While the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) does not require fall protection equipment or lanyards for scissor lift workers, some organizations and jobsite-specific standards do. That’s the core of the scissor lift safety harness debate, which boils down to:
–Safety First. Employers and their workers want to adhere to safety regulations, and also prevent as many accidents as possible.
–Potential Inefficiency. Equipping scissor lift workers with a personal fall restraint system (PFRS) is cumbersome, inefficient, and perhaps unnecessary.
So, do you need a harness in a scissor lift? The answer depends on local safety standards and job site requirements. To help understand scissor lift harness requirements, let’s look at OSHA’s fall protection standards for aerial work platforms.
First, we’ll see how fall protection requirements impact certain industries and business sectors for aerial lift workers. Then, we’ll examine fall protection requirements from OSHA’s perspective, along with local and site-specific regulations, and how they affect fall protection and PFRS safety standards for scissor lift operators.
Harness and Fall Protection for Aerial Lifts
OSHA has a specific set of guidelines for aerial lift platform (AWP) workers and aerial lift operators, particularly for the construction industry. Their Fall Protection Construction Standards and Resources lay out a comprehensive set of rules for construction workers that use aerial lifts.
But scissor lifts aren’t considered aerial lifts, simply because the work platform for a scissor lift doesn’t extend beyond the wheelbase. Because of this crucial distinction, scissor lifts are considered scaffolding giving workers more flexibility than other types of aerial work platform operators. Plus, given that most scissor lifts don’t extend as high as AWPs, fall protection requirements aren’t required.
Yet…that still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use a fall protection harness when on a scissor lift. In fact, there are certain instances that require this type of worker safety accessory. Let us explain more.
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