Take aim at construction’s most serious accident causes
OSHA and the Department of Labor have identified falls, electrical, struck-by and trenching and excavation incidents as the leading causes of injuries and fatalities among construction workers. To date, construction workers average about 20 percent of the victims of these work-related accidents.

That’s why OSHA has developed electronic compliance assistance tools (eCAT) to help you identify and control the hazards that commonly cause the most serious construction injuries.

The eCATs offer valuable information that you can use to help develop a comprehensive safety and health program.  

Go to this Web site.

Anchor standards put on hold
The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO) Evaluation Committee recently placed the proposed standard changes for mechanical anchors (AC01) and adhesive anchors (AC58) on hold.

The proposed changes, according to opponents, are loosely based on the American Concrete Institute’s recently published 355.2 provisional standard for post-installed anchors. Several anchor manufacturers and end-users report the standards force engineers to assume all concrete is cracked and therefore they must specify a much larger, more expensive anchor for the job with little or no improvement in margin of safety.

After the ICBO received scores of letters contesting the standard, the Evaluation Committee encouraged post-installed mechanical anchor producers to develop specific test criteria in place of the ACI 355.2 standard and present their proposals to the committee January, 2002. It requested adhesive anchor producers to develop similar standards by September 2002.

Report: 25-year-old carpenters have hearing of 50-year-olds
When the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) looked into hearing loss among carpenters, it found some disturbing results: Carpenters who were 25 years old had the same hearing loss that would be expected in a 50-year-old non-exposed worker. “We found this rampant hearing loss,” says Carol Merry Stephenson, NIOSH researcher.

The study also reported:
• Carpenters expect to lose some hearing, but greatly fear getting chronic tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.
• Workers believe that hearing aids restore hearing in the same way eyeglasses restore vision. “This is wrong. A hearing aid only makes fuzzy noises louder,” she says.
• Hearing loss is the second most-reported occupational illness among American workers.
• Although hard hats and protective eye wear are commonly used on jobsites, hearing protection use lags far behind.
• Employers believe that when it comes to hearing protection, bigger is better. This isn’t the case. “Look at the task you are going to do,” Stephenson counsels. For example, a worker with some hearing loss may be able to use less hearing protection, which would protect his or her remaining hearing yet allow that person to hear people talking and back-up alarms, for example.

NIOSH will follow the hearing health of 300 apprentice carpenters over the next several years. They will offer various types of training and participants will receive ongoing hearing tests.

The study will also focus on engineering controls to help reduce the sound level output of various construction equipment. “I look at hearing protection as a stopgap measure until we engineer out the noise,” she says.

Published in the July/August 2001 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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