Mayor Bill de Blasio this week signed legislation into law, authored by Council Member Ben Kallos in collaboration with DEP, aimed at reducing overnight and weekend construction noise and making New York City more livable. Intro. 1653-B allows inspectors to take noise readings from the roadway or sidewalk, rather than requiring that the reading be taken from inside of a complainant’s apartment, empowers inspectors to shut down equipment that is too loud, and calls for new rules for responding when the noise is most likely to happen again.
OSHA has commented on safety and the use of personal headphones on construction sites. OSHA discourages their use in the workplace because they prevent the wearer from receiving auditory cues about the surrounding environment and because they are ineffective at preventing noise-related damage to the ears, according to an article in the Houston Chronicle.
In the OSHA pocket booklet "Protecting Yourself from Noise in Construction," the agency comments directly on the use of the headphones.
Nothing sharpens the mind like the prospect of spending time in jail.
Those of you who know me know that there’s little that makes me more angry than seeing a worker killed in a trench collapse. Every construction company owner knows how to prevent trench collapses — or they should know, or shouldn’t be in business.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (NIOSH FACE) program investigates selected work-related fatalities, collecting information not captured in other data sources - including safety management and training programs, use of engineering controls and personal protective equipment on the jobsite, and recommendations for preventing similar incidents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has dismissed industry challenges to OSHA’s new silica dust exposure standard, ruling that the agency’s decision to lower permissible worker exposure from 250 micrograms to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an average of eight hours was reasonable.
An OSHA investigation opened after a construction fatality has resulted in $212,396 in proposed penalties against the worker’s employer.
The incident that prompted the inquiry occurred when a 2,600-pound rock dislodged from the building’s foundation and fatally struck a worker who was helping install permanent foundation supports beneath the Woburn Public Library in Woburn, Massachusetts.
A rating system helped predict which solutions construction workers would use to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri that was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The study appeared in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
An Oakland, California structure collapse that sent 13 workers to the hospital will cost three contractors $147,315 in penalties, according to Cal/OSHA.
The incident occurred on May 26, 2017 and involved a temporary mold (formwork) and vertical shoring. Workers at the 435-unit mixed-use project construction site were pouring
concrete into elevated formwork when the shoring system supporting the formwork
collapsed.
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta testified last Thursday at a hearing before the full House Education and Workforce Committee, and although I take great pleasure in (deservedly) criticizing Trump administration appointees, he wasn’t terrible — as Trump appointees go. Now let me qualify a bit. I’m focusing only on workplace safety issues, not on any wage and hour, apprenticeship or other labor issues that were addressed during the hearing. Second, his performance varied from fairly decent (regarding enforcement issues) to pretty bad (regarding standard setting and staffing.)
Engineers, consultants, company owners, concrete producers and contractors can learn about effective ways to manage cracks and mitigate shrinkage in a World of Concrete presentation entitled: Innovations in Concrete: Crack Reduction & 3D Printing of Construction Materials.
Attendees will learn about the industrialization of the 3D printing process for construction materials and see case study project examples where shrinkage reducing / compensating admixtures were successfully utilized.
RSS
