Construction Safety

Course Titles and Descriptions

Aerial Lift Safety

Aerial lifts are a common sight on construction projects, at oil and gas wells, or around industrial facilities. These machines usually have a wheeled drive section used to move the lift around, an extendable arm, and a basket for personnel to stand in. Aerial lifts are useful when a ladder or scaffold is unsafe to use or not feasible. In this module, we’ll discuss the limitations, features, hazards, and safe operating procedures of aerial lifts.

Arc Flash Safety: Unqualified Person

This session provides information about arc flash, shock hazards, and best safety practices for “unqualified persons” who work around electrical equipment but who lack the skills, knowledge, and training to work on or near exposed, energized electrical equipment. In this session, we’ll talk about the hazards and risks of working around exposed, energized electrical equipment. We’ll also discuss general safe work practices from the consensus standard, National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA, 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace, that can help prevent arc flash incidents.

Asbestos Awareness

Asbestos is a well-known health hazard and is highly regulated. However, this was not always the case. There are numerous materials in existing buildings and structures that contain asbestos and having the ability to recognize them is important. This training session about asbestos awareness is designed for employees who may contact or work near asbestos-containing material (known as ACM), asbestos-containing building material (known as ACBM), or presumed asbestos-containing material (known as PACM), but do not disturb it as part of their normal work activities.

Avoiding Back Injuries

Back injuries are among the most common workplace injuries that cause lost days away from work. No matter what job you perform, you can injure your back on the job. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to avoid back injuries and the lifetime of pain and medical bills that can come with them. In this training session, you’ll learn what risk factors and hazards expose you to back injuries and what you can do to help keep your back healthy and pain-free.

Avoiding Injuries in the Line of Fire

Construction is a high-hazard industry that comprises a wide range of activities involving demolition, alteration, and/or repair. Construction workers engage in many activities that may expose them to serious hazards, such as falling from rooftops, unguarded machinery, being struck by heavy equipment, and being exposed to the release of hazardous energy. These hazards put workers in harm’s way, which is also known as being “in the line of fire.”

This course provides information to help workers in the construction industry to identify, reduce, and eliminate “in the line of fire” hazards to avoid injuries and fatalities.

Workers will need additional training depending on the types of hazards they’re exposed to. For example, workers exposed to fall hazards will need to take a fall protection-specific course.

Basic First Aid for Medical Emergencies

When a serious injury occurs at the workplace, you must think and act quickly. Medical assistance may be only minutes away, but, sometimes, seconds count. What you do in those first few seconds and minutes can make the difference between life and death. Quick, calm, and correct action can make all the difference. That’s why knowledge of basic first aid is so important. First aid is emergency care given to the sick or injured before medical personnel arrive. This session is an overview of first aid techniques and priorities.

Battery Safety

This session provides information about battery safety and is intended for any employees who handle or use batteries in the workplace. We’ll discuss all the key issues associated with using batteries safely, including battery hazards, charging, and maintenance. This session focuses primarily on the large lead-acid batteries, as well as lithium-ion batteries used in a variety of industrial equipment. The main objective of this session is to make sure you work safely with batteries on the job.

Blasting and Explosives Safety

Few careers leave so little room for error as an explosives worker. Without meticulous attention to detail, just one distracted moment can result in death. As you can imagine, the blasting profession is a highly regulated field. The main purpose of today’s session is to help you keep your worksite safe while outlining the regulations for blasting and the use of explosives which are found at 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1926.900 to 1926.914 and which are enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.

Chain saw Safety for Construction Workers

Chain saws are efficient and productive portable power tools used in construction and many other industries. They are also potentially dangerous if not used correctly and carefully. Proper operation and maintenance greatly reduces the risk for injury when using chain saws.

This course is for construction workers who use chain saws at their jobsite. It also explains chain saw hazards and safety features and describes best practices to prevent injuries and stay safe on the job.

Contractor Safety

In today’s training session, we’ll review the key elements of a typical host employer’s safety program. Contractors will be required to follow the host employer’s safety program while performing their work. Familiarity with the host employer’s site and safety program is crucial to reducing the risk of injury.

Crane Rigging in Construction

This training session focuses on safe rigging for crane and derrick operations at construction sites. A critical job for the safety of any crane or derrick operation is rigging the load. A poor rigging job can lead to injured workers, property damage, or other serious consequences. Rigging is the most time consuming of any crane operation and represents the greatest hazard potential. In this training session we’ll cover the fundamentals of rigging cranes and derricks to safely hoist loads and discuss safe work practices that will protect you from injuries related to rigging.

