Risk Prevention for the Older Workforce

The Older Workforce

Older workers are a bit more reluctant. As a personal example, I'm a member of my local fire company. We had a drill recently where my task was to set up the deck gun atop the engine; 20 years ago, I would have walked along the top of the truck to reach the controls—this time I crawled.

Photo by TJ Lyons, used with permission.

In the construction world, we really don't plan to keep older workers safe. Rarely do companies have an onboarding routine for older workers. I suspect the assumption is that they have been working forever, so they know what to do. This is not necessarily a good assumption.

Consider this example: A large piece of electrical switchgear worth hundreds of thousands of dollars exploded, and the forensics determined that the wrong label had been attached to one of the electrical feeds. During an incident investigation, the root-cause warriors were looking to determine how best to blame the worker. This seasoned electrical superintendent, who applied the labels to around 75 electrical conductors that shift, was 56 years old. Below are examples of these common labels.

Photos by TJ Lyons, used with permission.

As the conversation started to focus on the long work hours he had spent before this incident (data center), I asked, "What did we supply for lighting?" The answer was "nothing." This gentleman was working in an unlit room, in an electrical cabinet, seeing only by the light of his headlamp.

Per a study reported in Contact Lens Spectrum, "60-year-old retinas receive ~40% of the light that 20-year-old retinas receive," and "on average, an older person requires 4 times more light."

Suggestion: Plan your worksite for the older worker. On a recent project, the general contractor required the temporary lighting contractor to double the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's recommended amount of required illumination in outside walking areas, corridors, and stairwells. Any work without temporary or fixed lighting necessitated temporary lights in addition to worker headlamps.

It Costs More to Fix the Older Injured Worker

I can vouch for this because I grew up as a teenager on a dairy farm. We had some horrible injuries on the farm but rarely went to the doctor; we healed and scarred quickly. After a recent wood-splitting injury (ambulance required) where I took a shot to the head and nose (the doctor said that my safety glasses saved my life), I was good to go in 2 months. On the farm as a teen, I would have been milking the cows while the bleeding stopped on its own. That's not the case today.

Liberty Mutual, one of my favorite insurers, looked at the aging workforce almost 20 years ago. What they discovered was not surprising: One study showed that the cost per lost-time workers compensation claim for workers between ages 45–64 was more than twice that of younger workers, ages 20–24, where the most notable differences in diagnosis involved injuries to the joints, rotator cuff, and knees. ¹

Older Workers Have Slower Reaction Times

In a recent incident, a worker fell while crossing a small trench; the crossing was just a plywood walkway with no handrail. A railing may have prevented that fall—I like railings.

My wife had her knee swapped out last year, and one of the recommendations from the surgeon was to install a second handrail on the opposite side of our stairs leading to the second floor, and I rely on them as well. Now when I trip going up the stairs, I have something safe to stop my fall.

To reference Liberty Mutual again on aging: We lose 25 percent of our maximum strength—more in our lower extremities, and we lose 50 percent of our reaction time. We slip as much as we did when we were younger, but we are not able to recover from the slip as well, which leads to falls.

Suggestion: On your construction sites, ensure rails are installed on both sides of all stairwells or access to platforms or work areas. I have often seen workers descending the stairs using handrails on the inside of the stairwell; I use them too. Then they have to step away from that protection when someone below is climbing up and is using the same railing.

Photo by TJ Lyons, used with permission.

Ramps and Other Places to Slip and Slide

Plywood is a great material, but when it's wet from ice or snow, it's every attorney's dream. The ramp in the photo leads to the site project manager's office. While handrails were installed, they didn't help the delivery driver who took a header as he left on the wet plywood.

Picture this common scenario: I am visiting your site, and we stay until after dark. As I leave your office, it will take my eyes 5–10 minutes to adjust to the dark, but I don't wait. As my foot hits the unseen wet ramp, my heel starts to slip. When I realize that I am in trouble (which takes me longer to understand), I reach for the railing, now well above where I am falling—and then I fall hard.

Photo by TJ Lyons, used with permission.

Suggestion: Not only do railings provide a critical method to stop a fall, but a treated walking surface can also eliminate a fall. Any walking surface, ramp, or level must have a slip-resistant surface on it.

From stamped metal to wooden cleats on walkways, workers can trip while walking from one surface to another. However, a new material is working its way into the construction industry: The Skudo mat shown in the photo is wonderful. It has a gripping surface like a scouring pad or Scotch-Brite sanding pads, and you really cannot slip on it. It provides traction in snow, rain goes through it, and freezing rain has a hard time turning to ice on it.

Photos by TJ Lyons, used with permission.

Training and Documents

I now need to sit at the front of classrooms during training sessions, or I ask the speaker to increase the size of the slide presentation, which is an accommodation. For the older "seasoned" workers, the following are some problem areas.

• Poor depth perception
• Loss of peripheral vision
• Slower dark adaptation
• Poor visual detection of hazards
• Decreased color sensitivity

What can the organization do to help? As I said earlier, improve lighting by designing it to evenly shine throughout work areas to minimize glare. Position items in front of employees to reduce reliance on peripheral vision. Increase font size, brightness, and contrast to support visual acuity. Minimize the need to focus at different distances. Keep all displays at 30 inches to reduce accommodation demands.

Conclusion

Our workforce is getting older, and more workers are continuing to work longer, postponing retirement. Wise organizations see both the pros and cons of this trend: Experienced workers add a great deal to construction projects. However, they may face physical limitations, as discussed above, but accommodations can be made. And don't forget—when determining how to avoid injury and improve safety on the site for older workers, ask them for their opinions.