13 February 2009
Dr Dave Merchant

Industrial safety harnesses have to serve many different roles, often at the same time, and the increasingly global market means there are hundreds of products available, all with glossy websites, even glossier brochures and claiming to be The Best Harness In The World because of their unique integrated cellphone directory or elasticated cat attachment. Designers try to appeal to the fundamental male - and the users and specifiers of harnesses are sadly almost always male  -  sense of how the world should be: something with a larger number of clips, buckles and technical gizmos must clearly be better than something plain and simple. As it is with cars and camcorders, so it shall be with harnesses.

This leads to a very common situation: offered the choice between a basic, slightly boring fall-arrest harness and a padded, pocket-covered, webbing-festooned, technical "tower climbing" harness, your user will choose the impressive one, no matter what they're going to do in it.

Dead weight

Rock climbers, who know a little about harnesses, will tell you that the utility of a holder for your phone comes a very weak second to the weight and bulk it adds. A light harness that doesn't impede movement is far more important to them than one with this year's must-have webbing pattern, or a famous brand name. Manufacturers of sporting harnesses spend months, and a not-inconsiderable amount of their research and development budgets, on shaving off every last gramme and proudly promoting the fact that their hollow-core padded leg loops are 2% thinner than last year. Less is most definitely more.

Now, the same logic should apply to industry, as the activity is the same - a person is climbing about, dragging extra weight, and for most of the time their harness is nothing more than an obstruction to getting something out of a trouser pocket. It doesn't, because industrial product designers are often concentrating on one small sector of the market: the sexy, tech-laden world of tower climbing and rescue. They know that less than 1% of harness users are ever involved in that sort of work, but saying "as used by Allied Global Macho Rescue Squad" on a brochure will get sales. Lots of sales. The fact that users may end up with a less-than-appropriate item of PPE is not, of course, a sales issue.

Is this just a petty complaint about sales tactics? Not exactly. In years gone by it might have been, as the difference between a basic "webbing and buckles" harness and the technical products was often only a few hundred grammes and some gear loops. These days, the market has expanded and the differences are surprisingly large. A two-point fall-arrest harness, with plain webbing and no fancy padding or bolt-on accessories, typically weighs around 1kg, and costs between £25 and £75. The latest ranges of technical tower-climbing harnesses, with integrated tool pouches, foam back and shoulder supports, metal-hinged webbing and fast-clip buckles, weigh between 5kg and 7kg and can cost up to £300. More is, it seems, more.

If you spend your entire working life rescuing people from oil rigs, or climbing TV masts, then some of these features are worth the extra cost and weight. People who actually hang in their harnesses prefer them to be padded. Rope access workers, who typically carry enough gear to invade a small country, prefer harnesses with lots of places to clip said gear, but also need freedom of movement. So, rope access harnesses can be as complex as tower-climbing harnesses, but are usually a bit lighter and thinner about the waist and legs. They often dispense entirely with any padding on the shoulders, as rope access workers are supported by their harness rather than supporting it.

For those climbing towers, in utilities, telecoms and offshore industries for example, and those working in line rescue, the "tower-climbing harness" is the big daddy, and getting bigger by the week. A tower-climbing harness designer assumes three things.

1.  You carry a lot of stuff on your belt. Really, a lot. If your tower is held together with M90 bolts, your spanner is going to impress people.
2.  You also carry the weight of the harness itself, so the shoulder straps gain more padding to spread the weight of the other padding.
3.  You are often leaning back on a pole belt, so the lumbar support of the harness has to be extremely good, and there must be large side D-rings on your belt. The larger the better, to avoid having to actually look at what you're doing.

What they don't assume is that the person will ever need to fit through a narrow hatch, or get at their wallet. These things do not happen on a 500m television antenna. So it doesn't matter that the harness is large, with lots of bits sticking out and begging to catch on things, or that it covers 90% of your body in sculpted foam rubber. It can be heavy, because you climb towers every day of your life, and so have more stamina than Red Rum on a good day. It can be hot and sweaty, because you're hanging off a metal pole with a windchill of 50 degrees below freezing.

The designs in this sector of the market are, often, actually quite good. Tower climbers are usually very particular about which brand they prefer, and only a few manufacturers have really gone overboard with their bolt-ons. But let's face it, the mass market is not supposed to be using this stuff in the first place - no matter how good it may be, your PPE has a far more fundamental need to satisfy.

Most people use harnesses solely for fall arrest. They don't expect ever to hang in their harnesses unless they have a truly hideous accident, and carry only a pair of lanyards or the traveller unit for a ladder fall-arrest system. Most of them don't even carry tools, so the need for padding, gear loops, even the belt section itself, is simply not there. A basic, boring harness is appropriate PPE; a tower-climbing harness is not.

There are good reasons why bigger usually isn't better.

• Climbing with extra weight increases fatigue and muscle stress, leading to accidents, especially in hot conditions. Ascending a vertical ladder is around twice as strenuous as using a rowing machine in a gym.
• Add-ons such as gear loops or belt pouches, which catch on obstructions, risk pulling the user off balance, especially when climbing vertical ladders and passing through hatchways and trapdoors.
• Complex systems of buckles and webbing increase the risks of users fitting and adjusting the harness incorrectly, even after training. Often they don't even realise they've connected the wrong two pairs of straps together.
• Extra attachment points the user doesn't need (such as a waist-level front D-ring for rope access when the user is only operating in fall arrest) lead to mistakes, the consequences of which can be fatal in a fall. Connecting lanyards to your belt will kill you, or if not, you'll wish it had.
• Harnesses with more bulk can present problems if the user has to wear additional PPE, such as immersion suits or lifejackets - either by restricting their operation or by reducing the user's buoyancy. Designers of tower-climbing harnesses don't expect users to be wearing anything on top of them, but (surprisingly) the designers of more basic harnesses often do. Look for a harness compatible with breathing apparatus and it'll almost always be a simple design, as they are often also intended for use in confined spaces.

Needs analysis

This isn't to say that everyone should be using a basic harness; clearly if you need a feature such as a work-positioning belt, then you need one. What matters is that you choose your fall protection equipment based on your work needs, not on what looks cool. In many jobs, workers may only need that belt a few times a year, so why not use a basic fall-arrest harness, and a separate work-positioning belt for those few times they're needed?

You could argue that a modular system leads to a risk of people using things incorrectly, but the same is true of an over-complex harness. Even if you decide they can wear the belt all the time, there are many designs on sale, including one without another five kilos of stuff bolted on top.

The British Standard for choosing fall protection, BS8437, suggests every user should undergo a harness fit check, where they are suspended in their chosen model to make sure it's comfortable. For people who intend to be in that position on a regular basis, this is a laudable idea and one which is sadly not followed as much as it should be. But for people who only ever intend to hang in a harness when their crane burns down, being comfortable in suspension is a stupid idea, and it leads to an over-emphasis on padding and technical harnesses, simply because a basic product will always feel a little ... intrusive when you hang in it. Drive a car into a brick wall, and the airbag will also feel a bit uncomfortable as it hits you in the face, but that's not a reason to make all your company drivers wear a crash helmet. Neither is the fact the Stig looks good in one on Top Gear.

So, when you're choosing a harness, don't start by browsing catalogues for something that looks impressive. Start by writing down what you do every day. Discard everything that will get in the way of that work, and pick from what's left. You'll still have a wide range to choose from, with colours to match your corporate logo, but you won't be dragging the weight of a small child around for no good reason.

Dr Dave Merchant is a consultant in technical rescue and industrial safety at www.uvsar.com

Categories:
Personal protective equipment (PPE), Work at height, Safety, Article, Work equipment