Falling Hazard in Construction Sites
Discuss about the Hazard Identification and Prevention in Planning.
The occupational health hazard among the individuals working in the construction industry can be broken down into smaller categories. They may include falling, dermatitis, musculoskeletal disorders, etc. among all sectors the construction sector registers the highest number of fall cases every year. In most cases, the accidents at the construction site are due to lack of safety awareness measure or ignorance to use the required equipment on the site. So many other factors are associated with the increasing number of accidents at construction sites. Some of them are poor conditions at the site, lack of commitment from the management, unsafe working equipment as well as unsafe methods.
Cases of falling in a construction site are prevalent. Fall is the acting of dropping down from an elevated area. A fall is a physical hazard that occurs if an individual loses balance and falls from a construction site. Falls are caused by the unsafe working condition, poor communication skills within the section, and dangerous actions that expose individuals to danger. Majority of the falling cases reported are due to the individuals’ attitudes towards health and safety, and lack of excellent communication between the workers. (Albert, Hallowell & Kleiner, 2014)
The top managers and supervisors of the ABC construction company are really found within the site unless there is an urgent issue they need to address or when conducting the normal survey to check the progress of the construction work. Due to the increasing cases of fall accidents among the construction workers, the managers sought to come up and implement some ways to minimize or totally eradicate such cases. The management began an initiative that surveys and identifies the possible dangers within the sight in order to do some correction before the damage is caused. (Le, Pedro & Park, 2015)
All the health hazards identified at the site are recorded are eliminated or controlled depending on the decision of the managers. The workers are also trained on the most suitable and effective methods to follow in order to protect themselves from the fall hazard within the workplace. (Yang, Ahn, Vuran & Aria, 2016
Some procedures to follow any time the company experiences some changes or problems have been developed by the management. The procedures are structured in a way to prioritize and ensure the health safety of all employees. The safety procedures do not only focusing on the risk of falling, but also consider the use of different new equipments that may expose the workers to other health dangers. The procedures are considered when selecting the equipments, procedures needed to be used. (Teizer, Cheng, & Fang, 2013)
Managerial Intervention
The employees and management engage and work together to analyze the safety and health hazard at the site. The workers are required to report to the managers in case they think they are exposed to a certain danger. The managers evaluate and analyze the hazard to decide the right action. The procedures are revised as the managers may find appropriate. (Wang, Zhang & Teizer, 2015)
All the employees at the site must undergo some training to help them recognize the hazards at the construction site and the right channel to report the matter to the concerned personnel. Such an initiative aims to help correct the hazard as soon as possible. Apart from take a quick action and providing some precaution to the workers after reporting of the hazard ,the people in charge many stop the work for some time. Workers may submit their safety concerns to the department that deals with health matters or the maintenance department depending on the impending danger. (Melzner, Zhang, Teizer & Bargstädt, 2013)The safety orders must be given priority over other order within the construction site. The employees’ safety suggestions are taken into account during the inspection of the construction site by the ABC inspection team. The complains , and report by the employees are well documented and the date when the correction of any hazard are also put written appropriately. All the report concerning the impending dangers are posted strategically and appropriately to ensure all the employees are informed so that they can take some precautionary measures. (Zhang, Teizer, Lee, Eastman & Venugopal, 2013)
To ensure the employees are not exposed to dangers of falling. a regular site inspection is organized and a team drawn from the management team and the employees working at the construction site. The team employees who are involved in the inspecting of the site is changed every mother to ensure all the employees take part in the good process, and the team is made up of three members from the management team who do not change and six members from the worker’s group. (Lingard, 2013) Every Monday morning, the team must inspect to ensure that workers are safe before the began their construction job. The findings of the possible hazards are well written including their exact location. The team is entitled to assign the individual they find appropriate with the responsibility of ensuring all corrections are done to the possible hazards. (Kaskutas, Dale, Lipscomb & Evanoff, 2013)
Employee Training
If an accident occurs within the ABC construction site, through investigations are conducted by trained personnel that are hired to help the company realize the cause of the accident. All the members of the investigating team must be trained and experienced in accident investigations. The team should finally give their report and recommendations on where the corrections are needed to avoid such incidences in future. All the ABC employees are later informed of the findings and trained on what to do to stop the occurrence of the accidents. Zhang, Sulankivi, Kiviniemi, Romo, Eastman & Teizer, 2015)
As part of the longtime safety program by the ABC construction company, the management has been organizing for the first aid pieces of training for all the employees. Cases of any fall accidents are reported to the management and recorded to help in the evaluation of the progress made by the company to prevent the accidents and protect all its employees. (Zhang, Boukamp & Teizer, 2015
Every successful company must be able to develop a response plan the is designed specially to address the urgent matters of the company. The company must have some guidelines for managing the hazards within the workplace.
