What is the lifespan of Fall Protection PPE?

It is necessary and very important to respect the lifespan of your PPE or personal protective equipment. However, the lifespan of these PPEs also depends on their use and working environment.

In general, information about the longevity of personal protective articles in the instructions for use that you receive at the time of purchase. Out of this useful life, the item should be retired.

What is the lifespan of anchor straps, harnesses or safety ropes?

The most affected part is regarding work at height. Whether anchor points, harnesses, straps, lanyards, ropes, etc., manufacturers provide you with a lifespan of between 5 and 10 years. These figures are based on light usage conditions and an unpolluted working environment. Some string manufacturers even have a lifespan of 15 years, but without use. However, this lifespan seems to reduce as professional circumstances change. On the one hand, it can decrease depending on the work intensity of its wearer. On the other hand, it is reduced depending on the aggressiveness of your workplace. If your job involves being in an acidic or corrosive environment or in splashes which can lead to rapid degradation of synthetic components, it is important to review the replacements of your personal protective equipment.

Lanyards are essential because they are the link between a person and a safety harness with anchor points. Lanyards must contain energy absorbers when used with fixed anchor points. Energy absorbers help absorb the impact of a fall.

What PPE for the risk of working at height?

Dedicated equipment to be worn or transported by a person to protect them from one or more risks that may endanger their safety or health and supplements or accessories having the same use.

Be careful when working at height. Safety collective equipment and PPE (personal protective equipment) are always essential, even if the work is well defined. Working at height should be safe for all workers. To avoid injuries and falls when working at height, it is important to carry out a risk assessment and take the appropriate precautions.

Risk assessment, health and safety at work rules must be respected for all activities requiring work at height. Workers must be properly and specifically trained in the use of PPE in the event of a fall. This training includes an exercise in setting up the equipment, possibly training in rescue and safety procedures. These trainings should be updated as needed. Before any intervention, workers must be able to ensure that the equipment is in good working order and that regular annual product checks have been carried out (article R. 4323-104 to R4323-106). The PPE must be checked and the PPE material checked.

The EN 361 standard: fall arrest harness

The EN 361 standard of 2002 is the standard that safety harnesses must meet to be marketed. Indeed, it specifies requirements and test methods for so-called safety harnesses. To be considered as anti-fall, dorsal and sternal attachments are necessary to better stop falls and reduce the impact on the shears, in particular via a pair of suspenders.

However, the EN 361 standard only makes sense for fall arrest systems with safety harnesses. While the pruner requires a support system to work safely. Therefore, the harness you choose must comply with EN 361 standards, but also with EN 358 standards.

The EN 358 standard: work retention

The role of the EN 358 standard of 1999 is to define the requirements for work positioning devices. This therefore concerns not only safety harnesses, lanyards, but also work positioning and restraint belts. Because they all have mount points. These attachment points are used to hold the pruner in place during work and to prevent it from reaching points in which it could fall.

However, this standard cannot guarantee that a harness has the essential characteristics to be considered a fall arrest harness. In fact, the attachment points are designed to attach to restraint and work positioning devices. However, they cannot withstand drops greater than 0.5 m.

The EN 355 standard: safety lanyards/energy absorber

This standard concerns energy absorbers attached to lanyards. This lanyard is therefore a fall arrest lanyard and differs from a positioning lanyard without an energy absorber. In particular, this affects the dynamic behavior, the static preload and the static resistance.

EN 355 absorbers are designed for specific drop heights and are described as varying widely in size. The shock absorber must absorb impact forces up to 6 kN. The EN 355 standard specifies energy absorbers that can be connected to lanyards on supports or mobile fall arresters. Some manufacturers even add a self-retracting fall arrester.