Construction Safety Professionals Struggle To Prevent Fall Hazards

Earlier this month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a new initiative to conduct surprise safety inspections for fall hazards. A day later, the agency announced $32,113 in fines for a Florida construction company where a 19-year-old worker died after falling from a clubhouse roof.

The fines were far from unusual, but the juxtaposition of the two announcements – July 11 and July 12, respectively – highlight an issue safety professionals and regulators have long called problematic: falls from heights are the No. 1 cause of death for workers and the hazard is the No. 1-cited violation year after year; yet it is easy to spot and it is preventable.

Doug Parker, OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor, called the issue ‘frustrating’ for all parties involved, while he was speaking at the American Society of Safety Professionals’ annual conference in Chicago on June 29.

OSHA issued 5,295 fall protection citations in 2001 and it was the 11th consecutive year that fall protection was the No. 1 most-often-cited OSHA violation.

‘About 50% of our inspections are in construction’ and ‘about half of those inspections … have identified a fall hazard,’ Mr. Parker said. ‘I can’t think of a rule or hazard where (there are) so many deaths and so much noncompliance.’