While Michigan's Hardhats may not get any immediate help from the state in improving construction sanitation standards, the trades and MIOSHA have put their heads together with the headache ball.

For years, contrary to existing federal OSHA rules, MIOSHA has in some circumstances allowed iron workers in Michigan to stand on a crane's headache ball and ride it to a higher elevation as a building's frame is assembled.

Now, a revised steel erection standard by OSHA is being implemented nationwide that makes several changes for iron workers. MIOSHA will be adopting virtually the entire OSHA steel erection standard - except the state agency will continue to resist federal rule makers and allow iron workers to ride the ball.

"We will allow you to ride the headache ball," said Doug Earle, director of the Bureau of Safety and Regulation of the Michigan Dept. of Consumer and Industry Services. Speaking during the 11th annual Construction Safety Day earlier this year. As quoted by the Great Lakes Fabricators and Erectors Association, Earle said that he expected "to take some heat from the federal government for permitting the practice."

Carl Davis, a Plumbers Local 98 member who is vice chairman of the state Construction Safety Standards Commission, said last month that the decision on riding the headache ball was not without controversy.

"It's rare that we deviate from federal OSHA, and when we talked about riding the headache ball, there was a real split on the committee," he said. "Some of them were even talking about putting a platform on the ball. But in the end, the people in the business decided that a lot of times riding the ball is the safest way for a worker to get where he needs to go."

States are allowed to write more stringent plans than those released by federal OSHA, and are offered some leeway in interpretation. The prevailing wisdom in Michigan is that in some circumstances during steel erection, iron workers are safer riding the ball while making initial connections than they would be climbing a ladder.

Iron Workers Local 25 Apprenticeship Coordinator Doug Levack said a written fall protection plan by an employer must include provisions for the use of a headache ball in order for workers to legally be able to ride the ball.

"In all my years as an iron worker, I've never seen anyone ever fall off the ball," said Levack, who strongly supports MIOSHA's position. "Sometimes it's the safest, most efficient way to do the work."

THE HEADACHE ball can continue to be used to give iron workers a lift.