Distance From a 6' Fall Exposure is Not Fall Protection!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

As you all know, under the OSHA construction standards and I.D.I.'s safety requirements, employees are required to be protected from falls of 6' or more to lower levels.  There are many means and methods of protecting yourself including engineering controls, guardrail protection, fall restraint, fall arrest and in some cases a warning line system.

It is important and critical for everyone to know that distance from a fall exposure is not considered fall protection.  For example, you could be working on a flat square-shaped roof that measures 300' in length by 300' in width and you are standing and working in the middle of the roof meaning that you are 150' from the edge of the roof which is your closest fall exposure.  The 150' distance that your body is from the edge of the roof is not considered as a method of fall protection.  In this scenario, you would still need to be protected from falling off the roof by having guardrails installed around you, tying off with a fall restraint system, tying off with a fall arrest system and/or possibly a warning line system surrounding you.

Fall protection needs planning.  This article is mainly to stress the point that employees cannot use distance from a 6' fall exposure as their means of fall protection.  If you are at a job site and you have to perform duties where there are 6' fall exposures, discuss fall protection methods and planning with your Foreman.  If you and/or the Foreman need additional guidance, you should then contract your Superintendent. Your Superintendent will seek input from our Safety Director if more planning is needed.

If you have any questions in regards to fall protection, you are encouraged to call our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

I.D.I. - Participating in OSHA's National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down!

Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting on 5/21/16

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees,

Just getting the word out that we have scheduled our 2nd volunteer quarterly safety meeting for 2016 and it will be held on Saturday, May 21st at 7:00am at our Barrington office location.

The safety meeting topic will be: Struck-by Hazards which is part of the OSHA Focus 4.

What is the OSHA Focus 4 you ask?  The OSHA Focus 4 are what OSHA considers the 4 main causes of the most fatalities on construction job sites.  The OSHA Focus 4 topics consists of fall hazards, electrocution hazards, struck-by hazards and caught-between hazards.  For example, OSHA reports that in 2007, there were 311 construction deaths that were caused by "struck-by" type incidents.  These include being struck by a crane's swing radius, moving equipment, materials, objects falling from overhead, vehicle, an aerial lift and many other things that can strike a person and injure them or cause a fatality.

Our quarterly safety meetings are the backbone of our safety culture.  This is where we all come together as one team to help keep us all on the same page with safety and to help us live up to our Safety Mission Statement - "Everyone Goes Home Alive and in the Same Condition as They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It!"

Each employee that attends this safety meeting will earn 400 safety incentive points towards our 2016 Volunteer Safety Training Incentive Program.  Employees can also pick up your items that you ordered from last year’s volunteer safety incentive program as we will be distributing the items at this meeting. 

If you have any questions about this volunteer safety meeting, please contact your Superintendent or our Safety Director, Peter Graham. 

We look forward to seeing you!

Have a Safe Day!

Green Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords as of 4/1/16!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees:

We begin a new quarter on Friday, 4/1/16 for our Assured Grounding Program and we are to switch over to green tape.  To all Safety Coordinators - We need your help to keep our employees safe and help keep us OSHA compliant by following our assured grounding program. Please inspect, test and color-code with green tape all 3 pronged electrical tools and extension cords. All electrical tools and cords need to be visually inspected. If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end-housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to the lead person.  If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester.  First, you should test the oulet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired. You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off. This means the outlet is working appropriately. Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester. Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use. Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead person. If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's white electrical tape and install the green electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 2nd quarter's Assured Grounding Program. The green tape shall remain in place from 4/1/16 through 6/30/16. You are not quite done yet! All employees now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord needs to be immediately removed from service.

If you do not have green tape, please ask your Superintendent as they have green tape to provide to you.

Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order. Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet and electrocution. If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Program, please contacall our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

I.D.I.'s Procedures for Cluttered Job Sites!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees: 

Below is one of the exercises we trained on at our volunteer quarterly safety meeting that was held on 2/13/16.  This is just a reminder of the procedures to be taken when you encounter a cluttered job site that you have limited room to safely maneuver in. (See the procedures to be taken below the photos)

You arrive at this job site in the morning and your task is to tape the walls.  

