OSHA 500 case studies
OSHA 500 · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The OSHA 500 - formally the Trainer Course in OSHA Standards for the Construction Industry - is the course people take to become OSHA authorized trainers and go on to deliver the OSHA 10-Hour and 30-Hour construction outreach classes. On OSHA's website this material lives under Outreach Training Program, then Construction Industry, under the heading "Trainer Information for the Construction Industry." The audience is working safety professionals: consultants, union and association instructors, corporate safety staff, and anyone whose job includes teaching construction hazard recognition to crews. The OSHA 500 case studies are 5 cases and about 4,044 words.
1The General Contractor Who Says It Isn't the Employer
A Compliance Safety and Health Officer (CSHO) arrives at a six-story steel-frame project after a complaint alleging 'no fall protection.' The general contractor, Ridgeline Constructors, has a written safety program, a site-specific fall protection plan, and runs weekly subcontractor meetings. The steel erector, Apex Iron, supplies its own tie-off equipment and supervises its own crews.
780 words, about 4 min2Fall Arrest on Joists With 14 Feet of Clearance
A steel-erection crew is installing plywood decking on open-web joists 28 ft above the third-floor concrete slab. Two workers are tied off with 6-ft shock-absorbing lanyards choked to the bottom chord of a joist; the 3/8-inch wire rope choker shows two broken wires and a kink.
800 words, about 4 min3The $60 Boot Allowance and the Bulk-Purchased N95s
A nine-person concrete-cutting and demolition contractor works 10-hour shifts inside a partially demolished warehouse. The owner buys 3M N95 filtering facepieces in bulk and tells workers to 'bring their own' hard hats, safety glasses, high-visibility vests, and work gloves; he pays a $60 annual boot allowance.
787 words, about 4 min4Dry-Cutting Indoors With Eight Weeks to Go
Six laborers spend nine hours a day dry-cutting concrete block and tuckpointing mortar inside a partially enclosed parking structure. Two gas-powered saws run almost continuously; visible dust hangs in the air and coats the workers' shirts.
896 words, about 4 min5Fractured Wrist, Four Sutures, and a 'Vacation'
A general contractor with 150 employees (peaking at 190 in July) had these 2023 events: (1) An ironworker falls 11 ft in March, fractures a wrist, is off work 3 calendar days, then works light duty for 6 weeks. (2) A carpenter cuts a thumb in May; an urgent-care physician closes it with four sutures and he returns the same day.
781 words, about 4 min