Safety Factor: How To Avoid OSHA Fines While Working at Height

Intro

– [Announcer] For your own safety, you are reminded to stand behind the yellow line.

(energetic music)

– [Ben Hengst] Welcome to Safety Factor. My name is Ben Hengst, and today we’re talking about avoiding OSHA fines while working at height. I’m joined in studio here by Kevin Muldoon, Product Manager of Engineered Lifeline Systems and Fall Protection from Mazzella and Regional Sales Manager at Tractel, a company offering world-leading safety solutions for working at height, Dan Montchal. Thank you for joining.

OSHA Fines in 2022 for Fall Protection

– [Ben Hengst] So, a bit of background about why I wanted to talk about this topic on the podcast today. Kevin and I are both in Ohio, and recently I saw a story about a local contractor here in the Cleveland area who was fined over $400,000 for repeatedly being caught by OSHA not protecting their workers at height. I thought that was a pretty huge fine, and then I started looking a little bit deeper and I found the same thing across the country. I found another Ohio contractor being fined for a million dollars in fall protection violations. In 2022, general fall protection requirements were the top cited violation by OSHA, and then four of the top 10 citations were fall protection-related with either ladders or scaffolding or fall protection training. Almost all of 2022’s largest fines were penalties for failing to comply with fall protection regulations. So I thought to myself, why? Why do companies not prioritize fall protection?

Why don’t companies prioritize fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] Can you guys explain the psychology behind companies not prioritizing fall protection to their workers?

– [Dan Montchal] I think one of the biggest things when you’re looking at it is it comes down to lack of education. People just don’t know, or they’re not up to date on all the new regulation standards, or it just falls into this is the way that we’ve always done business and they kind of get stuck in that mindset of we’ve always done business this way, so why would we change it?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Or we’ve never had a fall and we’ve never gotten hurt, so why would we do that? But the biggest thing is you’re working at height and height’s the danger, right? What are you doing to protect yourself from falling? I think, Dan, to your point, which is a good one, is education. It’s like, okay, so it’s now an OSHA requirement

Why is education and training for fall protection necessary?

– [Kevin Muldoon] to be trained if you’re working at height. Now that just recently, at least for me because I’ve been doing it for so many years, but that’s 2017 is when they said okay, May 17 of ’17. After that you could be cited for not being trained. I think that’s another thing that is new that maybe some companies don’t know that they need to train their workers. I think this is a really good thing that Ben’s doing, is getting the word out that why were these guys fined, and why do they continue to do that, right?

– [Ben Hengst] I guess that’s one thing I’m wondering about. So understandable being a bit naive about things,

Why do companies get multiple OSHA fines for failing to protect workers at height?

– [Ben Hengst] but a lot of these companies are just, they’ve been told by OSHA, they’ve been fined and said you need to start protecting your workers at height, and they continue to not do that. I just wonder what the psychology is behind it. Do you think you just won’t get caught? Is it too expensive?

– [Dan Montchal] My first point was it’s education. I don’t think everyone properly knows the rules and sure, fall protection, implementing that for all your employees can be expensive and that can be daunting at first, but I just don’t think they know, and they haven’t been through classes, they haven’t been trained by companies like yourself, Mazzella, or brought in manufacturers like myself with Tractel. Unfortunately what the case is most times is it doesn’t really resonate or they see the value in it until unfortunately something drastic happens, that there’s an injury, a fatality, something like that.

– [Kevin Muldoon] I think the other thing is you’ve gotten, for roofers especially, they’ll put the harness on and they’ll even have a lanyard, and they’ll be connected to their side D-ring and they’ll walk around so it looks like they’re tied off or they’re compliant, but they’re not. If you talk to some of these guys that have been doing it for so many years, they’re like, it slows me down. Sometimes I got to connect, then I got to connect again, then I got to reconnect. From a productivity standpoint, they’re like, it’s going to take me more to do this job, so I’m just going to take, I’m not going to be tied off. I’m just going to clip it to my side D-ring and I can move a lot faster. In their mind they’re like, I’m not going to fall. And to your point, Dan, that’s when you really need it, you know.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah.

