A broad-based effort to prevent construction industry falls reached millions of workers – many of them employees of small firms – according to a new report from the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR).
In 2012, a coalition of government, labor and management representatives launched The Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction to address the top cause of construction industry fatalities.
Raising awareness
“As part of this campaign, we promoted the first ever national stand-down to prevent falls in 2014,” said Pete Stafford, CPWR Executive Director. “In 2015, we staged our second ‘stand-down,’ reaching an astonishing 2.5 million workers and raising awareness of the number one killer of construction workers on the job.
OSHA offered organizations a chance to report their Stand-Down activities in order to earn certificates of participation. CPWR has summarized the information submitted by participants in the 2014 and 2015 Stand-Down efforts in a new report.
Highlights include:
- A 35% increase in total workers reached in 2015
- Over 20% of the 2015 Stand-Downs took place at non-construction companies, indicating increasing interest in fall prevention in general industry
- Almost half of all Stand-Down events involved fewer than 25 workers, suggesting promising inroads among smaller, hard-to reach firms
"Pleasantly surprised"
Stafford said feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
"I expected that most of the employees might think of the training to be a waste of time," noted one participant. "I was pleasantly surprised that each worker had valuable input and appreciation for the training received."
The campaign’s goal this year is even greater participation.
“Join us February 16 for a webinar discussing last year's Stand-Down (information below), and mark your calendar to participate in the third annual Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction May 2-6, 2016,” said Stafford.
For more information on how to participate and ideas for activities, visit www.stopconstructionfalls.com.
The CPWR webinar on the stop construction falls campaign will be on February 16th @ 2:00pm (ET), 60 min. -- click to register
