Imagine that on the first day at your new job, the foreman tosses you a harness and a 6-foot lanyard and says, “Be careful out there!” That may seem like an extreme example of a woefully inadequate fall protection training program, but I will bet dollars to donuts it happens more often than we think.

OSHA rulemaking, temp workers around the world and the high fall fatality rate of communications tower workers were among the top EHS-related stories this week on ISHN.com.

An alarming uptick in the number of fatal falls in the cell tower industry has resulted in OSHA reaching out to the National Association of Tower Erectors and other industry stakeholders with safety reminders. The agency has launched a new Web page with educational resources about communication towers and distributed the following letter earlier this week:

Phoenix area residents are getting an eyeful of OSHA’s campaign to reduce construction industry falls in the form of billboards bearing stark personal messages, along with a reminder of the agency’s anti-fall motto: Plan. Provide. Train.

OSHA, along with trade associations and employers throughout Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, conducted a one-hour safety stand-down at construction sites and workplaces today from 7 to 8 a.m.

Just in time for the spring and summer construction season, OSHA has produced a new bilingual English-Spanish booklet, "Falling off Ladders Can Kill: Use Them Safely."