OSHA recently released an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 covering settings where employees provide healthcare services or healthcare support services. Contractors providing healthcare support services, such as equipment and facility maintenance, may have to comply with several provisions in the ETS. However, the standard does not apply to “well-defined hospital ambulatory care settings” where all employees are fully vaccinated, all non-employees are screened prior to entry, and people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not permitted to enter those settings. Contractors whose employees are not providing healthcare support services are exempt from the ETS. However, OSHA has updated its guidelines for employers based on the most current guidance from the CDC. Employers are urged to comply with the updated guidelines.

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 Safety Manual for Mechanical Construction Workers. This quick reference tool provides critical information on everything from aerial lift safety to preventing overexposure to zinc to keep mechanical construction workers safe. It includes new information on administering CPR, beryllium, recent changes to NFPA 70E, and more.

MCAA, the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), and other organizations are partnering with Dodge Data & Analytics on a study of jobsite safety. The study will track trends in U.S. construction industry safety practices, and MCAA members are encouraged to participate. The survey will close on June 23, 2021.

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 Fire Safety Training Video and its materials. This video will teach your workers to recognize common causes of jobsite fires and how to prevent them.

A new report provides MCAA members with a mechanical industry specific look at how MCAA members are using construction technology. The report, developed by JBKnowledge, is based on the 2020 Construction Technology Report released in March.

Helm Group, Inc. (formerly Mechanical, Inc.) combines leading technology like BIM 360 within Autodesk Construction CloudTMwith Lean construction principles to implement new design, engineering, and construction methods. For example, by fabricating multitrade skids in an offsite fabrication shop, Helm Group increases collaboration and drives efficiencies to deliver highly complex projects while achieving certainty in cost, schedule, and quality. BIM 360 enables the coordination and data sharing that allows the fabrication to be so accurate that, once it arrives onsite, all that is necessary is to lift it into place and install it.