Everything you need to know about construction safety: its importance, the top 10 safety risks in construction, and digital tools you can use to mitigate these risks and ensure worker safety
Construction safety is a principle adhered to and enforced by construction safety managers. It is the result of safe equipment usage, worker protection from hazards, regular site inspections and risk assessments. A key component of construction safety is compliance with the safety and health regulations of the region.
While the initial reason for improving construction safety may be to comply with workplace safety and health regulations, there are many other benefits to prioritizing construction safety, such as lessening the number of safety hazards and incidents. This is vital because safety hazards and incidents weaken the company’s reputation among industry professionals and regulatory agencies and can incur huge financial costs for the company.
In the United States, for nearly all types of OSHA violations, the maximum penalty is $13,653 per violation. For a willful or repeated OSHA violation, the maximum penalty is over ten times greater with $136,532 per violation. Meanwhile, incidents that result in injuries or illnesses have both direct and indirect costs. According to OSHA, it’s been estimated that employers pay almost $1 billion per week for direct workers’ compensation costs alone.
Other direct costs of incidents resulting in injuries or illnesses are medical expenses and costs for legal services, while indirect costs can include training replacement or substitute workers, repairs of damaged equipment or property, lost productivity, and lower worker morale.
Another benefit of prioritizing construction safety is that it helps strengthen the trust between workers, construction safety managers, and company executives. This higher level of trust leads to better communication across the company, resulting in fewer misunderstandings and clashes. Construction safety programs can also increase worker productivity and efficiency. Workers are more equipped to do their jobs effectively and safely when they are given adequate training and protection by the company. And among the best occasions to do this is during construction site induction.
Construction safety encompasses many aspects of construction work, ranging from pre-project preparation to post-project management. Some of the key components of ensuring construction safety are the following:
Safety Culture and Leadership: Leaders who understand the value of safety in the workplace must set expectations and empower workers through clear policies and visible engagement.
Training: Regular safety training on general hazards, equipment use, material maintenance, and emergency procedures ascertains that all workers understand the risks and best practices for mitigating them.
Emergency Planning: Establishing and regularly updating emergency response plans ensures preparedness for accidents, medical emergencies, and site evacuations.
Safety Protocols and Hazard Controls: Construction sites and controlled access zones require documented safety protocols for preventing falls, managing electrical work, handling scaffoldings, and controlling struck-by hazards.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Wearing the right PPE is mandatory for both workers and visitors to protect against common hazards.
Equipment and Worksite Safety: Regular inspection, upkeep, and safe handling of tools and machinery are crucial to prevent injuries and accidents.
Incident Reporting and Management: Timely reporting of hazards, near misses, and incidents helps organizations respond quickly and refine their safety processes.
Though construction is known to be one of the most dangerous industries and generally involves high-risk activities, it may be helpful for construction safety managers to know what to look out for and pay extra attention to so that they can ensure that workers remain safe and protected from harm. Here are the top 10 construction safety risks to always keep in mind:
Working at heights is defined as the performance of construction work at an elevated height of 2 meters or more. It is one of the biggest causes of preventable work injuries and fatalities around the world. As much as possible, working at heights should be avoided; however, this may not always be possible for most types of construction work, hence the need for inspection checklists before any work to be carried out.
Closely related with working at heights, falls, slips, and trips are often associated with ladders. As one of the top ten OSHA violations, ladder safety is vital in preventing such incidents. OSHA requires ladder inspections before initial use in each shift. Construction safety managers can satisfy this OSHA requirement by using a mobile inspection app to proactively catch issues that could lead to injuries, and create the necessary corrective actions for them.
Though scaffolds and ladders are considered to be of high risk, at least some are stationary, reducing their risk of endangering workers who are not using them. Unlike scaffolds and ladders, construction machinery, moving equipment or equipment used for lifting or lowering loads are greater threats to public safety. Following this, OSHA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) standards require initial, frequent, and periodic crane inspections.
While the idea of noise as a construction safety risk may be surprising, statistics in the UK show that an estimated 12,000 people annually suffer from hearing conditions due to excessive noise at work. Performing noise risk assessments, especially in the construction industry, can help identify the sources of these risks and how they affect the health and safety of workers.
Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is a permanent condition affecting the nerves and blood vessels of the hand. Construction workers are primarily at risk of developing HAVS due to the prolonged use of vibrating tools and equipment such as concrete breakers, hammer drills, and grinders. To avoid this, different territories have created regulations to reduce the chances of HAVS occurring. For example, in the UK, the Vibration Regulations of 2005 require companies to conduct regular HAVS assessments.
Manual handling is the lifting, lowering, carrying, and moving of objects during work operations. Aside from hand-arm vibration, the characteristics of high-risk manual handling involve repetitive, sustained, high, or sudden force; repetitive movement; sustained or awkward posture; and whole-body vibration. Assessing the risks of manual handling is crucial to protect workers from musculoskeletal disorders such as HAVS, epicondylitis, and rotator cuff injuries.
According to OSHA, trenching work presents serious safety risks to all workers involved, with collapsing trenches or cave-ins posing the greatest risk as they are more likely to result in worker fatalities than other excavation-related incidents. To mitigate this risk, construction safety managers should perform at least daily excavation risk assessments, especially when using equipment for mechanical excavation for trenching and other earthworks. This ensures that workers enter trenches only after adequate protection measures such as sloping, benching, shoring, and shielding are in place.
Exposure to electricity has long been recognized as a construction safety risk, with electrocutions being the most deadly. As a preventative measure against electrocutions and other dangerous exposures to electricity, construction safety managers should conduct frequent electrical inspections and maintenance checks. This practice also helps construction companies comply with OSHA standards on electricity.
According to the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), exposure to asbestos is responsible for around 5,000 deaths per year and other respiratory illnesses. Due to the high fatality of diseases caused by asbestos, the HSE has stated that a risk assessment must be performed before any work involving asbestos begins. Silica dust from blasting, cutting, drilling, grinding, and polishing of common construction materials such as bricks, tiles, concrete, and mortar can also cause similar issues and fatalities. Since construction workers are a significant at-risk group, construction safety managers should perform dust risk assessments on both asbestos and silica dust to ensure worker safety as well as comply with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations of 2002.
As outdoor workers, construction site employees face an increased risk of facing extreme weather conditions. Sudden changes in the weather can cause cold stress, heat stress, and heat stroke, all of which can impact worker alertness and performance, making them more susceptible to other risks as well. While the weather cannot be avoided, it’s important for employers to properly prepare employees for any sudden changes that may occur through training, emergency procedures and planning, communication, and appropriate measures such as waterproofing of equipment and protective gear.
Technology greatly enhances construction safety by introducing advanced tools and systems that improve hazard detection, worker protection, training, and risk management processes. Here are some technological advancements that can greatly improve worker safety in the construction industry:
Digital site inspections and assessments: Regular safety inspections, audits, and assessments done with digital form ensure that all workers can easily report risks and hazards as they are spotted, helping teams stay on top of residual risk and keep the workplace safe at all times.
Mobile-friendly training courses: Training is essential for construction safety, and with mobile-ready courses, workers can better stay up to date with changes in best practices and regulations anytime.
Lone worker monitoring systems: Digital lone working solutions such as mobile panic button apps and scheduled check-ins help keep lone construction workers safe anywhere in the field.
Monitoring sensors: Modern environmental sensors can track site conditions such as air quality, temperature, and noise levels easily to quickly identify and mitigate emerging hazards.
Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity: IoT integration with digital asset management systems enables communication between workers, machinery, and supervisors for coordinated safety efforts.
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