Massachusetts Construction Supervisor Continuing Education Course Preview

Published on October 28, 2020 by Nate Bortz

Massachusetts Restricted and Unrestricted Construction Supervisors – if your license renewal deadline is coming up, don’t worry! Instead of scrambling to find classroom sessions in your area, simplify the whole process by completing your continuing education online!

Our continuing education course packages are state approved, and fulfill all license renewal requirements.

If you want to know what one of our video and text courses is like, check out the lesson preview below!

Note: With the Massachusetts state of emergency still in effect, you are still able to complete all of your continuing education online

Lesson Preview: Managing Safety and Health

Personal Protective Equipment

PPE is required for safety hazards that expose employees to injury of the:

Head
Eyes
Feet
Hands
Body

Employer Responsibilities

At a minimum, the employer shall:
Assess the workplace and operations to identify hazards that employees are exposed to
Shall provide, at no cost to employees, the personal protective equipment necessary to guard against known hazards
Require employees to wear PPE

Head Protection

An employer shall ensure that each affected employee is provided with, and wears, head protection for exposure to head hazards such as hoisting operations, standing up walls, concrete pumper trucks, use of scaffolds, etc.

Selecting the Right Hard Hat

Hard hats require a hard outer shell and a shock-absorbing lining. The lining should incorporate a head band and straps that suspend the shell from 1 to 1-1/4 inches away from the user’s head to provide shock absorption during impact and ventilation during wear.

Remove hard hats from service if the suspension system shows signs of deterioration or no longer holds the shell away from the employee’s head. Also make sure the brim or shell is not cracked, perforated or deformed or shows signs of exposure to heat, chemicals, or ultraviolet light. Stickers or custom painting are unacceptable.

Class A: General service (building construction, shipbuilding, lumbering)

Good impact protection but limited voltage protection

Class B: Electrical/Utility work

Protects against falling objects and high-voltage shock and burns

Class C: Designed for comfort, offers limited protection

Protects against bumps from fixed objects, but does not protect against falling objects or electrical shock

Face and Eye Protection

Face and eye protection shall be used when any of these hazards are present:
Flying objects or particles (metal shavings or sawdust)
Harmful contacts (objects dropped onto head)
Liquids that may splash
Intense light from welding, lasers, electrical flash

Hearing Protection

Hearing protection is required if the noise averages or exceeds 90 dBA over an 8 hour work period.

When it is not feasible to reduce the noise or its duration, use fitted ear protective devices. When it comes to hearing loss, you can either accumulate it over a long period of time (i.e., 90dB over many years) or suffer acute hearing loss, which is a sudden, very loud sound event, like using a powder-actuated tool against a cement brick wall in a basement without hearing protection. The hearing you lose from an acute event is permanent, even though it happens very quickly.

Guarding of Tools

A circular table saw shall have a hood-type guard covering the blade at all times.
The hood-type guard shall enclose the blade above the table and above the material by adjusting automatically to the thickness of the material being cut
It may also be a fixed or manually adjusted hood-type guard if the hood remains in contact with the material

Foot Protection

Foot protection shall be provided if conditions of the job are likely to cause a foot injury.

Heavy objects (barrels or tools)
Sharp objects such as nails or spikes that might pierce ordinary shoes

The employee shall provide the foot protection.

Safety shoes have impact-resistant toes and heat-resistant soles to protect against hot surfaces common in roofing and paving. Some have metal insoles to protect against puncture wounds from things like protruding nails. They may even be electrically conductive for use in explosive atmospheres, or non-conductive to protect from workplace electrical hazards. Conductive shoes must never be worn if an employee is exposed to electrical hazards.

Hand Protection

Employees who handle rough, sharp-edged, abrasive materials, or whose work subjects the hands to lacerations, punctures, burns, or bruises shall wear hand protection suitable for the work being performed.

The nature of the hazard, the activity and the length of the activity determines your glove selection. The variety of potential hand injuries may make selecting the appropriate pair of gloves more difficult than choosing other protective equipment. Take care to choose gloves designed for the particular circumstances of your workplace.

Durable gloves made of metal mesh, leather, or canvas protect from cuts, burns, and heat

Kevlar protects against cuts, slashes and abrasions
Stainless steel mesh protects against cuts and lacerations

Fabric and coated fabric gloves protect from dirt and abrasion

Chemical and liquid resistant gloves protect from burns, irritation, and dermatitis

Rubber gloves protect from cuts, lacerations, and abrasions

Nitrile protects against solvents, harsh chemicals, fats and petroleum products and also provides excellent resistance to cuts and abrasion
Butyl provides the highest permeation resistance to gas or water vapors

Body Protection

When an employee is exposed to hazards such as radiation, alkalis, acids, abrasives, and temperature extremes other than those caused by weather conditions, appropriate head, body, and hand protection shall be worn to protect the employee from that hazard. Such personal protective equipment shall be provided by the employer.

Example: brick cleaning with acid.