this standard. A few highlights (click title for more):

New York City Window Cleaning Fall Accident 2007

Here’s a positive update on the recent New York City window cleaning accident…
In the national news Friday morning (Jan 4, 2008) was a report the surviving brother has improved significantly from this tragic accident. It’s being called “a miracle”. Imagine surfing a falling platform down the wall of a tall building! These are the creations of movies, not real life…
GOOGLE "new york city window cleaning accident"
It seems two mistakes may have lead to this event (a) a faulty platform / scaffold or faulty suspension lines and (b) workers not using safety lines independently tied off. If they suspected the platform was unsafe, as earlier reports stated, why wouldn’t they tie themselves off to safety tie-backs? The presumption is maybe there weren’t any tiebacks on the building.
Apparently, according to the news, the family of the deceased window cleaner has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the building managers and scaffold company. No matter what the outcome, it will not bring him back.
Please forward to your friends and associates who are in the industry to help raise awareness of hazard identification, hazard reduction, fall protection, fall prevention and risk mitigation.