Tethering Tools for Safe Elevated Work

Working with hand tools at high elevations presents serious safety hazards. In the UK, falling objects are an ongoing frequent cause of workplace injuries, as well as equipment damage. Tool tethering omits these hazards by ensuring tools never fall. With tethers, tools physically bind to either the operator or a secure structure and never fall out of reach. This guide will explain how to tether hand tools properly so you can work safely with them at height.

During elevated work, many tools and handheld objects have the potential to fall and cause damage, injury, or even death. Tool tethering thus has a significant role to play on worksites.

Elevated industrial work has various common handheld tools and equipment at risk of falling, including:

• Hammers
• Screwdrivers
• Spanners
• Impact wrenches
• Mobile phones (an increasingly common example)
• Aerosol cans
• Beverage cups

These items aren’t only fall hazards while operators are holding them; they can also be at risk of falling if they’re insecurely fastened to or stored in tool belts or pouches.

In 2022/23 in the UK, moving objects (including falling ones) were the second-highest cause of workplace fatalities, beaten only by workers themselves falling from heights. Moving objects were also the third-highest cause of non-fatal workplace injuries. This goes to show just how dangerous elevated work can be, especially when it involves hand tools.

Dropped object hazard mitigation can involve measures like handrails, toeboards, netting, and exclusion zones (off-limits areas under elevated workers). None of these fully omit the hazard, though, not even exclusion zones, since fallen objects can still bounce and hit someone from a horizontal trajectory.

Safe tool tethering systems ensure that tools never drop in the first place, provided the tethering is secured properly and rated to the tool weight. Also, the materials of tool lanyards can absorb the falling tool’s momentum, thereby protecting the tool operator from the tool snapping back up.

As serious and concerning as workplace injuries and fatalities (and their litigation) rightfully are, equipment damage and time delays are business concerns too. When tools fall, they can damage other materials, become broken and require costly replacement, and force operators to spend time travelling to the ground to retrieve the tool and assess damage. Tool tethering instead turns a tool drop into a loss of a few seconds regripping it.

Keep the following terms, practices, and regulations in mind when learning how to tether hand tools:

A tool tethering setup stretches a lanyard from a tether point on a tool to an anchor point that will support the tool’s weight. Selecting and installing these points properly is an essential aspect of how to tether tools properly.

Tether points need to be adaptable to various tools, and often take the form of cables that can be easily and securely fastened to tool handles using squeezable tensioners as seen on winter gloves. They can also be carabiners on swivels - useful for connecting to tools with integral attachment points. However, do not alter tools (such as through drilling) to form attachment points. This would be an unintended use of the tool’s manufactured material, and risks breaking the tool. The available tether point options should be varied enough to attach to any tool that you work with.

Anchor points are the fixed points the tethered tool will dangle from if it drops, and they work the same as they do in other fall restraint equipment. The anchor point can be on the operator’s own belt, but heavier tools (heavier than about 2kg) need anchoring to a separate secure structure. Anchoring a heavier tool to a person risks pulling them into a fall too. Anchor points can be a work belt loop, wristband, or D-ring. The lanyard often quickly connects to these using a carabiner.

All items in the tether setup need ratings for the tool’s weight. The tether system is an effective chain, which is of course only as strong as its weakest link.

Be sure to follow these best practices for how to use tethering tools:

• Ensure the tethering doesn’t interfere with using the tool properly and safely; size the tether length for the job
• Avoid modifying tools, such as by drilling holes into them
• Select tethering equipment rated for the tool’s weight
• Anchor tools to fixed objects rather than your body if the tool mass exceeds 2kg
• Avoid snagging tool lanyards on other objects, thereby creating other safety issues; be constantly aware of your lanyards

A successful tool tethering programme will also need significant training and company culture shifts. Continually drive home the importance of safety and everyone’s individual role in it. Emphasise the severity and frequency of dropped object incidents and how safe tool tethering can prevent that. Touching on the convenience factor can also help with uptake, i.e., tool tethering avoids retrieving dropped tools and replacing damaged ones.

The UK doesn’t have tool tethering regulations specifically, but The Work at Height Regulations of 2005 lay out a framework that tool tethering can follow. These regulations require employers to prevent, wherever practical, objects or materials from falling, and to ensure fall restraint equipment is suitable, strong enough and maintained for the working loads. Hand tools are certainly at risk of falling, so tool tethering is a preventive measure employers can use to meet their obligations for work at height.

Additionally, ANSI/ISEA 121-2018 covers preventing dropping objects: standardised design, testing, and labelling for these measures, such as tool tethering. This is a voluntary standard, however, not mandated tool tethering regulations, so it applies more so to companies manufacturing fall restraint equipment.