Category: Safety

For the 16th consecutive year, attendance at MCAA’s annual Safety Directors’ Conference increased substantially. The conference was presented last week in Orlando, Florida to a record crowd of 286 attendees, who enjoyed 17 educational sessions addressing the most current mechanical industry-specific safety and health topics and issues. They also appreciated several networking and team building opportunities throughout the conference.

The educational topics included:

• The value of professional safety certifications
• New video scanning technology to identify safety hazards
• New back injury prevention techniques
• Safety leadership and group dynamics
• Telemedicine to help prevent recordable injuries
• Virtual safety training technology
• Traversing marijuana and post-accident drug testing traps
• Exoskeleton technology
• Construction safety tools
• Fall arrest suspension trauma
• Open-topic discussions
• How to make safety training messages memorable
• The UA Standard for Safety
• What’s working for mechanical industry safety professionals around the country
• The most effective way to create a safe, healthy, productive workplace

Attendees also learned about new safety and health equipment and services at the annual Safety Directors’ Conference exhibit.

Planning for next year’s conference is already well underway. The conference will be presented January 21-23, 2020 in San Antonio.

Currently working in a fast-paced construction boom and doubling the company’s workforce in 2018, University Mechanical Contractors (UMC) exemplifies best-in-class safety excellence with the record to back it up. UMC just passed the tremendous safety milestone of one-million hours worked without a recordable safety incident.

The company has completely transformed its entire safety culture into a successful model of proud and empowered employees with astonishing results:

• More than one-million consecutive-safe hours
• 578 consecutive days recordable-incident-free company-wide
• Three years recordable-free – Major projects group
• More than one-fourth of reported incidents have been personal/non-work related – “keep small problems small”

“We established our new safety program to inspire the overarching principle that motivates UMC’s crews to work safely and to look out for one another—pride,” said Kirk Baisch, safety director and firm partner. Our “Pride-based Safety” program is based on knowing you’re doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons, especially when no one is looking.”

Warmest congratulations to all UMC employees from all of us at MCAA.

Online OSHA 10- and 30-hour construction safety standards courses, and the OSHA 10-hour general industry safety standards course (for fabrication shops and mechanical service work) are available to MCAA and MSCA members at discount prices.

OSHA 10-Hour Construction (Discount not available for CAL OSHA 10-hour course)

Regular Price – $89        MCAA Member Price – $80.10

OSHA 30-Hour Construction

Regular Price – $189      MCAA Member Price – $170.10

OSHA 10-Hour General Industry

Regular Price – $89        MCAA/MSCA Member Price – $80.10

The provider of the courses, ClickSafety, is one of the few companies authorized by OSHA to provide these courses online. The company has a great deal of experience presenting top-quality safety training. To take advantage of your 10% discounts, visit ClickSafety  and use the MCAA VIP discount code: MCAA2019, which is valid through 2019.

View the Brochure

Many construction owners, general contractors, and construction managers require affected companies to establish written lockout/tagout safety programs that minimize risk to their employees and ensure compliance with OSHA regulations. MCAA’s Model Lockout/Tagout Program can be quickly and easily tailored to create your program. It makes development and implementation of such a program as easy and cost-effective as possible.

In addition to this model program, MCAA offers lockout/tagout training materials to simplify worker training.

If you have any questions about this or any other safety resources, or about other occupational safety and health issues, please contact Pete Chaney.

MCAA partner in safety CNA recently published 10 tips to help prevent overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. The company’s one page Risk Control Bulletin … Cut Down Your Silica Exposure describes ten ways to reduce silica exposure while working in construction. In the mechanical construction industry, exposure to respirable crystalline silica is most likely to occur when drilling, cutting or boring into concrete, or working around other trades that are performing similar tasks. MCAA thanks CNA for its partnership.

CNA RISK CONTROL BULLETIN

MCAA recently learned that it earned a coveted 2018 Telly Award for its Workplace Violence Prevention and Protection safety training video. The video was developed and produced by MCAA to prepare pipefitters, plumbers, service technicians, fabrication shop workers, and office employees for the possibility of workplace violence.

The Telly Awards annually showcase the best work created within television and across video, for all screens. More than 12,000 entries were submitted from all 50 states and 5 continents. Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world. Past Telly Award winners include, Disney, ESPN, The History Channel, Microsoft, Fox, and HBO.

