There is no escaping that working on scaffolding is a dangerous practice at the best of times. Every precaution possible must be taken to avoid injury in a working environment that encounters danger.
There are many ways in which we can make the building site safer. The focus of this post will be on Scaffolding Tags and how they are used to make on-site work safer and mitigate the risk of a potentially unstable scaffold.
What Is A Scaffolding Tag?
Scaffolding tags are pieces of signage utilised on construction sites and are solely based on health and safety on-site. The job of these is to indicate whether the scaffolding that has been erected is entirely compliant with the regulations set out by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). This public health & safety organisation lays out and actively enforces regulations based on workplace safety.
The primary function of a scaffolding tag is to inform workers on a site of when scaffolding is safe to use and, more importantly, when it is not. They are only to be used on scaffolding once a full inspection has been carried out to determine whether it is safe for workers.
Knowing What Is Safe & What Isn’t
Scaffolding is regularly used on a construction site and is important equipment for many projects. Using scaffolding on a worksite is extremely common and without scaffolding tags to label these scaffolds as safe to use, you only increase the risk of a serious accident taking place on the site.
Placing tags on all scaffolding pieces ensures that workers are aware of the structural integrity of their surroundings and areas that may need to be avoided until the scaffolds can be rebuilt.
This mitigates the risk of someone falling from or through a scaffold tower that did not pass OSHA regulations and not only keeps the workers safe but also makes sure all legal procedures have been followed and everything to prevent an accident has been done by the letter of the law.
On safety tags, you can also record information regarding the last inspection that was carried out, like the date and any modifications that needed to take place to the scaffold tower. This allows workers to know when the next inspection is due and keep them updated with any necessary changes that have been made.
Following The Law
When it comes to site safety, scaffolding is full of potential hazards. It needs to be made as safe as possible, as per the regulations set out by OSHA. These regulations are important to protect workers from potential injury and protect the employer from a legal perspective.
Indeed, these tags are not a legal requirement when constructing a scaffold tower, but the inspection itself is a legal requirement. Using scaffold tags helps to keep track of which towers have been inspected and which haven’t, which eliminates the risk of getting confused with scaffolds that have passed inspection and those that haven’t.
Colour Coding Your Scaffolds
Scaffolding tags do not have a particular colour coding system that they must abide by as per the law, but it is very important that different colours are used on scaffolding tags that are being used for different purposes. Here at Tag Tec, we utilise specialist colour-coded tags for different purposes, and this helps to easily realise which scaffolds are being used for certain purposes. Our scaffolding tag colour coding system is as follows:
Orange
Our Orange tags are utilised for general purposes. These tags are used to assist in preventing working at height hazards, as well as effectively and efficiently managing inspection procedures. Having a scaffold tagged and labelled is important as it eliminates the risk of workers ascending the wrong scaffold and injuring themselves.
Yellow
Yellow scaffold tags are used by us here at Tag Tec for inspection purposes, showing the type of inspection that has taken place, who by and the date that this inspection was carried out. These tags do not show specific requirements of the scaffold as our other tags do, instead showing simply whether an inspection has been passed, or more importantly, if it hasn’t.
Blue
Blue tags indicate that a scaffold has passed the necessary tests to be used for heavy use tasks. These scaffolds are stronger and can usually take an extra 100kg of weight when compared to normal scaffolds that are constructed on-site. It is important to label these as workers know when it is safe to scale a scaffold with large amounts of tools or materials.
Pink
Pink Tags are made for the opposite purpose of blue Heavy Duty tags. Pink tags are made to show scaffolds that have been constructed for light use tasks only. These scaffolds have a weight limit of 200kg usually, which accounts for 2 people with minimal tools. These tags are important for showing the weight limits of scaffolds and most importantly, ensuring these weight limits are not exceeded, preventing height-related accidents from taking place in the process.
Preventing Height Related Injuries
Height related injuries account for more on-site injuries than anything else. With this being the case, it is increasingly important to do whatever is possible to minimise the risk of height-related injuries. Scaffolding tags assist this process by mitigating the risk of someone ascending a scaffold that is not secure or safe.
Mitigating the risk from height-related injuries is vital on a construction site, and being able to tell the difference between a safe and an unsafe scaffold has the potential to make all the difference. This does not eliminate the risk of working at a height but does raise awareness and clarity among workers of where is safe and where is not on-site.
With height-related injuries on-site being so rife in the world of construction, it is important to take every small precaution we can, and scaffolding tags are a small tool that can go a long way to ensuring the safety of your workers and eliminate un-needed risk from the workplace as much as possible.
Conclusion
Scaffolding Tags are arguably just as important as the scaffold on a building site. When it comes to workplace safety, tags should always be at the forefront of your mind to ensure the safety of workers and allow them to determine which scaffolds are safe.
Despite them not being a legal requirement, they are still a vital tool to keep the workplace as safe as possible. Going the extra step to do this should be seen as a must if it ensures you eliminate the risk of serious injury from a worker climbing the wrong scaffold.
If you have any other questions regarding tags and how they can benefit you on-site, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our fantastic team. We are happy to help and answer all of your questions.
