SUN EDITORIAL:

Lives are at stake

State OSHA should reinstate rule requiring netting or flooring beneath high-rise workers

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Responding to recent deaths of construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip, area contractors have agreed not to protest if a safety provision dropped six years ago is brought back.

Their agreement, which will cost them time and money if the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration reinstates the provision, is a sign that worksite safety is now getting the attention it deserves.

Las Vegas Sun reporter Alexandra Berzon, since March, has been regularly reporting about the $30 billion worth of construction under way on the Strip, and about how safety has been compromised because of both the pace and the sheer volume of the work.

Ten workers have died in Strip construction accidents over the past 18 months.

One of the safety issues Berzon has written about concerns fail-safe netting or flooring for high-rise workers. A federal OSHA regulation up to 2002 was clear — this protection must be installed no more than 30 feet underneath workers, who could fall a lot farther if they slipped while either improperly hooked to their safety harness or not hooked at all.

Federal OSHA officials in 2002, however, ruled it was redundant to require both netting or flooring and harnesses. Nevada OSHA, which is not required to have rules more strict than the federal OSHA, then stopped enforcing the netting/flooring rule at sites where harnesses were required.

But as Berzon has reported, workers do not always wear the harness and sometime tie it to an insecure anchor, resulting in tragedy.

In recent weeks, the local Ironworkers Union has asked Nevada OSHA to once again enforce the netting/flooring requirement. And, as Berzon reported Friday, the local chapter of the Associated General Contractors has agreed not to contest renewed enforcement.

Nevada OSHA, which, as we wrote last week, should never have relaxed its standard, is now considering the union’s request. We believe it should quickly announce that the rule is back. Lives are at stake.