Page 56 - OHS, July/August 2021

CONSTRUCTION SAFETY
Building Boldly: New Safety and Regulatory Realities
The construction industry continues to be the most dangerous to work in America.
OBY GREG ENRIGHT
n the afternoon of August 24, 2020, a construction laborer employed by an electrical contractor was preparing to install a new power line between two utility poles at a Tennessee construction site. The worker
threw the guide twine, used to pull the cable, toward the next pole, but it arched higher than intended and made contact with the distribution power lines. Flowing through those lines were 2,700 volts of electric current, which traveled down the guide twine to the worker, who was electrocuted.
Less than half an hour later, in North Carolina, a crane inspector was preparing to carry out a monthly inspection when the crane’s moving counterweight struck the individual, who suffered blunt force traumatic injuries and was killed.
Sadly, this kind of day is often the rule rather than the exception in the construction industry, both in the U.S. and around the world, with workers routinely suffering fatal and life- altering injuries while working to build the vital infrastructure on which we all depend. The construction industry continues to be the most dangerous in which to work in America. According to OSHA, about one in five worker deaths (1,061) in the private industry in calendar year 2019 occurred in construction.
What are construction companies doing to improve the safety of their workers in the face of such stark circumstances? We will
examine how they are handling compliance regulations, how new technologies such as connected worker solutions are helping, what change management initiatives are in play, the latest in training strategies and what the future of construction might look like.
Regulatory Rethink
OSHA’s Top 10 list of most frequently cited standards for 2019 includes three that specifically mention the word “construction” in their title: Ladders, Construction (No. 6), Scaffolding, General Requirements, Construction (No. 3) and Fall Protection, Construction, which came in at No. 1, for the ninth straight year.1 Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that fatalities in construction and extraction occupations increased by six percent in 2019 from the previous year.
Greg Sizemore, vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development at Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), reminds us that OSHA standards are “not to be considered as the highball in safety performance, but the bare minimum.”
According to Sizemore, a construction company that puts up industry-leading safety performance numbers is one that has a safety-focused culture in place, and that culture starts right at the top with the CEO.
52 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY/AUGUST 2021
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