Do you use a ladder regularly as part of your job? Do you have one you keep in the garage to use around your house? In either situation, you have to be careful when using it, or else you could take a terrible tumble that results in a serious injury.
To promote ladder safety and hopefully reduce the number of ladder accidents each year, the National Safety Council (NSC) has announced that March 2022 is National Ladder Safety Month, as presented by the American Ladder Institute. The goal of this annual safety campaign focuses on educating individuals and employers about proper ladder safety. Many ladder accidents happen in the workplace, so much of the focus is on employer responsibility.
Across four weeks this month, National Ladder Safety Month will cover these topics:
- Choosing a ladder: The first step – pun intended – to ladder safety is choosing the correct type of ladder for the job. The risk of a serious ladder accident increases if you try to use a ladder that is not tall enough or not rated for the weight that will be applied to it.
- Ladder inspection and set-up: Before using a ladder, you should give it a proper inspection, even if you are only going to use it for a moment. Once the inspection is done and the ladder is safe to use, you have to then set it up correctly, so it remains balanced, sturdy, and even when used.
- Safety while climbing: Climbing a ladder is not as simple as one foot above the other, one after another. Proper climbing requires a little bit of knowledge about ladder safety. For example, three points of contact should be maintained whenever ascending or descending a ladder.
- Safety at the top step: Many ladder accidents happen when the climber gets to the top step, where the risk of tipping over or backward is the worst. You should also never stand on the top step or rung of a ladder unless it is specifically noted that it is safe to do so.
If you want to learn more about National Ladder Safety Month, then you should visit https://www.laddersafetymonth.com/. While there, you can learn how to attend ladder safety webinars and access more information and infographics about ladder safety. We highly encourage you to visit this site if you are an employer and ladders are used regularly in your workplace.