NIOSH Alert: Preventing Falls of Workers Through Skylights and Roof and Floor Openings

Details

• Journal Article:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Personal Author:
  Higgins, Doloris N.
• Description:
  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) requests assistance in preventing injuries and deaths from falls of workers through skylights and roof and floor openings. Recent NIOSH investigations suggest that employers, workers, building owners, skylight designers, and skylight manufacturers may not fully recognize or appreciate the serious fall hazards associated with working near skylights and roof and floor openings. As a result, skylights and roof and floor openings may be left unguarded or uncovered, and workers may be assigned to work around these openings without appropriate fall prevention measures in place. This Alert describes five deaths resulting from falls through skylights and roof and floor openings. Recommendations are provided to help prevent similar deaths in the future. The recommendations in this Alert should be followed by (1) all building owners and (2) all employers and workers at worksites that may expose workers to unguarded skylights and roof and floor openings. In addition, skylight designers and manufacturers should contribute to worker safety through improved design and labeling of skylights. NIOSH requests that safety and health professionals, government officials, industry associations, unions, and editors of trade journals bring the recommendations in this Alert to the attention of employers and workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Content Notes:
  "The principal contributor to this Alert was Doloris Higgins of the NIOSH Division of Safety Research." - p. 10
  
  Includes bibliographical references (p. 11-12).
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Facility Design And Construction Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention; Accidents; Injuries; Injury-prevention; Traumatic-injuries; Construction-workers; Construction-industry; Roofers; Roofing-and-sheet-metal-work; Roofing-industry; Construction-Search
• Source:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2004-156, 2004 Aug; :1-12
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  20 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20025322
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2004-106655
• Contact Point Address:
  Director, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV 26505
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4acf3b794141f7a4a593b14a8b365fa0cb7345a683f22882c5976946a7b4db94354dee47726b31c20c003a71fc40bdd12512b240495c6546053f29c2f9963937
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/6569/cdc_6569_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 10.68 MB ]