Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/685950
Where workers are working at height, a self-rescue device should be part of the emergency plan: It can prevent injuries and, sometimes, save a worker's life. This is particularly true where workers are working alone; a fallen worker who has to remain suspended for a long time can suffer serious long-term health effects and may sustain suspension trauma. Where workers have a self-rescue device and know how to use it, they have a quick means of getting safely to the ground. While self-rescue devices are not specifically required by provincial occupational health and safety law, employers are required to have a rescue plan for workers at height. Regulations also generally state that fall protection plans must include procedures for rescuing workers who have fallen and are suspended. "In the wind industry, for example, they're required to have an adequate rescue plan to get those work- ers out of the tower and to the ground so that EMS or fire can assist," Vernon-Scott says. "Other groups, too, as in the construction industry or tower crane, are required if an operator has a heart attack or a fall to be able to bring that operator down to where first response can do their rescue." Controlled descent devices are used most com- monly by workers who work in the hydro, electrical, telecom and wind generation industries and work on tower cranes, bucket trucks and power lines. The CSA Z259.2.3 Descent Devices standard defines a descent control device as "a device that is designed and intended to be used and operated by one person for personal descent or to lower another person from an elevation." A basic self-rescue device consists of the rescue device itself (usually made of aluminum, metal or plastic), two carabineers (a rectangular metal loop with a spring-loaded gate) and a length of rope. The device is attached to an anchor point: a beam of a building or tower, for example. With some manual devices, too, the worker may have to adjust the length of rope during descent to allow for her body weight. The parts generally come in a bag and the kit is stored near the worker. I n December 2013, a huge fire broke out in a four-storey apartment building under construction in downtown Kingston, Ont. The fire left a crane operator trapped at the top of a crane. According to witnesses, the fire, one of the largest in the city's history, grew quickly and filled the air with heavy, black smoke. A search-and-rescue helicopter was dispatched from the nearby military base, CFB Trenton. As it hovered over the blackened crane, a rescue technician lowered himself to the edge of the crane, attached himself to the operator and the two were pulled up to safety. The operator sustained burns to parts of his body and spent several months in hospital. Sean Vernon-Scott, director of operations at London, Ont.-based Rubicon Safety, says the operator could have been away from the fire much faster if he had had a self-rescue device. "The operator was finally rescued — that was a positive — but if there had been a self- rescue device, that rescue would have taken anywhere from three to 10 minutes, versus about two hours," he says, adding they were lucky the base was close. "If it hadn't been, the individual would have burned to death." By Linda Johnson 20 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com Personal rescue devices can be lifesavers for workers at heights