Forest Electric had its OSHA National Safety Stand Down Week focusing on falls. Falls are the number one cause of worker deaths in the construction industry. National Safety Stand Down Week was started to combat those large numbers of fall injuries and deaths. We must bring as much awareness to the fall type of injuries as possible.
Forest Electric does not have serious injuries like the deaths of OSHA, but deaths do happen every year in NYC and nationally. OSHA have been doing this for 15 years to combat the high injury rate with falls. OSHA data has been trending down, and they want to continue trending that way. That’s why we observe this day and week in conjunction with the OSHA Stand Down.
Our most common injuries are slips, trip and falls, ladder related injuries, and awareness. Most injuries are not that serious, but many are preventable. Most slips and trip and fall injuries happen when the GC or other contractor practices bad housekeeping. Flooring protection, holes, and debris are also common causes of slips and trip and falls. We must report all housekeeping issues immediately and have them corrected.
Awareness plays a role in a lot of injuries as well. The most common awareness issues are coming off a ladder and missing the last step; walking and not realizing there is debris or damaged flooring protection; and setting up a ladder next to a hole or debris. One way we can eliminate these awareness injuries is by taking five minutes as the work shift starts. Observe your surroundings and assess the hazards around you and come up with a plan to eliminate the hazards around you.
We have a lot of ladders, and we have had some injuries resulting from misuse. We were looking at ways to help reduce the injuries that have occurred over the years. We switched over to the platform ladder a while back, which is much safer. Another way we ensure our workers are working safer on ladders is by requiring an inspection of the ladder prior to use. We put on a ladder inspection tag that must be initialed and dated for that day prior to use.
Contributed by John Lambertson, Forest Electric Safety Manager, CSP, DOB SSM