What Would You Do?  

Here are the procedures our Field Leaders came up with!

1.  Take pictures showing the job site area of concern.

2.  Clean up any mess that is ours - any equipment or materials that belong to I.D.I. that can be cleaned up quickly, easily and safely. 

3.  Take more pictures after cleaning up and organizing our equipment and materials.

4.  Assess the situation. 

5.  If the area is still cluttered with other contractor's equipment and materials, clean up what you can if it can be done quickly, easily and safely.  

6.  Take more pictures showing the improvements and current conditions. 

7.  Assess the situation again to determine if it is safe to work in.  If not - move to the next step.  

8.  Seek out assistance from the general contractor if they are on site. 

9.  Text before and after photos to your Superintendent along with a description of the situation and communicate about the issue. 

10.  Your Superintendent will communicate with you and determine our next course of action.  

If you have any questions regarding the above procedures, please contact your Superintendent. 

Have a Safe Day!

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Volunteer Quarterly Safety "Make-Up" Meeting on Wednesday, 3/2/16 at 4:00pm

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees,

Just putting out a final reminder that our make-up safety meeting is this Wednesday, 3/2/16 at 4:00pm at our Barrington office in the warehouse!
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As you all know, we held our 1st volunteer quarterly safety meeting of 2016 on Saturday, 2/13/16. We offer a volunteer make-up meeting for those that could not attend the regularly scheduled safety meeting either due to working for I.D.I. on the Saturday of the meeting or due to unforeseen circumstances, etc.

The volunteer quarterly safety make-up meeting is being held on Wednesday, 3/2/16 at 4:00pm at our Barrington office in our warehouse. The safety training topic is: "Hazard Identification & Prompt Corrective Measures."

We are asking everyone to help spread the word to all of our employees so they have the opportunity to attend.

Also if you are planning on attending, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham, no later than Tuesday, 3/1/16 at 3:00pm to let him know as we need an approximate head-count for the meeting as we have to prepare materials and for chair rental purposes. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or text to (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

5-Minute Morning Daily Safety Huddles!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

I am just sending out a reminder of the new procedure that we rolled out to all employees at our volunteer quarterly safety meeting that was held on 2/13/16.  We are now requiring a mandatory 5-Minute Morning Daily Safety Huddle to be performed at every job site, every morning before anyone actually starts working.  This procedure has been put in place for your safety.  Below is a copy of the hand-out that was distributed at the 2/13/16 volunteer quarterly safety meeting.  Please contact your superintendent with any questions.

                   5-Minute Morning Daily Safety Huddle 

1.      Lead person shall conduct a mandatory 5-minute daily safety huddle first thing in the morning, every morning, with all employees.  This safety huddle is to focus our employee’s minds on safety before work commences.  The employees shall discuss any job site hazards that anyone has identified and shall discuss what they can do to eliminate or reduce the hazards to an acceptable level.  This safety huddle shall include a task hazard analysis.  The employees shall plan their tasks for the day, discuss the hazards of the tasks and what measures they are taking to prevent injury or health hazards due to the tasks and conditions.  Examples are; what equipment and materials will be needed to perform the task safely, how to use the equipment safely, PPE to be worn, inspecting electrical cords, inspecting equipment, using safety rails on scaffolds when required, locking scaffold wheels, safe ladder usage, fall protection planning, guards in place on saws and tools that require them, reporting open holes/trenches in the floor, overhead hazards, struck by hazards, etc.  Lead person shall seek employee input and involvement in the safety process.

2.      All employees shall make regular and frequent visual safety inspections throughout the day looking for hazards and reporting them to the lead person.  If hazards are identified, all employees shall stay clear of the hazards and prompt corrective measures shall be taken to eliminate the hazard or to reduce the hazard to an acceptable level of risk.  If the hazards cannot be eliminated quickly, easily and safely by our employees, the lead person shall notify the general contractor and seek out assistance with getting the hazards eliminated.  If the hazards are not being eliminated timely, the lead person shall notify their Superintendent. 

Have a Safe Day!