Dipping, Coating, and Cleaning Operations

This course provides information for employees performing tasks that may expose them to hazards like dipping, coating, and cleaning operations. The general term “dipping and coating” covers a wide variety of operations, including paint dipping, degreasing, and electroplating. When you work in dipping or coating operations, you need to understand the hazards and corresponding precautions to minimize risk factors and reduce accidents, injuries, or illnesses at work.

Electrical Safety for Unqualified Construction Workers

Workers at construction sites who operate electric-powered machinery, tools, and equipment, and others who do maintenance or service work on or near electrical systems, but aren’t qualified to perform electrical work, face the risk of contact with electricity that can cause life-threatening shock, burns, fires, falls, and electrocution.

This course is for workers exposed to electricity at construction workplaces, but who aren’t authorized or qualified to work directly on or near exposed, energized electrical systems or parts. This course is designed to help workers unfamiliar with or untrained in the technical aspects of electricity to recognize electrical hazards and safe practices to avoid injury at the construction site.

Excavation Safety for Construction Workers

The main objective of this session is to help you learn how important it is to work safely in excavations or trenches. At the end of the training session, you will understand preventive measures required by law, your role in working safely, your employer’s obligations to protect you, hazardous atmospheres, and types of protective systems.

Fall Protection in Construction

This course provides important information on fall protection at construction sites. Anyone who is exposed to potential fall hazards of 6 feet or greater must be trained to identify these hazards and how to properly use fall protection.

This course covers general fall protection in construction topics but doesn’t discuss certain specific activities covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, such as stairways, ladders, electric power lines, and steel erection work.

Gas Safety for Construction Workers

This presentation is about knowing what dangerous gases are and how to protect yourself from them at work. The main objective of this session is to make sure you, as a construction worker, know the broad scope of gas safety and what is required to comply with the law.

Hazard Communication and GHS: What Employees Need to Know

This session discusses the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s, or OSHA’s, Hazard Communication Standard, or HazCom.

The standard, which is also referred to as the worker right to know standard, makes sure that you know all about the possible dangers of hazardous chemicals that you use in your job and gives you the information to protect yourself from those hazards. Your employer is required to provide you with this information for the hazardous chemicals present in your workplace.

During this session, we’re going to talk about how to recognize hazards, how to protect yourself, and how to interpret critical information designed to make your workplace safer.

Introduction to Rough Terrain Forklift Safety

Rough terrain forklifts are a special class of forklifts, known as Class 7 powered industrial trucks, that are designed to carry heavy loads safely indoors and outdoors on rugged and sloped surfaces and in adverse weather conditions. This presentation will review the hazards and explain what you can do to prevent accidents and injuries when operating these lift trucks. The course does not cover vehicles used for earth-moving or over-the-road hauling.

Ladder Safety

Unfortunately, ladder accidents, injuries, and even fatalities happen often on the job-in fact, they are one of the most common accidents that happen on the job. But there is a lot you can do to avoid becoming one of those accident statistics-and it starts with using the tools and information you will be given now.

Lead Safety in Construction

You have the right and the responsibility to know about the hazards of lead and the proper procedures for protecting yourself and co-workers from exposure or harm. We’ll discuss lead in your work areas, how to identify lead hazards, and how to protect yourself from those hazards.

Permit-Required Confined Space Rescue for Supervisors

There are, on average, 150 deaths nationally in permit-required confined spaces every year, and in many of those cases, a would-be rescuer was a casualty. This module provides supervisors of permit-required confined spaces with information to help them ensure that rescue services are available and that the means to summon them are operable while entrants are in such a space. The module covers confined space operations in general industry workplaces.

Permit-Required Confined Spaces in Construction: Attendant

This safety training module is for attendants at permit-required confined spaces where construction work is performed, including building new structures or upgrading existing ones. An attendant is stationed outside a permit-required confined space to monitor the entrant, conditions inside the space, prevent unauthorized entry, and summon rescuers when needed.

Permit-Required Confined Spaces in Construction: Authorized Entrant

This safety training module is for entrants at permit-required confined spaces where construction work is performed, including building new structures or upgrading existing ones.

