IN THE FIELD
Best Practices for Ironworkers 2018 Safety Flash Review
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very other month, the SEAA Safety Committee publishes short articles reminding steel erection contractors about common hazards and makes recommendations for reducing risk. The following best practices are excerpted from 2018 Safety Flash newsletters. Read full articles at SEAA.net/news and sign up to receive the newsletter at web.seaa.net/publications/subscribe.aspx.
7 Simple Ways to Avoid OSHA Citations 1. Regulatory Compliance: Stay current on OSHA regulatory changes and make your company’s Health and Safety policy reflects OSHA’s most recent language. 2. Safety & Health Policy: Have a comprehensive written Safety and Health Policy in place. 3. Training: Instruct your employees for all the tasks that they must perform. Incorporate a review of your company's Safety and Health Policy into your Tool Box Talks. 4. Training Records: Implement a digital record-keeping system
onsite, and make sure employees’ training records are immediately accessible. 5. Inspections: Perform frequent and periodic site safety inspections to audit the effectiveness of your companies Health & Safety Program. 6. Accountability: Document unsafe employee disciplinary action and/or retraining to show OSHA that your company takes safety seriously. 7. Employee Rights: At least annually, make employee rights pertaining to OSHA inspections a topic for a Tool Box Talk.
Deck Installation Fall Hazards The first step in the decking process is hoisting and landing deck bundles on the floors or roof. If the deck bundle is not properly landed on the framing or the deck bundle is not tightly nested from the plant (imagine an unshuffled deck of cards) it can cause a falling hazard. This unforeseen hazard occurs when the bottom sheet(s) of decking are not properly supported on the ends. As a result, the ironworker could lose his or her footing when stepping onto these last sheets. As he/she moves forward the sheet of deck will either move out from under him/her or the gap could be large enough that he/she goes “in the hole!” This fall hazard can be avoided with proper training.
Formula for Safe Christmas Treeing Multiple lift rigging, or “christmas treeing,” is prohibited for construction activities other than steel erection because of the hazards involved, including beams hitting other objects or people. during the multiple lift procedure, the hoisted beams need to be attached to the rigging assembly beginning with the topmost attachment. That means that workers have to be under the already-attached members while continuing the attachment process. Also, the hoisted members are detached from the assembly beginning with the bottom member, so employees are under the remaining members during the unhooking phase of the operation. The maximum length of a multiple rigging assembly is 35 ft. The minimum vertical spacing between each piece is 7 ft. The maximum number of steel beams allowed to be lifted in a multiple rigging assembly is five. Most steel erectors are familiar with the above rule; however, a general contractor may not allow five pieces to be hoisted at one time. If that’s the case, it’s prudent to increase the vertical spacing between beams, if possible.
18 | THE STEEL ERECTORS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA