Related topics: •  Laborers

In an overall environment of physical danger where there is little margin for error, the specter of trench cave-ins looms particularly large. Federal reports show that working near unstable ground or in trenches, excavations, or other confined spaces that aren't properly shored up may invite disaster. In one case, a 35-year-old man working in an unreinforced trench died when the walls of a manhole he was building in Medway, Massachusetts, collapsed in on him, burying him alive. In another case, a 68-year-old man was killed in Germantown, Pennsylvania, when the unshored walls of a 16-by-4-foot ditch fell in, covering him with hundreds of pounds of dirt.

To prevent such disasters, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers and workers take one or more of the following precautions:

•Use a shield or trench box system designed to protect workers in excavations.

•Assign a supervisor who is familiar with trench safety to oversee the operation.

•Shore the sides of trenches with timber or other materials to make sure that the earth doesn't collapse on workers who have to enter them.

•Slope the sides of trenches on both sides to reduce the weight and pressure exerted by the soil.

•Secure the sides of excavations by engineer-designed sheeting or bracing.

•Protect against falls and water accumulation.

•Provide safe access and exits.

•Have workers wear hard hats and other equipment as needed.

•Communicate with workers about hazards and potential hazards and about access to medical and exposure records.

-- Barbara Jamison, M.F.A., is a contributing editor at Consumer Health Interactive. She has written for Hippocrates and WebMD, and has received two PEN awards for fiction.

Further Resources

For more information, see OSHA's safety alert on trenches at http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/trenchingexcavation/index.html

References

First published January 16, 2001
Last updated February 29, 2008
Copyright © 2001 Consumer Health Interactive

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