Monday, December 01, 2008

By KEN CARLSON
kcarlson@modbee.com

last updated: April 13, 2008 03:17:39 AM

Nail gun injuries appear to be an occupational hazard among the workers who build the homes, the schools and the stores in the Modesto area.

"If you are not paying attention, you can very easily shoot yourself," said Mark Stalder, a carpenter in Modesto for 20 years. "I have been shot a few times."

Stalder said he has never missed work because of getting stuck with a nail, not even when he put a three-quarter-inch nail through the palm of one hand. He used a hammer to pull the nail out, taped the wound and resumed work, he said.

Once, Stalder said, one of his co-workers shot himself in the thighbone with a nail and went to the hospital for treatment, he said.

Building companies are supposed to report injuries resulting in missed workdays to the California Division of Occupational Health and Safety.

According to Cal-OSHA records, one injury occurred when Joaquin Rivera of Skylines Roofing in Modesto shot a 1¼-inch nail into his foot. He pulled it out and went to the hospital. He was treated and released the same day.

Tom Jackson, owner of Skylines Roofing, said last week he recalled that employees heard Rivera scream. But he never got a clear explanation of how the accident occurred 2½ years ago.

Rivera missed one or two days of work and the business hasn't had a reportable nail gun injury since, Jackson said. Rivera is no longer with Skylines and couldn't be reached for comment.

"Anytime someone shoots himself in the foot, everybody wonders how that happened," Jackson said, noting that Rivera was a good worker who might have become distracted. "You would have to be working and look away to shoot yourself in the foot. ... Freak accidents happen once in a while."

In the roofing trade, employees are paid a piece rate, so there's a motivation for speed. Skylines' most skilled workers earn the equivalent of $55 an hour, Jackson said. The company emphasizes safety training to prevent puncture wounds and injuries from falls and heat stroke.

Skylines' crews use semiautomatic nail guns, which are considered safer because they have single-shot triggers. Most nail gun injuries have been attrib- uted to contact trip guns, which allow a worker to hold down the trigger and shoot nails by bumping the muzzle on a surface.

Jackson said it would be grounds for termination for an employee to alter a gun to make it work faster.

"Quick is good, but being safe and accurate is better," he said. "I always tell them to slow down, get it right."

Stalder said some workers remove the safety springs from guns so they can work faster. He has seen it done most often by temporary workers.

While people in the building industry acknowledge that nail gun injuries occur, some are leery of any regulations that would restrict the tools they use.

Larry Gilbert of Huff Construction said nail gun accidents can be minimized by following the manufacturer's guidelines and training workers to use the guns correctly.

"One week a month, we bring all the tools in front of the foreman and they are inspected," he said. "We make sure (employees) are using the equipment as it was received from the manufacturer and they are not modifying it in any way."

Stalder said that weaker guns could slow him down. "A guy needs pressure to drive the nail all the way down, because sometimes you are dealing with hard wood," he said.

One Sacramento-based company encourages workers to use semiautomatic nail guns with single-shot triggers instead of contact trip guns. Otto Construction Inc. found that most of the 11 workers hurt over three years were using contact trip guns.

Scotty DuPriest, the safety and risk manager for Otto, found that even though various types of nail guns were available at its construction sites, workers were not necessarily taking the safest one for the task at hand.

After discussing the problem with a shop foreman, he came up with a solution: Paint safer semiautomatic nail guns bright red and require that these alone be used for framing walls, limiting contact trip guns to roofing jobs.

The paint allowed construction foremen to see at a glance if workers were using the appropriate guns, and it helped workers pick the right tool for the job.

Those measures were coupled with mandatory nail gun safety training for new hires. The company also developed a nail gun safety poster for work sites and work trailers.

Since then, Otto's nail gun injuries have been virtually eliminated, a fact confirmed by Cal-OSHA records.

"You have to take care of (your workers) and keep them as safe as possible," DuPriest said. "I want them to go home at night with all of their digits. I care about every one of these guys."

The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or 578-2321.

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