Category: Safety

Celebrate Construction Safety Week With MCAA’s Model Fall Rescue Safety Program and Plan

MCAA is celebrating Construction Safety Week May 3 – 7, 2021 by highlighting the resources you need to revisit best safe work practices on fall prevention and protection with your workers. Today we focus on MCAA’s Model Fall Rescue Safety Program and Plan.

It becomes extremely dangerous for a worker to hang in a fall arrest harness for more than a couple of minutes, so companies are required to have an action plan in place to rescue workers immediately in the event of a fall and subsequent suspension from a fall arrest harness.

MCAA’s Model Fall Rescue Safety Program and Plan helps the user develop a fall rescue plan addressing management responsibility, methods of fall rescue, information on “Qualified Fall Rescuers,” and training requirements.

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Check Out All of MCAA’s Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

About Construction Safety Week

Construction Safety Week was started in 2014, when more than 40 national and global construction firms comprising the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) group and the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) CEO Forum joined forces with a single aim: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

Celebrate Construction Safety Week With MCAA’s Model Fall Protection Program

MCAA is celebrating Construction Safety Week May 3 – 7, 2021 by highlighting the resources you need to revisit best safe work practices on fall prevention and protection with your workers. Today we focus on MCAA’s Model Fall Protection Program.

MCAA’s Model Fall Protection Program describes the fall hazards that are anticipated in the mechanical construction and service industry and addresses safe fall prevention and protection measures involving mobile and fixes scaffolds, aerial lifts, floor holes, wall openings, and ladders. These safety measures, which are covered in detail, include  guardrail systems, personal fall arrest systems, fall restraint systems, and floor hole covers.

DOWNLOAD

Check Out All of MCAA’s Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

About Construction Safety Week

Construction Safety Week was started in 2014, when more than 40 national and global construction firms comprising the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) group and the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) CEO Forum joined forces with a single aim: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

Celebrate Construction Safety Week With MCAA’s Fall Prevention and Protection Safety Training Video & Materials

MCAA is celebrating Construction Safety Week May 3 – 7, 2021 by highlighting the resources you need to revisit best safe work practices on fall prevention and protection with your workers. Today we focus on MCAA’s Fall Restraint and Arrest Systems Safety Training Video and its accompanying materials.

MCAA’s Fall Restraint and Arrest Systems Safety Training Video helps the viewer understand the differences between fall prevention and fall protection with emphasis on the components of fall restraint and fall arrest systems and how to use them properly and safely.

The video also guides the viewer through the fall rescue planning process, including how to survive while suspended in a fall arrest harness after falling and until help arrives.

Accompanying materials assist you in highlighting key training points, documenting worker training and confirming that workers understand the training concepts.

Download MCAA’s Fall Prevention and Protection Safety Training Video & Materials

Video | Pocket Guide | Documentation Sheet | Test | Answer Key

Check Out All of MCAA’s Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

About Construction Safety Week

Construction Safety Week was started in 2014, when more than 40 national and global construction firms comprising the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) group and the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) CEO Forum joined forces with a single aim: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

Celebrate Construction Safety Week With MCAA’s Ladder Safety Video & Materials

MCAA is celebrating Construction Safety Week May 3 – 7, 2021 by highlighting the resources you need to revisit best safe work practices on fall prevention and protection with your workers. Today we focus on MCAA’s Ladder Safety Worker Training Video and its accompanying materials.

MCAA’s Ladder Safety Training Video will show your fitters, plumbers, and service technicians how to properly inspect, transport, set up and use ladders safely.

The video emphasizes:

  • Common reasons for falls
  • The safe use of ladders, including stepladders and portable straight ladders
  • How new ladder technology has substantially improved ladder safety

Accompanying materials assist you in highlighting key training points, documenting worker training and confirming that workers understand the training concepts.

Download MCAA’s Ladder Safety Training Video & Materials

Video | Pocket Guide | Documentation Sheet | Test | Answer Key

Check Out All of MCAA’s Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

About Construction Safety Week

Construction Safety Week was started in 2014, when more than 40 national and global construction firms comprising the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) group and the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) CEO Forum joined forces with a single aim: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

Resource Highlight: MCAA’s Revised Electrical Safety in the Workplace (NFPA-70E) Video & Materials

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on MCAA’s newly revised Electrical Safety in the Workplace (NFPA 70E) Video and its accompanying materials. These resources teach service techs to protect themselves from electrical shock and arc flash hazards when working on equipment pushing 480 volts or less. Topics covered include how to work safely near energized electrical conductors or circuit parts.

