ANSI/ASSE Z359 Fall Protection

ANSI has updated their Z359( fall protection standard.

Falls have moved from the third leading cause of work-related death to become the number one killer of construction workers and the second leading cause of occupational death for general industry workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2004 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

One difference between the OSHA standard and ANSI/ASSE Z359 is that Z359 requires 100% continuous fall protection where the OSHA Fall Protection Plan consists of administrative controls versus physical 100% fall protection.

The first step is using fall protection.

Boat Launching Procedures

Sent to me by a friend


So here it is.

I just bought a new boat and decided to take 'er for the maiden voyage this
past weekend.

This is my first boat and I wasn't quite sure of the exact Standard
Operating Procedures for launching it off a ramp, but I figured it couldn't
be too hard.

I consulted my local boat dealer for advice, but they just said "don't let
the trailer get too deep when you are trying to launch the boat".
What am I doing wrong?
Well, I don't know what they meant by that as I could barely get the trailer
in the water at all!

Remember to always secure your boat!!!!

When is a fatality not a fatality?

As I stated in my previous post, I was able to get OSHA to recognize that the ultimate cause of the fatality was a MRSA infection. I was talking with a colleague this week who is a stickler for statistics, he pointed out an interesting fact; I am probably the first and only (to the best os his knowledge, my knowledge, and an internet search we did together) safety person/accident investigator in the United States to show that a fatality not a fatality.

This is the reason my clients call me in when things go bad. They should not be penalized for things that are not their fault. All to often the tragedy overshadows the facts. I have had a former police officer who now works with insureds to fight work comp fraud tell me that I was the best accident investigator he ever saw.

WORKMAN DIES IN HOSPITAL AFTER FALL

Taken from: http://www.ppconstructionsafety.com/newsdesk/2009/06/03/workman-dies-in-hospital-after-fall/

Fall from scaffold causes serious injury and worker dies in hospital

A construction worker who was seriously injured in a fall from scaffolding on a London site in February is thought to have died in hospital from MRSA.

The workman engaged by Ramport Scaffolding on a new homes site in Islington, London was taken to the Royal London Hospital with “life-threatening injuries” on 18 February and is believed to have died in hospital on 19 May.

Contract Journal report one source as saying: “He didn’t die of his injuries. It actually looks like he caught MRSA while in hospital.” HSE is investigating the fall and subsequent death.

This article was posted on 3rd June 2009 in Latest News.
PP Construction Safety H&S Assistance and Consultancy service.

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2 years ago I investigated a fatality for another staffing company that had an employee die after a fall at a client's facility. The ultimate outcome was that my investigation showed OSHA the employee did not die as a result of his injuries, but from a MRSA infection while in the hospital.

I reasoned that if an injured employee was off of work due to his injuries and he dies in a fire at a rehab center while receiving therapy, or if a bus hits him as he walks to his mail box to get his workers' comp check, that NEITHER can be considered a work related fatality.

OSHA accepted my conclusions and as a result the injury was not counted as a fatality against the other staffing company. The fines were about $1000 for some training records not up to date. The workers' comp carrier also agreed and subrogated against the hospital for a portion of medical expenses and the settlement paid out.

It was an unfortunate event the loss of life, but this did not have to happen. The company was also not unfairly blamed for the death. This also shows the benefits of having a solid accident investigation program in place and how the conclusions can run wild if left to someone else.

This also shows a valuable tool that many times gets a bad rap; outsourcing. The other staffing company had an accident investigation policy in place, but they realized that their safety person, although competent was not prepared for a fatality investigation, and especially one that was full of complexities as this one was (details that I will not go in to).

This also shows the value of acting immediately to preserve evidence. I was on site the next day beginning the investigation. It took OSHA 2 more days after I was already there to get out to the site. Do not think that I am disparaging OSHA in any way, because I am not! They do a very good job of protecting the workers in our country, and they respond very quickly. They are understaffed though and have a set list of priorities that they have to follow, and this particular region is very "active" for them.

My response was immediate, the other staffing company has great concern for the safety of all their employees, and along with the ramifications of the seriousness of this accident, the most prudent thing was for me to be there immediately.

Motorcycle Helmet

Safety Culture; Take It Home

Safety Culture

One of the reasons that from time to time, I will post something related to safety at home, and not necessarily workplace safety is that because (I believe) that when employees have developed a safety culture, they think about safety outside of work. As I have stated before, when I do safety training I poll my students to see how many practice safety at home (usually 50%). After 6 months of training that number goes up to 80%-90%.

I have discovered another important aspect of safety training in the last 6 months; that is support for a safety culture at home. If the employer has a commitment to a culture of safety that has to extend beyond the boundaries of work. I have always provided safety information that extends beyond work and encourage them to "take it home."

I have been reviewing the accident rates of safety training I have done, programs of some colleagues, and programs I have set up and were turned over to another trainer. I noticed that my (sole) training has had lower accident rates.

The revelation came to me when one of my former client had contacted me because they were unsatisfied with the trainer of the new staffing company that had taken over their workforce. I was presented with a copy of their annual syllabus. It was very welled prepared and extremely detailed (better than mine).

It was too perfect though. It was almost as if it was a computer based program that spits out pages of information. I also noticed that it lacked safety for at home. I began to review other safety programs that I had started and with some colleagues who were willing to share data. I also specifically asked how many of these had specific elements that encouraged safety at home.

Some claimed they did, but did not have the lower accident rates. Their "take it home" aspects were basically a reminder of "don't drink & drive" during the holidays, fireworks safety during the summer. They lack to strategies to promote, develop, and integrate safety outside of work.

A note about the accident rates:

The difference between the accident rates of the safety training that integrated the "take it home" concept and the ones that did not were small; but there was a distinctive pattern between the 2. The main reason that the difference was so small was twofold, the groups were generally less than 50 employees. Most around the 10-20 employee size.

The second is that the difference between accident rates between companies that have a (well run, correctly implemented, and not half-assed) safety program and those who do not is is very big. Compared to this number the "take it home" program vs. not difference is almost insignificant.

There is definitely a pattern though. If you take into account near misses, equipment damage, productivity, and quality, the pattern becomes more pronounced and the difference greater. Finally if there was a method to mathematically quantify a measure of the abstract concept of safety culture, the "take it home"programs would have a higher rating because the culture would be 100% of the time instead of just 9 to 5.