Recently enacted OSHA restrictions on alternative fall protection are designed to give residential builders a forceful nudge toward conventional fall-protection systems - like the retractable lanyard shown here.
Near the end of last year, builders got some unexpected - and unwelcome - news from OSHA. As of June 16, 2011, the agency announced, residential builders and subcontractors would no longer be permitted to work under an interim guideline that had effectively exempted them from some provisions of its fall-protection standard. Although not technically a new rule, the change means that residential fall-protection requirements will revert to the more restrictive standard that had been in effect in 1995. Builders who hope to remain compliant with the revised regulations now have about three months to overhaul their fall-protection procedures.Where we...