Industry call to raise standards

In an industry well used to managing risk and meeting the requirements of many regulations for health and safety, standards are becoming more and more important - particularly for those responsible for keeping people safe while they work.

EN 795:2012 is a key standard when it comes to fall protection, but with recent updates not being fully conformed too, the company is putting pressure on the industry as a whole to stand up and take note.

Tim Bissett, Latchways' technical manager, said: "EN 795 is the standard relating to the testing of anchor devices enabling people to work at height and therefore the minimum requirement that protects those people and sends them home safely every day.

"It first came into play in 1996, in the form of EN 795:1996 - relating to the testing of personal fall protection equipment for a single user. It was then updated three years ago to EN 795:2012 - a revised standard giving far greater detail on testing and increased onus on the testing method itself - as well as being supported by a technical specification addressing testing for multiple users (CEN TS 16415).

"Overall, the 2012 update provided a much more robust set of testing parameters - which is obviously good news for an industry working to ensure the safety of the end user.

"However, EN 795:2012 brought with it a certain number of new requirements, the most important of these being the need to test all anchor devices for fall arrest capability, even if the intended purpose of a device was only for fall restraint - something EN 795:1996 did not require. In fact, the 2012 update has also closed the loop on any misunderstanding of the testing of fall restraint devices, as the 1996 revision technically only covered 'arrest' devices in the first place. The 2012 update allows for no misinterpretation of the standard - all anchor devices must be tested for fall arrest capability, regardless.”

Latchways' belief is that testing is absolutely fundamental to developing fall protection equipment - and says it is working hard to expose the issues and risks behind non-compliance. Tim Bissett is adamant that a complete understanding of standards and test results is what will enable the industry to progress.

Despite the positive intent behind EN 795:2012 though, there are still challenges to be overcome. Tim continued: "Sadly, there is still a certain amount of freedom existing around the 2012 update - it is not yet a legal requirement for manufacturers to test products to this standard. As a result, the most thoroughly tested products and processes are not always the ones that are being chosen - this could be as a result of a lack of awareness of what the test standards and test results actually mean.

"In shining a light on EN 795:2012, we are hoping to encourage a desire for increased use of this standard for product testing. As an industry we should always be raising and embracing new standards - otherwise we aren’t doing our job to protect people working at height and that, ultimately, is what we are here to do.”