Seven officers of the Ministry of Labour’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Department recently completed a one-day Fall Protection for Competent Persons training course, a Ministry release stated on Tuesday.
The training took place on Wednesday, June 26, at the conference room at the Ground Structures Engineering compound, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara. It was undertaken by HHSL Safety Systems (Guyana) Inc, and facilitated by Course Instructor and Emergency Medical Technician, Preslee Paul.
According to the release, the course equipped the officers with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and assess fall hazards, develop and implement fall protection plans, and train other workers on safe work practices. Topics covered included the Basics of Fall Protection, the Physics of a Fall, Fall Restraint and Positioning, Fall Arrest, Other Fall Exposures, Equipment Inspection, and Rescue.
One OSH officer, Neza King, who benefitted from the training, said that it gave her a better understanding of the potential dangers of the equipment usually used to prevent fall-related injuries, the release said. She explained, “It made us better able to identify the hazards and issues associated with the use of fall protection and make sure we are better equipped to understand that protection, especially in key areas like the construction sector.”
Following the course, the OSH Officers were able to calculate fall clearances and arresting forces, distinguish among fall restraint, work positioning and fall arrest, don and adjust a harness, inspect fall protection equipment, list symptoms and means of preventing suspension trauma, and respond properly in cases of emergency, the release added.
Benefitting from the training were Assistant Chief OSH Officer, Maxean Bess; Senior OSH Officer, Darwin Bourne; OSH officers, Ray Hosannah and Johana Vaughn; and Regional OSH officers, Babita Singh and Nazmoon Jafarally, the release added.
