A naturally occurring radioactive gas, radon can affect all kinds of properties. It is colorless and odorless. It is also a serious health hazard. Prolonged exposure to radon can lead to lung cancer and other illnesses. It is actually the second leading cause of lung cancer.

As a construction worker, you should be aware that radon is created by the natural breakdown of elements in the soil. It can be found in water and igneous rock. Radon is a product that is created from radium to uranium. Radium then breaks down into radon.

A lot of new construction is being built using a radon-resistant approach. If a building tests positive for radon, a radon mitigation system can be installed.

Those who work in the construction industry can come into contact with radon in the workplace, so it is important to be attentive. Radon testing can help ensure the safety of the work crew. If there is radon in the area, you should take the proper action to ensure that it is safe to continue working at the job site.

OSHA has radon exposure limits for individuals in the workplace. Those limits are based on a 40-hour workweek and should be monitored and tracked and then properly reported.

While radon is something that you cannot see, it is a serious workplace hazard that requires the attentiveness of the whole team.

If you have concerns about radon, speak with an expert on the matter and make sure you have the proper testing protocols in place. Worker safety is essential in all aspects of the job.

OSHA safety training is a necessity in many job roles. There are specific training requirements for employers, and they must make sure their employees are familiar with the safety regulations and the OSHA requirements.

OSHA requires that employers provide the appropriate training to any workers who face hazards while on the job. Authorized education centers, including Associated Training Services (ATS).

Many jobs require OSHA certification, so they can safely handle their job duties without putting themselves, coworkers, and the general public at risk.

Kinds Of OSHA Safety Training

While some workers are required to undergo OSHA safety training, most workers can benefit from it. The specific training requirements and programs are determined by the worksite or the employer.

These requirements are unique to the job sites and the different hazards the employee will face. In most cases, employers use a 10-hour or a 30-hour OSHA outreach training program as the baseline then they add on job-specific safety training.

ATS can create employer-specific training programs to make sure that the employees are OSHA certified and that they are trained to safely and properly handle the responsibilities associated with their job and its requirements.

Construction Industry and General Industry OSHA safety training both focus on special topics that are dependent on the industry chosen.

Employers will tell their employees which training is needed for their specific job. According to OSHA, construction work is work that involves construction, repair and/or alterations, and includes those who work in painting and decorating. General Industry is for industries not considered agricultural, maritime, or construction in nature.

To learn more about OSHA training, call ATS today at (800) 383-7364 to talk with one of our representatives.

OSHA Fines

OSHA can fine employers, and those fines can add up quickly. If employees aren’t properly trained, or if there are PPE violations, OSHA can issue a citation for each employee violation. While not every case will warrant a per-employee citation, those fines and citations can be issued as the agency sees fit.

If your company doesn’t always have all its employees wearing their PPE, it can mean serious financial problems. As an example, the rule was enacted because a company hired 11 undocumented workers from Mexico. These employees were put to work handling asbestos, but they weren’t provided respirators.

At that time, before the regulation was enacted, OSHA wanted to enact 11 different citations, but the court consolidated it into one single citation. With the new rule, 11 citations would be 11 times the cost of one citation.

Ensuring Employees Are Properly Trained

As an employer, you are responsible for making sure your employees have undergone popular training and have access to the required PPE. The violation could be financially devastating to your business, and it could cost you significantly in the long run because you could lose employees who have already been trained to do the job.

The cost of paying the OSHA fines and then hiring and retraining new employees can set your operation back significantly, so it isn’t worth the risk. You should make sure your employees have all the proper certifications and training so they will know how to handle their job duties and the proper safety protocol and procedures required for the job.

Proper Training

At Associated Training Services, we offer all the necessary certifications and training programs to ensure your employees understand the processes and know the requirements. Call us today to learn about the different training programs.

Safe + Sound Week was observed during August and the week was a time to celebrate the successes of workplace safety and health programs. Throughout the week, information was made readily available for other tips to help improve workplace safety.

