https://youtu.be/QdcX9PAgP3c

FACT: Falls are the leading cause of worker fatalities in construction.

To this end, safety cannot be overstated on a worksite and using an excellent harness is a major part of ensuring your safety at height. Harnesses are no joke in fall protection, yet bizarrely, people still aren’t wearing them at legislated heights. Clearly, based on construction stats alone the numbers shockingly speak for themselves: falls are occurring with a certain degree of consistency and sometimes this is because harnesses are not being worn or properly used on site. Although falling from elevation is a dangerous hazard for many workers, in most cases they can be easily prevented by following legislated fall protection requirements.

So, are you wearing a safe harness as part of your Fall Protection Plan? We sure hope so!

Fall arrest equipment comes in a variety of shapes and forms, designs and levels of safety assurance. Thankfully, to contribute to the fall arrest market with excellence in design and use, our awesome friends at PETZL have joined the game of technical fall arrest equipment.

 So, when it comes to Fall Protection safety, the team at Pacific Ropes believes not only do #HELMETSMATTER but #HARNESSESMATTER.

THE 2016 PETZL NEWTON

And because it is NECESSARY (as dictated by WorksafeBC) that "fall protection must be used wherever a worker is at risk of falling 3 meters (10 feet) or more" (click here for a great article citing this regulation), we are highly recommending that you use the NEWTON for your fall arrest harness and most importantly as a preventative piece of your Fall Protection Plan.  It’s that good, that swaggy, and most importantly, that irrefutably safe.

PETZL has made their fall protection harnesses very design/user friendly and we hope that the easier they are to put on, the more comfortable and effective in their use, the more anyone working at height will want to wear one, no questions asked.

The NEWTON is a simple harness in comparison to a more industrial harness like the PETZL AVAO Bod Croll, but there are some interesting, very PETZL features which sets it apart from what has existed previously.

The first feature to notice is that PETZL has color coated this harness (the shoulder/dorsal area is identifiably yellow) so you immediately know up from down. You literally can’t put this harness on upside down (HA! Thanks PETZL). It has several sturdy waist and dorsal loops for your tool bag and anything else you may need to clip on to you.

As PETZL says, the “anatomical design” of this harness is truly its best feature and the Newton remains true to the PETZL brand in this regard.

For instance, the waist buckle in no way looks like or is a belt- technically it is a chest buckle to ergonomically protect you against the thrust of an actual fall. There are also 2 points of attachment on either side of the upper sternum (fall arrest lanyard connector holders) to ensure that if you are using a PETZL Absorbica lanyard, for instance, the force of the fall will be pre-negated to ensure you fall “properly” and your shock pack deploys according to its technical specs. This is one feature you won’t see on a typical Fall Arrest harness and by far these little plastic attachment points are the coolest feature on the Newton.

It is also fitted with PETZL’s signature clip-in buckles over the chest and the thigh region (with self-adjusting straps) which are positioned for ultimate personal comfort and fit. Most importantly, in the event that you experience a fall wearing this harness, the “A” arrest or fall indicator points will be triggered immediately. This is an important design feature because after a fall there is no way you can wear this harness again and this is integral to proper safety procedure. I know this component sounds like a given, but you would be surprised that many harnesses people wear in construction have been over used, damaged and without any record of its use or the event of a fall. This can seriously compromise the safety integrity of a fall arrest harness and PETZL's arrest design prevents use after a fall from ever occurring.

All of this being said, basic is basic, but this harness is true to the PETZL brand and their absolute commitment to smart and safe design, taking this harness beyond what is simply basic.

Again, the absolute special mention about this harness are the plastic connectors on the upper sides of the sternum area. Very, very cool feature and one that goes beyond normative safety design.

So, as far as basic fall protection goes, this is the crème de la crème of fall arrest harnesses for anyone working over 3 feet at height- roofers and ladder climbers especially, this is a great harness for you!

Honestly, the question you need to ask yourself is, "Why am I NOT wearing this harness?"

Have you been to our Equipment Shop yet? You can get your own PETZL NEWTON here.