The ABC emergency plan has the strategies and procedures to be followed when responding to the fall-related accidents. The program is formulated in a way to support the right command chain. The company has an emergency response that is formed by three members of the management team and three of the employees who have different responsibilities in the organization. All the employees must know the right person to address emergency matters. (Lees, 2012).
The team has put the right resources such as first aid types of equipment, medical supplies, rescue equipment to address emergencies. The group regularly conducts some response training to all the employees .the training is aimed at reducing the risk of death or severe injuries in case of an accident.
The falls hazard within construction sites are widespread but can be eliminated if the appropriate measures are taken. The construction worker should be trained on how they should coordinate and operate at the locations. The companies should also prioritize on the safety of the workers and invest on the right resources.
In case of falling, the people around must be swift in giving first aid to the affected person. The matter should be reported to the management and depending on the seriousness of the accident, and the should call for ambulance services to help the victim receive the needed medical attention.
Emergency Response Plan
Many people at the construction site fail to put on the proper safety types of equipment and the improper use of the available tools. Some people ignore the need to use fall protection system or misuse it, and others use the types of equipment that do not suit the works done.
Poor planning and arrangement of different resources at a construction site are also responsible for fall accidents. In a place with poor housekeeping, the equipment is cluttered and very messy. The condition increases the risk of falling to all the workers including those working at high elevations.
Giving unclear information to the people at the constructions site can cause very many falls. The people working at site speak different languages since they come from different backgrounds and communities while others have difficulties in reading and writing. The poor writing and reading skills bring a lot of troubles because it becomes difficult for them to communicate correctly with each other. As a result, the intended message cannot pass to the workers at the right time hence causing falls. Poor line of communication between the employees and safety officers has also been blamed for many fall accidents. Many studies have indicated that many falls are due to poor communication by the safety directors. (D?jus & Antuchevi?ien?, 2013)
It is the responsibility of the management to provide the required safety equipment to the people working at the construction site. Enough safety equipment should be availed to the workers at a construction site. Good education of how to coordinate and operate within site should also be provided to the workers. If the management fails to give the safety tools like safety belts, helmets, and boots, the cases of falls are likely to increase. (Perlman, Sacks & Barak, 2014)
There is every need to conduct a consistent training on how to be careful in order to reduce the risk of falling. The practice should be focused on risk assessment, hazard identification as well as hazard control. It is essential for the worker especially the recruit undergo the practice before going on with their daily duties. The training program provides the details of housekeeping and cleanness, health and safety within the workplace, personal protection equipment and working in high places like rooftops. Implementing the training program in a construction company increases the knowledge and awareness of the worker of the fall hazard and the most suitable precautions measures. (Wu et al, 2013)
The most effective method to reduce the fall cases in a site is through conducting some training on safety measures. The management should be dedicated to the training program and provide all the necessary resources to secure their workers. The commitment of the managers has a lot of influence in the attitudes of the employees. All workers are likely to take part in the training if the management is much committed to it. (Wetzel, & Thabet, 2015)
Safety awareness campaigns should be used to raise level of fall prevention mechanisms awareness among the workers in the site. Use of health and safety messages, as well as the posters, can be beneficial in reducing fall hazard if utilized by ABC Construction Company. The method is recommended since it can pass the word to very many people within a brief period. The posters and banners are understood by many people from all backgrounds within the company premises. Majority of the people tend to remember the short and brief messages more than other long words that they have to take some time reading. (Azhar & Behringer, 2013, April)
The management should hold regular meetings to address the risks of falling and be fast in correcting where an impending danger is foreseen before it happens. The construction workers should take their security as their responsibility and inspect the safety of any place before they begin working in that particular area. (Hardison, Behm, Hallowell & Fonooni, 2014)
If an individual falls at the site, there are many risks the person is exposed to. The person may die depending on the height, there are possibilities of breaking or fracturing different part of the body while others may even get crippled for the rest of life. (Qi, Issa, Olbina & Hinze, 2013)
The employees must address the issues of fall using the right strategies. They must report the cases are any threats to their respective representatives who will forward the grievances to the management for the appropriate action to be taken.
ABC company has embarked t the use of different resources to reduce the cases of fall at the site. Some of the funds being utilized are guardrail system, warning line systems, fall arrest system and the safety monitoring system. The guardrails are used to prevent the workers from falling when working in elevated heights. The safety monitoring is part of the plan to protect the people working in solid erections . all these resources have been significant in minimizing the cases of fall. (Sulankivi et al., 2013, May)
The reporting and taking the right precautions to fall cases have played a key role in reducing the instances of fall. The cases had dropped from an average of thirteen instances to four cases last year.
The income of the ABC company has increased the managers began a program to ensure the safety of their employees. The workers feel empowered hence increasing their productivity. The profit of the company increased by 13% last year compared to the profit they made in 2016.
Reference
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