More communication tower workers were killed in 2013 than in
the previous 2 years combined, and four more tower-related deaths have already
occurred in 2014. Speaking at the National Association
of Tower Erectors (NATE) conference yesterday, Assistant Secretary of Labor
for OSH David Michaels expressed OSHA’s concern about this disturbing trend,
and said that actions must be taken to prevent more deaths.
“We are very concerned about this sharp rise,” Michaels
said. “The fatality rate in this industry is extremely high and tower workers
have a risk of fatal injury perhaps 25 to 30 times higher than the risk for the
average American worker. This is clearly unacceptable.”
Michaels indicated that, in addition to increased
enforcement, OSHA is taking steps to educate industry and workers, and helping
small businesses by providing free consultations. According to Michaels, field
staff conducting incident investigations are instructed to pay special
attention to communication tower incidents, and to collect more complete data
about these incidents to help the agency better understand and prevent them.
“Our inspectors will also be paying close attention to
contracts and subcontracts to determine who is doing tower work and what their
qualifications are,” Michaels said. “And we will be taking a hard look at the
safety requirements that flow down through the contracts and how owners and
contractors ensure that everyone involved meets those requirements.”
OSHA has posted Michaels’
full comments on its website.