OSHA Top 10 Safety Violation for Fiscal Year 2014

Source: U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colorado
October 22, 2014

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently published a list of the top-10 safety violations for the last fiscal year.

From 1 to 10, those violations are: 

1. fall protection in construction
2. hazard communication
3. construction scaffolding
4. respiratory protection
5. lockout and tag-out
6. powered industrial trucks
7. electrical wiring methods
8. construction ladders
9. machine guarding
10. general electrical requirements.

'"General electrical requirements' is a broad category for miscellaneous electrical hazards, such as failing to safeguard an electrical circuit," said Cliff Tebbe, Academy Safety Office deputy director.

According to an OSHA news release, the list is preliminary and the administration will publish another list containing finalized information.



"These types of safety oversights are common in general industry, and the Academy has similar workplace environments," Tebbe said. "These are things to look for - the usual suspects when it comes to work center hazards."

The fundamental principal to maintaining a safe work environment here is "early detection and rapid correction," Tebbe said.

"Safety is everyone's business," he said. "Your safety program is only as strong as what people are willing to walk by. If you are willing to walk by a hazard, you are willing to weaken the program and expose another Airman to that hazard."

Visit https://cs3.eis.af.mil/sites/OO-SE-AF-18/default.aspx for more on-duty hazard information and to read about Quest for Zero, an Air Force occupational safety campaign.

My Commentary:

This past year there was a major update to the Fall Protection Standard, mainly reflecting a global perspective of safety by incorporating ANSI standards. Being that this is new, it will take time to get use to. Couple that with the construction industry's history of "subcontractors cutting corners," it is obvious why fall protection in construction is number 1, and construction ladders and construction scaffolding are in the top 10 also.

Thank you for reading.

Then and Now

I am sure that you have seen this picture before. "Lunch atop a Skyscraper" (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) is a famous black-and-white photograph taken by Charles C. Ebbets during construction of the RCA Building (renamed as the GE Building in 1986) at Rockefeller Center in New York City, United States.

The photograph depicts eleven men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York City streets. Ebbets took the photo on September 29, 1932 on the 69th floor of the RCA Building during the last months of construction. It appeared in the Sunday photo supplement of the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932.

I came across this picture. It was done using Lego people. Much safer than trying to pose 11 people on a beam 69 stories in the air.

Then this picture caught my eye. It is the modern version of "Lunch atop a Skyscraper." This was taken overseas, perhaps Asia or the Middle East (I believe). Notice the differences: everyone wearing hard hats, high visibility coats, work pants, and of course fall protection.

I don't know that they are doing this the correct way, I can not see if their fall protection is tied off to anything. It still is a long way from the original.

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.