Falls are still the number one killer as well as the number one source of injuries in the construction trade. To change this, several organizations including NIOSH, OSHA, CPWR as well as state and private sectro have partnered and created a website. http://stopconstructionfalls.com/ is a "Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction". Their goal is to prevent fatalities and injuries through a 3-pronged approach:

1. Plan

2.…

Look at the photo above. In his left hand, he has a “Life Member” certificate and in his right hand he has a small statuette, much like an Oscar or something, cast of bronze.

Why did this guy do to receive these awards? Quite simply he wore his harness and wore it right when he took a fall. For it, DBI/SALA not only gave him a new fall protection harness to replace the one that he took a…

If you've got fall protection equipment it is imperative that the equipment be inspected each and every time you use it to make sure it isn't damaged and that it will perform well if and when it needs to.

In order to make the process as painless as possible, as well as to have adequate record-keeping, having a checklist form is usually the best way to go.

I've put together the three following checklist forms that you can download and print out to walk you through this…

It's that time of year again, the leaves change and begin to fall from the trees. We also fall back with our clocks this weekend Nov 6^th turning them back an hour. This is a great time of year, but there are safety hazards too.

Leaf Raking requires a number of different…

Yesterday, OSHA unveiled it's top 10 most cited violations of 2011 during a live presentation at the NSC stating that falls are still the leading cause of death in construction. Fall Protection peaked this year at #1 with 7,139 citations issued.

For more information and the complete top 10 list, please visit: http://ehstoday.com/standards/osha/OSHA-top-10-citations-0202/

As part of Tampa Bay Habitat for Humanity’s accelerated build event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month called the “Suzie Q Blitz Build”, HUGSafety’s Fall Protection Guardrail System was used to help expedite the building process by…

OSHA’s implementation of the new fall protection standards have left many contractors wondering if creating a new safety strategy that involves the purchasing of fall arrest or guardrail safety systems can negatively impact their business by being too costly.

Regarding this issue, Bill Moore of Legacy Contracting Solutions had this to say when interviewed by the Palm Beach, FL. Post: “We’re getting beaten by people who say they don’t care about the rules.” Mr. Moore explains…

Anyone working in residential construction has, by now, been made fully aware of the new mandate to OSHA inspectors to enforce the new fall protection standard. We've blogged about this new standard a few times in the past months.

While residential construction workers may feel like it's a pain to have to jump through all these hoops in order to be compliant, especially if they've been doing what they've been doing for many years with no problems, they have to realize that the numbers…

Miller Fall Protection, one of the leaders in fall protection, has come out with a manual entitled "Statement of Best Practices of Personal Fall Protection Systems for Aerial Work Platform Equipment". Here's what they have to say about this document:

Rental businesses, manufacturers, associations, educators, regulators, users and operators have joined forces to produce a Statement of Best Practices…

Windows! They keep us connected to the outside world when we are indoors; they provide light and they allow us to keep out the cold or let the outside air in. They can also be a source of danger and the danger is two-fold. On the one hand we have to make sure that they open properly and easily to allow us to get out if we need to use them as an exit in case of fire; on the other hand they need to be guarded so that small children don't fall out of or through them. Especially when the weather…

By Jack Cameron

I will be honest. I have never been crazy about climbing on ladders. I cannot really trace it back to any particularly traumatizing event or anything. I suppose it is just that bit of me that knows I have fallen before and if I fell from a ladder, it could be very bad. If I deconstruct it, I know that I do not actually mind being on the ladder and once I have gotten to…

     In an article entitled “OSHA’s win is safety’s loss”, author and NRCA executive vice president Bill Good feels as though the new OSHA residential safety directive will cause more problems for the contractors and have a negative impact on the workers that are supposed to benefit from this change.

     He has met with numerous residential contractors and says that only a few of them actually use guardrails. In fact, many he claims have never even used a safety net. He then…

Think you know about fall protection? Up on all the regulations? What about your employees?

There's a simple way to find out, take the Fall Protection IQ Test by Miller Fall Protection (Miller was recently acquired by Honeywell).

There are 15 questions some simple, some not so simple. Examples are:

At what height are workers required to wear…

We've talked about the new OSHA directive on residential fall protection compliance before in this blog (See "Help from OSHA in new Residential Construction Standard") and how OSHA is trying to help residential construction companies comply. The latest addition to the collection of documentation is a PowerPoint presentation designed specifically to help…

Your fall protection harness is one part of a whole system designed to keep you from hitting the ground if and when you fall. As such, you need to make sure that it isn't damaged, ripped or torn in some way to make sure that it will resist the force of the fall.

DO NOT assume that your boss, the tool room guy or your supervisor has inspected the harness for you. It isn't their life that's on the line, it's yours. It is your responsibility to examine and inspect the harness each and…

DBI-SALA and her sister company Protecta have put together a nice 20 page manual that covers all the essentials and important points about fall protection.

The document "Thinking About Fall Protection" gives you all the basics you'll need to get started (or be reminded about).

The table of contents reads as follows:…

Back in December, OSHA issued a new directive concerning residential construction fall protection (See "Compliance Guidance for Residential Construction") in an attempt to reduce the number of falls from roof in residential construction. Deaths from falls remain the leading cause of death in that line of work.

Today, April 8^th, OSHA has issued a new document…