The United States Department of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) believes that the annual event is beneficial in many ways. Successful health and safety programs can identify and manage workplace hazards so injuries and illness can be avoided. OSHA’s goal is to improve sustainability and make safety the priority.

Many organizations have found participating in Safe + Sound Week can help get a safety program underway, bring new life to an existing program, or just offer companies the opportunity to recognize successful programs and employee efforts.

Who Should Participate?

All organizations who are needing an opportunity to recognize their safety commitment should join in the annual event. During 2018, more than 2,70 businesses participated and helped raise awareness about workers’ safety and health. During 2019, almost 2,500 businesses signed up to join the activities.

To learn more about the annual event, and to participate next year, visit the OSHA website at https://www.osha.gov/safeandsoundweek/.  You should plan year-round for safety and implement the appropriate changes and programs to help encourage your employees to safely and effectively handle all projects.

Every business should have a safety plan in place and have a published list of safety protocol for all the different job roles in their operation. Businesses who have such programs have much lower accident rates and fewer injuries reported.

As you should be aware, OSHA’s new crane requirement rule became effective on November 10, 2018. Part of that rule involves the requirement for the employer to train and evaluate its crane operators in addition to those operators being certified. 

• To be a “Qualified Operator” under the new OSHA rule, the operator must be certified and evaluated.
• Operators who have not been certified and evaluated are considered “Operators-in-Training.”
• Operators-in-Training cannot operate without supervision.
• Operators-in-Training must be monitored at all times by a trainer who meets established criteria.

Associated Training Services (ATS) and ATS Specialized can help you meet both of these requirements. ATS has been training, certifying and evaluating equipment operators since 1959. Let ATS help you develop your operator certification and evaluation programs to ensure you are in compliance with all of the requirements of the new OSHA crane rule.

For more information, please contact Peter at 608-354-0723 or peter.k@atsdigs.com.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

One of the most important jobs on the construction work site is that of a rigger. The rigger is responsible for the safety of personnel working on the site, especially mobile crane operations. But they are subject to regulation and the regulatory authority for riggers is OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The Heavy Equipment School Rigging/Signalperson training program will prepare you to be a world-class rigger and pass all certification tests and safety requirements of OSHA. We have the best program in the industry.

So what makes it such a good training program? All of the below:

• It meets and exceeds the OSHA qualification standards for rigger and signalperson training
• You’ll receive written and practical training and testing on those standards
• The qualification program offers 8 to 12 hours of instruction, depending on the number of students in class
• The certification program offers a 4-day intensive of 32 to 36 hours, again depending on the number of students in the program
• All graduating students will receive a qualification compliance card upon successful completion of the Rigger/Signalperson Qualification Program
• Students graduating from the Rigger/Signalperson Certification Program will be certified by the National Commission for Certification of Crane Operators

Associated Training Services (ATS) offers several ways to take this training. You can come to us and be trained in our world-class facilities, or, if your company is certifying several riggers and signalpersons at once, then we’ll arrange to come to your work site and administer the training.

OSHA standards are tough, but they are necessary for a safe work site. ATS is committed to training riggers and signalpersons in the latest qualification and certification standards for crane operations.

Trenching, or digging a ditch, may look like it is a simple process that anyone with a shovel or a rented backhoe can do. But that mistake causes many accidents and even deaths every year. According to OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration), “the fatality rate for excavation work is 112% higher than the rate for general construction.”

Trenching Safety

Here are the four top causes of injury, according to OSHA’s Trenching & Excavation eTool:

1. no protective system
2. failure to inspect trench and protective systems
3. unsafe spoil-pile placement
4. unsafe access/egress

The eTool has simple guides for avoiding each of these, but reading some information is not the same thing as being trained by qualified instructors. These teachers have the credentials that result in certifications future employers and insurance companies respect.

Why Training Is Better Than Teaching Yourself

Excavators do a dangerous job. When the consequences of making a mistake are things like injury or death, it’s better to begin the learning process in a classroom with expert teachers who can give you the benefit of their experience. You can learn about the types of mistakes that can be made and what will happen. Then, after the “head” knowledge is there, the “seat-of-the-pants” knowledge can be added in an environment designed to keep mistakes from being deadly.

