Waste & Recycling News - August 31, 2009

August 31, 2009

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OUR ADJUSTABLE CUTTING EDGE FITS ALL EQUIPMENT standards in the works By Bruce Geiselman Equipment manufacturers may soon face new, voluntary standards to protect waste man- agement workers from falling off

New fall protection

truck bodies or trailers.

The Waste Equipment Technology Association, known as Wastec, has been serving as the secretariat for the American National Standards Institute com-

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New draft standards call for the installation of ladders on truck bodies and the installation of handholds at the top of the ladder to assist workers climbing on and off of trailers or platforms. Ladder specifications include spacing between rungs, ladder width and the amount of weight a ladder can support.

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mittee that is preparing the new standards. The ANSI Z245 committee and one of its subcommittees has been studying for nearly four years whether new standards would better protect workers from falling off the top of trucks and becoming injured.

Climbing on a garbage truck can be risky, especially in rainy, icy or windy weather, but drivers and other workers often need to do so to clean windshields, tie down a tarp or perform maintenance.

The ANSI Z245 committee — whose members include manufacturers, waste haulers, insurance industry representatives, consultants and others with a “material interest” in fall protection issues — have been studying how to make trucks safer for those workers.

“This is a process we’ve been going through for a while,” said Gary Satterfield, executive vice president of Wastec and chairman of the Z245 committee. “We’ve got meetings scheduled for this fall, probably in October, where we’ll, I’ve got my fingers crossed, put this issue to bed.”

Draft standards, which are available on the Wastec Web site, call for the installation of ladders on truck bodies and the installation of handholds at the top of the ladder to assist workers in climbing on and off of the trailer or platform. Ladder specifications include spacing between rungs, the width of the

ladder, the amount of weight a ladder can support and numerous other details.

In addition, the draft standards as they now stand would call for a personal fall protection

system or guardrail system to be used whenever workers could face a fall of four feet or more.

While the standards outline certain criteria, the committee and subcommittee working on the standards avoids endorsing any particular product or adopting standards that would require the use of any patented technology.

While details are still being worked out, manufacturers agreeing to follow the voluntary standards would likely offer a ladder and fall protection system as an option on their trucks. Waste management companies declining the optional equipment but wanting to follow the voluntary standards would then purchase and install aftermarket systems that meet the standards.

“So, one way or the other, there is going to be fall protection provided,” Satterfield said.

When the new standards take effect remains uncertain, he said. A subcommittee needs to approve the proposed standards, the matter then goes out for public comment and a vote by the full committee.

Once the full process is concluded, the final standards will be forwarded to the American National Standards Institute, which oversees the creation and use of thousands of guidelines in nearly every business sector, for designation as a new standard.