Why the right fall protection equipment matters

– [Dan Montchal] One of the other biggest things is, like you’re doing in any job, is making sure that you have the right equipment for it. There’s tons of different harnesses, lanyards out there, and what’s the job, and especially when it comes to fall protection and you’re picking your harness is how much time are you going to spend in your harness? Because if you’re just going up and doing something real quick, sure, all you may need is a compliance harness if it’s something that you’re only doing occasionally, but for your workers themselves, if they’re spending all day in a harness and it’s just stuck in a compliance harness, it’s not comfortable. It’s something that you want to get out of because it’s really restricting. So if you are working at a job or you’re going to be wearing a harness for hours a day, making sure that you have the right ones for the jobs so they don’t have those issues, and workers are more likely to be compliant and keep it in, because just driving around through cities sometimes, you’ll see that people will have their harnesses on, they’ll be up on a roof, but they unstrap their leg, which when a fall happens it’s not going to do anything, and that’s just because of how restrictive it could be. So it just goes back, you make sure you have the right equipment for the job and something that employees are going to be comfortable in so then they’re more likely to follow the rules and obviously make sure that nothing happens.

Who is responsible for worker safety? The worker or the company?

– [Ben Hengst] Does the responsibility, does it fall onto these workers who aren’t just wearing their gear properly or they’re not hooking up, or does it fall onto the company itself and the culture that they have?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Well, that’s a good question, and actually, the classes I teach in fall protection, one of the questions is who’s responsibility for your safety? Who has the primary responsibility for your safety? The answer is you. Now the employer, whether it’s construction or general industry, 1926.501 says that the employer has a duty to provide fall protection, and that’s construction. 1910.28 says, that’s general industry, that you have a duty, the employer does, to provide fall protection equipment. That’s how the two come together. The employee knows that if I’m responsible for my safety and the employer has a duty to provide it, so those two should come together rather than be opposed to one another. In training when employers find that out and employees do, then that’s a good thing, you know?

– [Dan Montchal] The only thing I’ll add to that is that the employer is also responsible not for the equipment, but also for the training, training the employees so they know what they need to be wearing when they’re working at height.

– [Kevin Muldoon] Right, right. Ben, you bring up a good point, where what’s the behavior?

Why is a JSA (Job Safety Analysis) important?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Why do companies do this? If they start with a JSA, how we do what we do safely. Before they even get to height, the meeting’s on the ground and they have, okay, what are we doing? Does everybody have their harness? Is everybody connected? Do they know where they are, what they’re doing? I think that it all comes together. It’s not one is mutually exclusive from the other or is it isolated. It’s a whole cohesive understanding of what it is. And working with Dan these many years, we’ve had a lot of challenges, right? To look at a hazard and control it and explain to them how we’re controlling it. Then once they get it, I mean, look at how many systems we’ve put up over the years.

– [Ben Hengst] Do you think it’s changing?

Are companies and workers becoming more receptive to fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] Are more people being receptive to putting fall protection in?

– [Kevin Muldoon] I do, I do. I think that, just waiting for this podcast and you guys setting it up and everything, I got three calls that companies want to see our team somewhere. Our business is growing and we’re busy, and that to me signals that companies are really understanding that they need to be compliant and protect their employees. What about you, Dan? You’re seeing that too, right?

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, I’d agree with that. I’d say that over the past few years it definitely has gotten better and we’ve seen more and more companies caring more about safety, making it a priority. I still do believe that there’s a long way to go because there’s plenty of companies out there, like you mentioned at the beginning, Ben, of these companies that are being cited major violations by OSHA. I do think that we are making pretty good waves with spreading the word and making sure that people are educated when it comes to fall protection.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And I think OSHA is doing a good job, because what they’re doing is they’re saying okay, this is a recordable, so if this roofing contractor has a recordable and they’re looking for another job and part of the criteria for getting that job is having none or very few OSHA recordables, you get them in their pocket. But they’re going to understand that yeah, we’ve got to be safe and we have to work safe. Plus, nobody wants to hire somebody that’s unsafe. We’re in the field all the time, Dan, and you and I both know that, but we do see a lot of companies that are really stepping up. They have managers, safety managers, that kind of thing, that really are doing the build. They’re really doing the job.

– [Ben Hengst] That’s one way to combat this mentality I guess, is just with OSHA fines.

How can you combat the mentality that fall protection isn’t important?

– [Ben Hengst] How else can you combat the mentality of just not using fall protection?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Well, I think to look at the objection of wearing it. If they think that their productivity is going to be down or there’s some negative to wearing it, from them doing their job, that’s the thing. The range of motion, if they think it restricts them, if a welder’s welding and you can’t get to the weld or a mechanic can’t get their wrench to where they need it to be because they’re being restricted. There’s so many solutions out there that are not restricting the worker, and we can help them with that. But I think that’s one thing, and Dan alluded to it in the beginning of the podcast, is that it’s something that education helps, and then once they understand it, then they’ll use it. I think if they don’t understand it, they have a negative connotation toward it, so they don’t want to do that.