Everyone makes mistakes when learning how to do something even trenching. That’s why some teachers say that F-A-I-L stands for “First Attempt In Learning”. Teaching yourself certain skills is a very good idea, and reading up on OSHA guides to a career you are interested in is a good idea, too. But if you are interested in operating heavy equipment, particularly those that are used in excavating, the best thing you can do is invest in credentialed training like that offered at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School.

Did you know that current Federal OSHA regulations say that ALL riggers and signalpersons must be qualified? That means if you want a job in this valuable field, you have to have the right credentials. Associated Training Services offers rigging/signalperson program that exceeds the OSHA requirement and is recognized as one of the best in the crane and lifting industries.

You Can Take It With You

The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) is the gold standard of the industry and ATS offers this certification as part of the available training options. It’s portable, so as long as you renew it every five years it’s good. If you let it expire, you have to take the NCCCO re-certification exam in combination with another ATS program.

So these are your benefits from this option:

Or It Can Be Part On-The-Job Training

Why have there been so many construction accidents in the past few years? A recent article on Equipment World’s site by Wayne Grayson takes a look at the problem. OSHA official: Further increase in construction deaths likely; triggered by uptick in activity, less-experienced workers is a sobering assessment of safety on the jobsite.

“We recently investigated deaths at job sites in Kansas City, Missouri; Framingham, Massachusetts; Brookhaven, Georgia; Bellevue, Washington and Albuquerque, New Mexico,” said Dean McKenzie, the deputy director of OSHA’s directorate for construction. “And that was just one week.”

While this is appalling, the answer is pretty obvious to OSHA. The agency tries to make sure that employers and employees know the safety regulations and follow them so that accidents don’t happen as regularly. But those employers and employees have to be trained, and they have to respect their training. For example, the company doing the demolition of a three-and-a-half-story building in Connecticut had to be stopped before workers were injured:

“It was a brick building built in the early 1900s that they were trying to rehabilitate. The contractor had taken all the interior floor joists that tie the building together so all he had was a brick box,” McKenzie said. “Compliance officers called our engineering office to get our support on how weak this structure would really be and we shut it down until the job could be done safely.”

Imagine the operator of heavy equipment on that job, hoping that the building wouldn’t collapse on top of the work crew. Maybe he even was the guy who called in OSHA when the contractor wouldn’t listen, who knows? What we do know is that the better trained the operators of heavy equipment are, the safer everybody is. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff that happens in construction, and good training keeps it happening safely.

ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School works hard to make sure that our graduates are fully aware of the safety regulations and know how to operate their machine to do the job without any injuries. We want you to have a long, profitable career as a heavy equipment operator known for your expertise and safe practices.

According to OSHA, “Excavating is recognized as one of the most dangerous job in construction operations.” This is because excavators dig holes and trenches that can easily collapse if proper safety procedures are ignored or the soil is not analyzed correctly. An excavator operator has a very important job, one that requires a lot of knowledge and skill.

It may not look like the traditional excavator has changed much, but there are a lot of things happening in this part of the heavy equipment world. Many machines are being built as hybrids to save fuel, and each company tries to build the latest operating abilities into their product. But however fancy the excavator is, it’s only as good as the operator who runs it.

Excavator Operators Change Their Foundation

Since every excavator is changing the very ground it operates on, that operator needs to be able to assess changing conditions and respond in the best way possible. Whether it is digging a trench for a new community sewer system, clearing ground for a new high rise, mining, logging, disaster clean up, or something else, and excavator is one of the machines you will see being used. In each case, there are swiftly changing conditions and an operator who must know what to do.

Because an excavator operator does such a dangerous job, it’s very important to be trained properly. At ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Training School there is the experience of decades combined with the ability to adapt to the industry standards of the future. We are the recognized leaders in training heavy equipment operators for all the industries who rely on this important skilled trade.

You get the knowledge that gives perspective on a situation along with the experience that provides the skills that will continually develop on the job to make even the most dangerous jobs ones that can be done safely and professionally.