The video and materials have been revised to ensure they are consistent with NFPA 70E-2021, the current version of the National Fire Protection Association’s Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace. The standard is revised every three years.

Two key revisions are:

  1. Changes to the footwear requirement for arc flash protection
  2. Safe work practices around energized capacitors, including proper de-energization requirements

The video comes with a pocket guide that highlights key training points, a training documentation sheet, a 20-question multiple choice test, and a test answer key.

Download the Video and Accompanying Materials

Video | Pocket Guide | Documentation Sheet | Test | Answer Key

You Might Also Like These Related Resources

Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact MCAA’s Pete Chaney.

Celebrate Construction Safety Week May 3 – 7, 2021

Celebrate Construction Safety Week along with MCAA May 3 – 7, 2021 by revisiting best safe work practices on fall prevention and protection with your pipefitters, plumbers, service technicians, welders, and fabrication shop workers. The resources you need are available free as a benefit of your MCAA membership. Each day during Construction Safety Week, we will highlight one or more of these resources.

Here’s what to expect:

  • Monday – Ladder Safety Worker Training Video/Accompanying Resources
  • Tuesday – Fall Prevention & Protection Worker Safety Training Video/Accompanying Resources
  • Wednesday – Model Fall Protection Program
  • Thursday – Model Fall Rescue Safety Program & Plan
  • Friday – A recap of all of the highlighted resources

Check Out All of MCAA’s Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

Construction Safety Week was started in 2014, when more than 40 national and global construction firms comprising the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) group and the Incident and Injury Free (IIF) CEO Forum joined forces with a single aim: to inspire everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety.

KLEIN TOOLS Voltage Tester Recall

If your company uses the KLEIN TOOLS NCVT-1 NONCONTACT VOLTAGE TESTER with any of the SKU numbers listed below, stop use immediately and contact ncvt1support@kleintools.com for instructions. The tester has a potential safety issue. The on/off button of the NCVT-1 is intended to be pressed down and then released. If the button remains depressed during the power on or power off cycle, the tip of the tool remains illuminated in green, indicating the tool is “ready to detect voltage,” when it is not.

Affected SKU Numbers:

NCVT1EP NCVT1A NCVT1 MPZ00052R MPZ00001 69149
NCVT1E NCVT1SEN 80018 80023 81021

KLEIN TOOLS NOTICE

Adverse Reactions to Employer Mandated COVID-19 Vaccines Are OSHA Recordable Cases

If your company is requiring its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 it runs the risk of acquiring recordable illness cases. Recent revisions to OSHA’s frequently asked questions (FAQs) and answers related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic indicates that OSHA considers employees’ negative reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines to be “work-related” and therefore, subject to recordkeeping and reporting mandates when an employer “requires” the vaccination. The question and answer from the updated FAQs follows.

If I require my employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of their employment, are adverse reactions to the vaccine recordable? If you require your employees to be vaccinated as a condition of employment (i.e., for work-related reasons), then any adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine is work-related. The adverse reaction is recordable if it is a new case under 29 CFR 1904.6 and meets one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7.

Updated FAQs

Post COVID-19 Vaccine Jobsite Safety Guidelines

According to the CDC, COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Some individuals may experience side effects, but they are typically short lived. For the most part, the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the short lived side effects. With more Americans receiving the vaccines every day it is important to start planning for the post vaccine era. These guidelines are intended to help you do just that, but it is likely that they will change several times over the coming months, so please continuously watch for updates from MCAA.   

What We Do NOT Know About the Vaccines

There is still much that we do not know about the vaccines, so even fully vaccinated individuals need to follow COVID-19 safety protocol while working just about anywhere. Here is why:

  • We do not know whether the vaccines keep vaccinated individuals from spreading the virus;
  • We do not know how long the vaccine protects vaccinated individuals against the virus; and
  • We do not know how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus.

Fully Vaccinated Individuals

An individual is “fully vaccinated” when he or she has had both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, AND two full weeks have passed since the last injection.

Fully Vaccinated Individuals at Work

Fully vaccinated employees on jobsites, in fabrication shops, in office buildings and in other public areas performing regular duties that do not require specialized or additional personal protective equipment should:

  • Wear a two-ply face covering that completely covers the nose and mouth;
  • Practice proper hand hygiene by frequently washing hands and/or using hand sanitizers; and
  • Maintain a social distance of at least 6 feet from all other individuals.

