Nearly 900 workers fell to their death in 2017 — the most since the U.S. started tracking such accidents nearly three decades ago.
“It’s the No. 1 killer,” said Scott Earnest, deputy director of construction safety and health at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , a federal research agency focused on worker health and safety.following the recession is a possible factor behind the rising death toll because a worker shortage in the industry has attracted more inexperienced workers to the labor force.
But safety experts are still concerned that life-saving information isn’t reaching smaller companies, especially in construction. From 2011 to 2015, less than one-third of construction workers were employed by firms with 10 or fewer employees. But this group accounted forin construction, according to the Center for Construction Research and Training, a nonprofit labor organization that participates in the fall-prevention campaign.
OSHA standards for fall protection vary by industry. In construction, employees must use safety equipment if they’re workingabove either the ground or a lower floor. One option is a lifeline that tethers the worker to the structure. In most cases of injuries and deaths, such safety measures were not in use.
“Hispanic workers perform some of the most dangerous jobs in the industry,” said Luz Marin, an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who specializes in work safety. Fear of immigration authorities, as well as the language barrier, can compound the risk, making some workers less likely to report dangerous conditions. “Most of the time, they don’t know how to navigate through OSHA … or how to file a complaint,” Marin said.
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