Inspection of personal protection equipement (PPE)
Climbing, window cleaning, sport climbing, tree trimming, mountain guiding, caving, cleaning snow from roofs, ... these are just some of the activities in which personal protective equipment (PPE) prevents falls from a height. In an organization (professional or voluntary) PPE must be reviewed once a year by an authorized person.
Rope access work and sport at height
Working at heights is defined by law as dangerous work. Work at height is defined in detail by the regulations, which are further harmonized with the international standards of the European Union. A person who performs work at height must be protected with speciall equipment for work at height.
Equipment that prevents falling from a height is not only used in professional industrial circumstances, rope access, mountain guiding, in adrenaline parks or climbing equipment rentals, but also during volunteer activities, such as: firefighting, mountain rescue, cave rescue, canyon rescue, etc.
Regardless of whether it is a professional or voluntary activity, such equipment must be inspected at least every 12 months by an authorized person.
Periodic inspection of personal protective equipement
Periodic inspections of PPE are mendatory by the law harmonized with the European directive 89/391/EEC dated 12.06.1989. The directive prescribes minimum health and safety requirements for personal protective equipment for work at height and defines inspections of such equipment. A periodic inspection for an individual piece of equipment must be carried out once a year. In some cases, inspections are carried out more often - depending on the purpose of the equipment.
For each piece of equipment, it is precisely determined which conditions it must meet in order to successfully pass the inspection. If a certain piece of equipment does not meet the conditions, it is removed from use. Equipment that is used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and is not exposed to external factors usually expires within the lifetime prescribed by the manufacturer. Roughly speaking, the lifespan of textiles and plastics is 10 years, while there is no limit for metal.
The subject of periodic inspections is all equipment that is marked with the CE mark and has the EN standard. This includes all sports climbing equipment such as: climbing harness, self-protection kit for climbing via ferratas, sports helmets, ..., as well as most of the technical equipment used for rope access.
PPE inspection process
| 1. | A review of the manufacturer's instructions, | ❔ |
| 2. | review of any previous inspection reports, | ❔ |
| 3. | product history - user testimony, | ❔ |
| 4. | examination of the CE mark on the product, | ❔ |
| 5. | equipment lifetime review, | ❔ |
| 6. | old-new comparison, if necessary, | ❔ |
| 7. | visual and tactile inspection, | ❔ |
| 8. | functionality test, | ❔ |
| 9. | making a decision about the adequacy of the PPE. | ❌ ali ✅ |
After the inspection, we issue a certificate on the adequacy of the inspected PPE in digital format, which is valid for one year.
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