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HEALTH AND SAFETY ESSAY...

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Health and Safety Essay ECM2108 Construction Methods and Material University of Exeter 650066030

The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, or the HSWA is the fundamental legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It had a big impact on health and safety in general and on UK construction sites in particular because it gathers all health and safety concerns into one piece of legislation. It is important since there is possibility of an accident or damage to someone’s health in every business. According to Safety and Health Practitioners, it establishes a range of duties between various roles such as employers, employees, and the self-employed as well as other roles like manufacturers, suppliers, and designers. The act also leads to the creation of Health and Safety Commission and Executive (HSE) which work is to establish and oversee the regulations with powers to prosecute. The Act is also supported by guidance and Approved Codes of Practice (ACOP).

Under the act’s legislation, employers are required to provide safe equipment for employees, safe systems of work for them and other roles around them such as contractors, visitors, and general public, arrangements to make sure safe handling, storage, and transport of substances, including information, instruction, training, and supervision. Employers are also obligated to have a safely maintained place of work with safety access and arrangement of welfare. Aside from all that, they are also required to have a safety policy along with consultation with employees on safety matters. For employees, they are required to take care for the health and safety of themselves and other persons who might be affected by their acts at work and cooperate with employers when its necessary to enable them to perform their duties under the Act. The ‘Six Pack’ of Regulations created in 1992 introduced 6 regulations which reinforces the Act. Another regulation is the Construction Design and Management Regulation (CDM) created in 1994 which applies to projects with more than 30 days length, more than 20 workers working on site at any time, or projects that will take more than 500 person a day to complete. All this regulation and legislations have helped create a safer environment culture for everyone in the business due to all the requirements and prosecutions to those who fails to follow the regulations. According to Safety and Health Practitioners, fatal injuries experienced by employees between 1974 to 2018 have dropped by 85 percent while reported non-fatal injuries have fallen by more than 75 percent, with the construction of London Olympic Park that was constructed with zero fatalities seen as one of the most successful implication of the Act.

The Construction Design and Management Regulation (CDM) established that 60 percent of construction site accidents occurred due to decision made before construction on site began. Its most recent update was on 2015 and it covers the management of health, safety, and welfare during construction projects. CDM process aims to plan work sensibly, hoping that the risks involved would be managed from start to finish, having the right people with the right background for every job, coordinates work for all that is involved, have information about all possible risks and how to manage them, and consult and engage with workers about it. According to HSE, the client is responsible to make suitable arrangements for managing a project. This includes ensuring other duty holders are appointed as appropriate and sufficient time and resources are allocated. Principal designers are required to plan, manage, monitor, and coordinate health and safety in the preconstruction phase of a project, this includes ensuring designers carry out their duties and liaise with the principal contractor to help in the construction phase. Designers are obligated to provide information to other members of the project team to help them fulfil their duties when preparing or modifying (includes eliminating or reducing) designs and hazards, or controlling foreseeable risks that may arise during construction or maintenance and usage of a structure once it is built. The duties of a principal contractor include planning, managing, monitoring, and coordinating health and safety in the construction phase of a project, this includes liaising with the client and principal designer, preparing the construction phase plan, and organizing cooperation between contractors while also coordinating their work. Sub-contractor’s duties require them to coordinate their activities with others in the project team and comply with directions given to them by the principal designer or principal contractor.

The members of the public are protected under the Act since it regulates safety measures to prevent them from having any accidents or injuries from anything related to the construction site, according to HSE’s guidance to protect the public (2009). This includes setting perimeters around in construction sites, controlling access to site, informing visitors with health and safety instructions and precautions, and setting specific hazard and its risk and their control. The specific hazards accommodate slips, trips, and falls, opening and excavations, falling objects, hazardous substance, and many more. The guidance also accommodates health and safety measures for vulnerable groups and premises which requires special attention such as children, the disabled, occupied premises, and more.

Health and safety risks may be assessed and mitigated following a risk plan. The risk assessment is a fundamental and explicit requirement of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) and its findings is required to be recorded from employers with more than five employees. One of the first step to a risk plan is to identify hazards which can be done by evaluating things than can cause harm, such as chemicals, noise, working in elevations, or falling objects. Identifying risks is

the next step, which is a combination of hazard and the probability of it causing harm. One way to assess risks is to use the ‘Traffic Light’ system to highlight risks. This system sets a number for inherent risk for hazards obtained by multiplying its inherent impact by its inherent likelihood to happen. If the number exceeds 10, it is listed as red, which means it needs to be mitigated. Mitigation is then allocated for each hazard, and a residual risk number is obtained by multiplying the residual impact by its residual likelihood. If the residual risk number is lower than 5 it is considered acceptable. Following both of the identifications, the risks and hazards are then evaluated and reviewed, leading to implementations and controls, and monitoring.

The CDM red, amber, and green lists down hazards based on their likelihood to happen. Red consists of hazards that should be eliminated straight from projects if possible, for example lack of pre-construction information or on-site spraying of harmful substances. Amber consists of hazards allowable only if its unavoidable, for example heavy components that is impossible to be lifted mechanically or internal manholes / inspection chambers in circulation areas. Green means products and processes that are encouraged as being safe. Risk Mitigation Hierarchy (ERICPD) contains eliminating hazards at source by substituting hazardous substance with non-hazardous one and not using a noisy machine, reducing hazards at source by using less hazardous substances and replacing noisy machine, isolating people from hazard by using robots to apply chemicals, controlling or containing the hazard by enclosure such as using sound proofing around noisy machinery, and protecting the employee against the exposure by rotating personnel every 8 hours.

Safety culture is a product of individual and group behavior that determines the commitment and style to an organization’s health and safety management and is usually expressed in terms of attitude and behavior according to HSE. It has been observed that 90 percent of accidents are caused by human behavior such as ignorance or lack of awareness and taking undue risks at work. Heinrich’s Law (1931) states that in every accident that cause a major injury have 29 accidents that cause minor injuries and 300 accidents that cause no injuries. Safety culture influences individual workers since it establishes a rigid foundation to create a safe and law-abiding mindset on how they behave during work, ensuring them to adhere all the safety measures and precautions. Employers have much responsibility to generate safety culture in their company or organization to ensure that it can be expressed in their employee’s behavior and reduce any possibility of any accident happening.

Reference: Hse.gov.uk. (2009). Protecting The Public. [online] Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg151.pdf [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018]. Hse.gov.uk. (2018). Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – legislation explained. [online] Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].

Hse.gov.uk. (2015). Construction Design and Management summary of duties. [online] Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/summary.htm [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018].

Augustin, K. and Brooks, O. (2018). The effectiveness of the Health and Safety at Work Act - SHP - Health and Safety News, Legislation, PPE, CPD and Resources. [online] SHP - Health and Safety News, Legislation, PPE, CPD and Resources. Available at: https://www.shponline.co.uk/an-analysis-of-the-effectiveness-of-thehealth-and-safety-at-work-act/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2018]....