– [Dan Montchal] I think one of the other big things is that fall protection, it’s come a long ways. People just think of the harness and the lanyard, and especially over the past five, six years, companies like myself with Tractel as well as a lot of other fall protection manufacturers, we’ve come up with a lot of new great products and systems. I think it still always goes back to that education. It’s hey, if you have a job that you think you’re going to be restricted, that’s where you need to bring someone else in, because nine times out of 10 we’re going to have a solution for you that isn’t going to keep you restricted and you’ll be able to perform your job as well as what you were before, but also being safe while doing it.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And you know, the other thing from Mazzella’s point of view is we use Tractel’s lifelines, but sometimes we don’t use their anchor points or their stanchions. We design and build our own if there’s no product off the shelf that we can do. So that’s the other thing. Sometimes companies look at it that it’s such a complex hazard, and hey, I understand you guys can put the line here, but this anchor point, and how are you guys going to do that? We give them a concept drawing of the anchor point using Tractel’s products, and they’re like oh, okay. That’s how that works. I think the complexity of some of the jobs just look so daunting that it’s like, well, screw it. We’ll do it without fall protection.

What are the OSHA regulations for working at height?

– [Ben Hengst] What are the OSHA requirements for working at height?

– [Kevin Muldoon] In general industry it’s four feet, and in construction it’s six feet.

– [Ben Hengst] Four feet is not very high. Do you think most people are actually tying off at four feet?

– [Kevin Muldoon] I think that it depends on what they’re doing,

How important is a company’s safety culture?

– [Kevin Muldoon] what their job task is, but it also depends on their company culture. I can tell you that there is many companies that Dan and I have been to that their safety culture, Metalco is one of them, where their safety culture from the top down is like, we’re going to be tied off or we’re going to be compliant and we’re going to use JSAs and this is how we do our business. This is part of our culture. I think that’s a good thing, really. But to answer your question Ben, I think that it’s job specific and company specific. If they have a good safety culture and they use the products and they’ve been trained, all of that leads to yes, they will be tied off. Yes, they will be safe. But if the culture’s not there and the training’s not there, chances are they may not.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, I completely agree with what Kevin said. Culture at companies is huge, and I’ve been on tons of different job sites. I’ve been out with companies where the culture’s good and it’s kind of ingrained in their workers’ heads that we’re always going to tie off. You see them every single time where it gets close to that four foot, they’re tying off or making sure that they’re safe. Going back to what we were saying earlier is oh, it’ll take longer. Part of it’s also just like anything else, that if you’re not used to it, sure, the first few times it may take you a little bit longer, but once that’s just part of your routine and it’s what you do on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t slow you down at all and you just do it without second thought, which is really what we need to get more companies to do, because once you have that habit, you’re going to eliminate a lot of these injuries that happen on the job sites.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And to Dan’s point, I was just sitting here thinking there’s a lot of customers that we have had multiple fall protection projects with. We started out slow. We started with training maybe, and then the next thing we did was we put up a horizontal lifeline. Now we’re putting platforms up for them. So we could see their culture changing and we’re growing with their culture, making these decisions about safety, and it’s really a gratifying thing to come in and see that happening. So yeah, to that point Ben, I think that the culture’s a real big deal and the management of the company and what they believe.

What are the consequences for not providing adequate fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] To help push that culture, what are the potential consequences of not providing adequate protection for your workers when they’re working at height?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Well, obviously a fall or injury, but I also think that a safe worker, in their mind they know they’re safe, so they actually become more productive because they’re not worried about the fact that they may or may not fall. I was talking to an electrician, one of our customers, and he says, “At first I was thinking that this was going to slow me down and it really isn’t.” He goes, “It’s just like putting on a pair of, like a jacket or anything.” It’s like he’s used to it now. I think with that, again, it’s education. It’s just them having self-confidence that yeah, this is what we can do.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, I completely agree with that. I mean, as far as consequences, obviously the largest is going to be if something happens to one of your workers, but if not, it’s kind of the whole reason, bringing it back to why we’re talking about this, is OSHA’s really cracking down, and it’s not only are you getting fined heavily for violations, but specifically repeat violations. That fine just goes up and up, and if companies don’t start abiding by their laws, then it’s really going to hurt their pocketbook, if anything else.

