Understanding & Implementing the New Construction Silica Standard

Thursday, May 19, 2016 -- 2 pm (Eastern Time), 1 hr.

David O'Connor, OSHA's Directorate of Standards & Guidance 

Chris Trahan, CPWR Deputy Director 

Eileen Betit, CPWR r2p Director

On March 25, 2016, OSHA released the new silica standard for the construction industry.  This standard, which was decades in the making, will prevent hundreds of deaths and many more illnesses each year.  In this hour-long webinar, David O'Connor (OSHA) will review the key provisions in the new standard and CPWR will share a free planning tool to help contractors comply. 

Register - http://www.cpwr.com/whats-new/cpwrs-informational-webinar-series 

OSHA’s final rule to ‘nudge’ employers to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses

New federal requirements take effect August 10, 2016

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today issued a final rule to modernize injury data collection to better inform workers, employers, the public and OSHA about workplace hazards. With this new rule, OSHA is applying the insights of behavioral economics to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries and illnesses. 

OSHA requires many employers to keep a record of injuries and illnesses to help these employers and their employees identify hazards, fix problems and prevent additional injuries and illnesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than three million workers suffer a workplace injury or illness every year. Currently, little or no information about worker injuries and illnesses at individual employers is made public or available to OSHA. Under the new rule, employers in high-hazard industries will send OSHA injury and illness data that the employers are already required to collect, for posting on the agency’s website.

Just as public disclosure of their kitchens’ sanitary conditions encourages restaurant owners to improve food safety, OSHA expects that public disclosure of work injury data will encourage employers to increase their efforts to prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. 

“Since high injury rates are a sign of poor management, no employer wants to be seen publicly as operating a dangerous workplace,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “Our new reporting requirements will ‘nudge’ employers to prevent worker injuries and illnesses to demonstrate to investors, job seekers, customers and the public that they operate safe and well-managed facilities. Access to injury data will also help OSHA better target our compliance assistance and enforcement resources at establishments where workers are at greatest risk, and enable ‘big data’ researchers to apply their skills to making workplaces safer.”

The availability of these data will enable prospective employees to identify workplaces where their risk of injury is lowest; as a result, employers competing to hire the best workers will make injury prevention a higher priority. Access to these data will also enable employers to benchmark their safety and health performance against industry leaders, to improve their own safety programs.  

To ensure that the injury data on OSHA logs are accurate and complete, the final rule also promotes an employee’s right to report injuries and illnesses without fear of retaliation, and clarifies that an employer must have a reasonable procedure for reporting work-related injuries that does not discourage employees from reporting. This aspect of the rule targets employer programs and policies that, while nominally promoting safety, have the effect of discouraging workers from reporting injuries and, in turn leading to incomplete or inaccurate records of workplace hazards.

Using data collected under the new rule, OSHA will create the largest publicly available data set on work injuries and illnesses, enabling researchers to better study injury causation, identify new workplace safety hazards before they become widespread and evaluate the effectiveness of injury and illness prevention activities. OSHA will remove all personally identifiable information associated with the data before it is publicly accessible.

Under the new rule, all establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping regulation must electronically submit to OSHA injury and illness information from OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301. Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain industries must electronically submit information from OSHA Form 300A only.

The new requirements take effect Aug. 10, 2016, with phased in data submissions beginning in 2017. These requirements do not add to or change an employer’s obligation to complete and retain injury and illness records under the Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses regulation.

The final rule is available in the Federal Register at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-10443.pdf

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

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Heat Safety App

OSHA Heat Safety App for Apple & Android

Summer is coming - be prepared

When you're working in the heat, safety comes first. With the OSHA Heat Safety Tool, you have vital safety information available whenever and wherever you need it - right on your mobile phone. More than 200,000 users have downloaded the OSHA Heat Safety Tool since its launch in 2011. This spring, OSHA released a new version of the app for Apple devices, with full-screen color alerts, improved navigation and accessibility options. Continued in next frame.

OSHA Heat Safety App Continued: This improved version lets you know instantly if you are in a high-risk zone due to heat and humidity and precautions that need to be taken to prevent heat-related illness. The recently updated app gives users important safety information when and where they need it -- right on their mobile phones. Download this life-saving app today. Search OSHA Heat Safety Tool on your Iphone, Ipad or Android Device. Or go to: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/heatillness/heat_index/heat_app.html

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CPWR Toolbox Talks: Now en Español

CPWR's 52 toolbox talk series is now available in Spanish, alongside their English-language counterparts on the CPWR website, thanks to a collaborative effort with The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). This series, a collaboration in content development with NIOSH, has been available in English for just over two years and is widely used on construction sites across the country. 

http://www.cpwr.com/publications/handouts-toolbox-talks

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Access Paths - On the Job Tool Box Talks

Download the full article

Getting into a unit may seem like a simple task, however many employees are injured doing so every year. Even though injuries may be minor, they could result in lost time and loss of production.  Employees carrying lumber or tools may needlessly trip or stumble causing an employee to twist an ankle or bruise a knee.

Key points to remember about access paths:

1.Maintain  a  minimum  of  one  3-foot  wide  clear  access  path  into  each  unit  or  house.    Front  door  and  garage doors entryways should not have material or debris piles in front.

2.If an access point is not safe for entry, such as when front porch stoops are not back-filled, a rail should be placed across the access point and not be used by employees. 

3.An  access  ramp  must  be  provided  when  there  is  an  elevation  break  19”  or  greater.    It  is  greatly recommended that a ramp be installed with an elevation  break of 12” or greater.  This saves employees knees and also is more productive.

4. Ramps  should  be  made  of  doublewide  planking  or  equivalent  with  evenly  spaced  cleats  for  extra traction.    TGI  boards  should  not  be  used  for  ramps  nor  should  laminated  planks  as  they  could  become slick when wet. 

5.Mud and rocks should be removed at regular intervals from ramps.

6.Ramps need to be secured and installed at a safe angle.

7.Cords and hoses shall not be resting on ramps.

8.When storing material in garages or in front of garages, place material so that employees do not have to climb over to access areas.   Place material off to the side of the garage away from the access point.

9.Also  keep  material  and  debris  from  stairs – plastic  pop  bottles  on  a  stair  can  cause  an  employee  to  fall down the stairs.

This information was provided by: Assurance Agency

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New NIOSH video on Nail Gun Safety

The NIOSH Small Business Assistance Program and the NIOSH Office of Construction Safety and Health are pleased to inform you that the videos “Know Your Nailer: Nail Gun Safety” (long and short versions, both in English and Spanish) are now available on YouTube. The videos are also available on the NIOSH website at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/construction/  and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/nailgun/default.html .

Nail guns are used every day on many construction jobs—especially in residential construction. They boost productivity but also cause tens of thousands of painful injuries each year.  These videos provide brief, practical, and straight-to-the-point advice that contractors can use to prevent nail gun injuries on their worksites. The videos were developed based on numerous publications and information products resulting from NIOSH-funded studies, which are listed on the topic page in the link above.  

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