In Alabama, a framing crew member who was moving a roof truss into place while supporting himself on an 8-inch wide structural beam fell 27 feet to the ground inside the partially constructed building. The native Mexican laborer, who understood little English, was not wearing or using personal fall protection equipment. An 8-foot by 4-foot truss fell at the same time, striking the worker's head when he hit the ground. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
User weight is an important consideration when determining personal protective equipment for workers. Most fall protection product capacity rates up to 310 pounds, a weight aligned with most safety standards' and regulations' test criteria. Users should note that product capacity is more than just user weight, because it includes all clothing and equipment attached to the worker.
Following these suggestions will promote productivity out of your most experienced workers while avoiding the costs of accidents and injury.
Britain's Health and Safety Executive set the record straight last month on the question of wearing flip-flops to work.
OSHA Publication 3252-05N, offers assistance with construction hazards of all kinds. Some of its contents concern protective footwear and the requirements for equipping workers properly when they may be exposed to hazards.
OSHA inspection personnel from other states will be in Texas in July to check for unsafe scaffolds, fall hazards, trenching violations, and other potential injury and fatality hazards, the Labor secretary announced in her speech Monday morning at Safety 2009.
Going head to head in two sizzling destination cities this week are the annual conferences of the American Society of Safety Engineers (San Antonio, featuring Labor Secretary Hilda Solis) and the Society for Human Resource Management (New Orleans, featuring business titan Jack Welch).
The maximum penalty allowed by California state law has been assessed against Aviara Healthcare Center, a skilled nursing and rehab center in Encinitas, Calif., after a patient died May 13.
"These citations encompass a cross section of fall protection, flammable, confined space, lockout, and bloodborne pathogen hazards as well as inadequate personal protective equipment and hazard communication training," said Edward Jerome, OSHA's area director in Albany, N.Y.
The Burley, Idaho-based worksite has not experienced an occupational injury or illness in the last four years, the agency said.
According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, a new congressional mandate changing hospital reimbursement made by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could inadvertently reverse tremendous progress in reducing the use of physical restraints among hospitalized elderly patients.
"In this case, a worker was unloading materials from a box that was being elevated on a lift truck that became unstable, causing the worker to fall 36 feet to his death," said Stephen Boyd, OSHA's area director in Dallas.
Also, because summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena--lightning--NOAA is calling attention to Lightning Safety Week, June 21-27, by offering a number of new, free resources to increase safety awareness.
Due to the mobility of employers in the construction industry, the transitory nature of construction sites, and the fact that sites often involve more than one employer, inspections will target specific jobsites rather than specific employers.
"OSHA's process safety management regulations are designed to reduce or eliminate workplace hazards associated with the catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals," said Patricia Jones, director of OSHA's area office in Avenel, N.J., which conducted the investigation.
This year's awards recognize research that made ambulances safer for EMS workers and passengers and also EMS protective clothing recommendations used in the 2008 edition of the NFPA 1999 standard.
WorkCover New South Wales, the workplace safety authority in Australia's most populous state, has designated May 2009 as Slips, Trips and Falls Month as it tries to raise awareness of the issue.
"It takes only one slip or misstep to turn a construction site into an accident scene," said Paul Mangiafico, OSHA's area director for Middlesex and Essex (Massachusetts) counties.