Masonry Magazine July 2002 Page. 24
Injury Prevention
Preventing Fall Injuries by the (OSHA) book
There are specific rules and regulations that mason contractors are bound by in the area of safety. Many of these relate to fall prevention. OSHA is precise about how this should be handled, so you should be too.
By Tom Inglesby
OSHA MAY NOT BE THE BEST FRIEND A CONTRACTOR ever had, but in the world of construction safety, it is definitely the 800-pound Gorilla. And as they say, it's better to be friendly with the beast than eaten by it.
OSHA-the Occupational Safety and Health Administration-publishes manifold rules and regulations covering issues of importance to contractors, masons and laborers. Many, if not all, states use these rules in formulating their own regulations. However, state regulations can be different usually more stringent, often with heavier penalties than the federal rules. Contractors working across state lines must be careful to check the regulations under which their crews will be working. Don't assume anything: Check, double check, verify, and check it again.
Why fall prevention rules? Obviously, people get injured on the job when they fall from scaffolds, roofs, ladders, parapets, walls, vehicles, and any other elevated platform on which they may work. And these falls are not, as many journeymen might wish, confined to new workers with limited experience.
Case Study
ON SEPTEMBER 2, 1993 a 38-year old journeyman mason was killed when a scaffold collapsed and dropped him and a co-worker 85 feet to the ground. Three men were working side by side, on the same side of the tower of a climbing scaffold, from different sections of outrigger platforms. The victim was working on the outermost platform section.
They cut and removed an approximately 800 pound piece of stone from the parapet facade and placed it on the victim's platform. About two minutes later, one of the cantilevered outriggers beneath the victim's platform failed, and the platform collapsed. The adjacent platform, on which one of the co-workers was standing, partially collapsed. The two men on these platforms fell 85 feet to the packed dirt ground. The third worker jumped unharmed over the parapet onto the building's roof.
The investigation showed the rental scaffold was at fault: it had been improperly welded after one of the outriggers had cracked. The accident, in Massachusetts, caused a flurry of rule and regulation proposals including one on fall arrest systems to be used by those working on mobile platforms.
The proposal read: "Employers should consider having employees use personal fall arrest systems while on mobile platforms to protect them in the event of a work surface failure. Although construction employees are not required to use personal fall arrest systems when they work on mobile platforms, employers should consider implementing this supplemental safety precaution to provide the maximum fall protection.
"OSHA standard 29 CFR 1926.104 provides the specific criteria that must be met when personal fall arrest systems are used. (After February 1995, these requirements were expanded and moved to section 1926.502(d)-editor.) Wearing a safety harness and lifeline tied off to an independent anchorage point could mean the difference between life and death in the event of a work surface failure."