Beginning today, June 24, 2013, Local 172 S.E.T. will be participating in the 2013 OSHA Region II Safety Stand-Down "Preventing Falls in Construction." Starting today through July 3, we will be doing our part in raising awareness for Fall protection & safety.
A fall hazard is defined as being an unprotected, elevated walking/working surface. You can control most fall hazards by planning your job carefully, training employees how to work safely, and enforcing safe practices with on-the-job supervision.
According to new statistics, each year, on average, between 150 and 200 workers are killed and more than 100,000 are injured as a result of falls at construction sites.
Data collected for the Fiscal Year 2012 Region II reported that 35 fatalities were related to falls. Twenty-six of the falls were in New York while 9 were in New Jersey. The most common causes of these falls were from ladders (9) and roofs (8).
More recently, as of May 6, 2013, there were 20 Fatalities related to falls. Fifteen of the Fatal falls were in New York and 5 in New Jersey. The most common causes were (2) from ladders and (6) from roofs.
A brief checklist that can be used is as follows:
-Inspect your equipment daily.
-Tag & remove defective equipment from service
-Look for fraying ropes, crack of other defects in hardware.
-Make sure you are attached to a sound anchorage.
With this information & more, we can not only learn to improve our fall safety, but it can also save lives. To learn more about Fall Protection you can visit the websites provided below.
- US DOL OSHA’s Fall Prevention Campaign webpage:
http://www.osha.gov/stopfalls/index.html
- US DHHS CDC NIOSH Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction webpage:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/construction/stopfalls.html
- CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training webpage:
http://stopconstructionfalls.com/
Also, there will be a Fall Protection class on July 2nd, starting at 8 A.M. to 12 P.M. in Folsom. To register, please call 609-567-1959 Ext. 1.