Over the years, maintaining safety in every area of life has become more and more of a priority. With the large amount of workplace injuries, accidents in the home, and the discovery of harmful materials, addressing these issues has brought about many government regulations. Great strides have been made to improve safety in the workplace since the start of OSHA in 1971. When it comes to roofing safety, there have been major improvements to help protect workers as they are doing work on roofs. Since these regulations have been put in place, there has been a huge decrease in the amount of injuries that have happened in regards to working on roofs. Not only have the roofs themselves become safer from falls or slips, but also safer in the materials that are used on roofs.
There is Stronger Protection From Falling. The invention of the crane allowed for larger buildings to be built, but the more dangerous working on roofs became. For many years prior to OSHA making government regulation for workers, companies were not required to provide safety equipment or harnesses for roof workers. These kinds of standard regulations that we see today only began in the 1990s. They haven’t been around very long and they are still developing in order to make the roofing work environment as safe as possible.
We Use Safer Materials. Over the years, even the materials on the roof have changed, due to a new understanding of dangerous elements in the shingles. Even in the early part of the 1900s, shingles that were riddled with asbestos were heavily used on both commercial and residential properties. Upon the discovery that asbestos was very dangerous to people’s health, huge steps had to be taken in order to remove the use of these poisonous materials. It could not have been easy to redo all these rooms throughout the country in order to protect our future health. There were many roofers and homeowners that became very ill because of the asbestos in the materials used for their home. So even in the removal of the shingles, people were still being affected as they were still in contact with the asbestos.
It has taken many years to completely rid homes of the various asbestos-laden products that were once used in building and home construction. Since it has been many years from the discovery of this poison in materials, it is not likely to be seen in buildings today. There may be some very old homes that are not up to date, but in general it is not likely that there are still asbestos shingles on roofs.
As government organizations like OSHA develop regulations and guidelines for roofing safety, there has been a significant decrease in the amount of injuries from roofing falls. Also, the discovery of asbestos being so toxic to people’s health has made for a great improvement on the materials that are used to construct a home or commercial building. Looking into the future, we shall see only more preventative measures in order to maintain safety while in potentially dangerous environments.
If you are in need of roofing services, do not hesitate to contact Central Roofing Company.
