Little Things Make a Difference

Believe it or not, my entire life does not revolve around occupational safety - probably only about 95% of my life revolves around occupational safety. I do think of other things, and this post is simply the musings of a guy who wonders about why we do things and what a simple change can make.

Over the past few months, the construction market has taken a nose dive. Yes, it's mostly the result of the huge financial problems that we are all experiencing, but some of it has to do with the natural winter slowdown. I expect to have more projects to visit soon, but in the meantime, I'm keeping busy at work by helping out with records management. Currently, our relatively small company spends about $1200/month to store construction project records just in case... . It seems to be a large amount of money, but if a problem occurs or if there is even the perception that the general contractor was "at fault" when a problem occurs (like a leaky roof, mold, etc.), the record storage could prove to be a very tiny "drop in the bucket."

So the boss said, let's see if we can "get rid of some of that paper" and reduce the number of storage units that we rent. I suggested that we scan as many of the files as possible and discard the paper (believe it or not, there are a lot of records that must be kept for 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, or even permanently). So to facilitate this records management program, I helped out with moving the approximately 20 cardboard file storage boxes per project (not including the "blueprints") to the office for evaluation and scanning.

Okay, so this is getting to be a long story. But, keep reading, there is a point to be made.

Those boxes are heavy, and after lifting each box multiple times, I started to wonder at the weight of paper that we keep. As I prepared a box of records for scanning (making sure that there weren't a lot of duplicates (there weren't), taking out staples, paper clips, etc. I began to wonder at the weight of the seemingly inconsequential materials in each box. One box contained 267 paperclips - that's a lot of paper clips - and at least that number of staples. Normally, if you were to discard the box of papers, the paperclips, etc. would be discarded too. But, I recovered the paperclips and "recycled" them. I wonder how much we spend each year on paperclips that are simply discarded.

This reminded my of something that I read on a box of Celestial Seasonings Herb Tea. On one flap of the box of tea they posed the question, "Ever wonder why no string and tag?" The answer (although I suspect it has a lot to do with cost) was "Our unique pillow-style tea bag is the result of our commitment to doing what's best for the environment. Because these natural fiber tea bags don't need strings, tags, staples or individual wrappers, we're able to save more than 3.5 million pounds of waste from entering landfills every year!" That's a huge amount of waste just from one company. I wonder how much we could save by limiting the use of staples, and recovering paper clips before discarding a file. To say nothing about saving paper by not printing, or saving storage space by saving records in electronic format.

And by the way, all of the paper that gets scanned goes to a local shredding company. They shred for free because they have a market for shredded paper - yep, it gets reused! But wouldn't it be better if it never had to be used in the first place? I try not to keep paper records. I communicate, whenever possible, only via e-mail. And to keep from storing paper for future reference, when someone sends me paperwork that I find necessary to keep, I scan it and toss the paper.

If we do things right, it will also prevent injuries at work too. Lifting all that paper certainly exposed me to potential soft tissue injury.

Tragic Death of a Safety Director

On 7 February there was a gas plant explosion in Middletown, CT. Tragically, 5 people were killed in that explosion. One of those people, Chris Walters, was the Safety Manager for Keystone Construction and Maintenance Services.

Like many of us in these difficult economic times, Chris was working a long way from home. In November of last year, Chris had been laid off after 6 years as Safety Manager for Hunt Construction. I remember how delighted Chris was to have landed his new position after only about six weeks. He hated being away from his family, but like most of us in the safety profession, he loved what he did for a living and went where the work was found.

I first met Chris about 10 years ago when he worked with Martin K. Eby Construction in Florida. He was working on the Co-Generation Power Plant in Sanford, Florida. After that, we kept in touch - usually through Facebook. Apparently, the explosion happened when one of the subcontractors purged a gas line. The incident is under investigation by several agencies, including OSHA.

Chris leaves a wife and 3 children in Missouri. It is ironic that he was killed while working to keep workers from being hurt or killed. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He leaves a big hole in our safety family.

