Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features OSHA’s announcement that it has joined with a task force of construction industry partners, unions, and educators to raise awareness of the work stresses seen as the causes of depression and the thoughts and acts of suicide among construction workers.
OSHA notes that construction workers often face some of their industry’s most serious dangers- falls from elevation, being struck or crushed by equipment or other objects, and electrocution. However, recent studies suggest another occupational concern is lurking silently at worksites: worker suicides. The CDC has reported that the suicide rate for men in construction and extraction was 5X greater than the rate of all other work-related fatalities in the industry in 2018, and these workers are 4X more likely to end their own lives the general population. A group of industry volunteers launched the first Suicide Prevention Week for Construction Workers in 2020, and the task force has called on construction industry employers, trade groups and other stakeholders to join OSHA’s Suicide Prevention Safety Stand-Down.