OSHA provides online space for educating construction business operators and employees.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has recently provided an online place for tools, videos, and resources for workers and business owners in the construction industry. Dubbed Prevention Videos (v-Tools): Construction Owners, the purpose is to help reduce how many on-the-job injuries there are in the construction field, as well as to raise safety awareness for the construction industry in particular. The new series of videos is nicknamed “v-Tools” and address many of the common construction risks, like scaffolds, reroofing, carbon monoxide, swinging cranes, skylights, that construction workers face day in and day out.
According to OSHA, there are more than 137,000 workers in the construction industry injured while performing basic daily duties for their job. And there is over 800 deaths as a result of their occupation.
“Construction workers engage in many activities that may expose them to serious hazards, such as falling from rooftops, unguarded machinery, being struck by heavy construction equipment, electrocutions, silica dust, and asbestos,” OSHA says on their website.
Because of the high amount of injuries and risks involved in the construction industry, along with the many construction site hazards, OSHA decided to offer these instructional videos free of charge to those in this industry. The videos cover a variety of topics, including tips and warnings. Through the videos, the viewer can watch how easily employees are severely injured or even killed on the job, and offers tips for preventing these serious events. It helps people in the construction injury identify their hazards and risks and how to reduce them by reducing the amount of hazards.
Most of these videos are short, at under 5 minutes long. They offer clear and concise audio, easily understood vocabulary and some of the more common construction activities employees are most likely facing day to day. OSHA hopes that not only will the construction company owner and managers watch the videos, but that they will show the videos to their workers as well. They create a great opportunity for promoting safety in the workplace during orientation when new workers are hired, and perhaps during a “Tool Box” discussion.
The content of these videos offered by OSHA include stories from previous workers who had a serious injury, as well as people speaking about construction workers who were killed due to an injury on the job. Preventative and corrective actions are offered for each of the major risks and hazards for construction workers.
Topics include the following along with subcategories in each category:
- Sprains and Strains in Construction
- Carbon Monoxide in Construction
- Falls in Construction
- Struck by Accidents in Construction
- Excavations in Construction.
All-in-all, there are currently 12 videos provided by OSHA that detail how quickly a construction worker can get injured, or worse, die on a construction job.
OSHA provides a caveat to those interested in viewing the prevention videos that some of the videos may be disturbing to some people as some of the videos involve deaths. Keep in mind that the videos are intended for those in the construction industry to identify construction-related hazards and hopefully reduce, or better eliminate them all together.
Construction company business owners can access the videos in four ways:
1) By directing employees to OSHA’s website found here
2) By downloading the videos and providing them directly to employees
3) By embedding YouTube versions of the OSHA videos.
4) By viewing the video’s transcript
The v-Tools by OSHA are meant to be informative about the hazards in the workplace and help you educate your workers on how to prevent injuries. Aside from introducing these to your employees, watch them yourself to become familiar with the tips and resources offered, which you can consider implementing into your construction company, if you aren’t already practicing them. It is important to note, that because of the hazards and risks in the construction industry, all small business construction company owners should make sure their business has the proper business insurance, including workers’ compensation insurance.
