John Whitty

 

Session Description:

Fall safety considerations in the workplace are required for general industry workers above four feet and for construction workers above six feet. OSHA requires that a competent person be on the jobsite whenever employees work are exposed to a fall from these heights. If fall protection system design (such as anchor points) is involved, a qualified person must approve the system.

The new ANSI Z359 has a tremendous impact on training requirements.  It now covers so many aspects of fall protection and rescue training that, qualified and competent persons have many new training responsibilities, which will require them to be properly trained themselves.

This session will closely examine some elements and ideas that are crucial in the implementation of a fall protection training program for competent & qualified persons.

 

Speaker Bio:

John Whitty is a licensed professional structural engineer with over 20 years of experience in the structural analysis and design of fall protection systems, manufacturing and industrial facilities, nuclear/fossil power generation plants, as well as highway bridges and approach structures. He is currently licensed in 10 states.

For the past 10+ years John has been involved extensively in the field of fall protection and studied under the tutelage of Dr. J. Nigel Ellis at the Ellis Fall Protection Institute. He is an OSHA Competent/Qualified person and a graduate of Dr. Ellis' courses on the principles and practices of Fall Hazard Control as well as a competent/qualified person instructor for EFSS’s fall protection training courses. He is a contributing author and editor of Dr. Ellis’s “Introduction to Fall Protection – 3rd Edition”. He has been a forum speaker for the ASSE (American Society of Safety Engineers) and the NSC (National Safety Council) & has been published in numerous EH&S related publications.

John’s experience in fall protection has made him the lead designer and technical instructor for all of EFSS’s fall protection training courses. His engineering and training experience has centered on fall protection training, systems specification, structural engineering analysis, design and turnkey integration of personal fall arrest systems and associated components.