The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved two American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) standards addressing fall protection – the new ANSI/ASSE Z359.14-2012, Safety Requirements for Self-Retracting Devices for Personal Fall Arrest and Rescue Systems, and the revised ANSI/ASSE Z359.4-2012, Safety Requirements for Assisted-Rescue and Self-Rescue Systems, Subsystems and Components.
The standards are part of the Z359 Fall Protection Code.
The new Z359.14 standard establishes requirements for the performance, design, qualification testing, markings and instructions, inspections, maintenance and storage and removal from service of self-retracting devices, including self-retracting lanyards, self-retracting lanyards with integral rescue capability, and self-retracting lanyards with leading-edge capability (SRL-LE's).
It also establishes requirements for self-retracting devices intended for use in personal fall arrest or rescue systems for authorized persons within the capacity range of 130 to 310 pounds (59 to 141 kg).