When social distancing requirements must be suspended, such as when two workers are needed for the safe manual handling of materials, the affected workers should continue to wear their face coverings, don face shields, wear work gloves, and limit the amount of time they will be working together closer than 6 feet to less than 15 minutes.

Employers

Affected employers should:

  • Require all employees to comply with the protocol;
  • Enforce employee compliance with the protocol; and
  • Ensure that routine environmental cleaning is performed on affected surfaces at least once daily and more frequently when needed.

More frequent cleaning or disinfection should be performed if/when:

  • There is a high transmission of COVID-19 in or around a workplace;
  • The workplace is in an area where people are not wearing masks;
  • The frequency and/or quality of hand hygiene is inadequate for any reason; and/or
  • Individuals with increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 are working in the area.

Fully Vaccinated Individuals Not Working

Once fully vaccinated, individuals outside the workplace can start to do some of the things that have not been acceptable since the pandemic began, such as:

  • Visit inside a home or private setting without a mask with fully vaccinated people of any age;  
  • Visit inside a home or private setting without a mask with one household of unvaccinated people who are not at risk for severe illness;
  • Travel domestically without a pre-or post-travel test;
  • Travel domestically without quarantining after travel;
  • Travel internationally without a pre-travel test depending on the destination; and
  • Travel internationally without quarantining after travel.

GUIDELINES PDF

You are Invited to Participate in NECA’s Safety Professionals Conference

Registration is NOW OPEN for NECA’s virtual, industry-wide safety professionals conference, to be held May 25-26, 2021.

For the first time in NECA history, the 2021 NSPC will be open to NECA members and non-members, allowing industry professionals a chance to gain the full value of NECA’s renowned safety education and networking. Attendees will experience two days of keynotes from leadership and safety experts, breakout sessions, a virtual exhibit hall, lunch entertainment and networking opportunities.

BROCHURE

REGISTER NOW

CDC Alters Guidelines on Facility Cleaning & Disinfection for COVID-19

The CDC has revised its guidelines regarding cleaning and disinfecting surfaces to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The virus that causes COVID-19 can land on surfaces, and it’s possible for people to become infected if they touch those surfaces and then touch their nose, mouth, or eyes. However, it has been determined that the risk of infection from touching a surface is low. The CDC now believes that the most reliable way to prevent infection is to regularly wash hands and use hand sanitizers. When there have been no confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in a given space, cleaning only once a day is usually enough to sufficiently remove the virus from surfaces in the space.

LEARN MORE

Join MCAA and Participate in COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Week in Construction, April 19-23, 2021

MCAA and much of the construction industry will be participating in COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Week in Construction during the week of April 19-23, 2021. MCAA encourages you to join us and participate! The purpose of the safety week is to support the CDC’s campaign to raise awareness about the safety, effectiveness, and benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC is providing an Essential Workers COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit to help affected employers educate their workers about COVID-19 vaccines. The toolkit includes:

  • A customizable letter you can send to your employees with information about vaccine awareness educational offerings;
  • Content for company newsletters and social media sources;
  • A PowerPoint presentation on COVID-19 vaccines; and
  • Key messages for all affected workers.

MCAA encourages you take advantage of these materials. Setting aside a few minutes during the safety week to bring your workers up to speed on the vaccines could be very beneficial to your company. A few options to consider for delivering the information to your workers include:

  • A COVID-19 vaccine awareness safety meeting;
  • A short duration vaccine awareness safety talk each day throughout the week;
  • A COVID-19 vaccine awareness safety Lunch & Learn; and/or
  • Worker access to the Wednesday, April 21, 2021 vaccine awareness webinar, which will be presented by the CDC and NIOSH from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET by way of NIOSH Zoom. REGISTER

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Join MCAA and Participate in COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Week in Construction, April 19-23, 2021

MCAA and much of the construction industry will be participating in COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Week in Construction during the week of April 19-23, 2021. MCAA encourages you to join us and participate! The purpose of the safety week is to support the CDC’s campaign to raise awareness about the safety, effectiveness, and benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC is providing an Essential Workers COVID-19 Vaccine Toolkit to help affected employers educate their workers about COVID-19 vaccines. The toolkit includes:

  • A customizable letter you can send to your employees with information about vaccine awareness educational offerings;
  • Content for company newsletters and social media sources;
  • A PowerPoint presentation on COVID-19 vaccines; and
  • Key messages for all affected workers.

