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In reply to "What safety rules do you often break?" Alan brought up a good point- what are you doing about it?

One of the most common complaints customers have about electricians is the mess they leave behind- for someone else to clean up. General contractors are also notorious for completely neglecting any means of trash removal.

I submit that one of the biggest causes of both minor injuries and inefficient work is the trash left lying around the jobsite. Am I wrong here?
You are correct and here is the OSHA rule that supports your concerns

Quote
29 CFR ยง 1926.25 Housekeeping

(a) During the course of construction, alteration, or repairs, form and scrap lumber with protruding nails, and all other debris, shall be kept cleared from work areas, passageways, and stairs, in and around buildings or other structures.

(b) Combustible scrap and debris shall be removed at regular intervals during the course of construction. Safe means shall be provided to facilitate such removal.

(c) Containers shall be provided for the collection and separation of waste, trash, oily and used rags, and other refuse. Containers used for garbage and other oily, flammable, or hazardous wastes, such as caustics, acids, harmful dusts, etc. shall be equipped with covers. Garbage and other waste shall be disposed of at frequent and regular intervals.

44 FR 8577, Feb. 9, 1979; 44 FR 20940, Apr. 6, 1979.
Question:

What are you doing to prevent future accidents?

Answer:

Playing the PowerBall more often.

Dnk....
On a serious note to this question, when I was younger I took alot more chances than I will now a days.

When you are young, and "dumb", sometimes you throw caution to the wind, in the name of progress. As you get older, you see the err in your ways, and take alot more precautions than in your wilder days.


So actually, getting old is a good thing.


Dnk.....
Darned good point John and Alan!. [Linked Image]
I've worked on a few sites in the past as an Industrial Electrician and some of the rubbish piles you see inside workshops have to be seen to be believed.
Other side of the same coin, at one place, I saw the same guy trip over the same piece of steel that he dropped on the floor, 3 times before he heaved the thing into the (empty) rubbish bin. [Linked Image]
One of the problems that I can see with a few workplaces is, if there did happen to be a fire or other emergency, someone could be quite easily be injured by tripping on the rubbish left lying around on thier way out. [Linked Image]
A good friend of mine, Robert, is from Detroit and lives a few villages away. He has a small woodwork shop too. The shavings and dust in there are bloody antiques! How on earth he moves about in there is a miracle, he needs snowshoes! But, the customers love it, it's just how they imagine an old shop to be, cobwebs, old tools, piles of shavings. Each to their own, I find you lose tools in the wastes- a lesson hard learned when my beloved old Moore and Wright engineers' square was found in the ashes of the fire patch, a total loss.

Alan
John,
What am I doing to prevent future accidents?.
Well, lets see.
I usually work alone, but I always make sure that I have radio contact (or at least phone contact).
Now, down to it, preventing an accident in my line of work can mean as little as testing a pole to make sure you aren't going to be falling with the thing.
Same side of the coin, a big part of "accidents" here happen because some idiot couldn't be bothered going to the truck to get thier "Test Gear", or don't carry it with them.
If you are like that, pack up and go home, you shouldn't even be called an Electrician.
Before even setting the ladder against the pole, I check the ladder, doesn't take long, a few minutes at the most.
Next, If I'm working on HV stuff, I check my Modiewark tester on a known source of voltage.
It's all simple stuff guys, it sort of makes you wonder if there is some sort of a mind-block there.
Testing your own gear is good sense.
Please don't learn like a few others do.
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