Every year, numerous Manitobans get injured on job sites. In most cases, they are preventable injuries.
There are also many cases of Manitobans injuring themselves working on a DIY home project. Again, most of these were preventable.
With the projects that we all do at home, safety often requires nothing more than thinking ahead and using a little common sense. Few people cut their lawn in bare feet with a powerful mower that has a razor-sharp blade? But how many wear safety goggles when sanding a cupboard for re-painting? When working on the your eavestroughs, do you properly anchor and secure your ladder?
We're not experts on construction safety, and few of us have all the proper tools and equipment at our disposal at home. However, the consequences of an accident, including the impact on our health and families, are no less at home.
Take a minute, think the job through and employ whatever safety precautions that you have at your disposal. It may add a couple of minutes to the job, but it may save you much more.
Professionals are not immune to preventable accidents either. Most tradesmen know better, but some are occasionally guilty of failing to use proper safety devices to help minimize the chance of a serious accident.
Fall-protection, for instance, has been publicized tremendously over the past year and, on the residential construction front, is emphasized more than any other safety concern.
Recently, I witnessed a project on a church roof. It was a severely sloped roof and two men were securing shingles. I could see their fall-protection lines, and it was obvious that they'd taken the proper steps to protect themselves.
However, their two helpers were climbing ladders with full packs of shingles on their shoulders, one hand on the ladder and one on the bundles. They were not tied off. When they got to the roof, they continued up another 20 feet holding onto the shingles and little else.
Neither of these men were utilizing any form of fall protection and the potential for a serious accident was extremely high, though I have no doubt that they've done this many times before and were confident in their abilities.
Safe work procedures are everyone's business. None of us can afford to take shortcuts.
Mike Moore is president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association.