Permit-Required Confined Spaces: Entrant

Over 2 million workers enter permit-required confined spaces annually, but less than 15 percent are trained to recognize common hazards like oxygen deficiency, engulfment, entrapment, and other safety and health threats from energized systems and toxic materials. Fortunately, there are effective and well-established safe practices, testing protocols, and hazard controls that can prevent injuries and illnesses caused by these hazards in confined spaces. This training session provides information on these safe practices for workers designated as authorized entrants for permit-required confined spaces.

Portable Power Tool Safety

Portable power tools are common at many workplaces, but many workers become complacent when using them on the job and are seriously injured as a result. This course is designed for workers who use portable power tools such as drills, sanders, chain saws, circular saws, and grinders and provides information about the hazards and safe practices to prevent injury. By the end of the course, you will be able to identify the hazards of portable power tools, take precautions against injury, use tool guards effectively and correctly, and understand common safety practices for specific types of tools. Duration: 14 minutes

Refueling Equipment

Whether using diesel, gasoline, or other flammable liquids, refueling equipment is a necessary part of each construction project. Following safe refueling procedures is critical in ensuring your safety, as well as the safety of your coworkers. This course will cover safe refueling techniques, as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations for the safe handling of these potentially dangerous substances including 29 CFR 1926.152 – “Flammable liquids” and 29 CFR 1910.1200 “Hazard Communication Standard”. This session is intended for employees who work with construction machinery and refuel equipment.

Respirable Crystalline Silica in Construction: Preventing Exposure

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, exposure to respirable crystalline silica remains a serious threat to approximately 2 million workers in over 600,000 U.S. construction workplaces. Respirable crystalline silica, or silica, is a common mineral found in construction materials such as sand, stone, concrete, bricks, and mortar, and it has been classified as a human lung carcinogen. Additionally, breathing silica dust can cause silicosis, which, in severe cases, can be disabling or even fatal. The silica dust enters the lungs and causes the formation of scar tissue, thus reducing the lungs’ ability to take in oxygen. There is no cure for silicosis. The OSHA respirable crystalline silica rule for construction found at 29 Code of Federal Regulations, or CFR, 1926.1153 sets forth requirements, such as employee training, to significantly reduce the amount of silica dust that workers can be exposed to in the workplace. This training session will cover everything you need to know about respirable crystalline silica and how to protect yourself and others each day on the job.

Respirable Crystalline Silica in Construction: Preventing Exposure (Spanish)

This presentation will help prepare workers at construction sites to recognize potential exposures to hazardous silica dust and take measures to prevent exposure. At the end of the presentation workers will be able to describe respirable crystalline silica and the health effects of exposure to silica dust, at-risk activities on construction worksites that involve airborne release of silica dust, and how to take effective precautions to prevent exposure.

Respiratory Protection

Millions of workers like you wear respirators in workplaces across a wide variety of industries to protect against poor oxygen environments, harmful dusts, fogs, smokes, mists, gases, vapors, and sprays. But just wearing a respirator is not enough. You need to know how to properly fit, use, inspect, and maintain your respirator to fully protect yourself from these respiratory hazards. If you don’t, these hazards can cause cancer, lung impairment, lung diseases, or even death.

Safe Forklift Operation

Operating a forklift is a big responsibility, and it’s one that requires you to pay attention to safety at all times. Forklifts are useful for moving heavy loads, but remember that they are powerful machines that can be extremely dangerous if operated incorrectly. This course is designed to help you become a better and safer forklift operator. If you’re an experienced operator, this course may remind you of safe habits and work practices that you might have forgotten. If you’re a new operator, this course will describe the operating practices you need to follow to be a safe operator. Reviewing this course by itself will not make you a good forklift driver. It’s up to you to put what you learn into practice so that you can become a safe and responsible operator.

Scaffolds in Construction

This session provides basic hazard awareness and safe work practices for workers who use scaffolds to safely perform construction, repair, and maintenance work on structures and for workers who erect, maintain, and disassemble scaffolds. The course covers practices and control measures to protect workers from scaffold-related injuries caused by falls; falling objects; unstable or overloaded scaffolds; electrocution; and slips, trips, and falls on the same level. Note that this session does NOT cover permanent work platforms, aerial lifts, scissor lifts, or lifts suspended from cranes or derricks.

