The Number One OSHA Initiative Affecting Your Business

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter. 

Safety Stand-Down week may be over, but talking about fall safety is a year-round topic. Learn from the experts how to prevent falls and increase safety. 

RoofersCoffeesShop® celebrates the 2022 National Safety Stand-Down with a Coffee Conversations episode that is all about safety and OSHA initiatives. Sponsored by Tremco and WTI, Heidi J. Ellsworth joins Trent Cotney of Adams and Reese, CSP of Safety Check, Inc.’s Frank J. Marino and Senior Safety Manager at Tremco/WTI Ed Hausknecht to answer any and all OSHA regulation questions contractors have.  

For about 25 years, Frank has been doing health and safety consulting. “We work mostly with construction contractors, and within that, probably 70% of our book of business is roofing contractors. And we do everything from building programs to management training, employee training and onsite inspections.” 

Trent Cotney serves as serves as general counsel to more than 10 trade associations, including NRCA, CRCA, WSRCA, in addition to being a practicing lawyer, capital partner and practice group leader of the construction group at Adams & Reese. “Obviously, OSHA is something that I live and breathe,” says Trent. “I've published a couple books on it and really look forward to being able to share some insight today.” 

Ed has been an OSHA instructor since 2004, after working in the field and in roofing for over 20 years. “I've worked for other manufacturers in a technical side of things. I've worked for roof consultants. I've worked for our general contracting division. So what I bring to the table is a really unique view of the industry. I've seen it from almost all sides,” says Ed. “And I've learned over those years and now can apply it with that safety aspect to it. I've walked the walk, and now I can show them the path.” 

The panel agrees that the number one OSHA concern is falls, especially during May when our attention is so focused on proactively preventing falls and safety training. “If you look at statistics from last year, falls accounted for the number one citation in the roofing industries by SIC Code. But it also was a leader of fatalities, and that was the same number the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that,” says Frank. “Although we tend to spend a lot of time on fall protection, there's a good reason.” 

Falls are a serious issue within the roofing industry, but we often don’t think of it as a risk for those on a roof. “When it comes to falls, people immediately think of roofing and falling from height, and that's not necessarily the case when you talk about falls,” reminds Ed. “There's a lot of other things linked to that term ‘falls,’ whether you're just walking on the ground or whatnot.” 

At the end of the day, fall prevention is a huge part of being a professional roofer, so you won’t want to miss out on the latest information and insights on improving your fall safety from these industry leaders. “Everybody wants their employees to go home safe and sound every night,” says Trent. “You want to make sure that you are being a professional roofing contractor. That you are actively doing, click, checking the boxes, making sure that you're crossing T's and dot the I's. And I think part of that is making sure that you've got a safe program.” 

Read, Listen or Watch the entire Coffee Conversation to learn more about fall prevention, building a safety program and OSHA initiatives that will affect your business in 2022.