Higher safety risk for workers on

Higher safety risk for workers on "

Recently releasedresearch says construction workers on LEED projects suffer more falls than workers on traditional projects, are exposed to high-risk tasks, and incur more lacerations, strains and sprains than workers on traditional construction projects. LEED-certified buildings have a 9% higher recordable injury rate than non-LEED buildings.

As part of the study, designers and contractors identified prefabrication, effective site layout and alternative products as methods to prevent injuries that specifically relate the hazards of each sustainable element. The study also revealed feasible prevention methods through design techniques, technologies and controls, and management strategies that can be implemented to mitigate these risks.

Safety has always been an important issue in the construction industry, but with renewable energy technologies and new installation techniques on any type of “green” or sustainable construction jobsite, it would be wise for the industry to focus on training workers for these types of work environments.

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Kelly Faloon was a former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical as well as the BNP Media Plumbing Group’s Integrated Content Development Specialist. She also was a former editor of the Radiant Comfort Guide the Radiant & Hydronics Report — both official publications of the Radiant Professionals Alliance — and twice-monthly Radiant & Hydronics eNews, an enewsletter for anyone interested in the world of heating with hot water.

Her editorial specialties included women in plumbing, recruiting for the trades, green construction techniques, water conservation, water treatment, hydronic heating, radiant heating and cooling, snow melt, solar thermal and geothermal.

After a 3½-year stint at sister publication Supply House Times, Faloon joined the PM staff in December 2001 as senior editor. She was named PM’s managing editor in 2006 and editor in 2013.

Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a 1986 journalism graduate of Michigan State University.