7 people died in construction accidents in New York City since the beginning of the year. This is almost as many as during all of 2014 a year during which 8 fatal construction accidents were recorded. A 22 year old construction worker died on April 6th at a construction site where the restaurant Pastis…
Construction workers who are exposed to respirable crystalline silica have a high risk of developing silicosis, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease. Lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as renal disease are also common among workers who are exposed to silica dust. 0.05 mg/m3 is NIOSH’s respirable crystalline silica Recommended…
Construction worker advocates joined forces last week at the Legislative Office Building in Albany to support the Scaffold Law (Labor Law Section 240(1) ) and the proposed “Sunshine Bill” which would require liability insurance providers to file financial statements and claims data with the state’s superintendent of financial services. Assemblyman Francisco Moya, D-Queens,…
The NYC department of Building just announced that the Construction Safety week will start Monday April 27th 2015 with the Build Safe / Live Safe conference. In this daylong series of seminars, Department experts will discuss industry trends and highlight safe construction operations. Professional credit will be available. Tickets can be…
A construction worker was seriously injured on a construction site in TriBeCa, downtown Manhattan. The worker was trying to unload a sheet of drywall from a stack when 3 of them toppled on to him. Three other workers had to hoist the sheet off of him. He was taken to the…
A construction worker suffered serious personal injury after he got stuck in a pit at a construction site on the Lower East Side in N.Y.C.. The worker was working in a 10 to 12 foot trench that had been excavated to repair a leaking pipe when the accident happened. Mud,…
A construction accident 0n the Upper West Side led to the death of a 61 year old worker. The man was working on the renovation of a landmark townhouse on 70th street near Columbus Avenue when he fell down the shaft of the elevator from the second floor to the…
The recent case of Delfino Jesus Velazquez Mendizabal, a Mexican construction worker who died while working at a demolition site in Staten Island, NYC is a tragic example of how dangerous the construction industry has become for Latino workers. Often undocumented and working for small contractors who are less regulated,…
Falls from heights are the most common cause of construction workers deaths and this number is especially concerning in the residential construction sector. To address this issue, OSHA is now enforcing similar safety standards in home building and in commercial construction. Despite this effort, falls in residential construction continues to…
After two fatal crane accidents killed several people in Manhattan in 2008, 65 safety fixes were identified by consultants but only 8 (12%) of them were implemented, 17 (26%) were partially implemented, 18 (28%) were in progress and 22 (34%) had not been implemented according to a recent audit by…