Grace Industries has introduced a new line of Lone Worker fall suspension alert-notification products for people who work at heights.
Fall protection remains in the top 10 OSHA violations. Fall protection is widely used in fall prevention; but what happens after a fall from heights leaving a working hanging in their body harness?
After a fall, response time is critical. Workers hanging for prolonged periods of time are prone to serious health risks – including suspension trauma. Suspension trauma, also known as orthostatic intolerance or harness hang syndrome, is commonly defined as the loss of consciousness when hanging with limited movement. This condition is life-threatening when a response is beyond the critical time window of several minutes.
OSHA Fall Protection standard 1926.502 (d) (20) calls for the “prompt rescue” of employees in the event of a fall. What is often overlooked is that a “prompt rescue” relies mainly on the chance discovery of a worker hanging in a harness and unable to self-rescue. After a fall, the worker may be injured, unconscious and unable to summon assistance on their own.
The new Grace WorkForce uses an advanced gyro/accelerometer to detect a worker’s fall from heights and automatically transmits an emergency alert without any action required by the worker. WorkForce automatically transmits an emergency signal and facilitates a “prompt rescue.”
Grace advanced fall detection and Lone Worker safety monitoring solutions go beyond traditional concepts of self-rescue. Additionally, a worker also has the option of immediately activating an emergency alert by pressing the WorkForce panic button. WorkForce has a third means of emergency alerting by automatic activation when using its self-contained motion-sensing timer.
WorkForce can be used by anyone working at heights or working alone. Common applications include utilities, construction, arborist, scaffold workers and wind farm technicians.
Advanced fixed facility monitoring system packages are available to provide on-site indoor location, outdoor GPS mapping and advanced intelligent inputs and outputs for sending alerts via email, text message or by use of an automatic telephone voice dialer. These systems are also capable of integrating with satellite modems or existing fire, security or SCADA monitoring systems. Workforce is compatible with all Grace Lone Worker advanced monitoring systems.
WorkForce is made in the U.S., has no monthly fees or annual subscriptions and uses its own autonomous high-performance unlicensed radio system.
Photo: The Grace Lone Worker TPASS 3 AM Buddy System Package
