Window Cleaner's Fatal Fall Reminds Industry of Safety Standards
Cleaning the windows of high-rise buildings can be done safely, and one of the leading organizations involved in setting safety standards for cleaning companies is the International Window Cleaning Association. Journalists called IWCA's safety director, Stefan Bright, after a winder cleaner with 30 years' experience died June 15 in an eight-story fall at Sanibel Harbour Resort in Fort Myers, Fla. OSHA was contacted about the incident, the Naples Daily News reported.
IWCA is a non-profit trade 501(c)(6) association working to raise the standards of professionalism and safety of the window cleaning industry. It has more than 650 members worldwide, including some 590 from the United States. The association's Safety & Training Seminar is set for July 27 at the Radisson Hotel Salt Lake City Downtown, with IWCA inviting window cleaners to attend for "a safety refresher on protection, safety regulations, new techniques, and methods."
Many safety regulations and standards are in place for the industry, both domestically and internationally. The key U.S. standard in this area is a consensus standard, ANSI/IWCA I-14.1, which was approved in October 2001 after IWCA worked with the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) on its language. This standard gives property management and the window cleaning contractor shared responsibility for creating a safe work set-up. For information about IWCA, visit www.iwca.org.