New OSHA Final Rule

I don't have the slightest idea why I renewed OSHA approved First Aid, CPR, and AED Instructors certificate. I guess it was the same reason I renewed OHSA 10/30 Instructors training Certificate last year or My CLD Class A with X endorsement last year. A couple years ago I had an idea for my to start a local school to get these kids trying to get into the trade a cheaper way. If they have to learn to drive a truck it could cost. $1,000 to $6,500. I can do it for $1,200 including supplying the truck, CDL-B with air brake and $1,400 for CDL-A, as for First Aid, at the present I don't have the CPR dummy or practice AED unit. I could kick myself, because I could have had both from a government auction. I just wish I still had my America Red Cross Instructors Card, or like the one I had years ago under the defunct Bureau of Mines.
Well enough of this, the reason I logged on is below.

WELL BOYS AND GIRLS, YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE YOUR CHOSEN PROFESSION A LITTLE LESS.
I always believed in safety, except when it is so hum-drum, that it becomes Sleep Walk or Zombie. You know the kind which, doesn't give the person the ablity, to make serious thinking into the Equation.
OSHA announces final rule revising standards for electric power generation, transmission and distribution.
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owa...SES&p_id=25806

Requirements effective July 10, 2014
•The degree of employee training must be determined by risk to the worker for the hazard involved.
•Qualified workers must have training to recognize and control or avoid electrical hazards at the worksite.
•Host and contract employers must share information on safety-related matters and must coordinate work rules and procedures.
•Line-clearance tree trimmers must have training on distinguishing exposed live parts and determining their voltage, as well as in minimum approach distances and how to maintain them.
•Employers must assess worksites to identify workers exposed to flame or electric arc hazards.
•The final rule recognizes a new class of electrical protective equipment, Class 00 rubber insulating gloves, and adopts new requirements for electrical protective equipment made of materials other than rubber.
•Multiple crews working on the same lines or equipment must coordinate their activities.
•Where protective footwear will protect workers from electrical hazards that remain after the employer takes other protective measures, employers must ensure that workers use protective footwear as a supplementary form of protection.
•Affected workers must follow the new standard for electrical protective equipment, which replaces outdated consensus standards with performance-based requirements consistent with current consensus standards. The new standard for construction will apply to all construction work, not only to power transmission and distribution.


Requirements effective April 1, 2015
•Qualified workers must use fall protection when climbing or changing location on poles, towers, or other structures.
•Work-positioning equipment must be rigged so that workers can free fall no more than two feet.
•Employers must provide workers exposed to hazards from electric arcs with protective clothing and other equipment with an arc rating greater than or equal to the estimated heat energy.
•Employers must adhere to the revised minimum approach distances detailed in the appendices to the standard.
•Employers must provide workers exposed to electric arc hazards with protective clothing and equipment with an arc rating greater than or equal to the estimated heat energy to which he or she could be exposed during an electric arc incident.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owa...ARDS&p_id=9868

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that free climbing isn't allowed. Good luck saving someone's life in pole top rescue with a bunch of **** on the pole.

I was trained on a bucksqueeze and went to Florida where we free climbed all of our h frames and was safe about it, I never wanted to go back since.

OO gloves what are they rated for? And the fall arrest I just look around free climb and then I put that gay yellow strap in final work. Everybody loves the Jelco because you can free climb if needed. All the others are garbage. Remember we had to save a guy in less than a minute, now I am wincing in pole top rescue watching guys take 20 minutes hitch hiking with those pieces of ****. And a busy place like large California cities you can't fall more than two feet with a regular belt. And do you think it's actually a ruling to get more people in the trade? Or was it money coming from these manufacturers of fall assist like DB Sala and Buckingham? Cause you know the government, worker safety is never the objective, it's about the money and will always be: insurance rates, profit, who put money in whose campaign. safety is always a sacred cow: wearing fr in new construction with no electrical hazard in a bean field. And the power companies are not going to engineer anything for these devices. It's a catch 22 and we are flocked!

Yep , it is a crock, but its the future. Besides you can't get them lawyers into a bind where they might actually have to do their job. We have had to use some sort of fall arrest system for over 20 years now. The Jelco pole choker is what I use when I climb. But we do a lot of live work and normally use buckets for everything.

I'm with you guys. I have two concerns about fall restraint; Pole top rescue and people with a fear of heights who can't climb becoming linemen.
I've seen a lot of guys who shouldn't be up on a pole because they're afraid and can't think straight, but they can get up a pole with fall restraint. They still can't think straight, but they're up there with their crutches and they're dangerous. What happens with these guys when they have to work with voltage? I see more accidents in the future but they won't be connected with fall restraint. It will be blamed on something else.
I've heard that Canada has required fall restraint for years now. Have you seen any problems like I've described? How did you wash these folks out?

Back in the mid 80's I worked with some guys from Canada. I'm not sure if they called it fall restraint but they climbed with 2 belts, so they'd always be belted in.

There is no real way to cheat the supersqueeze...you can climb with it loose but it puts you away from the pole a little far...pole top rescue is a valid concern...it takes many people 2-4 min just to un tangle the darn thing and remember how it goes on the belt. If you're trying to wash people out wash them out on safety violations just bc they can get to the work doesn't mean they can do it safely

rg

We have been using some form of fall restraint since 1990. Now most guys use the Jelco pole choker 4. Its actually rather easy to use. I haven't seen the Bucksqueeze . We use buckets most of the time , climbing is becoming a dying art. With the shortage of lineman , guys are getting shoved through the system anyway, but somehow the cream still rises to the top!