Facing Reality

The biggest safety problems aren't heat and moving vehicles, but miscommunication, poor housekeeping, and a wrongheaded approach.

• By Fred Elliott
• Aug 01, 2005

WHAT are the biggest safety problems on summer construction sites? Noise, moving vehicles, heat, and falls from height come readily to mind. But some of the most common hazards are more subtle: Communication problems, poor housekeeping, and a wrongheaded safety approach are factors.

When Britain's Health and Safety Executive commissioned a study two years ago of factors causing construction incidents, the findings of the resulting Research Report 156 were interesting and also relevant to U.S. construction firms. It cited poor communication within work teams because of distance between co-workers or high levels of background noise. Poor housekeeping and site layouts not designed with safety in mind contributed to 49 percent of the studied accidents. No risk assessment had been done in many cases; even where an assessment was performed, it was likely to be superficial and unlikely to have prevented the incident. Likewise, accident investigation was frequently superficial and did little to improve safety afterwards. PPE was relied on habitually as a substitute for engineering controls, the researchers found.

Although bad weather is often cited as a negative safety factor for construction, the research found little evidence to support this. They also said construction firms should be encouraged to benchmark their safety practices against other industries' and that the excuse that construction is "different" in terms of safety challenges does not stand up to scrutiny.

Ensuring Effective Communication
Communications can be a huge problem on a construction site. Crew members may not share the same native language, which raises barriers to effective communication; experienced trades workers may balk when told to approach a task differently than what they are used to doing.

Here are suggestions for delivering your safety message consistently and effectively:

• Walk your site several times each day, and vary those times. Walk through it regularly and bring members of your safety committee along. Examine the walking and working surfaces, scaffolding, scrap piles, electrical cords, ladders, signage, site entrances, noise levels, and how tools and machines are being used and are being stored when not in use.
• Ask questions. Is safe work ingrained in the workers? Watch the crews work and talk with them to learn what they really value. Make sure each one understands site safety policies and is familiar with potential hazards at the site. Encourage all employees to take pride in a clean work area and to report problems or needed corrections so quick action can be taken.
• Follow up. When you find a problem or a worker reports one, act on it. Following up cements in their minds your commitment to their safe performance. If all you're doing is cajoling them, without backing your words when necessary, you'll lose them.

Is safe work ingrained in the workers? Watch the crews work and talk with them to learn what they really value.

• Have the right tools ready when they're needed. If your employees are expected to clean up a spill, for example, have the tools and supplies for cleanup and disposal available where they can get them easily. If heat stress is a concern, make sure cold water is available in a shaded spot on site.
• Use safer alternatives where appropriate. Where possible, replace ladders with stairs, have fall protection systems built in at the design phase, or provide mobile lifts and other carrying assistance for oversized or heavy items.

Top Achievers Get the Message
Construction companies that excel in safety understand the value of effective communication. Several of the 2005 AGC/Willis Construction Safety Excellence Award Winners who were announced last March at the annual convention of the Associated General Contractors of America made communications and training focal points of their efforts, for example.

F & V Construction of Chicago, a winner in the Specialty Division (100,001-300,000 work hours), said it trains employees on scaffolding, fall protection, first aid and CPR/AEDs, Hazard Communication, back safety, and many other topics. Stacy and Witbeck, Inc, of Alameda, Calif., a winner in the heavy division (300,001-700,000 hours), said it involves field personnel, craft workers, and foremen in on-site inspections through a weekly rotation of Safety Officer of the Week. The "Safety Stand-Down Process" at General Construction Company of Poulsbo, Wash. (heavy division, 700,001-1 million hours)

Construction firms associated with the National Center for Construction Education and Research (www.nccer.org) and Associated Builders and Contractors share the same commitment. Examples include Teton Industrial Construction Inc. of Atlanta, which won an ABC 2004 National Safety Excellence Award and uses an annual, multi-day quality, safety, and training seminar that is focused on teamwork, safety, and quality. Caddell Construction Co. Inc. of Montgomery, Ala., a 2004 National Safety Excellence Award winner and NCCER contributor, has an OSHA total frequency rate of 1.3, far below its peers, and has worked nearly 5 million manhours without a lost time injury.

This article appeared in the August 2005 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.

This article originally appeared in the August 2005 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.