May 6-10, 2024 is Construction Safety Week! This is a week-long campaign that aims to promote safety in the construction industry.
This year Construction Safety Week is partnering with OSHA to coordinate a National Safety Stand-Down on May 8th to prevent falls in construction. The Stand-Down raises fall hazard awareness across the country in an effort to stop fall fatalities and injuries.
R.E. Warner is ‘standing down’ for 10 minutes and reading
"5 Reasons Why Falls in Construction Keep Happening,” by
Safety + Health. The article outlines key reasons why falls continue to occur, including not making time for safety, not wearing PPE, not focusing on leading edges, not having sufficient or effective pre-work task planning, and not engineering out hazards. Proposed solutions include:
- Prioritize safety by training all workers and plan safety talks including discussions about how to prevent falls
- Train workers on using PPE and ensure they know its use is required and expected by company leadership
- Identify and document all potentially hazardous edges during the safety evaluation and walkarounds at the jobsite; avoid working in areas where lifelines could contact potentially hazardous edges if a fall occurred
- Take advantage of the resources at stopconstructionfalls.com to conduct effective pre-work task planning
- Use Prevention through Design principles to mitigate risks and hazards, which incorporates prevention measures based on the Hierarchy of Controls. An example would be installing embedded safety features, such as anchor points and parapet walls, to prevent falls
Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for construction employees, accounting for 395 of the 1069 construction fatalities recorded in 2022 (BLS data).
These deaths were preventable. Let’s all do our part to be aware of the dangers of working at any height above four feet and ensure we are taking appropriate precautions to stay safe.