When working at height, particularly with overhead lines, safety must be paramount. The correct health and safety equipment needs to be used and this includes safety harnesses and lanyards.  However, like with most things lanyards will suffer wear and tear and become deemed no longer safe to use.

The following defects and damage have the potential to result in the degradation and/or weakening of the lanyard:

• cuts of 1 mm or more at the edges of webbing lanyards (eg where the lanyard may have been choke-hitched around steelwork);

• surface abrasion across the face of the webbing and at the webbing loops, particularly if localised

• abrasion at the edges, particularly if localised

• damage to stitching (eg cuts or abrasion)

• a knot in the lanyard, other than those intended by the manufacturer;

• chemical attack which can result in local weakening and softening – often indicated by flaking of the surface. There may also be a change to the colour of the fibres

• heat or friction damage indicated by fibres with a glazed appearance which may feel harder than surrounding fibres;

• UV-degradation which is difficult to identify, particularly visually, but there may be some loss of colour (if dyed) and a powdery surface;

• partially deployed energy absorber (eg short pull-out of tear webbing);

• contamination (eg with dirt, grit, sand etc) which may result in internal or external abrasion;

• damaged or deformed fittings (eg karabiners, screwlink connectors, scaffold hooks);

• damage to the sheath and core of a kernmantel rope (eg rucking of the core detected during tactile inspection);

• internal damage to a cable-laid rope.