The ups and downs of fall protection

Construction workers take the lead when it comes to the number of deaths due to falls, according to NIOSH statistics. In 1999, 378 construction workers fell to their deaths. That’s 55 percent of all deaths from falls. At a rate of 6 per 100,000 workers, it is higher than any other industry.

Non-fatal injuries from falls on construction sites also paint a grim picture. Construction workers who live to tell about their falls suffer lost work time and for some, an end to their construction career, reports a recent University of California, San Francisco study.

Marion Gillen, assistant professor at the University of California and her associates at the School of Nursing conducted this study.

The National Safety Council estimates that nearly 30 percent of the non-fatal falls required days away from work. Gillen and her associates wanted to find out why these falls occurred and how they can be prevented.

“We started by reviewing Doctor’s First Reports on accidents that are required by the California Department of Industrial Relations. We examined records over a five-month period to find out how construction workers fell, how severely they were injured, and how many days they were away from work as a result of the fall,” she says.

Do you look like a fall guy?
Based on the findings of 255 accidents in California, Gillen and her associates found several interesting statistics:

Carpenters (21%), laborers (16%), roofers (12%), painters (9%), drywallers, lathers and plasterers (8%), pipefitters (6%), ironworkers and welders (6%) were identified as leading trades suffering injuries from falls.

“Roofers make up 4 percent of the construction workforce, but made up 12 percent of the accident victims in this study.

Conversely, electricians represent 14 percent of the construction workforce, yet only make up five percent of this study sample,” Gillen observes.

Nearly one-fourth of the victims were between the ages of 30 and 34 and three-fourths of all victims were between 25 and 44 years old. Twenty seven percent of the victims were union members, which is consistent with the percentage of union members in California (25%).

How did they fall?
“The average height of the workers’ falls was 9.2',” says Gillen. “Nearly three-quarters of the accidents involved falling to a lower level, most often from a ladder, scaffold and planks.”

These falls made up 41 percent of the total, followed by 24 percent of the victims who fell from wood skeletons or roofs. Half of the victims landed on concrete, asphalt or rock.

Nearly all (91 percent) of the workers were performing their usual duties when they fell; 38 percent occurred while moving forward or backward; 32 percent fell while moving up or down.

“When you think of someone getting injured from a fall, you think of a fall off a roof or a ladder. In this study, we found that 25 percent were injured falling onto the same level from a slip, trip or stumble,” Gillen says. Curiously, 44 percent had worked on the jobsite five days or less when they fell.

How badly were they injured?
Few received only one injury. The mean number of injuries was just over two per victim and some suffered as many as eight distinct injuries. Thirty-two victims were hospitalized and 41 required some type of surgery.

“Three-quarters of the injuries involved sprains and strains as well as contusions and abrasions. The remaining injuries were more serious, resulting in open wounds, fractures, face and head contusions, head injuries and dislocations,” she says.

How long were they off work?
The median (half above and half below) for time off work was 10 days, but the average number of days off work was 44.3. “We think this is conservative. Seven percent were physically unable to go back to work and 21 workers either went into another profession or were fired or laid off before or just after they returned to work,” she says.

Lost days from work varied by profession. Painters had the highest median time off in the study, losing 34 days of work, followed by roofers, 23 missed workdays; and drywallers, lathers and plasterers, 22 missed work days. Carpenters hit the median with 10 lost workdays.

How can falls be prevented?
Once a worker is injured, he or she may have a difficult time getting back into the trade. That’s why prevention is so important.

“With ever-changing worksites and the transient nature of construction, this is a difficult challenge. To address the problem, it’s going to take further research, then the development of engineering controls and education and training to attack this problem. There are administrative issues and human behavior problems to overcome,” she concludes.

Published in the May/June 2001 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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