Let’s define a roof fall as any unarrested free-fall of an employee originating from a roof deck launch point and resulting in a terminal impact with the ground or an impeding structure (like a lower roof). Like any other falling object, a fall victim will accelerate at 32 feet/second2.
There are many ingenious methodologies designed for motivating safe work practices among your employees. One of the most popular methods of controlling the way in which workers make decisions concerning jobsite safety is to offer them incentives.
The Experience Modification Rate (X-Mod) is a percentage-based multiplier (pricing mechanism) established by each state’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB). It’s used to calculate an employer’s workers’ compensation premium based on a number of empirically confusing statistical factors.
Most state civil judiciary legally consider roofing within the “inherently dangerous” occupation category. When you consider the steep pitches, heights to grade, surface traction conditions, material handling tasks, bulk material weights, environmental factors of wind and weather and the perpetual force gravity on the worker’s center of mass, it is no wonder that falls from or through roofs cause numerous injuries and deaths every year.
In 2001, backed by the National Academy of Sciences research report, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Assistant Secretary Charles Jeffress stated to Congress that implementation of the recently passed Ergonomics Standard would prevent over 460,000 serious workplace injures and save the nation’s employers $9 billion each year.
Ventilating today’s cathedral ceilings is more of a challenge than ventilating regular roofs. Because of the isolated air spaces in rafter cavities, cathedral ceilings are especially prone to moisture damage - posing unique ventilation problems.
Roof hatches are frequently used to provide safe and convenient access to and from rooftop areas in commercial buildings. These products allow service personnel to gain access to the roof for maintenance and facilitate the installation or removal of large pieces of equipment into or out of a building.
Every year in the United States, chemical and thermal burns account for an estimated 700,000 emergency room visits, with more than 45,000 patients requiring extended hospitalizations for treatment such as skin grafts.