During NYC Dept. of Buildings' three-month safety sweep, inspectors also issued more than 3,600 violations to contractors and site safety professionals for failing to keep sites safe.

In Sweden, a partnership between MIPS Corp., a company that specializes in helmet-liner systems for protecting the brain, and Guardio Safety AB, a Swedish industrial safety firm, has led to the release in June of a construction hardhat, or helmet, designed to mitigate brain-damaging forces that often are suffered in construction falls.