Highlights 2013: Why We Do This Work

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training ; CPWR--The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Description:
  Here in late 2013, we are in the early stage of the last year in our current five-year cooperative research agreement with NIOSH, and 70% through our current NIEHS five-year training cooperative agreement. With all the activity generated by researchers, our training staff, and the work of BTMed, it would be easy to select the "highlights" of the multiple accomplishments that appear in this year's Highlights. But CPWR has just been through a year that brought great promise, new challenges and a good measure of attention to our work. So my report - this message - will focus on these. On August 23, OSHA released the long-awaited "Proposed Rule on Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica" for public comment. Finally, public discussions about the best ways to protect workers from silica dust could get underway. Perhaps no organization realizes the terrible toll silica can take on workers' lungs, health and life better than CPWR. In 1993, a CPWR researcher published our first report documenting construction worker exposure to this carcinogen, based on research performed in 1992. Since that time, we've amassed exposure measurements and peer-reviewed journal articles and shared this information widely with industry stakeholders. We hope the results of this research will be used to build a protective standard for construction workers. Our website launched last year, http://www.silica-safe.org, has become the go-to resource for many of our industry partners. The site not only offers a collection of federal and state regulations and voluntary procedures, as well as a comprehensive history of silica rule-making, it also offers solutions, such as tools and equipment that can capture and eliminate dangerous silica dust. We're especially proud of the Create-A-Plan tool on the website, built for contractors who want to put in place controls to reduce exposure and thus save construction workers' lives prior to there being a silica standard in place. CPWR plunged into the yet-to-be-defined "safety culture" and "safety climate" discussion when we partnered with NIEHS and NIOSH in hosting a workshop in Washington D.C., on June 11-12, 2013. More than 160 industry thought-leaders attended, along with a mix of government, employers and their associations, labor, academics, and safety and health professionals. Many were already familiar with the work CPWR researchers have produced since we began funding studies on this topic in 2004. We have two current projects reported on pages 11 and 17. You'll find a report about this workshop posted on http://www.cpwr.com OSHA's modification of the Hazard Communication Standard now calls for new labeling and Safety Data Sheets, among other provisions, including new training requirements for employers to train workers by December 1, 2013. Early in the year, our training program created a four-hour hazard communication course to inform workers of the new pictograms they'll be seeing. The course also satisfies the general training requirements for the new standard, and was a top download from CPWR.com in 2013. We've received excellent feedback from the industry about the quality of the new program, which is available for free to anyone in the construction industry interested in using it. The National Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction launched jointly in 2012 by NIOSH, OSHA, and CPWR saw campaign partners step up to the plate - and deliver. They found new ways to bring messages of fall prevention to audiences, from mass transit promotion and free training for roofing contractors in Massachusetts, to an online training module and a traveling "educational bus" produced by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet. You can read four "Success Stories" on the official campaign website managed by CPWR, http://www.StopConstructionFalls.com. It's invigorating to see the initiative and products of the national campaign enhanced by state and local efforts, all in the name of preventing the number one killer of construction workers: falls. In 2013 we also published the fifth edition of "The Construction Chart Book: The U.S. Construction Industry and its Workers". The Chart Book is now widely regarded as a leading resource for U.S. construction industry data and statistics, compiling everything we know about the industry based on national datasets available to us. You can read more about the Chart Book on page 9 and can download it from CPWR.com. While our industry has much to cheer in 2013 accomplishments, like our research coverage in "Engineering News Record", trade presses and union magazines, construction continues to lead the nation in the number of workers fatally injured on the job. We've come a long way since starting our construction safety and health program in 1990, but we still have much work to do. It's CPWR's mission as an organization to improve working conditions in the construction industry. It's why CPWR does this work, and we ask you to join us in the effort. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accident Prevention Accidents Carcinogens Communications Media Construction Industry Education Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Lung Diseases Mortality Nuclear Power Plants Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Radiation Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Silicon Dioxide Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Communication-systems Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Control-systems Employee-exposure Fall-protection Hazards Injury-prevention Job-analysis Lung-disorders Medical-research Medical-screening Medical-services Mortality-rates Nuclear-energy Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs Protective-measures Pulmonary-system-disorders Radiation-exposure Regulations Respiratory-system-disorders Safety-climate Safety-education Safety-practices Safety-research Silica-dusts Surveillance-programs Training Work-analysis Work-environment Work-performance Work-practices Worker-health

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• Series:
  CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications   ; CPWR - Center for Construction Research and Training Publications  
• Publisher:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  46 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  McGarvey, Sean ; Stafford, Erich
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047513
• Citation:
  Silver Spring, MD: CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 2014 Jan; :1-41
• Contact Point Address:
  Pete Stafford, Executive Director, CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, 8484 Georgia Ave., Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910
• Email:
  pstafford@cpwr.com
• CAS Registry Number:
  Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7) ; Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9) ; Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7) ; Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction ; Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  Highlights 2013: CPWR - why we do this work
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b41c57d1af21ff4eebff18b67999426003a2992817b5d08baf5f7d48a4ed1359097c7c33010d5d3bab03d7ca1f9198044fc7ba37bcc429327e62121a3a7afe6c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213227/cdc_213227_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 7.23 MB ]