The new law will take effect April 6, so the Health and Safety Executive wants employers to be prepared.
Although the concept of proactively creating safe construction sites is widely agreed upon, achieving this reality has been traditionally lacking in execution. By combining the knowledge of professionals in both the construction and design facets of a project, safety can be enhanced before crews ever break ground. Doing this will yield a positive impact on not only worker safety, but also quality and productivity. Costs are lowered, task performance is improved, and life-threatening work hazards are reduced.
"The collective expertise of OSHA and SIA can create a significant impact on the safety and health of men and women working in construction," said OSHA's Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., commenting on the alliance announced today.
"This employer ignored safety and health rules that could have prevented the tragic death of this employee," said Dean McDaniel, OSHA's regional administrator in Dallas.
The recalled ladders are Type I, IA, or II extension ladders with fiberglass rails and "D" shaped aluminum rungs. The extension or "fly" section can fail to lock, the manufacturer says.
OSHA recently released Preventing Skin Problems from Working with Portland Cement, a new guidance document created to educate employers and employees about effective ways to prevent skin-related injuries in the cement and cement-related industries.
Its comment deadline is a week away, and the ones posted so far complain it is confusing, unneeded, and burdensome.
OSHA announced in yesterday's Federal Register that nominations are being accepted for persons to serve on the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH). The committee was established under section 107(e) of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (40 U.S.C. 3704(d)(4)) to advise the Secretary of Labor on formulating construction safety and health standards and policy matters that arise in carrying out these responsibilities.
Brandenburg Industrial Service Co. has about 300 employees in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas and more than 700 employees nationally.
"We are all working toward optimal performance of both new and existing buildings, and this partnership will be beneficial for both ASHRAE and BOMA members,"said ASHRAE President Kent Peterson, P.E.
The Click It! campaign's live demonstrations will take place in mid-March at one of the year's biggest construction shows.
"It's the best code education you can receive," said ICC Board President Steve Shapiro. "The knowledge you gain by participating in code hearings will help you improve building safety when you return to your daily work."
At last week's Damage Prevention Conference in Las Vegas, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark V. Rosenker announced that the safety board has identified three key components to reducing pipeline and gas line excavation related incidents.
Two workers' deaths in falls prompted the stepped-up enforcement campaign, HSENI says.
Four classifications of spaces are proposed; comments due by Jan. 28, 2008.
The guide suggests a range of practical interventions to prevent common occupational injuries from handling heavy or awkward loads, making repetitive movements, and other physical demands of construction work. All of the interventions have been used on actual construction work sites.
"Certain construction jobs still experience high levels of airborne lead, and the retention of this Standard is necessary to ensure employees are protected from high lead exposure," Foulke said.
The alliance will focus on falls, electrical, struck-by, and caught in-between hazards. The alliance's outreach and communication efforts include developing information to identify and prevent workplace hazards and effective tools to convey that information.
A vast number of those in the construction industry use scaffolding on a daily basis. According to OSHA, nearly 65 percent of workers in the construction industry work on scaffolds frequently. From steel erectors to building equipment installers, bricklayers, window washers, carpenters, and painters, just to name a few, nearly 2.3 million construction workers frequently work on scaffolds. Construction sites are inherently unstable environments, with movement of workers, materials, etc. and changing landscapes. In 2004, approximately 400,000 workers suffered construction-site injuries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed in 1996 that 25 percent of workers injured in scaffold accidents had received no scaffold training. With the high potential for serious injury, construction safety education remains a top priority.