Question

Construction Safety

1.You overhear the following conveconstruction rsation between two employees: First employee: “I’m not going to work in a trench. How do I know it won’t cave in on me?” Second employee: “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just as dangerous on the surface as it is down there.” What do you think about this conversation? Is either of these employees right? Wrong? What would you tell these two employees about working in excavations?

2. “Come on Jones,” said the carpenter. “I’ve been using ladders since I was a kid. I don’t need training on how to use a ladder.” “Yes, you do,” responds the supervisor. “You might know how to use a ladder, but you don’t know how to use one safely. You’re going to attend the training just like the rest of us.” Is ladder training really necessary, or is OSHA just being intrusive and overly cautious?

Answer 1

Question 1:

The safety concern of the first employee is correct. Working in trenches does have the probability of trench caving on the worker. The second employee statement is also correct in terms that if proper safety precautions are not taken on the works on the surface, they can also be as dangerous as working in the trench. None of them are wrong, however, they are also not entirely correct. The first employee should know that with proper equipment and precautions under surface works can be very easily and safely executed. The second employee should know the number of hazards involved in subsurface works and should not take the safety in trench works so casually. The first employee needs to be educated about the number of safety measures such as shoring of banks of trenches, Slope cutting, keeping heavy equipment and machines away from the cut surfaces, test for hazardous gases and oxygen levels, underground water levels, etc, before work execution can develop a very safe working environment in trenches. The second employee needs to be educated about the hazard in underground works, like collapsing of slopes of the trench, presence of hazardous gasses, underground water in trenches, etc, and the importance of safety before any work execution. A proper safety orientation of the employee needs to be practiced.

Question 2:

All the safety training programs are necessary and important before the execution of any works. Similarly, ladder training is also necessary and every employee should mandatorily attend and learn from the training. As basic as it sounds to use a ladder, it is very important to know the safety measures and techniques to be used while working on a ladder. The training emphasizes and points on the common mistakes and mishaps that happen while working on ladders and aims to eliminate or reduce them as much as possible. The objective of the training is always to make the employees aware about the most common and silly mistakes that happen at the site and can be hazardous to him as well as the people around him and hence them to eliminate such mistakes. None of the safety measures and training by OSHA should be taken casually or skipped. Every trianing is highly recommended and necessary before starting work at site.