As construction laborer Kim Vendl went through her usual morning rituals before leaving the house for her job as a flagger on a road construction site near Everett, Washington, she had no indication that she wouldn't be coming home again. But halfway through her shift, the 45-year-old Vendl was struck and killed by a dump truck as it backed along the road laying asphalt.

Unfortunately, this kind of tragedy is not that uncommon in the construction trades, says Scott Schneider, director of occupational safety and health for the Washington, DC-based Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America. About 1,200 construction laborers die from work-related injuries each year, according to statistics from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, construction led all of private industry in the number of work-related deaths: One out of every five deaths on the job in 2007 occurred in the construction industry. Construction laborers also ranked fourth highest in number of nonfatal injuries on the job, according to a 2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

When laborers' duties take them out on the open road, as Vendl's did, they're particularly vulnerable. Most road construction workers killed on the job are felled on the work site by vehicles or heavy machinery, according to a recent study by Schneider's group.

But road sites are far from the only hazard. If you're a laborer, you may have already found yourself demolishing old buildings with asbestos insulation, teetering on a scaffold, or scrambling to escape a trench cave-in. The leading causes of death and injury facing you on the job include falls; exposure to chemicals, asbestos, and other harmful substances; being struck or crushed by heavy objects; getting caught in the collapse of an unreinforced trench or other unstable structure; and making accidental contact with electricity.

Most injuries on the job won't be catastrophic, of course, but could cause long-term pain and financial hardship. You're at high risk of injuring yourself with equipment such as a hammer, drill, or electric saw. Overexertion causes a large percentage of injuries among laborers and often results in sprains and strains -- usually to the trunk or a lower extremity. Not only do accidents involving shoulders, hands, wrists, elbows, and ankles occur with alarming frequency, Schneider says, but laborers face a high risk of back injuries. Indeed, the risk for work-related back pain is higher for construction laborers than for any other occupation, according to a 1994 study.

Doug Bumin is all too familiar with back injury. A six-foot-three, 180-pound construction laborer, he used to feel he was invincible. Even working seven 12-hour days in a row didn't faze him. Then, three years ago, soon after he had unloaded more than a hundred 90-pound bags of cement into a cramped, narrow space, he was startled to discover the first signs of what would turn out to be a serious reversal of fortune.

That night, Bumin felt nothing but a dull pain in his left leg. But over the following four months, the ache in his leg progressed until he could barely walk. "One day, I drove to work and I couldn't get out of my truck," says Bumin, who now works as a field coordinator for the Laborers International Union of North America in Seattle, Washington. "Three years ago, I thought I was bulletproof. Now I know I'm not."

First, Bumin consulted with a chiropractor, but his condition only got worse. His leg and back ached, and he had more and more difficulty with simple movements. Finally, a neurological exam confirmed that his pain was caused by a ruptured disc, a spinal injury in which the inner material of a vertebral disc is damaged and protrudes between the vertebrae, pressing on nearby nerves. Due to delays on the part of his insurance company, Bumin had to wait six long months for the much-needed spinal surgery his doctor recommended.

Despite the severity of his injury, Bumin mended quickly after the operation, and pretty soon he was feeling like his old self. When he returned to work at a different company, however, he resolved not to test his Herculean limits again. "I didn't go out and lift 90-pound bags of concrete right off the bat," he jokes.

Avoiding injury can be tricky when the job requires moving material and carrying heavy objects, often on the shoulders, says Schneider, whose organization provides safety training for more than 20,000 laborers nationwide. Digging puts serious strain on the back, and using hand tools, particularly hammering overhead, can lead to shoulder and wrist problems, he says.

In a concerted effort to reduce these back-breaking loads, some labor unions are negotiating limits to the weight that workers may be expected to lift (although individual laborers are still apt to gauge for themselves how much they can or cannot handle). Schneider points out that when there's even the slightest doubt in a laborer's mind, he or she should insist on being provided with a dolly, a push cart, or some other aid. Removing clutter and keeping the work space clear can also prevent the sort of injuries incurred from stumbling over construction material, he adds.

What's urgently needed is proper planning, Schneider concludes. "Laborers need to work with their foreman, superintendent or contractor to come up with a way to plan the jobs better and make it easier to work."

Krekow-Jennings, a Seattle-based residential construction firm, has put this idea into action. It requires all laborers to complete a training program that includes the safe lifting techniques endorsed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Workers are instructed to contract their stomach muscles when lifting, to plant their feet solidly rather than twisting at the waist, to lift with their legs, and to refrain from handling anything heavier than 50 pounds by themselves, says Greg Martens, the company's safety director.

"If there's something that weighs 100 pounds, we have two people on it," Martens says. "You look at your task and try to design it so you can have these guys working within certain restrictions, so they don't end up injuring themselves."

Some years back, trench cave-ins claimed the lives of so many laborers that OSHA designed strict guidelines to prevent workers from being buried alive (See Preventing Trench Cave-Ins for more details.) Meanwhile, the best defense against injuries from falling, being hit by a vehicle, or having an equipment accident is to be alert and aware of your surroundings at all times, Schneider says.

"Look at your job site," he says. "Is the scaffold safe? Are there any floor openings in the scaffold? Are there trench problems? Electrical problems? What work practices or equipment are available to minimize lifting and carrying? Are there carts and dollies available? Are the floors smooth, clean, and dry, or are there tripping hazards? Is there good lighting? Can people see where they're going?"

Workers also should make sure they have adequate fall protection, including guardrails and body harnesses, if necessary. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends that employers create comprehensive fall-protection programs that incorporate safety in work planning; companies should also identify fall hazards at work sites, conduct regular safety inspections, train employees to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions, and provide employees with protective equipment and train them in its use.

Taking precautions to avoid getting injured on the job is each worker's responsibility, say occupational safety experts, who stress that to be cautious doesn't make you a whiner or a bad worker -- far from it.

Doug Bumin, for example, wishes he could go back to that night he single-handedly lifted dozens of 90-pound bags of concrete and change his decision. "When a contractor tells you to do something that's going to get you injured," he says, "walk away from it."

-- Cassandra Sweet is a freelance writer based in Washington state. She has been an associate editor for mywellness.com and worked as a reporter for the Associated Press.

Further Resources

The following OSHA Web sites offer safety tips on avoiding construction hazards: OSHA fall protection tips: http://www.osha.gov/Publications/fall_protection_qc.html. OSHA general construction safety page: http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/shprogram.html

References

Last updated April 27, 2009
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