Hoe to Proactively Address Fall Hazards

摘要

Protecting workers from fall hazards has always been high on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) priority list. However, in 2011, the organization honed in on agriculture's enforcement — or lack of enforcement — of fall protection-related standards and regulations for rolling stock, e.g., railcars and hopper trucks. Though OSHA's "4-foot rule," or general industry standard 29 CFR 1910, requires employees be tied-off or restrained from falling anytime they are elevated over 4feet, the grain industry has been exempt from rolling stock violations due to the 1996 Miles Memo. Sent by John Miles, OSHA director of compliance programs, to his fellow inspectors, the internal memo states that "falls from rolling stock would not be cited under the fall protection standard because it was not appropriate to cite exposure to fall hazards from tops of rolling stock unless the stock was inside of or contiguous to a structure where fall protection is feasible."