Job Site Safety

Any time is a great time to refresh safety basics and utilize all the techniques available to you as a contractor to reduce injury and save not only your employees’ health, but time and money as well. Here are some tips and techniques to avoid common workplace injuries.

Protect against falls
“I would say the greatest hazard you would encounter on a job site would be employees falling to a lower level,” says Brian Sturtecky, a safety specialist for the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), region 5—which encompasses Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio.

Sturtecky says you can avoid fall hazards by installing guardrails or utilizing a personal fall arrest system, which consists of a full body harness, a fall device to protect you from falling, a self-absorbing lanyard and an anchorage point of at least 5,000 pounds per person. Other fall avoidance tips are to ensure scaffolds are braced against the building being worked on, and to use slide guards at all times when completing roofing tasks.

Use ladders properly
Many mistakes are made particularly with A-frame ladders, Sturtecky says. He stresses the importance of extending the ladder all the way and using it only as intended by the manufacturer. Standing on the top rung of the ladder is dangerous and should never be done, he says. When using a ladder to access a walking work surface or roof, the ladder should be extended three feet above the landing and be tied off securely, he adds.

Clean = safe
“My strategy is tidiness,” says Bob Hauser, owner of San Francisco, Calif.-based Robert Hauser Construction. “I find [tidiness] to be the most effective means of preventing trips and falls and workplace injury in general.” Hauser says he sometimes has three to four people doing nothing but tidying up on large job sites. He also recommends debris removal, appropriate storage and using trash barrels at all times.

Be visible
No matter the size of the job site, Hauser requires all his employees to wear orange vests to increase visibility and thus improve safety. He also recommends taking advantage of new LED light technology. “Having an individual light that people strap on to their hard hat and use for task lighting [is effective]. At first they think it’s silly, but then they get one and you’d be amazed, you won’t see them without it.”


Never use force, always get a bigger tool
This is one of Hauser’s mottos and he reminds employees of it often. “If that column won’t go in with the hammer you have, get out, cut it off, or get a bigger hammer,” he says. “If you can’t pry that thing off with the bar you have, don’t hurt your back prying it off; get a bigger tool, get a bigger pry. Using force is for fools.”

Try to engineer hazards out first
Sturtecky says engineering to avoid hazards is always better than requiring employees to wear protective equipment. “You want to locate the source of the problem and determine if you can 100 percent eliminate the hazard first,” he says. “If you can’t, then you would use what we call administrative controls.” Depending on the task, these controls can consist of rotating workers or doing a task in 20 to 30 minute intervals or wearing respirators.

Electrical safety
Hauser advises diligence and consistency when it comes to the quality of tool cords and extension cords. It’s also important to keep all employees and equipment at least ten feet away from utility power lines.

Fume safety
Sturtecky recommends using four gas meters and carbon monoxide detectors to protect against invisible fumes. This is particularly important during the winter months when scaffolds can be enclosed or when working indoors where ventilation might not be ideal.

Safety enforcement is key
“There’s no substitute for making your employees aware that you mean it. It sounds kind of harsh, but it’s essential,” Hauser says. “If I catch somebody performing work that’s unsafe, the first time they do it I warn them, the second time I send them home for the day without pay and a note goes in their employment file,” he says.

Resources
OSHA offers many resources to contractors and their employees. “Quick cards” with specific safety tips (e.g., electrical safety, nail-gun safety, etc.) are just one example of the safety support available on OSHA’s Web site or at any of its local offices. Sturtecky encourages contractors to contact their local area OSHA office if ever in doubt about safety. “We don’t need to know where they’re working. If they just have a simple question to keep themselves out of harm’s way, we encourage people to contact OSHA and ask questions. We have duty officers that are assigned to each particular area office who answer questions daily.”