A few years ago, a safety consultant was on a commercial jobsite and noticed that all the men were tied-off. He began looking more closely at the personal fall arrest systems that each was using. The harnesses all appeared to be adjusted properly. They were all connected to the D-ring located in the back of their harness. So far, so good! Then he began looking at the anchor points for each man’s personal fall arrest system. Fantastic… or so he thought. On this jobsite, they were tied-off to a structural component of the building that most certainly exceeded the requirements for a suitable anchor point. But upon looking closer, the safety consultant noticed that the employees had wrapped their lanyards around that structural component (an I-beam) and, using the lanyard’s snap-hook, connected the lanyard back to itself. That method of tying-off is called a “tie back” or a “choke off.” But regardless of what you call it, it’s dangerous.
Conventional lanyards cannot be tied back for 3 reasons:
First, the strength of a lanyard is weakened by at least 30% when it is tied back. It doesn’t matter if the lanyard is brand new and has never been used before. Tying back a conventional lanyard significantly reduces its strength.
Second, conventional lanyards are not intended to be wrapped around objects, and for that reason, are not manufactured with materials that are resistant to becoming damaged, frayed, or cut when dragged over beams or other surfaces. By wrapping a conventional lanyard around a beam or other object, you run the very real risk that abrasion against that surface will cause the lanyard to be pulled in two if subjected to the force of a falling person.
Third, conventional lanyards have conventional snap hook gates (the part of the snap hook that opens and closes). Although the body of conventional snap hooks can be subjected to a 5,000 lb. force, the gates on these hooks are only designed for 350 lbs. of force. This is particularly dangerous when taking into consideration that nearly 3 times that force can be placed on the snap hook in a typical 6-foot fall when using a shock-absorbing lanyard. When a conventional lanyard is tied-back, that force (if applied against the snap hook gate) can easily force the gate open and cause the lanyard to slip off the object that it was wrapped around.
There are only two solutions to address this hazard properly. One is to commit to never tie-back, and instead connect the snap hook of the lanyard to a proper anchor (such as a cross-arm strap). The other option is to purchase and use lanyards that are specially designed to be tied back. These specially-designed lanyards are different from conventional lanyards in three very important ways. The webbing is stronger; is more abrasion resistant; and is equipped with a snap hook gate that is designed to withstand the same 5,000 lb. force as the rest of the snap hook body.
DISCUSS WITH YOUR CREW
If you have both types of lanyards, show your crew the visible differences (primarily in the appearance of the snap hook), and discuss how they can tell if a lanyard is suitable to be tied back.