In construction and industry, some potential hazards visibly manifest, such as the risk of falls from heights. Others are more hidden. A confined space may not look dangerous, but workers perish each year because someone assumed the air inside was safe to breathe when testing would have revealed that is wasn’t.
OSHA announced that it has postponed the 7th annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction, originally scheduled for May 4-8, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will be rescheduled this summer.
From R&D specialists to the disposal crew, products and projects often require a village of workers onsite. While some of these workers may be part of your organization, successful businesses often require third-party contractors to better manage resources and deliver quality results.
With powerful machinery and heavy-duty tasks, construction sites are some of the noisiest places. Not only is the industry filled with loud sounds, it is also filled with noise-induced hazards. There are over 30 million construction workers who are exposed to prolonged noise on a daily basis.
Construction workers ran for their lives yesterday to avoid being crushed by an enormous crane that toppled over yesterday morning at a worksite in St. Petersburg, Florida. No one was injured in the incident but the video obtained by ABC News shows several workers who narrowly avoided being hit by the crane, which was estimated to be about ten stories tall.
Even with the proper precautions like flashback arrestors, exhaust hoods for fumes and gases, or fire extinguishers, welding carries a lot of risk. Needless to say, a good pair of gloves are as important to a welder as a welding hood – or at least they should be.
On January 6, 2016, OSHA announced that it would not issue citations under the standard to residential construction if the employer is making good faith efforts to comply with the training requirements of the standard.
Hayden McClure didn’t know he had cancer – didn’t know he was even at risk – until he took the test offered by the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program. It saved his life.
McClure, a member of Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547, worked on a Department of Energy site at Amchitka Island that qualified him for the free medical screening.
