As it enters its second week, OSHA’s effort to prevent falls in the construction industry is causing work stoppages around the globe.

If you are in the construction industry, there is still time for you to participate in OSHA’s National Fall Prevention Stand-Down, which runs today through May 15th.

On the heels of Workers Memorial Day, Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) Executive Director Pete Stafford said; “Just as we owe a debt we can never repay to the men and women who died defending our nation and our freedom, we owe a similar debt to those who died while laboring to create the prosperity we enjoy as Americans.”

Falls are a persistent hazard found in all occupational settings. A fall can occur during the simple acts of walking or climbing a ladder to change a light fixture or as a result of a complex series of events affecting an ironworker 80 feet above the ground.

A Washington University at St. Louis research team supported by Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has created an online inventory of fall protection devices suitable for use in residential construction.

"Employers and cell tower owners and operators must make sure workers are properly trained and protected, said OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels in issuing a directive to keep communication tower workers safe. The directive follows an alarming increase in preventable injuries and fatalities at communication tower work sites, according to OSHA.

"The cost of providing fall prevention equipment is nominal compared with the senseless loss of life.” Casey Perkins, OSHA's area director in Austin, made that comment in reference to an accident at a condo construction site in Canyon Lake, Texas in which a worker fell 29 feet to his death.

A safety scandal engulfs the CDC, a scientist whose discovery has protected the hands of millions of workers passes and fall fatalities were among the top EHS-related stories featured on ISHN.com this week:

A company whose workers were “free climbing” – climbing without safety lines has earned citations from OSHA for one willful and eight serious safety violations. Proposed penalties total $52,500.