A stepped-up effort by the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries to identify safety violations in the residential framing industry has uncovered about 600 violations in L&Is Spokane region during the past 13 months.


It appears as though, however, the percentage of framers here who have committed safety violations is smaller than in other parts of the state, L&I officials here say.


Dan Aga, L&Is compliance program manager here, says the department has conducted 285 inspections in the Spokane region as part of whats being called the framing initiative, a statewide effort by L&I launched last year to ensure that framers are working safely.


So far in that effort, L&I has cited 213 serious hazards and 392 general violations. Aga says many framers were found to be operating safely, with no violations, while others were found to be committing multiple infractions.


In a separate set of inspections, L&I conducted a two-day sweep operation here this summer. That sweep involved an additional 32 inspections during which inspectors found 13 serious hazards and 31 general violations.


That series of surprise inspections also found that five subcontracting companies werent registered with the state.


Will Skuse, a safety-compliance supervisor in the Spokane office, says a serious hazard is an infraction in which a workers safety was compromised, such as working at heights without being tied off for fall protection, operating a nail gun without eye protection, and using a ladder unsafely.


Serious-hazard citations always include finespenalties for first-time violations range from $100 to $7,000, depending upon a variety of factors, Skuse says.


General violations are less serious infractions and normally dont carry fines, he says.


Aga says L&I will continue with its stepped-up framing inspections for at least the next year and might conduct more sweeps here.


L&I targeted residential framers because their workers get injured on the job more frequently than workers in other construction trades. Consequently, framing companies pay substantially higher industrial-insurance rates.


Preliminary data, however, suggest that the number of work-related injuries reported by framers is declining, although its difficult to know how much of that drop-off can be attributed to L&Is effort, Aga says.


The Spokane region is L&Is Region 6, which is bordered by the state line to the north, south, and east, and goes as far west as Sprague, Wash. That region doesnt include Walla Walla or the Tri-Cities.