MCAA encourages you take advantage of these materials. Setting aside a few minutes during the safety week to bring your workers up to speed on the vaccines could be very beneficial to your company. A few options to consider for delivering the information to your workers include:

  • A COVID-19 vaccine awareness safety meeting;
  • A short duration vaccine awareness safety talk each day throughout the week;
  • A COVID-19 vaccine awareness safety Lunch & Learn; and/or
  • Worker access to the Wednesday, April 21, 2021 vaccine awareness webinar, which will be presented by the CDC and NIOSH from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET by way of NIOSH Zoom.

MCAA will provide you with the webinar registration information as soon as it becomes available.

Be Prepared for OSHA’s COVID-19 Special Emphasis Program (SEP) Enforcement!

The new administration is putting a lot of pressure on OSHA to perform COVID-19 related inspections and enforce the agency’s guidance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. OSHA’s new Special Emphasis Program (SEP) on COVID-19 gives the agency the impetus it needs to do just that. Employers should prepare for the possibility of unprogrammed and programmed COVID-19 inspections.

Unprogrammed Inspections:

To start, make sure you know your rights as an employer, so that you will not unnecessarily provide OSHA with information that could result in a citation. Unprogrammed inspections typically result from the mandatory reporting of a fatality, an employee complaint, or a referral from another government agency. When an inspection is unprogrammed you can limit the scope of the compliance officer’s inspection to the reason for the unprogrammed inspection. For example, if an employee complains to OSHA that the portable toilets are not being regularly sanitized, and that complaint results in an unprogrammed inspection, you can limit OSHA to inspecting only those toilets and prevent the compliance officer from seeing other areas of the jobsite. However, compliance officers can issue citations for safety violations they identify while on the way to inspect the subjects of unprogrammed inspection, so choose the path and mode of transportation to that subject area wisely.  

  • Compliance officers are required to hold pre-inspection conferences. Make sure the conference occurs. There have been cases where compliance officers have omitted this required step in the process;
  • Make sure your company is represented at the conference by someone who knows what to ask and understands how to respond;   
  • The instant the conference begins your company representative should ask the compliance officer for the reason for the inspection;
  • If it is an unprogrammed inspection, limit the compliance officer to the area of the jobsite where the incident that resulted in the inspection occurred, i.e., where the fatality occurred, the specific area of the employee complaint, or the specific area stated in the referral; and  
  • Never leave a compliance officer alone to wander the jobsite. Even though it is an unprogrammed inspection, if a compliance officer sees a violation, he or she can still issue a citation that is unrelated to the reason for the unprogrammed inspection.

Programmed Inspections:

Programmed inspections are randomly selected by OSHA from Dodge Reports. Get  prepared ahead of time in case your company is working on a project that comes up for a programmed COVID-19 inspection. To get prepared, consider what the compliance officers are most likely to look for during the inspection process, and what standards that they are most likely to cite.

Based on OSHA’s most recent COVID-19 compliance directive its compliance officers will be looking specifically for the following items during COVID-19 inspections:

  • Evidence of retaliation against workers for actions related to the virus;
  • Use of face coverings or masks throughout the workplace;
  • Active encouragement of workers to stay home if they are sick;
  • Proper social distancing and accommodating workers with telework where possible;
  • Emphasis on proper respiratory etiquette;
  • Emphasis on proper hand hygiene;
  • Routine environmental cleaning; and
  • Planning for possible infectious disease outbreaks in the workplace.

Since OSHA does not currently have a COVID-19 standard, the agency uses existing standards to enforce worker COVID-19 protection. When performing COVID-19 inspections the agency is most likely to issues citations from provisions in the following standards and its general duty clause.

Mechanical Service and Fabrication Shops:

  • 29 CFR 1904 – Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses;
  • 29 CFR 1910.132 – General Requirements – Personal Protective Equipment;
  • 29 CFR 1910.134 – Respiratory Protection;
  • 29 CFR 1910.141 – Sanitation;
  • 29 CFR 1910.145 – Specification for Accident Prevention Signs and Tags;
  • 29 CFR 1910.1020 – Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records;
  • 29 CFR 1910.1030 – Bloodborne Pathogens; and
  • Section 5(a)(1) – General Duty Clause – From the OSH Act of 1970.

Mechanical Construction:

  • 29 CFR 1904 – Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses;
  • 29 CFR 1926.28 – General Requirements – Personal Protective Equipment;
  • 29 CFR 1926.33 – Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records;
  • 29 CFR 1926.51 – Sanitation;
  • 29 CFR 1926.103 – Respiratory Protection;
  • 29 CFR 1926.200 – Accident Prevention Signs and Tags; and
  • Section 5(a)(1) – General Duty Clause from the OSH Act of 1970.

