Solar technology has grown cheaper and more economically attractive in recent years, and a growing number of homeowners are having rooftop solar panels installed. Employees of the small to mid-sized contractors performing this work face unique safety hazards. The research team interviewed workers, contractors and engineers in the industry to identify choices during the design process that can reduce worker exposure to injury during construction. Based on the findings, the team created a short guide for industry use – Safety Protocol: Prevention through Design for Safety in Solar Installations.
A summary of Key Findings and a full report are both available.
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New Research Findings: Applying Prevention through Design (PtD) to Solar Systems in Small Buildings
OSHA’s Safe Workplace + Sound Business Campaign Enters Year Two
The Safe + Sound Campaign aims to support companies in improving safety and health in your workplace in 2018. The effort encourages every workplace in the United States to have a safety and health program that includes management leadership, worker participation, and a proactive approach to finding and fixing hazards. No matter where you are on the road to developing a program in your workplace, it’s easy to take a step in the right direction. During the year, the Safe + Sound Campaign will support employer efforts through periodic safety and health program messaging and communications; live, publicly available, no-cost webinars; access to content from Campaign organizers (CPWR, AIHA, ASSE, OSHA, NIOSH, NSC, and VPPPA); and local events to create communities to support safety and health program development. The focal point of the Campaign, Safe + Sound Week, will be held Aug. 13-19, 2018.
Here are a couple items that can help you get started today:
- Take a look at OSHA’s list of 10 easy things to get a safety and health program started.
- Use OSHA’s new tool, That Was No Accident! Using Your OSHA 300 Log to Improve Safety and Health to see how looking back at past incidents can move your safety and health program forward.
New Report: Safety Management in the Construction Industry 2017
CPWR teamed up with Dodge Data & Analytics to survey American construction contractors about key trends and innovations in construction safety and health. Safety Management in the Construction Industry 2017 is the third in a series of studies that demonstrate the financial and project benefits that contractors gain from their safety investments. It also shows the impact that new technologies, such as building information modeling (BIM), drones, and wearable devices, have on improving safety. Finally, it suggests that active consideration of safety during building design, known formally as Prevention through Design (PtD), is still an emerging practice – but one well-positioned for wider acceptance in the design and construction industry.
Click here for the full report.
CPWR and Dodge also recently co-hosted a webinar based on the report. Donna Laquidara-Carr, Director of Industry Insights Research at Dodge, presented on the report’s key findings on Tuesday, January 30th at 2pm EST. A recording of that event is available here.
Updated: Foundations for Safety Leadership Course
Each year, more than 100,000 construction workers, foremen, and other supervisory personnel take the OSHA 30-hour outreach training course to learn how to identify and control occupational hazards. The new 2.5-hour Foundations for Safety Leadership (FSL) module fills a long-standing need to provide leadership skills training. The FSL was developed with input from experienced OSHA 10- and 30-hour outreach trainers, construction workers, safety and health professionals, and leadership and safety climate specialists. Its two sections contain foundational material on skills and practices that lead to effective safety leadership and reinforcement activities to demonstrate what happens when foremen, superintendents, workers, and owners use or don’t use leadership skills when responding to real-world construction site hazards.
The FSL package has recently been updated to include additional materials such as a poster, toolbox talks, and a handbook that can be used by companies or other entities that want their foremen and lead workers to incorporate the 5 FSL leadership skills into their daily activities.
New guide for the successful incorporation of safety and health into CTE programs in construction
Reaching new and younger workers entering the construction workforce is critical to ensuring that safe work practices are learned early in a person’s career. While there are mechanisms and systems in place for incorporating safety and health information into apprenticeship training, little is known about career technical education (CTE) programs. Researchers at WVU and UC Berkeley have recently completed a project exploring the elements of effective health and safety education in post-secondary CTE construction programs and characterizing the state of existing health and safety education in these programs. The results of that research have led to a new guide and additional resources.