ALLIANCE ANNUAL REPORT
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
And the
Construction Safety Roundtable of Eastern Massachusetts (CSREM)
December 31, 2017

1. Alliance Background

   1. Date Signed - Renewal

      September 12, 2017

   2. Evaluation Period

      September 01, 2016 – July 30, 2017

   3. Overview

      Brief summary of the purpose and scope of the Alliance – from the Alliance agreement.

      A continued emphasis on construction workplace safety and health by providing CSREM members and others with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help them protect the health and safety of workers and understand the rights of workers and the responsibilities of employers under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH Act). Address current trends and improvements in construction safety and health technologies, exchange technical information and safe best practices, update roundtable members regarding OSHA-procedures and policy issues, and promote and encourage involvement and activities in OSHA safety stand-downs.

   4. Steering Committee Members

      Glenn Narrow –CSREM
      Nancy Hughes- CSREM
      Peter Barletta – OSHA CAS

      List OSHA members and titles/offices:

      James Mulligan – Area Director, Braintree Office
      Anthony Covello – Area Director, Andover Office

      List Alliance participant members and titles/offices:

      Kathy Flannery – MA Consultation Program
      Glenn Narrow – Alliance Chair Person CSREM
      Nancy Hughes – CSREM
      Greg Pender- CSREM
      Elizabeth A. Will – CSREM
      John J. Downey - CSREM

2. Steering Committee Meetings

   • July 25, 2017

   In addition to these formal meetings, the Alliance coordinators maintained regular contact throughout the reporting period to monitor the Alliance’s progress and results.

3. Results

   The following table summarizes the Alliance’s activities in support of the goals in the Alliance agreement.

   On June 13, 2017, Speaker Robert Anderson, Chief of Inspections -Building & Engineering, Division of Professional Licensure, Office of Public Safety and Inspections provided clarification and explanation of the following: The Office of Public Safety & Inspections’ covered the Ninth Edition of the State Building Code, schedule and format. Topics covered Construction Supervisor License and Other Exams. Trench, Recreational Tramway & Trench Safety.

   On May 09, 2017, Speaker for this meeting was Kevin Warnock, from Total Distribution Sales Consultants LLC for Werner Co, as part of Werner’s partnering with OSHA during the Fall Stand Down. The speaker provided ladder and fall protection safety education and training as it relates to ladders and fall protection equipment knowledge, operation instruction, maintenance tips and authorized field repairs to an audience of contractors, subcontractors, safety and insurance specialist, and other government agencies.

   On April 11, 2017, the professional development topic was "Suicide in the Workplace and Prevention Methods", presented by Tim Irving from OSHA. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Construction and Extraction workers account for 0.8% of the nation's suicides and according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Suicide (11) was the leading single cause of workplace fatalities in 2013, followed by falls (10) as the second.

   February 14, 2017, Peter C. Harrod, P.E. Principal, Code Red Consultants, LLC, Fire and Life Safety Specialty Consultants provided an enlightening presentation regarding the recent adoption of the new Massachusetts Fire Prevention Code and its reference to NFPA 241. Property managers need to understand their responsibility associated with construction fire safety. This program outlined the scoping provisions associated with these requirements, and provided a clear understanding to the role of the newly introduced Fire Prevention Program Manager on construction job sites.

   January 10, 2017, presenters from Construct Secure, Inc. spoke to the subject of managing safety and managing risk when you have dozens of active construction projects at any time each with multiple subcontractors and you feel like your time is spent putting out fires reacting to conditions, incidents, or near misses. Speaker presented on tools available to help you manage safety and health of the job site such as software applications, tablets and phone apps. Audience learned about the collection of data such as OSHAS logs and how to use it to help you identify, manage, and mitigate risk on your projects or within your company. Compliance-driven written programs and technical knowledge are important, but without management systems to monitor performance and focus efforts maximum value will not be realized. This presentation demonstrated how you can use these tools and data, including subcontractor pre­qualification data, inspection data, and reporting data to identify, manage, and mitigate risk at the project level from pre-bid through construction completion to improve company safety performance. The presentation reviewed some real experiences in reducing incidents and reducing costs using the data. These processes apply not only to GC's and Owners looking to reduce hazards on their projects but also to subcontractors looking to improve performance, to set your company apart from others, and to make your company more competitive/appealing to Owners or GC's considering your bids.

   December 13, 2016, Speaker Bob Kunz, Corporate Safety Director, Dimeo Construction Company, led the silica meeting through a wide ranging interactive discussion related to this new silica standard with a compliance required date of June 23, 2017. Discussed, various items such as the role and responsibility of the competent person, the difference between engaged and in vicinity workers (Is compliance with the 18 Table 1 task enough?), real-time exposure assessment(s), medical surveillance, and written exposure control plan(s)." Bob has had years of Crystalline Silica sampling and worker experience from a Silicosis point of view from open pit mining activities.

