Imagine donning a Class III harness in as little as 8 seconds!
That’s just one of the many features of the new CMC/Roco Work-Rescue Harness.

Because of its innovative “no-step” donning, comfort fit and lightweight design, this new harness will appeal to rescuers, rope access technicians, tower climbers, and other professionals working in the vertical environment.

Our design team (aka Roco instructors) joined up with CMC’s engineering and fabrication team to create this new Class III harness with a “no-step-through” design. The harness literally wraps around your body as you don it. After the initial webbing adjustment, it is then fitted to the user with no need to re-adjust the various straps when you re-don the harness. This unique feature allows a user to don the harness and be ready to go in as little as 8 seconds. Compare this to donning a standard Class III where the user has to step through the waist and leg loops, then tighten the buckles and stow the straps. Not to mention when a “dreaded half twist” is discovered in one of the straps requiring the wearer to start all over again.

The CMC/Roco Work-Rescue Harness features comfortable wear especially while suspended. The lightweight proprietary CMC alloy D-Rings reduce the overall weight of the harness, while the addition of a rated attachment point at the back of the waist belt allows for a convenient connection to a fall restraint lanyard.

The harness has many advantages for work-at-height professionals. For rope access technicians, the top of the A-Frame lift is designed to accept a variety of connectors for anchoring chest ascenders. It also includes a closed loop on the chest H-Frame to mount a chest ascender adjustable tow strap.

Tower climbers will benefit from the vertical orientation of the sternal D-Ring, which eliminates binding of ladder safety system cable grabs during down climbs. The sternal D-Ring has a quick release stowage strap that keeps the ring tucked neatly against the chest when not in use.

The harness features ergonomic curves and pre-formed moldings for user comfort and durability while maintaining a modern look. It also incorporates breathable padding on the interior surfaces to reduce heat retention. The dorsal and shoulder pads are a one-piece design created by a vacuum molding process, making it comfortable without sacrificing form for ease of donning.

The Fall Arrest Indicator is another great safety feature available on this harness. The visual on the tag alerts the user if the harness has had a previous fall. 

"Creating a harness that is easier and quicker to don provides a great advantage for rope professionals. The new CMC/Roco Work-Rescue Harness literally wraps around the user's body…once donned and adjusted, it’s then ‘custom fit’ to your body,” according to Chief Instructor Pat Furr, who led Roco’s design team. 

For more information on the CMC/Roco Work-Rescue Harness, or to place your order now, click here.

• Are you concerned about potential falls from height at your workplace?

• Do your workers need more training in recognizing fall hazards?

• Does your fall protection program consider all the angles when evaluating these hazards?

Roco’s new Fall Protection courses can help create a safer workplace by equipping employees with the knowledge to better assess the dangers and take protective steps to abate common fall hazards. Participants will practice Fall Hazard Assessments and will be able to look at their worksite with new eyes concerning fall protection safety.

Click below to learn more about these courses or contact us at 800-647-7626.

Suspended Worker Rescue

Suspended Worker Rescue Using Pre-Engineered Rescue Systems

Competent Person for Fall Protection

Competent Person for Fall Protection Train the Trainer

Roco’s new Hierarchy of Fall Protection Safety Poster provides guidance on how to protect your workers from fall hazards by illustrating a series of steps in making safer choices as job duties are approached. It clearly explains the need for employers to make every attempt to abate fall hazards at their work sites by starting with the most protective level of fall protection. OSHA and ANSI references are used to emphasize the need for proper training and “fallen or isolated worker-at-height” rescue pre-plans when appropriate.

This safety poster will provide a quick reminder that oftentimes working at height is more hazardous simply because more “protective steps” in the hierarchy were never considered.

By displaying this poster in strategic areas, we hope it will encourage all workers to take every opportunity to make work-at-height even safer. After all, for those of you who know Roco…there’s a safe way, and a SAFER way!

Click the picture to download the PDF version of the NEW Hierarchy of Fall Protection Safety Poster.

Roco Rescue Releases Two New Fall Protection Programs for OSHA Compliant Workplaces
Are you concerned about the potential for falls from height at your workplace?

Do you feel that your workers are not adequately trained in recognizing fall hazards, or do not have the proper training in the inspection and use of their fall protection equipment?

Does your fall protection program consider all the angles regarding work at height and fall protection?

Download our free Roco safety poster on the Hierarchy of Fall Protection.

 

New Roco Fall Pro Course: Competent Person for Fall Protection

Roco Rescue is proud to announce the addition of a comprehensive Competent Person for Fall Protection course as an addition to our already extensive catalog of Technical Rescue, Compliance, and Safety courses.

The two day (16 hour) Competent Person course focuses on OSHA and ANSI requirements and guidance to provide the Competent Person the knowledge and skills that will enable them to provide their employer a solid foundation for establishing or improving their comprehensive fall protection program

This course emphasizes legislated as well as consensus standard fall protection requirements and guidance for various industries as well as exposing the attendees to a variety of modern fall protection equipment solutions and techniques. The hierarchy of fall protection is used as the building block for the most protective approach for abating fall hazards in the workplace. The attendee will have a solid understanding of how to evaluate fall hazards in the workplace by completing a field exercise using a “Fall Hazard Survey Report Template” that identifies fall hazards and uses the hierarchy of fall protection to provide the most protective and feasible solution to address the identified hazards.

