Construction Industry Safety and Health

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Construction has long been considered America's most dangerous industry. In fact, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration was created to address lagging safety standards within the construction sector.

Bricklayers were exposed to fall hazards as high as 30 feet above the ground while creating the exterior finish of new single-family dwellings at two work sites in Philadelphia, according to workplace safety and health citations issued against Vyacheslav Leshko, doing business as T and S Masonry LLC.

Residential framing and siding contractor Southern Wood Works LLC has been cited by OSHA for five safety violations following an August 2014 inspection at a residence in Watersound. Citations were issued to the Freeport, Fla.-based company for failing to provide employees with fall protection equipment and exposure to falls from heights of up to 17 feet.

Bosco Custom Homes Inc. has again been cited for failure to provide fall protection to workers on three separate residential framing projects. OSHA has cited the company for 30 violations, including three willful, 20 serious and seven repeat safety violations. Proposed penalties total $174,240.

OSHA is seeking public comments on its request for an extension of the information collection requirements contained in the Electrical Standards for Construction (29 CFR part 1926, subpart K) and the Electrical Standards for General Industry (29 CFR part 1910, subpart S).

With two million Latinos – mostly foreign-born – employed in the U.S. construction industry, the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) has translated its image-driven Hazard Alerts (on topics like silica, trenches, and aerial lifts) into Spanish. The eye-catching Alerts are available for free download.

A 30-year-old painter was hospitalized after he received second and third degree burns when his ladder came into contact with overhead power lines. As a result, OSHA has cited ShayCore Enterprises with five safety and health violations.

The owner of a construction company was killed and a police officer injured yesterday in a trench collapse in suburban Detroit. News sources say 59-year-old Leland Rumph, owner of Rumph Construction, was digging a trench into a sewer in Grosse Pointe Woods when the trench collapsed, burying him up to his neck in heavy clay in the 20 foot deep hole dug by a backhoe.

New Haven roofing contractor employees were exposed to potentially fatal falls at a Bridgeport work site due to their employer's deliberate failure to supply required fall protection. OSHA's Bridgeport Area Officefound employees of Xtreme Restoration & Waterproofing LLC working without fall protection atop a two-story roof at a residential work site on June 16, 2014.

Two workers were injured, one fatally, after being struck-by an excavator bucket while installing stormwater drainage in a trench in Holdrege, Nebraska on July 17, 2014. OSHA cited Van Kirk Sand and Gravel, which operates as Van Kirk Brothers Contracting, for two serious safety violations related to the incident.