The OSHA standard is that all of the parts of your fall positioning system meet the requirements of the fall arrest guidelines. The fall arrest guidelines say that your rope, D-rings and whatever you tie off to be able to support the shock weight of 2.5 times the impact load. So I am 235 pounds. Everything in my system should be able to withstand 587.50 pounds when I am wearing it.
The roof anchor is made of heavy gauge alum, welded by a certified welder, rated and insured with product liability insurance. In use since 1997 it has worked every time. (thankfully not very many times) If there is an accident on your job site where someone falls OSHA is responsible to do an investigation. They will want to see that you were following the law OSHA 1972. They will judge wither or not you were using the right harness, the right hand brake, that the d-rings, rope and what you are tied off to could withstand 2.5 times the impact load (even down to the tree you might tie off to) and if there was any training and or operator error. If they find you violated the law or acted in gross negligence you will be fined.
Just so y’all know if you make $249,999.00 or less you do not fall under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1972 and OSHA has no jurisdiction over your operation. Now local municipal and or some states have their own regs. All I can speak to is the National law.
We used it as a fall positioning system and our men were trained to use it in such a way that the ropes were adjusted so that they would not fall “off” the roof. Therefore any time it was tested the result was a man falling or slipping to his knees or butt and not “off” the roof. In all of those cases the vent pipes were unchanged.
The thought we always had in mind is that due to a successful use and keeping an employee from falling the vent pipe was damaged, we would gleefully pay a plumber to replace it. A life can not be replaced.