– [Kevin Muldoon] Yeah, a willful violation, and that’s a repeat violation, is a very severe fine. And to that point, that company’s going to get a reputation of doing things unsafe, and who wants to do business with somebody who’s unsafe? That just goes, I wouldn’t.

How can companies ensure they are providing the most effective fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] How can companies ensure that they’re providing the most effective fall protection equipment and training for their workers?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Well, you have to look at the job first, what they’re doing, and to Dan’s point about equipment has become so advanced. They have Kevlar harnesses now, and they have harnesses that prevent weld splatter if you’re doing it. There’s rescue harnesses that have a breathing apparatus on it. There’s all kinds of different advances today. It really starts with the job specific and what that worker’s doing and their range of motion, because they could be doing a job and they could be six to 10 feet to the left or right and then that fall protection needs to possibly change or go with them. It could be a monorail or something. The fall protection’s following that worker to another area that could be hazardous. It doesn’t stop, it’s continuous. If they’re at different levels, same thing. It’s our jobs to make sure that we help them identify the hazard and put the best control. There could be a series of different controls to keep them safe or just possibly one. But the other thing is if you can eliminate working at height, that would probably be the best thing because then you no longer have a height hazard.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, I completely agree. When it comes to any type of job you’re working on, you always want to look at specifics. I think when in doubt, it’s always making sure that you’re asking those extra questions, so whether you’re contacting someone like yourself at Mazzella to say hey, come take a look at this. Whether you’re contacting a manufacturer like Tractel that you’re not sure, or even what you can do and I’ve heard a lot is if you contact OSHA directly, they’re a lot more lenient and they’re willing to work with you. They see that you care, you’re trying to work with them. I’ve heard of other companies, they’ve had OSHA come out and say hey, what do we need to do, because we want to make sure that we’re compliant, and someone from OSHA will come out. They’ll point out all the different obstacles and obstructions that you have, and they’re lenient about it. They’ll give you a few days, a week, a month before they come back and check again to make sure that everything’s compliant because you were doing things the right way, making sure that you have all the right steps in place.

– [Ben Hengst] And that’s something we do at Mazzella as well. We’ll go in and help you point out, just like OSHA will.

– [Kevin Muldoon] Yeah, we do a working and height risk assessment. We’ve done it for several companies, and it’s helped them with their safety culture to be safe. We help them identify hazards. One company in particular is actually adding on to their facility, and they called us and said, “Hey, we’re adding on and we really like what you guys did on our cooling bed. We’re doing a new cooling bed. Can you do the same thing here?” So it’s like they’re thinking about it, and it’s part of what their expansion plans are, which is very gratifying for us because we know that they’re thinking about safety and being safe.

How can employees advocate for better fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] Speaking of safety culture, if you’re an employee and you’re working in a company that doesn’t have the greatest safety culture, how can employees advocate for better fall protection within their own workplace?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Very good question. I would recommend that they go to the walking-working surface at height. They can Google it or any search engine and see what that requirement is. Prior to either being employed or whether they’re still employed there, they can go to their manager, their safety manager and say hey, you know what? I’ve done some research, and 2017 was a final rule that I should be trained working at height because part of my job requirement as you describe it is working four feet or higher if it’s general industry or six feet in construction and say hey, I’d really like to be trained. Do we have a training program? And if they don’t, then reach out and get trained yourself. It’s something that the employee or anyone can take action and say hey, I know of this, and this is the law, and nobody wants to work for a company that doesn’t follow the law.

– [Dan Montchal] An employee should always be able to reach out to a safety manager or someone in their management and voice out, hey, these are issues and concerns that I have. Because at the end of the day, if that company isn’t willing to respond or listen to your concerns, I don’t think they really care about the employee, and that should be something that would be one of the most important things, making sure that companies care about their employees. At the end of the day, if you see that your company isn’t implementing these, by law, you can stop working. I think the employee, they have multiple different avenues, but there should be someone within their company that they can go speak to and have advocate for them, like hey, this is what we need so that our guys can get the job done right and do it safe.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And the other point to that is that the employee, a potential employee looking for an employer, can see that the company is safe and does have JSAs and they would like to work for that company so they seek that company out. So that’s a good thing. It’s like hey, I want to work for this company because I know they’re safe and I know they practice safe principles when we’re working. That’s a good thing.

What is the most effective way to get companies to prioritize fall protection?

