Occupational Health and Safety
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Everybody is aware that construction sites are a dangerous place to be because the nature of the work carried out on them, the equipment used, substances and machinery used on them and mainly, because statistics tell us they are. Under the Construction Regs. 1995 & 2000, construction means the building, alteration, conversion and fitting out of anything so this covers a lot of workplaces, all hazardous. From the amount of injuries, fatalities and near misses recorded (many are not), it is obvious there are many hazards present on a construction site, many of these are hidden hazards and unfortunately unveiled in a kind of trial and error process, especially in earlier years when health, safety and standards were not implemented quite so seriously. On a construction site, one may find there are hazards to fit in to each of the four categories: Physical, Chemical, Human, Biological, Human and Fire
Physical Hazards
Electricity on a site poses a huge threat of electrocution or, it can result in a fire due to old or poor wiring, overhead or exposed wires. Electricity can be more of a threat with the presence of wet conditions and is always a hazard because if the wiring isn't exposed, overhead or poor, there is still the threat that somebody may not be paying attention or acting irresponsibly.
Slips, trips and falls are huge contributors to injury and fatalities as there are so many uneven and also high surfaces where construction workers must work. Many of these can be quite unstable because they are often for temporary purposes and because so much site work is outdoors, conditions can be worsened by wet and windy weather which gives rise to slippier surfaces and more of a force working at heights and scaffolding and ladders can be unreliable. Poor housekeeping can contribute greatly to also. There is often a lack of handrails and toeboards on sites...