The HomeSafe Pilot Program: a novel approach to injury prevention in residential construction.

Workers in the residential construction industry face unacceptably high risk of injury, disability and death. Attempts to implement comprehensive health and safety programs in this industry have met with little success. The HomeSafe Pilot Program is a novel residential construction safety program developed and sponsored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Region VIII and the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver (HBA). Test subjects represent over 7475 persons employed in residential construction in the six county Denver Metro area of Colorado. The HomeSafe Pilot Program includes primary behavioral, engineering and administrative interventions to improve safe work practices in residential construction. It has some unique features of brevity, specificity and incentives not seen elsewhere in the construction industry. Its overall goal is to guide residential construction companies along a path of progressive development of comprehensive safety and health programs. The HomeSafe Pilot Program is introduced and compared to other safety and health program models developed by OSHA and the HBA. This study began in January 1997 and will continue through the millennium.