Overview 

Construction is a $1 trillion industry employing over 6.5 million people by over 700,000 companies throughout the United States.

This industry includes building construction, highway construction, heavy industrial construction (e.g., tunnels, airports, and dams), municipal utility construction (e.g., waste water treatment plants), and special trades such as plumbing, heating, and demolition contractors.  

Safety 

According to OSHA, "One of every five workplace fatalities is a construction worker."   In the Construction industry, there is obviously an abundance of occupational hazards.  In an industry where such a large portion of the employees are working with occupational risks surrounding them, hazard communication is essential.

Examples of Occupational Hazards Associated with Construction

Another method of ensuring safety within the Construction Industry is through Hazard Communication Standards (HCS).  As stated by the U.S. Department if Labor:

"The HCS provides people the right-to-know the hazards and identities of the chemicals they are exposed to in the workplace. When employees have this information, they can effectively participate in their employers' protective programs and take steps to protect themselves. In addition, the standard gives employers the information they need to design and implement an effective protective program for employees potentially exposed to hazardous chemicals. Together these actions will result in a reduction of chemical source illnesses and injuries in American workplaces."

From October 2004 until September 2005, OSHA issued 412 citations to the construction industry and fines totaling $1,256,322.  The average worker incidence rate was 6.4 per 100 full-time employees and the Construction Industry had 1,224 fatalities. 

View the OSHA top ten areas of concern

Environmental

Some of the important environmental issues that are associated with the Construction Industry are emissions regulation, management of hazardous waste, disposal of construction debris, and contact with lead, asbestos, and mercury.  There are also situations in which construction companies have to be aware of laws surrounding developments near wetlands or endangered species.

According to the EPA:

"The sector includes building construction, highway construction, heavy industrial construction (e.g., tunnels, airports, and dams), municipal utility construction (e.g., waste water treatment plants), and special trades such as plumbing, heating, and demolition contractors.

EPA and the states regulate construction site storm water runoff; dredge and fill activities in U.S. waters and wetlands; oil and chemical spills; air emissions; asbestos handling; and solid/hazardous waste storage and disposal. Construction practices may also affect indoor air quality, materials recycling, energy use, and vegetation and habitat quality.

In response to increasing awareness of the environmental impacts of building, "green construction" is a growing trend. Green construction seeks to minimize the impacts of construction activities on the environment. This is achieved through materials selection, recycling and reuse, sustainable design, energy efficiency, etc."

Click here to learn about a few of the Federal Statutes and Regulations associated with the Construction Industry 

Some questions to ask yourself:

• What can our company do to stay competitive?
• Are we losing too much time, money, and other resources dealing with non-compliance?
• Are we using the most cost-effective methods to stay compliant?
• If not, are we looking to alternatives to our existing compliance system?

Please feel free to browse our website or contact us to see if ehsSUITE is just what your Construction Corporation needs to stay competitive.

Helpful Links:

OSHA: Assistance for the Construction Industry

Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH)

EPA: Construction

• MSDS Document Management  
  The ehsSUITE solution allows the centralization of MSDS documents to an easier to manage location. Display of the latest MSDS is easy and convenient through the ehsSUITE's web browser.
• CERCLA Reporting  

  The release reporting requirements set out in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) enable federal, state, and local authorities to effectively prepare for and respond to chemical accidents.

• Title V Monitoring and Reporting  

  The ehsSUITE solution automates the complex requirements of Title V for data collection, reporting, and recordkeeping.

• Regulations Management  
  The ehsSUITE solution provides a simple-to-use interface to manage regulations and availability to a company, facility, or operation level.  In addition, only ehsSUITE allows our users to relate regulations and their applicability to equipment, tasks, events and data - making it easy to track each applicable regulation and demonstrate compliance.
• Greenhouse Gas Tracking  

  Management of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and determination of the carbon footprint for your facility or corporation is important in today's global marketplace.  Initiatives such as Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 14000, and Corporate Sustainability Initiatives are beginning to require facilities or corporations to calculate and aggregate data and information on greenhouse gas emissions and determine their carbon footprint.

• SARA/TRI Compliance and Reporting  
  The ehsSUITE solution provides easy-to-use calculation tools that allow a facility to determine the release data for each of the approximately 650 chemicals and then compare that to the threshold level for reporting. 
• MACT and NESHAP Compliance Management Reporting  
  The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate emissions of toxic air pollutants from a published list of industrial sources referred to as "source categories."  As required under the Act...
• NPDES Compliance Management  
  Managing a wastewater treatment system is tough enough and now EPA's emphasis on TMDL is making it tougher.  Monitoring, inspections, completing Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs), and compliance assurance of discharge and consumptive use permits are just some of the tasks facing you. 
• Transitional Work Management  
  Transitional work management tools in ehsSUITE software capture detailed employee and worker job descriptions, define transitional work programs, record provider restrictions, match restrictions with transitional job assignments, assign transitional work schedules and track transitional work periods.