During the 2009-10 fiscal year, NRCA Associate Executive Director of Risk Management
Tom Shanahan was a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's
(OSHA's) Advisory Committee for Construction Occupational Safety and Health (ACCOSH)—completing
the second of a two-year term—participating in national deliberations on safety
and health matters affecting construction safety and advocating for NRCA members
before the committee.
As part of ACCOSH, NRCA worked to resist OSHA efforts to rescind the Interim Fall
Protection Guidelines (slide guard rules) proposed in 2009 without supporting data
or alternatives for the roofing industry. NRCA also chaired the Silica, OSHA Training
Institute and Multi-lingual work groups.
The department helped members with requests for information in more than 200 instances;
participated in the development of eight ANSI A10 standards related to construction
activity; developed the NRCA educational offering Profitability Through Effective
Safety Programs under an OSHA Susan Harwood grant and delivered the programs in
14 cities throughout the U.S.; and helped develop an online educational program
for low- and steep-slope fall protection for employees new to the roofing industry,
which also was funded by an OSHA grant.
NRCA staff made presentations on safety and health topics to several affiliate organizations;
the National Roofing Legal Resource Center; and CNA, Chicago, among others. It managed,
administrated and executed NRCA's Future Executives Institute (FEI), including teaching
three classes in the FEI program.
Additionally, NRCA finalized the development of the NRCA Safety Design document,
a fall-protection solutions document addressing elimination of fall hazards at the
building design phase; continued NRCA liaison responsibilities with CNA, Construction
Insurance Solutions, Mass Marketing Insurance Consultants and JLBG Health; met with
OSHA's assistant secretary of labor regarding roofing safety issues; continued to
monitor, participate in and inform membership regarding national and international
research and regulatory activities surrounding occupational exposures to asphalt
fumes; and facilitated the translation and re-editing of the Asphalt Institute's
tanker safety video into French and Spanish.