Construction Industry Safety and Health

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Step 1 – Pre-Job Planning. As Steven Covey said, begin with the end in mind. If you want your project to end safely, create solid safety specifications for any contractor that walks into the door, rather than leaving it to chance.

OSHA issued citations to Alabama-based Stephens Plumbing for one willful and four serious safety violations. The agency initiated the inspection as part of its National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation after an inspector saw workers in a trench without protection.

A 42-year-old laborer leak testing joints inside a 54-inch round pipe suffered fatal blunt force injuries in October 2015, when an inflatable “bladder” ruptured at a Springfield waste-water treatment plant. OSHA inspectors found that his employer, Henderson Construction of Central Illinois Inc., failed to train him properly on the testing procedure.

A group of young people in Philadelphia working to turn both their lives and their neighborhoods around got safety training and construction training recently, through a partnership between YouthBuild Philadelphia and OSHA.

On Tuesday, May 3rd, work in Washington D.C. will come to a halt. No, it won’t be the usual partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill. The work stoppage in question will take place at the construction site of the MGM National Harbor Resort and will be part of OSHA’s third annual National Safety Stand-Down.

Recent federal inspections of Florida construction sites finds Jasper Contractors Inc., a Georgia-based roofing company, is continuing its seven-year history of ignoring safety and health laws and putting workers at risk of serious injury or death.

Welding is one of the most hazardous occupations in construction. Traditionally, welders had to fear workplace injury from burns, electricity, and “welder’s flash” (blinding and diminished vision, see below).

Firefighters worked well into Thursday morning to extinguish an evening blaze at the Amphitheatre nightclub in Tampa's Ybor City.

Public health experts call the Final Rule Governing Workplace Exposure to Crystalline Silica issued by OSHA last week “a lifesaving public health victory.” Roofers say it will increase fall hazards.