Study on Fall Protection from Scaffolds by Scaffold Sheeting During Construction

摘要

The frequency of fall accidents is one of the most serious problems in construction industries, and the countermeasures, such as guidelines, etc., for falls from scaffolds have been tightened in Japan. These countermeasures particularly affect the decrease in the number of the fatal accidents by falls from scaffolds. However, the rate of such accidents from falls is still high in the construction industries. In order to examine further countermeasures to reduce falls, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has established a committee at the authors' institute. That committee's work experimentally confirmed the effectiveness of using scaffold sheeting as a covering around scaffolds to protect against falling construction materials (a method widely used in Japan). Based on those results, the scaffold sheeting was improved for fall protection, and the effect of the improved sheeting could be confirmed experimentally.