Glossary of Terms
Term Definition
Acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an
object with respect to time. An object is accelerating if it is changing its
velocity over the change in time. The acceleration of free-falling
objects is called the acceleration due to gravity, since objects are
pulled towards the center of the earth.
Anchorage
A secure point of attachment for lifelines, lanyards, or deceleration
devices.
Anemometer
Is a device used for measuring the speed of airflow in the atmosphere,
in wind tunnels, and in other gas-flow applications and is most widely
used for wind-speed measurements.
Body belt (safety belt)
A strap with means, both for securing it about the waist and for
attaching it to a lanyard, lifeline, or deceleration device.
Body harness
Straps that may be secured about the worker in a manner that will
distribute the fall arrest forces over at least the thighs, pelvis, waist,
chest, and shoulders, with means for attaching it to other components
of a personal fall arrest system.
Buckle
Any device for holding the body belt or body harness closed around
the worker's body.
Cocoon system
Is a perimeter protection system that surrounds the building and rises
with each new floor to prevent people and objects from falling off the
perimeter. These systems attach to the outer edge of the slabs and
are moved up as construction progresses.
Competent person
One who can identify existing and predictable hazards in the
surroundings or working conditions that are unsanitary or dangerous to
workers, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective
measures to eliminate them.
Connector
A device used to couple (connect) parts of the personal fall arrest
system and positioning device systems together. It may be an
independent component of the system, such as a carabiner, or it may be
an integral component of part of the system (such as a buckle or Dee-
ring sewn into a body belt or body harness, or a snaphook spliced or
sewn to a lanyard or self-retracting lanyard).
Controlled Access Zone
(CAZ) An area in which certain work (for example, overhand bricklaying) may
take place without the use of guardrail systems, personal fall arrest
systems, or safety net systems and where access to the zone is
controlled.
Controlled Decking
Zone (CDZ) Is an area in which certain work (for example, initial installation and
placement of metal decking) may take place without the use of guardrail
systems, personal fall arrest systems, fall restraint systems, or safety
net systems and where access to the zone is controlled.
Dangerous equipment
Equipment (such as pickling or galvanizing tanks, degreasing units,
machinery, electrical equipment, and other units) which, as a result of
form or function, may be hazardous to workers who fall onto or into such
equipment.
Deceleration device
Any mechanism (such as a rope grab, rip-stitch lanyard, specially-woven
lanyard, tearing or deforming lanyards, automatic self-retracting
lifelines/etc.) that dissipates a substantial amount of energy during a fall
arrest, or otherwise limits the energy imposed on a worker during fall
arrest.
Deceleration distance
The additional vertical distance a falling employee travels, excluding
lifeline elongation and free fall distance, before stopping, from the point
at which the deceleration device begins to operate. It is measured as the
distance between the location of a worker’s body harness attachment
point at the moment of activation (at the onset of fall arrest forces) of the
deceleration device during a fall, and the location of that attachment
point after the worker comes to a full stop.
Double-cleat Ladder
A ladder with a center rail to allow simultaneous two-way traffic for
employees ascending or descending.
Employer
Is the person or entity that employees (workers) work for and controls
the manner in which employees perform their assigned work. The
question of who pays these employees may not be the determining
factor. The employer has the ultimate responsibility to control hazards in
the work environment that can cause injury or illness.
Equivalent
Alternative designs, materials, or methods to protect against a hazard,
which the employer can demonstrate will provide an equal or greater
degree of safety for workers than the method, materials, or designs
specified in the standard.
Failure
Load refusal, breakage, or separation of component parts. Load refusal
is the point where the ultimate strength is exceeded.
Fall Arrest
The action or event of stopping a free fall or the instant the downward
free fall has been stopped.
Free fall
The act of falling before a personal fall arrest system begins to apply
force to arrest the fall.
Free fall distance
The vertical displacement of the fall arrest attachment point on the
worker's body belt or body harness between onset of the fall and just
before the system begins to apply force to arrest the fall. This distance
excludes deceleration distance and lifeline/lanyard elongation but
includes any deceleration device slide distance or self- retracting
lifeline/lanyard extension before they operate and fall arrest forces
occur.
Guardrail system
A barrier erected to prevent workers from falling to lower levels.
Hole
A gap or void 2 inches or more in its least dimension, in a floor, roof, or
other walking or working surface.
Infeasible
Impossible to perform the construction work using a conventional fall
protection system (that is, guardrail system, safety net system, or
personal fall arrest system); or technologically impossible to use any
one of these systems to provide fall protection.
Job-made Ladder
A ladder that is fabricated by employees, typically at the construction
site; noncommercially manufactured.
Lanyard
A flexible line of rope, wire rope, or strap that generally has a connector
at each end for connecting the body belt or body harness to a
deceleration device, lifeline, or anchorage.
Leading edge
The edge of a floor, roof, or formwork for a floor or other walking or
working surface (such as the deck) that changes location as additional
floor, roof, decking, or formwork sections are placed, formed, or
constructed. A leading edge is considered to be an "unprotected side
and edge" during periods when it is not actively and continuously under
construction.
Lifeline
A component consisting of a flexible line for connection to an anchorage
at one end to hang vertically (vertical lifeline), or for connection to
anchorages at both ends to stretch horizontally (horizontal lifeline), and
which serves as a means for connecting other components of a
personal fall arrest system to the anchorage.