If you have any questions or need any assistance protecting your workers from COVID-19 orpreparing your company for possible OSHA COVID-19 related enforcement, please contact Pete Chaney at pchaney@mcaa.org or 301-990-2214.

MCAA Members Invited to Participate in NECA’s Safety Professionals Conference

Registration is now open for NECA’s virtual, industry-wide safety professionals conference, to be held this May 25-26, 2021. For the first time in NECA history, the 2021 NSPC will be open to NECA members and non-members, allowing industry professionals a chance to gain the full value of NECA’s renowned safety education and networking. Attendees will experience two days of keynotes from leadership and safety experts, breakout sessions, a virtual exhibit hall, lunch entertainment and networking opportunities.

LEARN MORE

Resource Highlight: MCAA’s Industry-Specific COVID-19 Safety Resources

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on MCAA’s industry-specific COVID-19 safety resources, because nothing is more important than the health and safety of your workforce.

MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative offers these COVID-19 resources:

You Might Also Like MCAA’s Other Safety Resources

Learn more about safety and health in our industry and access safety-related resources in these locations:

If you have questions about any of these resources or MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative, contact Pete Chaney.

The Next Qualified Level Arc Flash Safety Training Webinars Scheduled for April 22, 2021

Make sure your service techs have the up-to-date safety training they need to protect themselves from arc flash and electrical shock hazards while working on equipment pushing 480 volts or less. The session covers all applicable OSHA requirements, NFPA 70E provisions, best practices, and real-world accident information.

VIEW BROCHURE

The next two webinars will be presented on April 22, 2021. The first webinar will take place from 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. ET, and the second is from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET.

REGISTER TODAY

Take advantage of the MCAA/MSCA member discounted webinar prices below.

PRICING:

# of Trainees (per company)Cost (per person)
1-5$200/person
6-10$175/person
11-25$150/person
26-50$125/person
51-100$100/person
101+Email for Pricing

If you can’t make it in April, the webinar will be taught again twice on May 20, 2021. Questions? Contact Pete Chaney.

What to Look for in OSHA’s COVID-19 NEP

There may be some good news regarding OSHA’s new National Emphasis Program (NEP) on enforcing worker protections against COVID-19. Despite the Office of the Inspector General’s February 2021 recommendation that OSHA promulgate an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19, it appears that the agency will postpone development of an ETS in favor of the NEP. Here’s what you should know about the NEP to protect your company from OSHA citations.

NEP INSPECTION TYPES

Unprogrammed Inspections

  • OSHA’s primary emphasis will be on unprogrammed inspections triggered by

1st Fatalities;

2nd Complaints; and/or

3rd Referrals.

Programmed Inspections

  • OSHA’s secondary emphasis will be on programmed inspections.
  • There are two tiers of “high risk” employers being targeted by OSHA, Primary Target Industries and Secondary Target Industries.
  • The agency’s emphasis concerning programmed inspections first will be on Primary Target Industries, such as dental care, hospitals, health care, nursing homes, ambulance services, etc.
  • Construction falls into the Secondary Target Industries category along with agriculture, manufacturing, and certain types of transportation.

Programmed Inspections in Construction

Programmed inspection locations will be selected randomly from a list of construction worksites (F.W. Dodge Reports). The emphasis will be on larger projects that are 30% to 60% complete.

What Compliance Officers Will be Looking to Find

OSHA compliance officers will be looking for obvious signs of non-compliance with the agency’s February 2021 COVID-19 Guidance to Prevent the Spread in the Workplace (MCAA Summary). MCAA urges you to pay close attention to your:

  • Prevention Programs;
  • Return to Work Criteria;
  • Social Distancing Measures;
  • Engineering Controls;
  • Face Coverings and PPE; and
  • Sanitization, Cleaning, and Disinfecting Practices.

Probable Citations

  • General Duty Clause
  • Respiratory Protection Standard
  • Personal Protective Equipment Standards

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OSHA Launches National Emphasis Program to Protect High Risk Workers from COVID-19

The new administration’s January 21, 2021 Executive Order, Protecting Worker Safety and Health, requires OSHA to evaluate it’s COVID-19 enforcement actions and make improvements where necessary. In response, OSHA has launched a national emphasis program focusing enforcement efforts on companies that put the largest number of workers at serious risk of contracting the coronavirus. The program also prioritizes employers that retaliate against workers for complaints about unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or for exercising other rights protected by federal law.

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