New Federal Safety Guidelines for V.A. Construction

New Federal safety guidelines require that all construction workers on Veteran's Administration (V.A.) construction sites have an OSHA 10-hour card. It's not hard to obtain, but it requires that your workers attend an OSHA 10-hour construction outreach program. Yep, that's 10 classroom hours! Whatever you do, don't try to circumvent the process by buying bogus cards from unscrupulous "trainers."

There is a new V.A. Hospital construction project gearing up in Southwest Florida and if you need to have your workers properly trained, I highly recommend the services of Frank Subzda at U.S. Safety. I know Frank well and know that he offers a top-of-the-line program.

Anyway, if you are going to have workers on the SW Florida site, U.S. Safety will be offering an OSHA 10-hour class on Saturday, 13 March 2010 beginning at 7 am. For more information and/or to register, send Frank an e-mail at frank@ussafety.us, or give him a call at (239) 481-3777.

NOTW? OSHA Plays Hardball

This story from OSHA could come under the heading of NOTW – without the photo. Forget the monetary penalties imposed and take a look at the sanctions. How would you like to be required to tell OSHA where you’ll be working. I don’t think that I would want this guy as a sub on my job – you know that OSHA will be showing up regularly.

You may want to pass this little tidbit along to your subs, just in case they think OSHA isn’t serious.

Contempt orders issued against St. Louis employer for ignoring OSHA citations

ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced issuance of contempt of court orders against Brian Andre, former owner of Andre Tuckpointing and Brickwork (AT&B), Andre Stone and Mason Work Inc. (AS&MW) and Regina Shaw, owner of AS&MW. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued the contempt orders against the St. Louis-area company and individuals for failing to comply with court orders enforcing citations of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).

"Companies that expose employees to hazards, and then blatantly ignore citations requiring correction of those hazards, will not be overlooked," said Charles E. Adkins, OSHA regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo. "Employers must fulfill their responsibility to keep employees safe, as well as satisfy any sanctions levied for failing to do so."

The cases stem from numerous citations OSHA issued to AT&B and its successor, AS&MW, for willful, repeat and serious violations related to fall hazards, scaffolding erection deficiencies, power tool guarding and other hazards in connection with multiple projects in the St. Louis area.

When the companies failed to comply with the court's order enforcing OSHRC's final order, the secretary of labor filed petitions for contempt. As a result, a special master of the Court of Appeals concluded that Brian Andre, AS&MW and Regina Shaw were in contempt of the order, and recommended various sanctions. The Eighth Circuit substantially accepted the master's recommendations, found all three parties in contempt, and imposed sanctions, including: Brian Andre, AS&MW and Regina Shaw must pay outstanding monetary penalties, which continue to accrue interest, and other miscellaneous fees, in the current amount of $258,582.08; AS&MW and Regina Shaw must pay a $100 daily penalty, calculated from the time of default, in early 2008, on the OSHRC final order; AS&MW must provide OSHA weekly notification of all current jobs, and known future jobs, at least 72 hours prior to commencement of work for a period of three years; and, AS&MW must provide "competent person" training to all people currently and subsequently designated as jobsite "competent persons," prior to beginning any work, and provide the secretary records of such training.

Arc Flash Calculation Software & Short Circuit Analysis

If you have to deal with arc flash hazards, you may want to check out the free Arc Flash Calculation Software (Beta Version) at http://arcadvisor.blogspot.com/

According to that site, this new software features:

• Estimate Incident Energy Exposures for Live Line Work on Overhead Open Air Systems 1kV to 800kV
• Determine Limited, Restricted, Prohibited Shock Protection Boundaries and Risk Category
• Calculator-style interface makes complex calculations easy to understand
• Perform analysis using metric (mm, Joules ) or imperial units (inches, calories )
• Save results in generic text format for future reference or printing

Unloading a Backhoe

Okay, so I've been away for awhile. My work life got pretty crazy beginning around Thanksgiving so I was distracted. But, I'm back now.

An old friend sent me the following video. Although my first reaction is to applaud the talent of the backhoe operator - he might want to go on "America's Got Talent" - but if he pulled a stunt like that on a jobsite, he should receive direction from Donald Trump - You're Fired!