The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) released a new industry consensus standard for construction and demolition worker environment, health, and safety training, the ASSP announced February 18.

“Safety, Health and Environmental Training for Construction and Demolition Operations” (American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ASSP A10.2-2025) establishes training best practices to help organizations in the United States eliminate hazards and risks that can cause illnesses, injuries, and fatalities, according to the ASSP.

“Uniform practices for training construction personnel can create much safer jobsites,” Gary Gustafson, the chair of the ASSP’s A10.2 standard-setting subcommittee, said in a statement. “A key element of that training is communicating hazards and hazard controls with workers for each task.”

Types of training covered by the standard include new hire, site safety, regulatory, pre-job, supervisor leadership, and retraining on construction and demolition sites. Training evaluations, documentation, and recordkeeping are also key components of a workplace safety and health program, according to the ASSP.

Organizations can avoid the economic and reputational costs of incidents involving their workers by making worker safety a core value. The costs of workplace illnesses, injuries, and fatalities can include medical care, equipment repair, liability, lost productivity, environmental impacts, and damage to a company’s reputation.

Voluntary consensus standards like the ASSP’s provide expert guidance and can fill the gaps where federal standards don’t exist. Companies rely on voluntary standards to drive improvement, injury prevention, and sustainability, according to the ASSP. The group contends that government regulations are slow to change and often out of date, making federal compliance alone insufficient to protect workers.

“We are a leading developer of workplace consensus standards that reduce injuries, illnesses and fatalities,” ASSP President Pam Walaski, CSP, FASSP, said. “Our committees provide a technical expertise that ensures our standards reflect the latest industry advancements and best safety practices.”

The ASSP created, reaffirmed, or revised 15 standards, technical reports, and guidance documents in the last fiscal year, engaging 1,400 safety experts representing 500 organizations. The Society and its partners also distributed nearly 25,000 copies of industry consensus standards.

The ASSP was founded in 1911 as the United Association of Casualty Inspectors following the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in which 123 women and girls perished—some as young as 14 years old. The group was renamed the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in 1914 before taking its current name in 2018.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a training outreach program offering worker, supervisor, and trainer training. OSHA training is industry-specific—construction, disaster site, general industry, and maritime industry. Training is provided by third-party providers that issue “OSHA 10” and “OSHA 30” cards to workers and supervisors who complete the 10-hour and 30-hour training programs.

The 10-hour course is aimed at entry-level workers and covers information on worker rights, employer responsibilities, how to file a complaint, and basic awareness training on the recognition, avoidance, abatement, and prevention of workplace hazards. The 30-hour course, intended for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility, provides a greater depth and variety of training than the 10-hour course, covering an expanded list of topics associated with workplace hazards.