The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Z359 Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) has announced an extension of the Z359 Fall Protection Code effective date from October 15 to a new effective date of November 24, 2007.
ASSE said in a news release that the group recognized the need to allow safety, health, and environmental professionals more time to adjust to safety practices recommended in the code.
The ANSI/ASSE Z359 Fall Protection Code is a series of newly-approved, voluntary national consensus standards written to offer more resources for employers to protect workers from fall hazards, which are one of the top four causes of on-the-job fatalities in the United States, according to the information.
By offering employers these new standards, the code intends to prevent fall related injuries and deaths especially when, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2006, fatal work-related injuries due to falls in the private industry amounted to 809 deaths, a five percent increase since 2005. Since the fatality census began, the 809 fatal falls in 2006 was the third highest total since 1992. BLS also noted that in 2005 non-fatal injuries and illnesses involving falls in the private industry totaled 255,750.