Health and Safety Problem in Construction
Introduction
The performance of construction industry has improved in recent years but unfortunately the death rates and the serious injury rates in construction is highest among all industries. Every year thousands of workers are killed or get injured while working in the construction industry due to several health and safety issues. One of the common health and safety problems in construction is accidents and deaths due to falling from roofs. According to Health and Safety Guidance (HSG 33, 1998), roof work is very dangerous and one out of five deaths in
Construction is due to falling from or through roofs. If workers don't die than they suffer from serious injuries resulting in permanent disabilities. These accidents not only take place in big scale construction projects abut also in simple repair works. The Health and Safety in Employment Act (1992) of New Zealand focuses on preventing people from all kinds of harm while they are at work.The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes of accidents and ill heath in roof work activities and to explain how these hazards can be controlled so that no workers get injured or die while working on or near to roofs.
Analysis
Working on roofs is very risky because workers have to work at the height. Surprisingly 24% of the workers who are killed during construction are the roofers who fall while working at roofs on heights (Thomas, Holden and Maitra, 2008). A large number of
All employees of Robinson’s Excavation are valued members of the organization which is why safety must always come first. The construction industry is traditionally a hazardous work environment, but with vigilance, dedication, and training, the dangers can be significantly reduced. In order to provide the employees of Robinson’s Excavation with a safe work environment, all employees, regardless of status, are required to follow and enforce all safety procedures, which are not all inclusive. Additionally, the following protocol is in compliance with all state and federal OHSA regulations.
Workplace safety is a major issue faced by nurses in healthcare settings. It is said that, hospitals are hazardous workplaces; unsafe workplaces are dangerous for the patients too. Today, many nurses are suffering hospital violence, heavy workloads causing serious injuries, contracting diseases caused by exposures to certain diseases, antineoplastics, and certain health care toxins, that workers bring home to their families. This in turn leads to acute staff shortages. Ample supply of nurses is very important in providing safe and timely care to the patient population. Maintaining a healthy workplace will enable the healthcare systems to control costs associated with healthcare management as well as enhancing the productivity of nurses in health care. It is estimated that creating a healthy environment in the workplace not only benefit nurses, but also benefits patients and other members of the health care team. This report explains some of the safety issues existing in health care, which directly or indirectly affects nurses as well as the health of the Canadian population.
If there is 'high risk' construction works, obtaining safe work method statements for all such work. High risk work includes, but is not limited to, working at heights where the fall is greater than 2 metres, demolition,
The majority of buildings in Afghanistan fall into the latter category. These buildings are especially dangerous because not only are they vulnerable to collapse, but the construction materials are heavy and cause severe injury or death when falling from modest
Data from the Bureau of Labor statistics states that over 4.1 million people were injured on the job in 2006 and 5,488 were killed in 2007 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). All levels of government have passed laws to regulate and maintain safety in the workplace. There are two basic levels of workplace safety laws that affect most workers. On a state level it is workers' compensation laws. On a federal level it is the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). When it comes to the various objectives, policies, and operations of these two levels of law, one will notice how
There is significant overlap between the NFPA Life Safety Code and the OSHA construction standards for buildings / structures to facilitate safe egress, as well as the minimum elements of emergency action plans and fire prevention plans (Tubbs, J., & Meacham, B., 2007). This is not unexpected as continual industry feedback drives the publication of NFPA updates every three years which in turn affords NFPA research and guidelines significant clout when OSHA deliberates over proposed changes which happen to occur less frequently. Federal and state regulatory safety agencies are the basis and foundation of the safety profession which codifies regulations as enforceable laws. As such, they do not change frequently without significant analysis,
According to OSHA, lack of fall protection is the most frequency cited violation. For example, construction sites notoriously fail to provide adequate fall protection systems. As a result, this is the leading cause of worker fatalities in the construction industry. On the other hand, any company that requires employees to work on surfaces above six feet will be required to provide adequate guardrail and personal fall protection systems. For example, a regular office-based business that requires maintenance personnel to fix roofing problems will be required to follow federal fall protection standards.
To appoint a recognised and competent contractor. Western Health and Social Care Trust have appointed McLaughlin and Harvey. Western Health and Social Care Trust need to appoint a recognised contractors because if they appoint someone who is not a recognised contractor and something goes wrong with either the building or someone getting hurt then it would be the client getting the blame.
Canada’s roads and parking lots are some of the busiest in the world. They also make up for some of the most unsafe work areas. In terms of overall occupational safety, current national figures show casualties and injuries are at their highest level. A good number of these safety problems are caused by workers being struck by oncoming vehicles, or them being injured by machinery and equipment or failure by the professionals to put on protective gear while at the work
The roofing contractor has one of the most hazardous of jobs. The main risk is the most obvious: falling. Beyond physical injury, the roofer faces yet another risk, which is liability for actions or lack of actions which cause physical or financial harm to others. These include:
On August 26, 2015 two workers, employees of Mortenson Construction’s subcontractor St. Paul-based Berwald Roofing Co. were working on a conventional installation of a solid roof on the roof of the Vikings Stadium in Minesota when both of them fell and slid down the roof. One hit one elevated platform about 50 feet below from the edge of the roof and died. The other struck a post and stopped he was seriously injured. He received 48 stitches for a deep cut to his leg. Details weren’t given about whether the workers were wearing safety harnesses or whether there was supervision. The company already had received several worksite citations for serious violations during inspections in the past five
In order to make the plant safer falls prevention campaign can be instituted to provide outreach in order to raise awareness among workers and employers about the hazards of falls from ladders and scaffolds. The educational resources page gives workers and employers information about falls and how to prevent them. Likewise, there are also training tools for employers to use and posters to display at their worksites. Falls can be prevented through three steps which include planning ahead to get the job done safely in an orderly manner, provide the right equipment, and train everyone to use the equipment in a safe manner. Therefore, seeing how scaffolds are used, it would be critical for employers to properly inform employees on how to prevent
In order to try to lower the large number of deaths and injuries in construction caused by falling from heights, the Work at Height Regulations was introduced in 2005.
Carpenters work in unfinished surroundings; this is why it’s all good to make sure your safe. While a house is being built, there are many unsafe places around the building site. When a house is almost finished, there can still be some hazards. Wood left on the roofs could fall and hit you still (“Everyday Carpentry”5). A safe working site makes the job easier to get done and helps the workers know that they are safe. Ladders are a big hazard in carpentry; you could easily lose your grip or footing. You should never hold on to the rungs of a ladder is very unsafe. You should always hold onto the outside rails of the ladder when climbing. There are holes you can trip in; they can
In the United States, construction has always been one of the most dangerous industries to work in. The number of fatalities that occur in this industry year after year demonstrate this. In 2014, 19.6% of worker fatalities, in private industry, were in construction (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) despite the industry comprising only 6.8% of the total work force. This epidemic is not unique to the United States. Essentially every country faces similar problems regarding construction safety. For example, in 2004 the Australian construction industry employed approximately 8% of the countries workforce. However, workers compensation statistics indicated that the industry’s incidence rate was 28.6 per 1000 employees,