Interesting thoughts and observations:

• The US Congress passed the law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, in 1970. Why it that some people still don’t know who or what OSHA is?

• There were 5.5 million workplace injuries in 1998, according to the Department of Labor. This is the lowest rate ever recorded.

• Lean-to and shore scaffolds have been outlawed since 1971. Do you what these scaffolds are?

• You have a 1 in 3 chance of being injured each year.

• The Scaffold, Shoring, and Forming Institute, SSFI, has standardized testing procedures for testing various types of scaffolding and shoring products.

• You have a higher chance of dying while working on a roof than working on a scaffold.

• You have a lower chance of dying while working on a floor than working on a scaffold.

• Falls constitute 70% of scaffold fatalities.

• Fall protection on scaffolds has been required by law since 1971.

• 60% of scaffold fall fatalities occur at heights less than 31 feet.

• 19% of scaffold fall fatalities are laborers, 14% are masons, and 15% are painters.

• You are more than twice as likely to die falling from a suspended scaffold as you are from a frame scaffold.

• OSHA requires that building owners have building support structures that are used to support maintenance equipment inspected annually. The inspection report shall be made available to the employer using that equipment. This would include employers who use permanent roof installations to support temporary suspended scaffold platforms.

• The ten hour OSHA 500 Course really does take ten hours to complete!