Prevent Work Area Accidents and Injuries with Critical Safety Equipment

If you work in construction, you already know the importance of having a safe work environment. In addition to keeping your workers injury-free, having the right safety equipment on hand reduces the risk of liability and keeps projects going on schedule. In order to be sure that your workers stay safe, the following safety equipment and gear should be part of your workplace:

Choose Rugged Work Clothing

To keep your employees’ bodies protected, they must come to work in tough and high-quality work clothing. A very popular brand is Carhartt. Carhartt offers a wide selection of clothing, including workboots, pants, shirts and outerwear that will stand up to tough working conditions. Most items have plenty of pockets for storing work tools and other gear.

Post Safety Signs

Another effective way to keep your employees safe while on the job — that is also easy and affordable — is post all required safety signs. This will also keep any visitors (and inspectors) to the site safe and alert them to what you are doing. For example, if your team is soldering, welding or doing other “hot work,” purchase and post “Caution Hot Work Area” signs. Compliance signs that remind workers to be careful when on a ladder are also helpful, as are basic workplace “housekeeping” reminders to put things back in their correct locations. This can help keep your team safe from tripping over buckets, tools and other equipment that was used and then left on the floor.

Provide Personal Protective Equipment

OSHA has a handy list of the different types of construction personal protective equipment (PPE) that workers need; this includes safety glasses or face shields that are used when anything can fly into the eye — for example, when grinding, welding or cutting. Workers should also wear slip-resistant work shoes or boots with tough soles that resist punctures and, depending on what they are doing, offer hand and head protection. While these are all definitely important and required types of PPE, it can be challenging to ensure that your hard-working team will actually follow through and use them. PPE safety signs will help, but you can get more creative. For example, if your team is working outside in the summer heat and their safety goggles fog up, think outside of the PPE box and devise ways to make sure those goggles stay on. For example, spring for fog-proof goggles, let your team wear cooling headgear and bandanas and give them more breaks and access to plenty of cool beverages.

Prevent Falls

While you don’t want anyone stumbling over or onto sharp equipment on the floor, you also want to be sure your team doesn’t fall from scaffolding or ladders. Construct Connect advises employers to educate your workers on all of the potential places they can fall, and provide them with fall protection systems that will keep them safe when working or walking on surfaces that are six feet or higher off the ground. These can include safety net systems, personal fall arrest gear and guardrails.