On a commercial construction site, because most of the trades need electrical power to operate their hand tools, the electrical contractor must provide “temporary” electrical service throughout the site right after the concrete slab is poured.
Continue Reading Electricity: “Watt” You Need To Know
Fall Protection: Don’t be caught dead without it
Mention the words “construction worker” to most people and the picture that comes to mind is a trim, muscular male wearing jeans and work boots with a hard hat and a toll belt tied to his waist. In the case of ironworkers, masons and roofers, however, their ensembles would not be complete without some form of leather harness having metal clips to attach to a lanyard or some other form of lifeline.
Continue Reading Fall Protection: Don’t be caught dead without it
Tips to Prevent Tipping Over: How to Properly Load a Truck
According to statistics published by the National Highway Transportation Safety Board, in the United States over 400,000 highway accidents occur each year involving trucks which tip over. One person is injured or killed every 16 minutes in a trucking accident. These unfortunate statistics are frequently the result of improper loading at the terminal. If a truck is properly loaded, it should not turn over unless the driver greatly exceeds the speed limit.
Continue Reading Tips to Prevent Tipping Over: How to Properly Load a Truck
Demolition Work: Workers Beware, Don’t Demolish Yourself in the Process
How many times have we seen on the news, footage of huge buildings being completely demolished without any damage to other buildings nearby? So precise is the planning that goes into demolition work that it is often scheduled at the same time new construction is taking place at the same work site.
Continue Reading Demolition Work: Workers Beware, Don’t Demolish Yourself in the Process
The Problems and Perils of Manually Unloading Bulky Freight
Most young people seeking employment in manufacturing plants, warehouses, and bulk storage facilities, expect their work will require them to participate in loading or unloading freight from tractor trailers. So as to avoid heavy lifting, and the risk of injury, the plant is equipped with loading docks, and the men have the benefit of material handling equipment, such as forklifts and hand jacks.
Continue Reading The Problems and Perils of Manually Unloading Bulky Freight
Trenching and Excavating – Don’t Dig Your Own Grave
With the exception of an experienced, OSHA certified backhoe operator, most construction workers don’t realize how dangerous it is to climb down into a trench, even as shallow as three or four feet. OSHA requires the side walls of a trench of a depth of four feet be supported with a properly constructed plywood wall, equal to the height of the trench.
Continue Reading Trenching and Excavating – Don’t Dig Your Own Grave
Industrial Lift Trucks: The Silent Killer – Part 2
Pursuant to OSHA, all industrial lift truck operators in New Jersey must be licensed. This involves taking a formal training course from a certified lift truck trainer. Next, the applicant must take and pass a written test, and satisfactorily perform a driving test under actual conditions in the plant or warehouse where employed. After becoming licensed, OSHA requires the operator, every three years, to be re-evaluated by a certified trainer in order to keep the license current.
Continue Reading Industrial Lift Trucks: The Silent Killer – Part 2
Industrial Lift Trucks: The Silent Killer – Part 1
Statistics published by the National Safety Council and OSHA show that three times as many workers are seriously injured or killed in lift truck related accidents than in construction site accidents in the United States annually since 2007. In fact, the risk of being injured by a forklift many years ago prompted the creation of an entire section in OSHA devoted to warehousing/material handling and storage operations in the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Continue Reading Industrial Lift Trucks: The Silent Killer – Part 1
The Nail Gun: Useful Hand Tool, or Lethal Weapon? The Carpenter’s Dilemma – Part 2
As the use of nail guns became more popular with residential home builders, in the 60’s and 70’s, in addition to framing, the gun was used to perform a task called “bump nailing.” Because it was so powerful, the nail gun was never intended to drive nails into sheet rock or plywood. However, soon workers discovered by “bumping” the nail gun across a piece of plywood, or sheet rock if the contact trip continuously depressed against sheet rock, nailing could be completed in a fraction of the time it took utilizing a framing hammer.
Continue Reading The Nail Gun: Useful Hand Tool, or Lethal Weapon? The Carpenter’s Dilemma – Part 2
The Nail Gun: Useful Hand Tool, or Lethal Weapon? The Carpenter’s Dilemma – Part 1
On a present day construction site, the use of power hand tools have enabled workers to greatly increase productivity by reducing physical stress on muscles and joints caused by repetitive hammering and sawing. In the home building business, the “nail gun,” has largely replaced the handheld hammer, in stud work, roofing and decking. Starting in the 1950’s, the Bostitch Company (then a division of Textron Industrial) took a small German made, handheld, pneumatic stapler used by furniture manufacturers to fasten small brass buttons decorations on sofas and chairs, and redesigned it to shoot nails into studs in framing work.
Continue Reading The Nail Gun: Useful Hand Tool, or Lethal Weapon? The Carpenter’s Dilemma – Part 1