Belt: A flexible band, as of leather or cloth, worn around the waist to support clothing, secure tools or weapons, or serve as decoration.Harness: A support consisting of an arrangement of straps/belts for holding something to the body.
A Brief History of Safety Belts & Haness
At the beginning everyone called them sissy belts. Each tool trailer had a couple of safety belts but they used them more often as tools rather than safety devices. The cowboy attitude discouraged eeryone from ever becoming dependant on them. Any display of fear or hesitation at heights would certainly bring criticism, mistrust, and harassment and possibly even termination. Therefore question is - How could you get anything done?
Prior to the debut of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) the cost of construction projects were estimated in terms of dollars and lives. The general rule of thumb was a life for each million dollars. Falls were by far the most common cause of fatal accidents.
During the early seventies the advent of OSHA and the rising cost of litigation caused companies to begin changing their attitude about personal fall protection. They were than required to wear safety belts but most of them were negligent about securing them. Some of them were downright stubborn. A far too familiar sight was a worker lying broken on the ground with the lanyard of his safety belt tied into a knot neatly out of his way. Again the Question gets repeated - How could you get anything done?
While making surprise inspections OSHA levied heavy fines on the contractor and worker as well. Agents commonly gathered evidence from offsite positions with the use of telescopic photo lenses. Insurance companies put heavy pressure on their client construction companies. By the end of the seventies most of contractors were accustomed to using safety belts and were encouraged to use them properly.
The eighties brought about the concept of 100 % tie off. A worker was than required to have two lanyards attached to his safety belt. If used properly the worker would be secured by at least one lanyard 100% of the time. No longer could he walk a beam or even move around freely. Moving from one place to another turned into a monotonous chore of fastening and unfastening the safety lanyards. The Question still comes - How could one ever get anything done?
By the nineties the risk management bean counters began to take a closer look at injuries caused by safety belts. The safety belt could most certainly save a life but at the same time could cause serious back injuries. While safety experts instructed us to wear the lanyard in the back to avoid back injury the state of the art belt had "D" rings on each side slightly in front. This design made the belt handy to sit in like a work belt though it was not approved for that purpose.
The next evolution in personal fall protection was the full body safety harness. By the end of the nineties the full body safety harness was in use almost universally around the construction industry. Today if a worker is injured from a fall it can almost certainly be proven that he violated a safety rule.
The harness is a most restrictive and uncomfortable device. About 12 to 15 lbs of weight is added to the already heavy load of equipment and tools. It effectively covers all the pockets. It does not easily accommodate the wearing of a tool belt or a bolt bag.
Uncomfortable and restrictive though it may be, they are still getting things done. Only now things are done much safer. Without criticism everyone can now protect himself for a long career and corporate benefactors are reaping a better bottom line.
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