Lower levels
Those areas or surfaces to which a worker can fall. Such areas or
surfaces include, but are not limited to, ground levels, floors, platforms,
ramps, runways, excavations, pits, tanks, material, water, equipment,
structures, or portions thereof.
Low-slope roof
A roof having a slope less than or equal to 4 in12 (vertical to horizontal).
Mechanical equipment
All motor or human-propelled wheeled equipment used for roofing work,
except wheelbarrows and mop carts.
Opening
A gap or void 30 inches or more high and 18 inches or more wide, in a
wall or partition, through which workers can fall to a lower level.
Overhand bricklaying
and related work The process of laying bricks and masonry units such that the surface of
the wall to be jointed is on the opposite side of the wall from the mason,
requiring the mason to lean over the wall to complete the work. Related
work includes mason tending and electrical installation incorporated into
the brick wall during the overhand bricklaying process.
Personal fall arrest
system A system used to arrest a worker in a fall from a working level. It
consists of an anchorage, connectors, and a body harness. It may
include a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or suitable combinations
of these. Note: Since January 1, 1998, the use of a body belt for fall
arrest has been prohibited.
Point of Access
All areas used by employees for work-related passage from one area or
level to another.
Positioning device
system A body belt or body harness system rigged to allow a worker to be
supported on an elevated vertical surface, such as a wall, and work with
both hands free while leaning.
Qualified Person
One who, by possession of a recognized degree, certificate, or
professional standing, or who by extensive knowledge, training, and
experience, has successfully demonstrated an ability to solve or resolve
problems relating to the subject matter, the work, or the project.
EXAMPLE: OSHA requires that all scaffolds must be designed by a
Qualified Person
Roof
The exterior surface on the top of a building. This does not include floors
or formwork that, because a building has not been completed,
temporarily become the top surface of a building.
Roofing work
The hoisting, storage, application, and removal of roofing materials and
equipment, including related insulation, sheet metal, and vapor barrier
work, but not including the construction of the roof deck.
Rope grab
A deceleration device that travels on a lifeline and automatically, by
friction, engages the lifeline and locks so as to arrest the fall of a worker.
A rope grab usually employs the principles of inertial locking, cam/level
locking, or both.
Safety-monitoring
system A safety system in which a competent person is responsible for
recognizing and warning workers of fall hazards.
Self-retracting
lifeline/lanyard A deceleration device containing a drum-wound line that can be slowly
extracted from, or retracted onto, the drum under slight tension during
normal worker movement, and which, after onset of a fall, automatically
locks the drum and arrests the fall.
Snaphook
A connector comprised of a hook-shaped member with a normally
closed keeper, or similar arrangement, which may be opened to permit
the hook to receive an object and, when released, automatically closes
to retain the object. Snaphooks are generally one of two types:
(1)The locking type with a self-closing, self-locking keeper that remains
closed and locked until unlocked and pressed open for connection or
disconnection; or
(2)The non-locking type with a self-closing keeper that remains closed
until pressed open for connection or disconnection. As of January 1,
1998, the use of a non- locking snaphook as part of personal fall arrest
Snap hooks shall not be engaged to (hooked to) any object which is
incompatible in shape or dimension in relation to the snaphook where
unintentional disengagement could occur by the connected object being
able to depress the snaphook keeper and release itself.
Steep roof
a roof having a slope greater than 4 in 12 (vertical to horizontal).
Temporary Employee
Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), temporary employees work
through staffing agencies, who are placed with host employers, who
receive them onto jobsites. The burden to protect temporary workers is
shared between the temporary agency and the host employer.
Temporary Service
Stairway A stairway where permanent treads and/or landings are to be filled in at
a later date.
Toeboard
A low protective barrier that will prevent the fall of materials and
equipment to lower levels and provide workers protection from falls.
Total Fall Distance (TFD)
Is the sum of Freefall Distance (FFD), Deceleration Distance (DD),
Harness Eects (HEFF), and Vertical Elongation (VEL). It is also wise to
include a Safety Factor (SF) of. at least one foot in the formula.
Unprotected sides and
edges Any side or edge (except at entrances to points of access) of a walking
or working surface (for example, floor, roof, ramp, or runway) where
there is no wall or guardrail system at least 39 inches high.
Walkable Floor
(Concrete Construction) A floor where the concrete slab has been poured and the formwork
stripped.
Walkable Floor (Precast
Concrete Construction) A floor where the frame is erected and the precast concrete floor is fixed
in place
Walkable Floor (Steel
Construction) A floor where the frame is erected and the deck is tack welded or fixed
in place.
Walking/working
(walking or working) Any surface (whether horizontal or vertical) on which a worker walks or
surface
works, including but not limited to floors, roofs, ramps, bridges, runways,
formwork and concrete reinforcing steel; but not including ladders,
vehicles, or trailers, on which workers must be located in order to
perform their job duties.
Warning line system
A barrier erected on a roof to warn workers that they are approaching an
unprotected roof side or edge, and which designates an area in which
roofing work may take place without the use of guardrail, body harness,
or safety net systems to protect workers in the area.
Work area
That portion of a walking or working surface where job duties are being
performed.
Working Deck (Concrete
Construction) The level where the floor is being formed.
Working Deck
(Demolition) The level where the floor is being broken up
Working Deck (Precast
Concrete Construction) The level where the floor is being placed
Working Deck (Steel
Construction) The floor where the metal decking and steel components are being
placed before concrete is poured.