If you have not seen MCAA’s Workplace Violence Prevention and Protection video, MCAA urges you to watch it, and ensure that all your employees do too. To access the video, which is free to members as a benefit of membership, please visit the link below.

Download or Play the Video

The Milwaukee Tool Mechanical Industry Safety Professional of the Year Award will be presented for the first time at MCAA19 in Phoenix, AZ. The annual award will be presented to a mechanical industry safety and health professional who has led his or her company to an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.

To nominate someone from your company, or from another MCAA/MSCA member company, for this extremely prestigious award, complete the Nomination Form and e-mail it to Pete Chaney by the close of business on December 10, 2018.

MCAA recently released the MCAA Guide to In-Person Safety Training. The guide replaces the outdated MCAA Safety Training Guide. The new guide provides tips for making safety training sessions more engaging, walks the user through initial and on site safety training preparations, presents the most effective safety training methods, and describes the most critical safety training topics for the mechanical construction, service, and fabrication shop industry. The publication also guides the user through OSHA’s safety training requirements, and MCAA’s safety training resources, which are free to members as a benefit of membership.

3M Fall Protection has received reports that the aluminum reinforcement plate used in the seat sling on certain DBI-SALA ExoFit harnesses can become dislodged from the webbing. The aluminum plate can separate from the harness and fall, creating a potential struck by hazard. If your company is using the ExoFit harnesses, please read the Quality Alert for more detailed information.

OSHA recently released a final rule clarifying the agency’s crane operator qualification requirements. Affected employers are required to:

• Train operators as needed to perform assigned crane operation activities;
• Evaluate the operators’ performance; and
• Document successful completion of the evaluations.

The rule requires crane operators to be certified or licensed and receive ongoing training as necessary. Operators can be certified based on the crane’s type and capacity, or type only.

The rule becomes effective on February 7, 2019.

Final Rule

OSHA recently released a memorandum to its regional administrators to clear up confusion about its 2016 recordkeeping rule changes concerning employer safety incentive programs and post-incident drug testing. The bottom line is that employers are still permitted to implement safety incentive programs and require post-incident drug testing, provided that the actions are taken to promote workplace safety and health and not to penalize employees for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses. The memorandum suggests that consistently enforcing legitimate work rules, whether or not an injury or illness is reported, would be one way for employers to show that their companies are promoting workplace safety and health. The memorandum also states that drug testing to evaluate the root causes of workplace incidents is permissible, but affected employers should drug test every employee whose conduct could have contributed to the incident.

LEARN MORE

MCAA is pleased to announce the Milwaukee Tool Mechanical Industry Safety Professional of the Year award. The award will be presented annually to a mechanical industry safety and health professional who has led their company to achieving an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.

To nominate someone from your company, or from another company to become the Milwaukee Tool Mechanical Industry Safety Professional of the Year,  complete the Nomination Form and e-mail it to Pete Chaney by COB on November 26, 2018.

This year’s winner will be announced at MCAA’s 2019 Safety Directors’ Conference on January 24, 2019 in Lake Buena Vista, FL. The award will be presented at the Awards of Excellence Breakfast at MCAA’s 2019 Convention in Scottsdale, AZ on March 6, 2019. Nominees must be employees of MCAA/MSCA member firms.

Many construction owners, general contractors, and construction managers require affected companies to establish written excavation safety programs that minimize risk to their employees and ensure compliance with OSHA’s excavation safety standard. MCAA’s Model Excavation Safety Program can be quickly and easily tailored to create your program. It makes development and implementation of such a program as easy and cost-effective as possible.

In addition to this model program, MCAA offers excavation safety training materials to simplify worker training.

If you have any questions about this or any other safety resources, or about other occupational safety and health issues, please contact Pete Chaney.

OSHA recently updated its National Emphasis Program (NEP) to prevent trenching and excavation collapses. The program was updated due to a recent spike in fatalities from trenching/excavation collapses. The updated NEP will increase education and enforcement. And, each OSHA area office  will develop its own trenching and excavation safety outreach program for affected employers in their areas.

MCAA has several trenching and excavation safety resources that are available to members for free as a benefit of membership.  And, OSHA provides compliance assistance resources for affected employers. These resources include

MCAA:

Worker Safety Training Video

MCAA Pocket Guide

MCAA Training Documentation Sheet

20-Question Multiple Choice Test

Test Answer Key

Model Program

OSHA:

OSHA Compliance Assistance Resources