Occupational Health & Safety: Every day in the United States of America, two thousand people are injured while using a ladder. One hundred of those people will experience a long-term or permanent disability from that injury. And every day—today, in fact--one person will die from a ladder accident. For most industrial companies, ladder-related incidents account for the single largest injury-related expense. The financial burden can be staggering, but it does not add up to the terrible human cost. What is the cost to the individual who never works again or to the family of a lost loved one?
9 comments:
the greatest line in this article is "would you build a fence at a cliff or would you park an ambulance at the bottom." I think i am going to start saying that to people who tell me "no its fine, ive done it before." its a great mindset to use on people who have decided that they weren't hurt last time so its fine if they do it again. Instead think about doing it safely so you can guarantee that you can do it again. the irony of this statement though comes about with the film industry in particular (sometimes live entertainment) when stunts are performed teams will of course attempt to make the scenario as safe as possible. However the common practice with various stunts (burns and fights) an ambulance will be on stand by on the film site just to be safe. The real irony is that falls rarely require an ambulance on stand by because they are the easiest of stunts to coordinate safely.
“Would you build a fence at the top of a cliff or would you park an ambulance at the bottom?” That’s a pretty powerful statement, and to a point I agree with the author. I think there certainly is a problem with ladder safety, and training only goes so far. I’ve sat thru a number of training sessions and even the 30 Hour OSHA Safety course, and I still break the rules of ladder sometimes, and there’s no excuse for it. I should know better. Making it clear that there is a difference between fall protection and prevention is incredibly important. Having a harness and lanyard on that are clipped into something really only gets you far, there’s a number of variables beyond, and rarely do employees consider all of them. For starters, there’s a lot more to worry about than just the distance of the fall, what if you swing when you fall? What might you hit? Is your lanyard actually long enough? If you do fall, how are you getting down? When you fall, is whatever you’re clipped to going fall with you, or will it support you and the impact of the fall? Identifying all of those variables on the job site rarely happens though. However being clipped into anything, may be better than not being clipped into anything… The article is right though, the key is in designing the risk out of the item, and I’m sure that’s easier said than done, but it’s a start.
I completely agree with Sean that the best line is "would you build a fence at a cliff or would you park an ambulance at the bottom?" I think that speaks to a lot about how simple things we do such as climb ladders can be extremely dangerous. Just yesterday when I was organizing costumes while on a ladder, I thought about how my foot placement was extremely dangerous as there was nothing stopping me from falling. I think that people need to be more aware of what is dangerous and more convenient versus safer and takes slightly longer, such as moving a ladder back and forth rather than over reaching. But people should also design a safer ladder such as something similar to a Genie which has a box surrounding you so that if you do lean, there is at least a metal box surrounding you rather than risking a fall.
I knew that ladders led to jobsite injuries, but I had no idea how bad the statistics were. I had to reread the line about 2000 incidents a day because I was sure that I had misread it. I mean, 2000 incidents seems high to me even for a week. Safety on ladders is really important, but it's not something that I have ever really thought about. I guess I have the same attitude as the ladder companies, that the design that we've been using for decades is fine, why bother changing it. Of course, I've done my fair share of highly idiotic things on ladders. I really liked the part of the article that outlined types of ladder injuries, and the just a little bit higher is my favorite. I'm fairly guilty of it, though for me I only do it if it's just a bit higher; if it's at the same level of me, I'll get down and move the ladder a couple feet though.This summer people at my work were talking about tying to genies, but to me that seems like a terrible idea because if that thing is going down I don't not want to be going down with it. That being said, the ladder that clamps onto poles seems like a great idea that avoids that problem' if the ladder can't fall, then it's perfectly safe to tether off to it. Also, I think that people just need to be more scared. If they are, they're more likely to follow the rules. I was at a lighting focus and I was pushing someone on a genie, and they hated being pushed while it was up. They came down every time. Yes, it wasn't as efficient as it could of been, but they felt safe and that's all that really matters. Lastly, I really like how the article ended, talking about the fence at the top of a mountain. That's such a great quote, and it's really an accurate statement that more people should listen to.
This article brings up a lot of good points that I think we should probably be more mindful of. I know that I definitely use ladders improperly all the time because that's just what it takes to get the job done. I know that this is absolutely the wrong attitude but it's a hard one to change. There are definitely times when I think to myself that what I'm doing definitely isn't safe but that usually doesn't make me change what I am doing. I am very comfortable working at heights and on ladders but overconfidence can be a serious downfall (no pun intended). The idea of a "ladder last" policy is a good one but one that is entirely impractical in theater, a lift or scaffold just isn't always the best solution. That being said, starting a tie-off policy might not be the worst idea. Considering how often we work with ladders it's kind of surprising that we don't have many accidents considering how statistically probable it is for a fall to occur. Will the article change the way I work on ladders? Probably not. But I'll definitely be more aware in the future.
The article mentions how the rate of ladder injuries has increased. I wonder if there is a reason for that other than more people actually using ladders. I would like to hear more about the fall prevention systems, but unfortunately I don't really see any way to completely make ladders safe, as we will always have to deal with user error. Unfortunately, people always think that things like that can't happen to them, and so disregard safety rules regarding ladders, particularly lower ladders. Unfortunately, any fall can be fatal if you land wrong.
This is a great follow up to last week's article, or rather transcript, about the hierarchy of occupational safety. Obviously we are failing at creating safe ways for workers to elevate in order to accomplish tasks. A person a day is not a great rate of attrition for any endeavor, maybe least of all cleaning gutters and changing light bulbs. I am not making light by saying that. The fact is a lot of these accidents occur doing the small jobs, the quick jobs where you don't feel the need to have a safety plan. This fact illustrates in high relief the premise of the hierarchy, that the best possible way to improve safety is to design out the danger. Frankly it's surprising to me that there aren't more ladder alternatives on the market. The success of engineered safety solutions like Saw Stop would seem to indicate a willingness for the market to accept a higher capital cost up front in order to reduce the high maintenance costs of hospital bills, legal imbroglios and insurance. Good to see this type of thinking making it's way into solving one of our most dangerous workplace conditions.
I think there is a fundamentally flawed idea behind safety regulation in the US. We tend to wait for an incident to happen and then make a blanket, over reaching regulation based on it. I'm not saying that the regulation in general is bad, but sometimes it seems like the problem is not understood. Like OSHA's wear a harness when you are over 6 feet off the ground. In theory, yes. But often that is actually more unsafe than not wearing anything because you are basically chained to the structure. If something happens, you cant jump away, you stay attached and often hurt yourself worse.
I agree with the others, the line “Would you build a fence at the top of a cliff or would you park an ambulance at the bottom?” is very significant. Currently many companies are reactive rather than proactive in preventing injuries. Nor does it surprise me that ladders are one of the biggest catalysts for injuries. Some of the ideas did sound useful, but the banning ladders one seems like it may be too difficult and inefficient to implement on a wide scale. I've read a lot of articles like this one before, I just wonder what will come of all of them
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