Ladder Safety

Ladder safety

Ladder Contact Points

Maintain a 3-point contact (two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand) when climbing/ descending a ladder. • Stay near the middle of the ladder and face the ladder while climbing up/down. • Use a barricade to keep traffic away from the ladder.

Ladders

• Inspect ladders to identify any visible defects that could cause injury. Remove any ladder with structural or other defects from service and tag it with “Dangerous: Do Not Use” or similar language.
• Maintain “3 points of contact” when climbing up or down ladders and do not carry any object or load that could cause a loss of balance or fall while climbing up or down the ladder.
• Use portable ladders only on stable and level surfaces unless they are secured or stabilized to prevent accidental displacement.
• Do not move, shift, or extend any portable ladder while in use.
• Guard portable ladders with a temporary barricade or secure the ladders to prevent accidental displacement when the portable ladder is placed in a location such as a passageway, doorway, or driveway where there may be other traffic.
• Never use top caps of step ladders as a step.
• Never place a portable ladder on a box, barrel, pallet, or other unstable base to obtain additional height.
• Do not move a mobile ladder stand or platform when in use.
• Equip mobile ladder stands and platforms that have wheels or casters with a system to impede horizontal movement when a worker is on the stand or platform.
• Provide a ladder safety system or personal fall arrest system on each fixed ladder that extends more than 24 feet above a lower level.