HEALTH AND SAFETY

Health and safety

Health and safety

Introduction

The CIB/ECI Design for Safety and Health conference has drawn on research from a wide geographical area. From the USA and South Africa to Japan and Europe and although the inference is on Designing for Safety and Health, the issues generated range from design for construction, operation, maintenance and temporary works to tools and techniques, education and training and legal aspects associated with health and safety. Whilst causational criteria may hold the route to many a solution it is communication that binds together all the influencing issues. If we are to address workforce safety issues from ergonomics to long term health problems we must begin with open communication and dissemination of information.



A Time for Change

Fundamental changes to UK H&S legislation began with the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974), which provided a comprehensive system for dealing with health and safety in the workplace and the hazards created by it. Subsequent European Directives have reinforced this and currently the driving influence in construction has been the introduction of the Tempory and Mobile Sites Directive 92/57/EEC. In its UK guise the CDM Regulations (1994) represented a significant development, in that it widened the scope of previous legislation by imposing new legal responsibilities on clients and designers. In addition, the Health and Safety Executive has published supporting documentation in the form of guidance notes, which address specific elements of work.

The industry recognises that CDM has delivered important intangibles such as raised awareness of health and safety issues both on and off site. However, data for tangible benefits including a reduction in the number of accidents and lost time or measurably safer buildings, is either anecdotal or unproven (Knutt, 2000). HSE statistics are inconclusive in that over the four-year period 1993/4 -1997/8, although there has been a drop in fatalities, major accidents have risen from 2627 to 4619. The HSE suggests that this is a result of an increased number of accidents reported, which previously has been as low as 46% and changes to accident reporting legislation (RIDDOR 1995) have widened the parameters for inclusion within the major accidents category. However accident statistics only address half of the issue, while asbestos, repetitive strain injury and other long term health complaints go unnoticed. Similarly have we to wait ten years to find out if the regulations have addressed maintenance and demolition criteria?



Article 14 of the Temporary and Mobile Sites Directive requires the UK to report every four years to the European Commission on the practical implementation of the provisions of the Directive. Since their introduction there have been numerous reports and studies into their effectiveness including Experiences of CDM (CIRIA 1997) and The Consultancy Company Report (HSE 1997). They found that many designers are unsure of their duties and the extent of risk assessment required and that as a result, the practices of designers are affected by their lack of familiarity with the requirements. “There are undoubtedly problems in understanding and applying the regulations and as ...