Everyone agrees on the importance of safety on the construction site. So, why are basic construction safety principles sometimes ignored even by trained professionals? There are numerous reasons, but the most important are likely overconfidence, time constraints, and budget constraints. Understanding these principles is important to preventing injury and even death. Workers, trainers, and managers all need to resist the forces that lead to risky behavior that works against the interests of construction safety.
Overconfidence is simple to understand; it affects even the untrained do-it-yourselfer. Professional construction workers, despite safety training, are even more likely to think they are safe when they cut corners, due to their experience. The truth is that it only takes one second of distraction for a worker to be injured doing something they have successfully done thousands of times before. Safety equipment is there not because it’s needed every time. Like insurance, safety equipment is there for that one time in a thousand when things go wrong. Numerous accidents that occur every year demonstrate that even the most experienced worker can face dire consequences when they neglect wearing proper safety equipment such as harnesses, goggles, or safety vests.
Overconfidence might be hard to fight, but time and budget constraints are even harder. When safety precautions slow work down, construction workers face strong incentives to take risks. If there’s a disconnection between the business offices that plan and fund construction and the actual human beings who carry out the work of construction, it can be easy for a company to discourage safety practices without any one individual consciously realizing that this is what’s happening. Deaths and serious injuries of workers falling from cell towers are an excellent example of this type of serious lapse in environmental safety practices. Tight deadlines based on consumer demand for upgraded telecommunications systems led to workers feeling pressured to climb towers without harnesses. One clear lesson is the importance of dedicated safety audits that improve communication between executives who establish schedules and deadlines and workers who carry them out.
Lack of communication can’t be blamed for similar lapses among small contractors, where company owners are likely to be on site with their workers on a regular basis. Here too, though, the pressure of getting jobs done quickly to boost the bottom line can lead to a lack of attention to construction and environmental safety.
Regular safety refresher courses are a good idea. Company owners should also think about safety as they establish their company mission statements and goals. Although the interest of the bottom line affect everyone in construction like any other industry, it’s essential to go back to basic principles of ethics that guide good business. Making money is important, but the bottom line can never be as important as getting home safe and sound at the end of the day.
Contractors First Aid Kits
We realized that there is a need for an economical, straightforward, basic, no frills contractor first aid kit. Contractor First Aid Kits were developed to address the growing and under-served first aid needs of the contractor market. We strongly feel that every contractor should own a first aid kit to be prepared for all injuries that potentially could happen on a jobsite. OSHA also requires that adequate first aid supplies should be available for employees. Also, these Contractors and Construction Kits are unique in that they are Doctor recommended as OSHA, ANSI/ISEA
and Cal/OSHA compliant - we searched high and low for a kit that a physician would recommend to comply with California's strict OSHA guidelines for Construction and found these for you. You can even have a letter from our MD recommending this kit with your order!
Contractor’s injuries are diverse, but their basic first aid needs are simple. Their jobs are strenuous, tiring and the occurrence of minor injuries is extremely high. For minor injuries, an adequate first aid kit will allow the injured person or co-workers to administer first aid and get the employee back to work. For major injuries, the contents of a construction first aid kit can be used to provide first care to the injured person, before an EMT or ambulance arrives. It could mean a matter of life and death. A construction site safety survey should always be conducted to ensure that the proper first aid supplies are available for the types of injuries that may occur at any jobsite. See our 10, 25 and 50 person OSHA & ANSI / ISEA Compliant Construction First Aid kits below... We've got your Construction First Aid Compliance needs covered! These kits are appropriate for Construction Worksites and Contractor use to comply with Federal OSHA regulation 1910.151(b), ANSI Z308.1-2009, ANSI Z308-1-2009 as well as Cal/OSHA 3400 section guidelines and Cal/OSHA Title 7, Subchapter 4. Construction Safety Orders §1512.
Also See
OSHA CONSTRUCTION BOOKS & GUIDES & Live
Construction Safety Training including
Forklift Safety Training
Jennifer Winget is a marketing professional who started writing as a hobby and written this article on behalf of
OSEA. She has written various informative articles and blogs for past five years related to business, finance, health and safety services.
