• Employers must protect employees from the hazards of falling onto or into various types of dangerous equipment.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) adopted the definition of dangerous equipment from the construction fall protection standard.

Dangerous equipment means equipment (such as pickling or galvanizing tanks, degreasing units, machinery, electrical equipment, and other units) which, as a result of form or function, may be hazardous to employees who fall onto or into such equipment.

Additionally, OSHA includes vats, tanks, electrical equipment, machinery, machinery with protruding parts, or similar units to be dangerous equipment. These were added because their function or form could injure a falling worker.

The employer must require employees working four feet or more above dangerous equipment to use one of the following fall protection systems:

• Guardrail systems
• Safety net systems
• Travel restraint systems
• Personal fall arrest systems

Employees must be protected from falling into dangerous equipment even when the distance is less than four feet. Employers are not allowed to use safety net systems or personal fall arrest systems when work is less than four feet above the hazardous equipment. If the dangerous equipment is covered or guarded, OSHA does not require the use of fall protection.