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 another invisible jobsite danger is 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.
