An important hazard that falls under the general bucket of fall prevention and protection is the “swing hazard” that can exist when wearing a vertical lifeline. We explain vertical lifeline swing hazard in this article (and include a video illustrating it from our online fall prevention & protection training course) and give you a tip for avoiding swing hazard out in the field.

We’ve also included a free fall prevention toolbox talk training checklist that you can download–just go to the bottom of this article to get the checklist. It addresses ladder safety, scaffolding safety, and roofing work safety.

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Every year falls are on the leading causes of injuries and most importantly fatalities at work. And that’s especially true in construction.

That’s why OSHA holds an annual Safety Stand Down for Fall Prevention in the Construction Industry. Each year at this time, they hold training sessions, provide free informational materials, get busy on social media, and otherwise try to raise awareness of the scope of the problem and how to prevent these fall-related injuries and fatalities.

As part of the Safety Stand Down 2019, Oregon OSHA joins federal OSHA, the other state OSHA plans, numerous safety organizations, and countless safety-minded individuals in trying to create some awareness of the risks and hazards the come under the fall prevention umbrella and in sharing knowledge about how to stay safe at work–from a simple slip, trip, or fall at ground level to working at the highest elevation.

Craig Hamelund, an education specialist with Oregon OSHA, was kind enough to share an hour talking to us recently, telling us about the fall-related injury and fatality statistics nationally and in Oregon, highlight hazards and controls, telling us a little about what Oregon OSHA (as well as the Pacific Northwest OHSA Education Center and other related safety professionals) are doing here in Oregon, and sharing information about falls and fall prevention that are useful no matter where you live. We thank Craig and Oregon OSHA for his time and we encourage you to seek out or hold your own Safety Stand Down event this year.

We’ve transcribed the discussion and you can read that by clicking the MORE button. Or, just watch the video, which is immediately below. Also, know that that the bottom of this article, we’ve provided a free Fall Prevention Toolbox Talk Checklist based on an OSHA Fall Prevention Training Guide–it’s yours for free and it offers tips on toolbox talks for ladder safety, scaffolding safety, and roofing work safety.

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We think that OSHA publication 3666, Fall Prevention Training Guide: A Lesson Plan for Employers, is a helpful resource, and we’ve even created a fall prevention toolbox talk checklist to supplement the OSHA guide. You can download that checklist from the bottom of this article.

In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the major points that OSHA makes in the Fall Prevention Training Guide. You’ll see the guide addresses risk (and controls) related to ladder safety, scaffolding safety, and roof work safety.

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In this article, we’re going to introduce three special issues for women in occupational safety and health: PPE, getting women into leadership roles, and violence at the workplace. We’ll give a general introduction to both (thanks to work from the ASSP’s Women in Safety Excellence, or WISE, common interest group) and we’ll zero in on some problematic issues related to women and PPE.

We’ll be speaking with Abby Ferri, an ASSP member and a member of WISE who’s leading up the WISE effort to highlight problems with PPE for women and try to get some improvements. In future articles, we hope to talk with other WISE members about the issues related to workplace violence and leadership roles for women.

We’d like to thank Abby Ferri for her time in putting this interview together. You can listen to the interview in the video below or, if you’d prefer, we also typed up a transcript that’s available below the video/audio.

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Ever wonder what rights OSHA guarantees to an American worker? It may not be something you think about every day–although in at least one case related to safety, perhaps you should. And in other cases, even if some of the rights are not things you need to think about daily or exercise daily, they’re good to know about and one day you may need to exercise them.

This article is part of our series called OSHA Basics. This article series intends to help explain basic, fundamental issues related to OSHA. If you’re new to OSHA or occupational safety and health, these articles may be a real bonus to you. You may even find one or two of use even if you’re a safety pro.

See the list and links at the bottom of this article for a list of our OSHA Basics articles.

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