"Careful out there!"

It's a safe bet that many construction workers hear a form of that admonition by a spouse or loved one every day before they leave for work in the morning. If you feel that well-meaning advice may be going in one ear and out the other, try this one for a while: "don't fall!"

If a construction worker is going to get injured or killed on the job, a fall will be the likely cause. In 2000, there were 1,154 construction industry fatalities in the U.S., and the greatest percentage - nearly a third - were the result of falls. In Michigan, the ratio was similar: falls claimed the lives of eight of the 24 construction workers killed on the job in 2002.

At a national construction safety conference last year, fall safety expert Nigel Ellis, who authored "Introduction to Fall Protection," told attendees that employers and workers "are playing the game of fall protection" and leaving workers vulnerable to injury and death.

Ellis, whose book was published by the American Society of Safety Engineers, said the "game" is one of not taking responsibility. As detailed in the Construction Labor Report, he said workers are told to wear harnesses and to tie off, but employers often do not take responsibility for ensuring that safe anchorage points are available.

For their part, workers often appear to be tied off, but choose to remove part of their harness. Ellis estimated that 30 percent of the time, workers disconnect leg straps on their harness for the purpose of comfort or convenience.

"Safety is an add-on. It's not integral." Ellis said. "The boss passes on the responsibility and the worker does what is responsible as opposed to what is safe."

He said employers must have an engineering plan for choosing safe anchorage points. And Ellis suggested fall hazards could be reduced by performing more assembly work on the ground.

Employers also need a rescue plan. Ellis' book told of a welder who fell but was working with the correct fall protection. When he fell, a maintenance worker on a level above accidentally spilled some solvent on the welder who was hanging by his lanyard. The torch then ignited the welder's clothes. "Ablaze, he become a screaming torch with no rescue plan and no extinguisher on hand," Ellis said. The welder died.

The rate of fatal falls increases with age, Ellis said. As years pass on the job without incident, workers become overconfident and sloppy in their safety habits.

Safety regulators can become a little sloppy, too. Remarkably, it took until Jan. 1, 1998 for MIOSHA to outlaw the use of safety belts (in favor of full-body harnesses) by construction workers. The switch came years after the automotive industry acknowledged that single lap belts can cause vehicle occupants significant internal injuries during crashes - and then began installing three-point shoulder and lap belts.

Michigan state and federal rules require employers to provide workers with the necessary fall protection equipment, and to train workers in their use. With all this talk of safety harnesses and anchorage points, it's important to remember that those things are the last line of defense when it comes to fall safety.

Beyond that, here are a few more points to ponder when it comes to fall protection.

• "Personal fall arrest systems" are required to be worn if a worker faces a fall hazard six feet or greater, and nets or guardrails are not used or don't apply. The attached lanyard and vertical lifeline must have a minimum breaking strength of 5,000 lbs.
• In 1998, Michigan also began the new requirement for the exclusive use of locking snap hooks on lifelines. The old non-locking hooks with a self-closing keeper have been outlawed, because of a tendency under certain conditions for the line to roll out of the hook.
• Make sure the harness fits you and is comfortable, to prevent body strain. You can get shoulder and back pads to reduce harness pressure. Full-body cross-chest harnesses are more comfortable for women and can reduce bruising when falls are stopped.
• All harnesses are not made equally, nor are they of the same quality, nor do they last forever. Some manufacturers' adjustable straps are often too complicated, said Harry Galer, director of corporate safety for Clark Construction Group Inc. "Employees often have trouble adjusting the leg straps, or they have the D-ring in the back adjusted improperly," he said. "In many instances, workers wear harnesses far too loose in order to find a comfortable fit. These are things our safety managers have to watch constantly."

FULL-BODY HARNESSES were much in evidence on workers during the renovation of the Mackinac Bridge in 2000.