We Can Solve the Construction Safety Crisis

Participants in a June 24 congressional hearing offered all sorts of solutions to the crisis in U.S. construction safety.

The only witness who offered none at all was OSHA’s leader, Edwin Foulke Jr.

Foulke fielded nearly all of the questions when members of the U.S.House Education and Labor Committee and an invited congresswoman, Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked their questions. But he wasn’t the sole witness that morning; the other panelists were Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department; George Cole, a 42-year ironworker whose brother-in-law died Oct. 5, 2007, in a fall at the Las Vegas CityCenter project, a mammoth downtown site where six workers have died on the job so far; Mike Kallmeyer, senior VP of construction services for Denier Electric of Columbus, Ohio; and Robert LiMandri, acting building commissioner for New York City. The four said more enforcement, more standards, more training, and more emphasis on construction could curb the crane collapses, falls, and other incidents that are claiming an average of four construction workers’ lives every day. Foulke couldn’t promise any of that and said OSHA’s training, inspection, and penalty numbers demonstrate it is doing a good job.

The specific recommendations surely would make a difference. They won’t come about during this administration, but they’re a good starting point for the next one:

• Finish the Cranes & Derricks negotiated rule, which has been in process for five years, and put it into effect.

• Allow OSHA inspectors to issue stop-work orders when they witness a

• Install “black box” technology and labels on tower crane components so they can be tracked as they are moved from site to site. Update federal guidelines for these cranes.

• Create a Construction Safety & Health Administration, similar to MSHA and similarly separate from OSHA.

• Mandate 10-hour OSHA training for all construction workers nationwide.

• Give NIOSH more money for construction safety research.

• Stop reducing or eliminating penalties issued to employers, and stop giving this financial relief in meetings from which victims’ representatives are excluded. See whether federal OSHA can influence state plans to also use this tougher approach.

• Address Hispanic construction workers’ safety more forcefully.

• Solve the problem of large-scale misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors. (Their injuries and deaths don’t show up in BLS totals.)

This article originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.

About the Author

Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.

Product Showcase

  • Full Line of Defense Against Combustible Dust Nilfisk

    Nilfisk provides a comprehensive range of industrial vacuums meticulously crafted to adhere to NFPA 652 housekeeping standards, essential for gathering combustible dust in Class I, Group D, and Class II, Groups E, F & G environments or non-classified settings. Our pneumatic vacuums are meticulously engineered to fulfill safety criteria for deployment in hazardous surroundings. Leveraging advanced filtration technology, Nilfisk ensures the secure capture of combustible materials scattered throughout your facility, ranging from fuels, solvents, and metal dust to flour, sugar, and pharmaceutical powders. Read More

  • HAZ LO HEADLAMPS

    With alkaline or rechargeable options, these safety rated, Class 1, Div. 1 Headlamps provide long runtime with both spot and flood options in the same light. Work safely and avoid trip hazards with flexible hands-free lighting from Streamlight. Read More

  • Preventative Heat Safety

    Dehydration and heat exposure impair physical and cognitive performance. Proper hydration boosts heat stress resilience, but hydration needs are highly individualized and hard to predict across a workforce. Connected Hydration® empowers industrial athletes to stay safe through behavioral interventions, informed by sports science, and equips safety teams with critical insights to anticipate high-risk situations and adapt to evolving environmental factors. Curious about applying the latest in sports science based hydration strategies for industrial athletes? Stop by booth #1112 at AIHA or schedule a free demo today at https://epcr.cc/demo. Read More

Featured

Artificial Intelligence

Webinars