   On November 08th at 10:00, Tim Irving the Assistant Regional Administrator for Cooperative and State Programs, OSHA Region 1 Office, presented the ever popular “Annual OSHA Update” and recap of the agency’s fiscal year enforcement and outreach results for 2016. The review covered the national, regional and local inspection and citation information as well as the regional fatal accident statistics. The CSREM has been instrumental in the success of the OSHA outreach efforts on Mirror Check Day, Heat Illness and Injury, Fall Protection, Cut it Out, Ladder Safety Stand Down and other campaigns. Tim provided an update on the success of these local events and stand downs national implications and how contractors can support upcoming training events.

   On September 13th the main topic of this meeting was skylight safety. Speaker for this month’s meeting, Rick Beets President of Bristolite Skylights, flew in in from Santa Ana, California. Bristolite Skylights is one of few manufactures that make rated skylights. The speaker described the dangers of not protecting roof skylights calling them nothing more than horizontal windows. The class learned various methods to protect workers from falling through skylights with a better understanding on how sky lights are rated and their hidden dangers when blindly trusting its strength and not factoring in environmental factors.

   Peter Barletta, Compliance Assistance Specialist, OSHA Boston South/Braintree Office kicked off OSHA Region 1 Safety Awareness for Cut-Off Power Machines. The presenter reviewed the increase in injuries and deaths in Region 1 from using these powerful machines to cut steel and concrete pipes. Training “Cut-it-Out” Day was recommended to be conducted also this date of September 13, 2016, and provided instructions on how to reply to the survey monkey to confirm one’s training in Cut-Off machines.

   The safety stand down covered working with Cut Off machines which is beneficial to the Construction and Landscaping industries that frequently use these tools. The “Cut-It-Out” Region I Stand Down was presented as a direct result of local accidents involving Cut-Off machines resulting in severe injuries, including amputations and in at least one fatality. The material provided and format was similar to other recent Regional Stand Downs where the foreman or supervisor utilized the training materials as a tool box talk.

4. Evaluations

   The Alliance’s activities were again very popular and successful for this review period. The actual CSREM meetings and presentations reached a total attendance of about 550 people, discussing a variety of topics from protecting workers from skylight hazards, promoting fall stand down activities, ladder training, increasing hazard awareness of powered cut-off machines, discussing the new silica standard, improving management of safety programs on construction sites, to improved understanding of building fire safety codes, and trench safety. Over one hundred organizations participated in this year’s meetings from various subcontractor trades to general contractors working in the metro Boston area. All these technical meetings led to thousands of construction workers engaging in various stand downs and job site specific training tool box talks.

5. Upcoming Milestones

   During our July 2017 end of year Steering Committee meeting and follow up correspondence in August and September, CSREM and OSHA focused on renewing the Alliance, which was officially signed on September 12, 2017. The goal for this new period is to mentor and reach younger workers entering the construction field so that the next generation of construction workers, managers and safety professionals improve and advance safety and health attitudes, training, technologies, applications and programs by moving the safety bar to a greater level and reaching an increased number of workers. There will be continued discussion of the silica standards and implementation of new technologies to control respirable silica dust. There will be continued emphasis on reducing fall hazards through involvement and activities with the fall stand down. There need to be further insight to reduce Struck- by hazards, which are now matching fall hazards as a leading cause of fatalities and injuries in Region 1. The opioid crisis along with suicide is another area that continuously needs to be addressed, causing more deaths in the construction industry each year.

   Report prepared by: Peter Barletta, Compliance Assistance Specialist, Braintree Office, December 31, 2017.

   Activity Types:

   • Alliance Product: Products (e.g., fact sheets, videos, toolbox talks) developed by Alliance participants as part of the Alliance. These are not OSHA products.
   • Dissemination: An Alliance participant sends OSHA information, Alliance products, or other safety and health information to its stakeholders. This includes information sent by email or social media (Facebook, Twitter), and information included in newsletters and other publications. It also includes hits on the Alliance participant’s or OSHA’s Web page.
   • Evaluation: Any efforts by the Alliance participant to evaluate the effectiveness of an Alliance activity or the Alliance as a whole.
   • Event: Participation in events such as the Construction Roundtable and NAOSH Week.
   • Exhibit: OSHA exhibits at events sponsored by the Alliance participant.
   • OSHA Product Review: Review of an OSHA product by an Alliance participant. For example, an Alliance participant may provide technical comments on an OSHA eTool or publication. The review itself is considered the Alliance activity.
   • Speech/Presentation: Speeches or presentation by OSHA staff at events sponsored by the Alliance participant.
   • Training: This includes best practice seminars or other training that Alliance participants provide for OSHA staff. It also includes training for workers/employers/others by Alliance participants.
   • Other: Use this if an activity does not fit into one of the other categories.

   OSHA Areas of Emphasis:

   • Agriculture
   • Asian American/Pacific Islander Workers
   • Construction
   • Ergonomics
   • Fall Prevention
   • Hazard Communication/Chemicals
   • Health Care
   • Heat Illness Prevention
   • Hispanic/Latino Workers
   • Maritime
   • Oil and Gas
   • Small Business
   • Temporary Workers
   • Transportation
   • Young Workers