While falls cause more worksite deaths than any other type of accident, prompting the Dept. of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to launch a new fall prevention program, there is growing recognition that there is another invisible jobsite danger in mental health disorders.
“Devastatingly, more construction workers die annually from suicide than from every other workplace-related fatality combined, making suicide rates in construction the second highest of any U.S. industry group,” wrote John F. Fish, chairman and CEO of Boston-based Suffolk Construction in a May 2 letter to the OSHA, urging it to include suicide awareness and prevention training as a core requirement in the OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 curricula.