Fall Protection Harness Inspection

A safety full body harness inspection should be personally conducted before each use. When inspecting your harness look for stitching that may be broken, burned or pulled and stitching or rivets at hardware attachment points. Carefully examine all webbing, belt ends, buckles and D-Rings because these few minutes could save your life.

You can also verify your inspection by inviting a “Competent Person” on the job, other than user, who has been certified by OSHA standards for this function.

A full body harness inspection should be include:

Label & Marking Checks
Hardware Checks
Webbing Checks
Stitching

A harness is no longer considered safe and should not be used, when:

If you don’t have an individual serial number. Without a serial number you are unable to trace the harness or verify if the harness has been inspected and therefore cannot be sure if it will be safe.
If you cannot find a manufacturing date. If you do not have a manufacturing date, then you cannot confirm if the harness is within its working life.
If you cannot find an inspection date recorded within last 12 months. HSE guidelines recommend an inspection by a professional service every 6 months but PPE regulations require a minimum of 12 monthly inspections which should be recorded on the harness itself.
If the webbing does not look right.

Care:

Store in a clean, dry place away from direct sunlight
Do not use a drying room to dry a webbing products
Do not stand on a harness when donning/removing
Do not use marker pen or solvents
Clean using non biological detergent at a low temperature

Cleaning:

Before an inspection make sure that the equipment is clean
Wash in warm soapy water with a sponge and hang to dry naturally
Never expose to heat and never use a drying room