Exposure to modern fall protection equipment and emerging technologies -especially the availability of pre-engineered fall protection solutions- arms the student with an extensive toolkit for addressing existing fall hazards in their workplace. Equipment and equipment systems such as body support, connectors, modern lanyards, self-retracting lanyards, horizontal and vertical lifelines, anchor connectors, as well as other specialty equipment will be covered and examples will be available to employ during the class.

The often overlooked need to understand and provide a rescue capability for fallen/suspended workers and workers isolated at height will be covered. The use of the “Roco Suspended Worker Rescue Pre-plan” will be covered in a live field exercise. Included will be a demonstration and practice rescues utilizing a pre-engineered rescue system that may provide the “prompt rescue capability” of fallen workers for most situations as required by both OSHA and ANSI.

New Roco Fall Pro Course: Competent Person - Train the Trainer:

Upon completion of Roco’s Competent Person for Fall Protection Course we offer the option to stay on for our Competent Person Trainer course. This course includes an additional two days (16 hours) that prepares the Competent Person to train their own employees to the level of Authorized and Competent Persons. The course opens with a thorough lecture/discussion on the adult learner.

Tried and proven steps that are invaluable in providing a systematic workforce education program specific to Competent and Authorized Persons for fall protection are covered. Areas such as gap analysis, instructional triads, three part learning objectives, measurements, dealing with the adult learner and their varied backgrounds are just some of the preparatory lessons. This is followed by a thorough section on preparing and utilizing lesson plans which are then put into practice as the attendees prepare for and deliver actual lessons to their fellow students on the various teaching modules.

The Competent Person for Fall Protection and the Competent Person Trainer Courses are available as private training at Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana or Roco can deliver the course at your facility as a private class. Please call (800) 647-7626 for more details or to schedule.

What exactly is suspension trauma? How does it occur? And what can be done to prevent it?

Suspension Trauma - otherwise known as harness pathology, distributive shock, or orthostatic intolerance - has recently been identified by OSHA as a workplace hazard particular to Authorized Workers using personal fall arrest systems (PFAS). More and more employers are becoming aware of this workplace hazard and are taking appropriate steps to protect their employees. The range of understanding on the cause of the hazard, as well as how to protect against it, is pretty vast.

Our new Suspension Trauma Safety Poster is a tool to raise awareness of this hazard. It illustrates the pathological path that a fallen suspended worker may experience. Please share with colleagues, fellow safety professionals and especially workers that use PFAS. It could save a life.

The rate at which suspension trauma develops varies from individual to individual and is not reliably predictable. However, there are factors that influence the potential for suspension trauma as well as the speed of onset. Here are a few examples:

• Underlying physical condition of worker including any pre-existing respiratory or cardiac conditions;
• Worker’s ability to handle stress and anxiety;
• Harness selection, fit, and adjustment;
• Traumatic injuries that may have occurred during or before the fall; and,
• Knowledge and the use of equipment or techniques to delay the onset of suspension trauma such as temporary leg stirrups or simply “bicycling the legs.”

Roco also offers a course called Rescue From Fall Protection to educate rescuers who respond to suspended workers.

Pathological Effects of a Fallen Worker in Danger of Suspension Trauma

For those of you who prefer a more detailed explanation, here's the narrative from Roco Chief Pat Furr. 

1. Leg Circulation: A fall arrest harness does a great job of dissipating the energies generated during a fall arrest through the long axis of the human body. After all motion has stopped, that same harness – particularly the dorsal attachment configuration – will most likely impose pressure to the femoral vein, which is the primary blood vessel that returns blood from the legs towards the heart. In fact, in order to pass certification testing, these harnesses must not allow the test mannequin to assume greater than a 30 degree forward lean upon suspension. Any degree of forward lean will exert leg strap pressure on the femoral vein which impedes blood return. To compound this, the human body relies on what is known as the muscle/venous pump to assist the blood return from the legs to the heart. In suspension, the worker often forgets to bicycle their legs to create this muscle/venous pump. The trapped blood in the legs creates what is known as distributive shock as more and more blood is trapped in the legs; there is less to circulate for the rest of the body (brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys). Additionally, this blood becomes highly acidic and toxic with metabolic wastes.

2. Heart Circulation: As the body goes into distributive shock, the heart must increase the rate and strength of its contractions to compensate. To compound this, the suspended worker may be experiencing a high degree of fear and anxiety, which releases adrenalin into the bloodstream which also causes the heart to work harder and faster. This places increased demands on the heart, which is receiving less blood flow and thus less oxygen. The heart becomes irritable and is prone to localized tissue damage, dysrhythmias or both. This is especially a concern once the worker is rescued and the toxic blood is allowed to surge from the legs to the irritable heart. This is known as reflow syndrome and has caused several victims to go into sudden cardiac arrest upon rescue.

3. Brain Circulation: As the victim goes into distributive shock, or worst case, suffers cardiac arrest, the brain is deprived of adequate blood supply and this can lead to unconsciousness. If the victim faints the airway can be blocked by the head position or even by a poorly adjusted harness that allows the chest strap to block the airway. That is a difficult statement to write into a fatality report “Cause of Death: Strangulation by Victim’s Own PPE.”  If the victim’s heart stops, we can expect permanent brain damage or death in as little as four minutes.

So it should be obvious that a prompt rescue capability must be ensured by any employer that has Authorized Persons using PFAS. This can be accomplished in many ways. Roco has a variety of training courses that are specifically designed to provide that prompt rescue capability for fallen/suspended workers.

We also worked with CMC to design a new harness to protect suspended workers from suspension trauma.

For more information please contact Roco Rescue at 800-647-7626 or submit a question to our Tech Panel.