Watch your step: A fall
can kill you!
There’s no way to make it sound good.
Bureau of Labor statistics for 1999 rank highway fatalities,
on-the-job falls, and homicides as the top three causes of death
in the American workplace.
On-the-job falls are now Number 2, and MSA’s fall protection
specialists are working with companies to protect their workers.
“We look for a total solution. We don’t look at it
as selling someone a harness and saying, ‘Now you’re
safe,’” said Joseph Feldstein, an engineer with MSA
Rose’s engineering services team (from MSA’s Rose Manufacturing
Company in Englewood, Colorado).
In 1999, 717 of the 6,023 people who died from on-the-job injuries
died after falling. About half of the fatal falls were from a
roof, ladder, or scaffold, and slightly over half of the fatal
falls occurred in the construction industry.
 MSA’s
engineering services team works with companies to identify potential
hazards at a job site and develops a fall protection program that
helps eliminate or lessen the risk to workers. We also rank the
risks, allowing companies to prioritize the implementation of
their safety programs. Selling equipment is a last resort when
the installation of guide rails and other measures might be used
to reduce risks to workers.
“We consider new equipment to be the last resort, because
all fall protection equipment entails a certain level of training,”
Feldstein said. “A piece of safety equipment is useless if
the person using it isn’t trained properly.”
MSA offers extensive training opportunities, either on-site or
at our national training center in Englewood. Feldstein, who has
worked as part of the NIOSH fall arrest research team, said he
has seen increased awareness of on-the-job falls.
“With so many young people coming into the workforce, training
becomes even more crucial,” Feldstein said. “You can’t
go to a university and learn how to protect yourself against falls.
It’s something you have to learn from on-the-job training.”
Construction reported the largest number of fatal work injuries
for any industry and accounted for one-fifth of the fatality total.
For the complete BLS report, see www.bls.gov/oshhome.htm.
For more information about Rose training, services, or products,
please call MSA Rose Customer Service at 1-888-421-8324.
|
