If your business is in the construction industry, it is time to evaluate your occupational safety and health procedures. The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced a “Construction Incident Prevention Initiative,” which will be focused around ensuring employer and employee knowledge around the four major causes of fatalities in the construction industry: falls, crushing events, electrocutions, and caught-in-between events.

“Construction is a high-hazard industry, and when employers do not employ an effective safety and health program, workers are left vulnerable to serious injury and possible death,” said MaryAnn Garrahan, OSHA’s regional administrator in Philadelphia. “The increased presence of our compliance officers and the immediate inspections conducted in response to unsafe scaffolds, fall risks, trenches and other construction hazards should help to prevent work site fatalities.”

OSHA investigators will be offering informational materials and focusing on any potentially unsafe work sites. This initiative is primarily focusing upon the areas covered by OSHA’s Wilmington, Delaware Area Office; this includes Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Should you own a construction company in that region, or anywhere nationally, and are unsure if your policies relating to these four high-hazard areas are up to code, it is important to bring a qualified third party occupational safety and health auditing firm in to evaluate. Doing this now can, and will, save you from having to do it after OSHA stops by.

If you have any questions about this initiative or about third party safety audits, please contact us. If you have anything to add about this initiative or the importance of a third party safety audit, please leave a comment.