PREVENTING FALLS AND PROTECTING WORKERS

Cyann Fielding speaks to industry experts to gain the best advice for your terminal’s fall prevention and protection measures. In tank storage operations, working conditions often involve heights, bringing risks for manual workers. The risk of falls is common in the process of unloading trucks, working on tank roofs, or accessing higher areas. So, operators need to be aware of these risks and know how to mitigate them. For terminals, maintaining an environment with the least possible threat of an incident occurring is imperative for safe and efficient operations. Fall prevention measures allow operators to implement solutions to protect their workers. REGULATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS The American agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards require fall protection be provided at specified elevations or higher, based on the venue. For example, five feet (1.5 m) in shipyards, six feet (1.8 m) in the construction industry, eight feet (2.4 m) in long shoring operations, and any height when employees are working over dangerous equipment and machinery, regardless of the height above the machinery. When applying these standards to the tank storage industry,...