– [Ben Hengst] In your opinion, what is the most effective way to get companies to prioritize fall protection for their workers?

– [Kevin Muldoon] I think that the first thing is really coming back down to the JSA and analyzing the job that’s going to be done at height, and whether they can do part of that job on the ground or they’re going to do some of it at height or variable heights. That’s the first thing, is knowing really the job task or function you’re doing. And then after that is saying okay, we’re going to apply these controls to that, and this is how we’re going to stay safe while we’re working at height. What do you think, Dan?

– [Dan Montchal] I echo that. I think it’s really analyzing what’s at the job, what are some of your obstacles, obstructions, to make sure that you have everything that you need. I’ll always say that it’s going to come back to education and the training because the more training that we do with these companies, their employees start to see some of these obstacles themselves. I think it’s important because you’ll see some of the best companies out there, they’re doing quarterly or yearly trainings with their employees and you really get a better grasp of all the rules and regulations as well as what you need to feel safe, the more education that you do.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And it’s great because once you educate somebody, you can’t take that education away from them and you actually have coworkers talking about safety. Recently did the Cleveland VA Basic Fall Protection for 119 guys. At some of the breaks, and that, you could hear guys in the hallway talking about, “well, you have to identify the hazard, you have to control or eliminate it.” They’re talking about the ABCs of fall protection and the hierarchy. One of the managers just smiled and looked at me. He says, “I think they’re getting it.” It’s a gratifying thing to see, it really is.

How can you sell fall protection to stubborn companies?

– [Ben Hengst] So in your guys’ experience, let’s say somebody’s having a hard time convincing whoever’s in charge to really take this seriously. What has been the thing that’s gotten you past those roadblocks with working with other companies to get them to start moving forward in protecting their workers at height? Was it worst case scenario where they actually had a fall and that finally convinced them? Was it someone moving out of the position? How have you been able to get past these difficult roadblocks?

– [Kevin Muldoon] There’s several videos that are out there that shows guys that have fallen and then they’ve lost their, they’ve been paralyzed for life. They’ve lost their ability to walk and that, and I guess that’s part of, I don’t want to say it’s a scare tactic, but it’s part of this is what could happen to you. But I also think that it goes down to the individual, and the individual job that they’re doing, and actually the guys that are older, that are near retirement, are still working that tells the young guys hey look, you guys have a lot more advanced fall protection. You have a lot of things that when they started 30 years ago, 30, 40 years ago when I did, you still had body belts and different things, and you kind of talk about the evolution of fall protection and how good it is today, even five, 10 years ago, right, Dan? There’s so many advances, right? That’s a positive thing and say hey look, this is what’s available to you and you can get it through Mazzella or whoever, but this is what we can do for you. It’s not like a negative, like where am I going to get that or how am I going to do that? If those questions are answered, I think the individual will have more confidence that hey, I know this job and I know it’s working at height and I was kind of skeptical at first, but after all the training and the knowledge that I gained about working at height, I can do this job.

How has fall protection evolved?

– [Ben Hengst] How has fall protection changed? We can all think of the picture of the workers eating their lunch on the beam or people just tying a rope around their waist or something. In your career, how has fall protection advanced? What are some of the technological changes that you’ve seen?

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, obviously we’ve all seen the pictures like you mentioned, and I think especially over the past decade when manufacturers are making this equipment, there’s a lot of things that go into it. One is just how everything has, look at technology, anything, how it’s advanced. It’s the same thing with fall protection. You have stuff that’s more comfortable, harnesses that are more comfortable. You have shock absorbing pads and lanyards, things that are built in so if you do fall, it takes so much of that stress off of your body that it isn’t going to hurt, it isn’t going to be as big of a deal as what it used to be. There’s a number of different systems to make sure that if you do, before it was you were falling and it was catching you, and now there’s a ton of restraint systems out there that will stop you from even getting to the edge. It stops the fall from even happening, so you’re not going to go anywhere. There’s a number of different things out there. I know with Tractel, one of the things that we do is when we’re making new products, there could be general or specific industries. One of the things is as we’re working on the prototypes, we’re getting these products out there into the people that are actually using them to get their feedback on it to say hey, is this something that you would use? Is it comfortable? Are there things that you would like to see changed? I think that goes a long way, because at the end of the day, we’re manufacturing products that we want people to use. We want them to feel comfortable with entrusting us and trusting while using, so let’s get their feedback, what they want, and we’ve been able to design a lot of products that are specifically for all of the people that are using them on specific jobs or specific industries. There’s just a lot of really cool things that we’ve been able to do over the past several years.

