Toolbox Safety Training

January 15th, 2004 by Hal

Toolbox Safety Training, also known as "tailgate" training, has been a mainstay of construction safety programs. The programs involve people in the setting of the hazards. A whole mini-publishing industry has grown to support these sessions. You can find no-charge online resources, books, pamphlets, laminated materials, and videos. Many of the industry and trade associations have their own targeted versions.

Sessions are known as toolbox talks. Here's a representative sample from the Associated Builders and Contractors. These talks last about 15 minutes. They tend not to be very interactive. They are usually delivered by a foreman or superintendent who often is uncomfortable delivering the speech. On larger construction sites the GC may have a safety coordinator deliver the talk.

There seems to be some question of how to deliver these toolbox sessions effectively. In December 2001, NIOSH proposed a project to evaluate effectiveness.

[Federal Register: December 5, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 234)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63244-63245]

Proposed Project: Evaluating Toolbox Training Safety Program for Construction and Mining–NEW�National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of various educational approaches utilizing "toolbox" safety training materials targeted to construction and mining industries.

The same project was proposed again in January 2003 [see here]. I haven't traced what has happened with this. If anyone knows please leave a comment at the end of this posting.

While I've witnessed numerous toolbox talks conducted by different contractors and trades I can't say that I understand what good practices are for those meetings. While we can always learn from what we find in the books, I'd like to hear from people who have attended and who conduct the sessions. Let's see if we can have a discussion on this that leads to some minimum conditions for effectiveness.

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One Response to “Toolbox Safety Training”

Gary Kuhn Says:
January 30th, 2004 at 7:11 pm
Hal, I would like to hear as well, but in particular:

1. How interactive are these toolbox meetings?
2. Is this where the Team finds out where the next accident is likely to occur?
3. Are there bi-lingual meetings conducted?

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