Scissor Lifts: Operator Safety

Thousands of workers use scissor lifts to perform work at heights across a wide variety of industries. But because of this high rate of usage, there is a similarly high rate of scissor lift-related accidents. Fortunately, the majority of these incidents can be prevented through proper training. This presentation will train scissor lift operators to appreciate the hazards associated with scissor lifts; minimize those hazards; and safely operate, handle materials on, and inspect and maintain scissor lifts.

By the end of the course, workers will be able to recognize the hazards of operating scissor lifts; identify common features of scissor lift equipment; inspect scissor lifts and maintain them in a safe working condition; demonstrate safe stabilization, positioning, and operation of scissor lifts; lift loads, tools, and other work materials properly; and prevent falls through safe work practices and by wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Scissor Lifts: Operator Safety (Spanish)

Miles de trabajadores utilizan elevadores de tijera para realizar trabajos en altura en una amplia variedad de industrias. Sin embargo, debido a este alto índice de uso, existe una tasa igualmente alta de accidentes relacionados con ellos. Afortunadamente, la mayoría de estos incidentes se pueden prevenir mediante una capacitación adecuada. Esta presentación capacitará a los operadores de elevadores de tijera para que comprendan los riesgos asociados, minimicen dichos riesgos y operen, manipulen materiales, inspeccionen y mantengan los elevadores de tijera de forma segura.

Al finalizar el curso, los trabajadores podrán reconocer los riesgos de operar elevadores de tijera; identificar las características comunes de los equipos; inspeccionarlos y mantenerlos en condiciones de trabajo seguras; demostrar la estabilización, el posicionamiento y el funcionamiento seguros de los elevadores de tijera; levantar cargas, herramientas y otros materiales de trabajo correctamente; y prevenir caídas mediante prácticas de trabajo seguras y el uso del equipo de protección personal (EPP) adecuado.

Trenching: Competent Person

This session is intended for the “competent person” at trench excavation sites—that is, a person who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards and working conditions that are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees in and around excavations and who is authorized to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate the hazards.

Underground Construction Safety

Constructing underground tunnels, shafts, chambers, and passageways exposes workers to many dangers, including reduced visibility, falling rocks and soil, difficult or limited entry and exit in work areas, exposure to air contaminants, and emergencies such as fire and explosion. This module provides workers involved in underground construction work with information about common hazards and safe work practices to prevent injuries and respond to emergencies.

Welding and Cutting Safety for Construction Workers

The objectives of this session are to discuss important safety points about welding and cutting. By the end of the session, you will be able to identify the major safety and health hazards, know the different welding processes, select appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), and implement controls needed to prevent or control fires.

Working in Cold Conditions

Those of you who work regularly in cold conditions have more to worry about than just being uncomfortable. Cold working conditions can actually lead to health hazards that you need to protect yourself against. During this session, we’ll tell you what hazards to look out for and how you can keep yourself safe—and warm!

Working in Hot Conditions

If you work outdoors in hot weather or indoors with no cooling system, it comes with the territory that you may sometimes feel hot and uncomfortable. While being hot may sometimes be unavoidable, if you get too overheated and dehydrated, it could be downright dangerous. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to protect yourself from heat-related illnesses, and that’s what this training session is all about.

Working Safely Around Heavy Equipment

A construction site is an inherently dangerous workplace. The main goal of this session is to help you understand the importance of working safely near heavy equipment. At the end of the session, you will be able to understand the leading causes of heavy equipment-related accidents, identify dangers associated with heavy equipment, discuss what Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations say about working safely on or near heavy equipment, and learn basic precautions to stay safe on the worksite.

Working Safely Near Power Lines

Overhead and buried power lines are especially hazardous for general construction workers. You are using equipment in close proximity to sources of electricity, and this is a serious workplace hazard. Accidental contact-direct or indirect-could be deadly. For this reason, working around power lines requires extra diligence—as well as good judgment and common sense—from you and from your employer. This training session covers the hazards of energized power lines and the ways you can protect yourself when working near them.

Working Safely Outdoors

Today, we’re going to talk about working safely outdoors. Working outdoors exposes you to many different types of hazards, including poisonous plants, insect bites and stings, snakebites, other animal bites or scratches, heat- and cold-related illness, pesticides and herbicides, and the hazards of any outdoor power tools you might use. To keep safe when working outdoors, you have to be aware of all the hazards and the precautions you need to take to prevent injuries or illness.