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Adjustable suspension scaffold - A suspension scaffold equipped with a hoist that can be operated by an employee on the scaffold.

Anchorage - A secure point of attachment for lifelines, lanyards, or deceleration devices.

Body belt - A strap with means both for securing it about the waist and for attaching it to a lanyard, lifeline, or deceleration device. (As of January 1, 1998 body belts are not acceptable as part of a personal fall arrest system.)

Body harness - Straps which may be secured about the employee in a manner that will distribute the fall arrest forces over at least the thighs, pelvis, waist, chest, and shoulders, with means for attaching it to other components of a personal fall arrest system.

Brace - A rigid connection that holds one scaffold member in a fixed position with respect to another member, or to a building or structure. See Cross braces.

Cleat - A structural block used at the end of a platform to prevent the platform from slipping off its supports. Cleats are also used to provide footing on sloped surfaces such as crawling boards.

Connector - A device that is used to couple (connect) parts of the personal fall arrest system and positioning device systems together. It may be an independent component of the system, such as a carabineer, or it may be an integral component of part of the system, such as a buckle or D-ring sewn into a body belt or body harness, or a snaphook spliced or sewn to a lanyard or self-retracting lanyard.

Controlled access zone (CAZ) - An area in which certain work (e.g., overhand bricklaying) may take place without guardrail systems, personal fall arrest systems, or safety net systems, and access to the zone is controlled.

Cross braces - Two braces which cross each other in the form of an X.

Deceleration device - Any mechanism, such as a rope grab, rip-stitch lanyard, specially-woven lanyard, tearing or deforming lanyard, automatic self-retracting lifeline/lanyard, etc., which serves to dissipate a substantial amount of energy during a fall arrest, or otherwise limit the energy imposed on an employee during fall arrest.

Deceleration distance - The additional vertical distance a falling employee travels, excluding lifeline elongation and free fall distance, before stopping, from the point at which the deceleration device begins to operate. It is measured as the distance between the location of an employee's body belt or body harness attachment point at the moment of activation (at the onset of fall arrest forces) of the deceleration device during a fall, and the location of that attachment point after the employee comes to a full stop.

Fabricated frame scaffold - A scaffold consisting of platforms supported on fabricated end frames with integral posts, horizontal bearers, and intermediate members.

Failure - Load refusal, breakage, or separation of component parts. Load refusal is the point where the ultimate strength is exceeded.

Free fall - The act of falling before a personal fall arrest system begins to apply force to arrest the fall.

Free fall distance - The vertical displacement between onset of the fall and just before the fall arrest system begins to apply force to arrest the fall. This distance excludes deceleration distance, and lifeline/lanyard elongation, but includes any deceleration device slide distance or self-retracting lifeline/lanyard extension before they operate and fall arrest forces occur.

Guardrail system - A barrier erected to prevent employees from falling to lower levels.

Hoist - A manual- or power-operated mechanical device to raise or lower a suspended scaffold.

Hole - A gap or void 2 inches (5.1 cm) or more in its least dimension, in a floor, roof, or other walking/working surface.

Infeasible - Impossible to perform the construction work using a conventional fall protection system (i.e., guardrail system, safety net system, or personal fall arrest system) or technologically impossible to use any one of these systems to provide fall protection.

Ladder stand - A mobile, fixed-size, self-supporting ladder consisting of a wide flat tread ladder in the form of stairs.

Landing - A platform at the end of a flight of stairs.

Lanyard - A flexible line of rope, wire rope, or strap which generally has a connector at each end for connecting the body belt or body harness to a deceleration device, lifeline, or anchorage.

Leading edge - The edge of a floor, roof, or formwork for a floor or other walking/working surface (such as the deck) which changes location as additional floor, roof, decking, or formwork sections are placed, formed, or constructed. A leading edge is considered to be an "unprotected side and edge" during periods when it is not actively and continuously under construction.

Lifeline - A component consisting of a flexible line connected vertically to an anchorage at one end (vertical lifeline), or connected horizontally to anchorages at both ends (horizontal lifeline), and which serves as a means for connecting other components of a personal fall arrest system to the anchorage.

Low-slope roof - A roof having a slope less than or equal to 4 to 12 (vertical to horizontal).

Lower levels - Those areas or surfaces to which an employee can fall. Such areas or surfaces include, but are not limited to, ground levels, floors, platforms, ramps, runways, excavations, pits, tanks, material, water, equipment, structures, or portions thereof.

Maximum intended load - The total load of all persons, equipment, tools, materials, transmitted loads, and other loads reasonably anticipated to be applied to a scaffold or scaffold component at any one time.

Open sides and ends - The edges of a platform that are more than 14 inches (36 cm) away horizontally from a sturdy, continuous, vertical surface (such as a building wall) or a sturdy, continuous horizontal surface (such as a floor), or a point of access. Exception: For plastering and lathing operations the horizontal threshold distance is 18 inches (46 cm).

Opening - A gap or void 30 inches (76 cm) or more high and 18 inches (48 cm) or more wide, in a wall or partition, through which employees can fall to a lower level.

Overhand bricklaying - The process of laying bricks and masonry units such that the surface of the wall to be jointed is on the opposite side of the wall from the mason, requiring the mason to lean over the wall to complete the work. Related work includes mason tending and electrical installation incorporated into the brick wall during the overhand bricklaying process.