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Sheet metal workers, plumbers and pipe fitters have some of the highest injury rates in the building industry, and McKinstry has spearheaded a coalition to do something about it.

McKinstry, a Seattle-based mechanical contractor with an office in Portland, has teamed up with Comfort Systems USA Northwest, Oregon State University and Central Washington University to produce a safe practices guide for mechanical construction workers.

The idea to compile such a guide started when McKinstry safety risk analyst Ali Vahed learned about a safety and health grant being offered by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

鈥淢cKinstry has always been pro-safety, and we looked at the grant and said this is a good opportunity for us to get inside of safety,鈥� he said.

Vahed contacted Sathy Rajendran at CWU, and soon safety professional Darrel Zak of Comfort Systems and OSU engineering professor John Gambatese joined the project team. The group learned in June that it had won the $200,000 state grant administered through the Safety & Health Investments Projects (SHIP) program, according to Vahed.

Approximately 15 applicants vied for the grant, Zak said, but the coalition’s was chosen because it would have the most impact.

鈥淚 had done a similar project before,鈥� Rajendran said, 鈥渁nd I always wondered about partnering because I think we have a lot of areas we can improve on.鈥�

Gambatese, meanwhile, has conducted research into construction workers’ health and safety.

Team members will spend the next year and a half compiling information to include in the safe practices guide. The complex process will involve interviewing hundreds of workers in the mechanical construction fields, mostly through questionnaires, Vahed said.

Although there is no proprietary information about safety, Zak said, companies often find their own solutions 鈥� even creating special tools 鈥� to reduce injuries. It’s that information the coalition hopes to glean, compile and then distribute.

鈥淧eople come up with their own little ideas and sheet metal shops create their own tools and processes,鈥� Zak said.

Most of the time those innovations and ideas are transmitted either at conferences or by word of mouth, he said, but the coalition hopes to record not only new ideas and tool designs, but how they affect safety and productivity and how they can be most effective.

鈥淲e also learn from others’ mistakes,鈥� Zak said. 鈥淎 lot of times there’s an idea but not a formula for how to get there.鈥�

In addition to interviewing individual workers throughout the region, the team will talk to safety professionals, Zak said.

鈥淲e expect (a) fairly large sample size and feel there’s a lot of information out there to be mined,鈥� he said.

Once the information is gathered, Rajendran said, it will be available online and printed in a pocket-size version with both information and pictures.

鈥淚t’s so workers can have it with them and if they’re doing a particular task, they can refer to this pocket guide, and it helps them do it safely and efficiently,鈥� he said, noting that approximately 200 hard copies will be distributed initially.

McKinstry and Comfort Systems employ a lot of sheet metal workers who do similar work, Zak said, and he and Vahed have often compared notes.

鈥淥ur injuries in type are not different, and we realized as companies we have to go out and look to try to find solutions,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t all started out as a conversation about how to reduce injuries.鈥�

, based in Silver Spring, Maryland, sheet metal workers, proportionately, are nearly three times more likely than the general working population to suffer a disabling injury.