Ohio Administrative Code › Title 4123:1 - Division of Safety and Hygiene › Chapter 4123:1-17 - Window Cleaning › Section 4123:1-17-01 - Scope and definitions

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A) Scope.
The purpose of these requirements is to provide reasonable
				safety for life, limb and health of employees. In cases of practical difficulty
				or unnecessary hardship, the Ohio bureau of workers' compensation may grant
				exceptions from the literal provisions of these requirements or permit the use
				of other devices or methods when, in the opinion of the industrial commission,
				equivalent protection is thereby secured.
These specific safety requirements supplement Chapter 4123:1-5
				of the Administrative Code, "Specific Safety Requirements of the Ohio Bureau of
				Workers' Compensation Relating to all Workshops and Factories," but, to the
				extent of inconsistency between these and any provision of Chapter 4123:1-5 of
				the Administrative Code, these shall apply. These requirements are minimum
				requirements of an employer for the protection of such employer's employees and
				no others and constitute protective standards for all employees while they are
				engaged in washing or cleaning windows on the outside and, where working from a
				level ten feet or more above the floor, on the inside of buildings except
				employees so engaged in or on a building containing no more than two full
				stories above ground level in which all of the units are residential and except
				employees so engaged in or on a single residential unit when employed to do so
				by the occupant of that unit. These requirements do not apply to a window
				opening onto a railed fire escape balcony or other railed balconies no less
				than two feet wide, nor more than twelve inches below the window sill, provided
				that the railing is no less than forty-two inches high.
Installations or constructions built or contracted for prior to
				the effective date of any requirement shall be deemed to comply with the
				provisions of these requirements if such installations or constructions comply
				either with the provisions of these requirements or with the provisions of any
				applicable specific requirement which was in effect at the time contracted for
				or built.
(B) Definitions.
(1) "Anchor" means an installation near a
			 window to which a window cleaner's safety belt is attached.
(2) "Approved" means accepted or certified by
			 a nationally recognized testing agency, such as "Underwriters' Laboratories,"
			 "Factory Mutual Engineering Corporation" or a responsible governmental agency.
(3) "Boatswain's chair" means a
			 seat supported by slings attached to a suspended rope, designed to accommodate
			 one employee in a sitting position.
(4) "Factor of safety" means the ratio
			 between the ultimate breaking strength and the working stress of the material,
			 structure or device. For example, the term "factor of safety of four" means the
			 materials, structure or device shall be constructed of such strength that the
			 maximum load will be one-fourth the designed ultimate breaking load. Where
			 other factors of safety appear, they shall apply in the same manner. The
			 standards of the "American Society for Testing Materials" shall be used in
			 determining the strength of material except as otherwise provided herein.
(5) "Rated load" means the
			 combined weight of employees, tools, equipment, and other material which the
			 working platform is designed and installed to lift.
(6) "Roof car" means a structure for the
			 suspension of the working platform, providing for its horizontal movement to
			 working positions.
(7) "Roof car
			 suspended platform" means equipment to provide access to the exterior of a
			 building consisting of a suspended power-operated working platform, a roof car,
			 and the required operating and control devices.
(8) "Roof-powered platform" means the working
			 platform, of a roof car suspended platform, having the raising and lowering
			 mechanism located on a roof car.
(9) "Safety belt" or "safety harness" means a
			 device worn around the body which, by reason of its attachment to a lanyard and
			 lifeline or a structure, will prevent an employee from falling.
(10) "Safety harness" - see "safety belt."
(11) "Self-powered platform" means
			 a working platform, of a roof car suspended platform, having the raising and
			 lowering mechanism located on the working platform.
(12) "Shall" is to be construed as mandatory.
(13) "Standard guard railing"
			 means a substantial barrier constructed in accordance with paragraph (E) of
			 rule
			 4123:1-5-02
			 of the Administrative Code.
(14)
			 "Substantial" means construction of such strength, of such materials, and of
			 such workmanship that the object will withstand the wear, usage, or shock for
			 which it is designed.
(15)
			 "Swinging scaffold" means a power- or manually-operated platform suspended by
			 two or more lines and independent of the building except for attachment at the
			 roof or parapet.
(16) "Traveling
			 cable" means a cable made up of electrical or communication conductors or both,
			 and providing electrical connection between the working platform and the roof
			 car or other fixed point.
(17)
			 "Two-point suspension scaffold" means a scaffold suspended from overhead
			 supports the platform of which is supported by stirrups or hangers at two
			 points to permit raising or lowering.
(18) "Working platform" means the suspended
			 structure arranged for vertical travel which provides access to the exterior of
			 the building.