One of OSHA’s grantees, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and its Research Center, will be offering a free seminar on scaffold and ladder safety. NAHB is a recipient of OSHA’s Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, and will conduct this seminar under provisions of the said grant. The two and a half hour safety training seminar will seek to help and refresh OSH Act-covered employers and workers on the basics of fall protection. It also seeks to have participants from the small-to-medium-size builders, remodelers, and trade contractors in the residential construction industry. The following will be the foci of the training program:

• Identification of scaffold and ladder fall hazards in residential construction
• Information on safe work practices that will help avoid and prevent fall-related injuries and deaths
• Refreshers on OSHA’s scaffold and ladder standards and fall protection regulations

The seminar is available in both English and Spanish (upon request) but will only be offered at certain areas in the US. You can visit NAHB online for more information and for registration.

In other news, OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program has been found to help foster and promote safety and health in the construction industry. This has been proven in the case of Aurora, Illinois’ Police Station and Branch Court Facility, whose partnership with OSHA was formed in January 2008. The partnership can boast of the following achieved goals within its first year:

• Conduct of 60 sessions resulting in more than 600 employees, managers and supervisors completing safety and health training
• Identification and correction of more than 1,200 work-site hazards
• Achievement of an average total recordable case incidence rate of 67% (below the 2007 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ national average)
• Achievement of an average days-away-from-work, job transfer or restriction rate of 29% (below the 2007 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ national average)

With the success of OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program with Aurora, Illinois’ local authorities, as well as in the joint efforts of special grants and beneficiaries through OSHA, workplace health and safety will be prospered and achieved for everyone’s gain.