Page 72 - OHS, July/August 2020

CONSTRUCTION SAFETY
As the COVID-19 health crisis has shown, companies everywhere need to change their business processes and implement new ways
of doing business to succeed in the new normal.
COVID-19.2 The CDC also provides guidance for contact tracing, in order to track and monitor the close contacts of infected indi- viduals and notify them of possible infection.3
In addition to helping companies ensure compliance to these guidelines in the fight against COVID-19, IoT solutions also pro- vide real-time information about who is on the site, where they are operating and who is working together. By making this informa- tion accessible through a cloud-based dashboard, they allow proj- ect managers to maintain accountability across a worksite while minimizing potential exposure to the virus. Furthermore, since all IoT information can be stored in the cloud, project managers can access it from a remote location as well as the worksite.
Gaining Actionable Insights
While guidelines are in place, it can be extremely difficult for workers to maintain social distancing from each other on a com- plex worksite where they often need to work together on projects. When workers are focused on their specific tasks they are often not aware of how close they may be to another worker. The need to continually look around to see who’s near them in order to avoid potential exposure can be very distracting for workers, who may be operating dangerous machinery or tools. Today, advanced IoT devices worn by workers can communicate with other devices and send out an audible and visual alarm when they come into close contact with one another.
In addition to actively alerting workers who are in close prox- imity, the devices collect passive data on these interactions with other devices as well as the duration of each one. This data can be used to identify patterns and develop new best practices to prevent and correct behavior that can cause the spread of the virus.
In the event that someone is exposed to the virus, an employer can conduct contact tracing using this historical data that is cap- tured passively by the worker’s device to identify who may have been exposed. Traditional methods of contact tracing rely on workers’ memories and whether they can identify other workers by name and recall who they were in contact with during a given time period. Now, with more reliable information from IoT de- vices, companies can decide who needs to be in mandatory or pre- cautionary quarantine per CDC guidelines. Without these types of solutions, in the event of an infection, entire plants could be completely shut down as it can be difficult to determine and isolate specific individuals who were exposed.
In addition to social distancing and contact tracing support, every industrial sector is rethinking how it conducts routine activi- ties—from signing in at the worksite to tracking time—in order to reduce touchpoints. IoT technology can also support these efforts.
One way to reduce contact on the worksite is by automating time and attendance. Normally, on construction jobsites for ex- ample, there are common check-in points where workers line up— often in a cluster—to sign in for the day and clock out, sometimes
using shared pens. Some forward-thinking employers are using wearable devices to automate this time and attendance process by having the wearable device automatically log the worker in and out. This improves safety by avoiding a crowd of employees waiting to sign in, and eliminates the need for dedicated personnel to be in contact with workers throughout the day as they check in and out.
OSHA Policies for COVID-19
Additionally, new federal rules are forcing employers to take a hard look at how they track employees diagnosed with COVID-19 and search for new tools to help them meet the mandates.
Up until last month, only employers in the healthcare industry, emergency response field and correctional institutions had to make “work-relatedness determinations” about coronavirus transmis- sion on the job. But in May, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occu- pational Safety and Health Administration released updated poli- cies that broadened the list of employers with coronavirus-related record-keeping requirements.4
Now, COVID-19 is considered a recordable illness for all em- ployers covered by OSHA’s record-keeping regulations.5 Workplaces must record cases of the coronavirus if they are work-related6 and involve one or more of the general recording criteria, such as requir- ing medical treatment7 beyond first aid or days away from work.
IoT-based social distancing and digital contact tracing tech- nology can support the new OSHA policy by providing proxim- ity alerts when workers stand too close together and record these close contact interactions, offering employers a digital trail of po- tential exposure.
As the COVID-19 health crisis has shown, companies every- where need to change their business processes and implement new ways of doing business to succeed in the new normal. IoT technology holds the key to minimizing worksite risk, providing safe environments and ensuring peace of mind for businesses and workers alike.
Robert Costantini is President and Chief Executive Officer of Triax Technologies, a leading provider of technology for the connected job- site. Robert holds a BS degree from Manhattan College and a JD from Pace University School of Law. Robert can be reached on LinkedIn or via email at rcostantini@triaxtec.com.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.techrepublic.com/resource-library/downloads/research-why- industrial-iot-deployments-are-on-the-rise/
2. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social- distancing.html#:~:text=Stay%20at%20least%206%20feet, while%20school%20is%20out.
3. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/open-america/ contact-tracing-resources.html
4. https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/05192020-0 5. https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014/records.html
6. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/ standardnumber/1904/1904.5
7. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/ standardnumber/1904/1904.7
66 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY/AUGUST 2020
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