– [Kevin Muldoon] And Dan, great segue into Travsafe and smart. I remember when we made those samples and we took them out to our sales floors and they were able to show the customer how it operates and use. For me, I was always used to between 50 foot anchor points. You could have one or two guys, not five. To me, that was such an advancement that it really drew me to your company and the engineers in your company, and product development, what you guys are all about. It’s good. I mean, it really is wonderful.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, I mean, just kind of going on Kevin’s point, what he was talking about is our Travsafe. It’s one of our horizontal life lines, and it’s a dual line system. There aren’t too many like those out there. And normally, especially say five years ago, if you are on a lifeline, you only have one or two people on it. If you’re falling, you’re still, from the point of where you’re working to where you fall, you’re dropping down probably 20 plus feet by the time that you have the give of the rope plus your lanyard plus just how tall someone is. But now we have systems out there that if you do fall you can have four or five people up to it and if there’s a fall that occurs, you’re not dropping more than a couple feet. It’s advancements like that that are not only making it safer because it’s not putting as much stress on the body, but it’s also adding more things, because one of the biggest obstacles that you’re looking at when it comes to lifelines specifically is your deflection, how far you’re going to fall. We’ve been able to cut that deflection down to fractions of what it used to be. You can implement these systems in a lot more different places because you don’t need to worry about how much, what’s our fall there. It’s how much room do we have?

– [Kevin Muldoon] Yeah, and where you can mount the system, either at your feet, shoulder level or above your head, there’s different options for that. Engineers have done a wonderful job in developing that product, and we have it in several of our customers’ facilities and they really like it. The other thing, Ben, you mentioned about confidence.

Why are fall protection equipment inspections important?

– [Kevin Muldoon] The other thing is inspections. If we’re inspecting on an annual basis and then before each use the system, that gives a peace of mind to a worker that says hey, the system’s pre-engineered and engineered, and I know that it’s been inspected following the manufacturer’s specification, a manufacturer like Tractel, and that gives them an added boost of confidence that my employer not only is giving me fall protection to use, but it’s also pre-engineered or engineered and it’s inspected. I mean, their actions are speaking louder than words there to a lot of employees that are working at height.

How can you get help with fall protection?

– [Dan Montchal] Well, like I say as always, if you have questions or there’s anything, that you have concerns, reach out to a company like Mazzella, reach out to a manufacturer like Tractel. There’s plenty of people out there that are willing to give you all this training, and now more than ever there’s more resources out there than there ever has been. I think it’s something that we want try to eliminate all these issues as much as possible.

– [Kevin Muldoon] Yeah, and actually it makes our jobs pretty fulfilled. We’ve been in it for a while, and when you walk away from a facility that had no fall protection, had no JSA, job safety analysis, had none of that, and then they call you again and say hey, we’ve got a system we’d like to put in like the one we put in before, it really gives you a lot of gratitude and satisfaction to say hey, that company’s safe and they’re practicing safe practices.

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah. One of the last things that I’ll add is that I think when you look at people that work in fall protection on a day-to-day basis, they’re also some of the most passionate people about what they do in their industry because they want to see people safe, and it’s something that really hits home to them and they care about, so just seeing that how much people care about it and what it means to them, because you’re trying prevent injuries, prevent fatalities, everything like that, so it means a lot to so many people out there, and I think it’s just great seeing how much it’s grown over the past decade.

– [Kevin Muldoon] Yeah, totally agree, totally agree.

How to learn more about Tractel

– [Ben Hengst] Thanks, guys. Dan, how can people get a hold of you?

– [Dan Montchal] Yeah, if you just go to Tractel.com, and there you view all of our products as well as you can create inquiries. If you have questions on any product specifically or you’re just looking for more general information, you can just submit a form to that and then it’ll be dispersed to the proper person who will reach out to you. When we do that, we get back to someone normally within the day. If not, it’s the next day.

– [Ben Hengst] All right, thanks Dan.

How to learn more about fall protection

– [Ben Hengst] Be sure to visit Tractel.com, and as always, you can get a hold of myself or Kevin or any of our other experts at MazzellaCompanies.com. Don’t forget to pop into our learning center. We have a ton of information on fall protection there. Subscribe to Safety Factor wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can also watch it on the Lifting and Rigging Channel on YouTube. Thanks for listening and stay safe out there.