OSHA Issues Warning on House Built with Balloon-Frame Walls.

The article reports that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a warning in November 2005 about the hazards for workers when the houses are built by manually raising balloon-frame walls. Its records show that balloon-frame walls have collapsed 22 times from 1999 to 2004, killing five workers and sending 16 others to the hospital with injuries. One of the worst balloon-frame accidents occurred near the Calumet City office, when workers raising a wall found it was too heavy. Eight workers ended up needing hospital care, two with broken feet and vertebrae. OSHA recommends that the job should be preplanned, the wall weight must be checked, establishing a safe zone around the lift, securing the bottom plate and using equipment with the proper attachments.