Many people view steel storage racks as a relatively harmless feature of an organization's facility. After all, a storage rack is simply the tool by which a company organizes and stores the materials of its operations. Why is it then that safe workplace associations offer training courses on inspecting and maintaining steel storage racks? If storage racks are so innocuous an item, why did the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) release in 2006 its first rack standard, CSA A344.2-05 Standard for the Design and Construction of Steel Storage Racks? If racks are such risk-free structures, why did a 2006 coroner's jury, reviewing a 2003 workplace fatality involving steel storage racks, issue recommendations for everyone involved with them, from manufacturers to government regulators, to safe workplace associations, to employers? As with any other piece of equipment or tool found in the workplace, if steel storage racks are not properly installed, inspected, maintained, and repaired, they are a hazard to those who work in and around them.
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