Last week was OSHA’s annual National Safety Stand-Down for fall prevention, a week that OSHA sets aside for employers to take time to focus on eliminating fall hazards and why fall protection is such an important topic when it comes to safety. This year marks Innovative’s 5^th consecutive year participating in this event! Falls are consistently a leading cause of citations and fatalities in the construction sector. 32% of construction fatalities were due to falls in 2018, which is almost 3 times as many as the next most frequent cause.

Innovative participated by having personnel on construction projects and in our manufacturing facility review a special Fall Protection Toolbox Talk. The training reviewed components of a fall protection system, how to wear a harness properly, and differences between fall restraint and fall arrest. Afterwards, employees were given a demonstration on how to properly inspect fall protection gear then asked to inspect all of the fall protection equipment onsite. At Innovative, safety is a core company value, so taking the time to provide awareness to our employees is critical to the success of our company and continuing to foster a culture of safe work environments.

Thankfully falls do not happen often, but we must be prepared with good PPE, training, and correct work practices to keep everyone protected from fall hazards. Events like this help promote fall protection awareness and together we can prevent falls by putting safety first!