A survey of construction site safety in Honduras

Occupational health status of construction workers: A review

“…The prevalence of lower back pain was observed among Hamburg construction worker [29] 1993 Postural loads during hammering tasks of construction process are fallen in OWAS action category III and IV [30] 1994 Workers engaged in the construction industry suffered from workplace accidents and injuries due to lack of personal protective equipments and proper safety training [31] 1995 Musculoskeletal disorders were associated with physical factors in the construction industry [32] Seixas et al had suggested an approach to assess acute construction sites injuries from a checklist of injuries associated with frequent occurring events [33] Chronic lower back pain was found among mason tenders [34] Strong associations between severe musculoskeletal pain with age, awkward postures, prolonged working hours, working duration, and heavy smoking were reported [35][36][37] 1996 Poor working postures with static positions and awkward trunk postures with manual handling of loads were found as the main factor affecting the musculoskeletal system [38,39] Overexertion stresses were obtained at the shoulders, elbows, and thighs among the scaffolding workers [40,41] 1997 Occupational health depended on the working conditions and type of building construction [42] High risk of lower back disorders observed among bricklayers having more than 10 years working experience [43] 1999 Physical workload during the construction work can be minimized by the use of auxiliary handling equipment [44] Due to heavy work, construction workers were affected from musculoskeletal injuries [45] 2001 Electronic inclinometer used in the posture analysis of construction work to estimate exposure frequency more accurately [46] 2002 Only 50cm rise from traditional height during brickwork can significantly reduce the lumber compression loads of the bricklayers [47] A study in Hong Kong reported that poor OHS was the main factor for higher rates of workplace injuries and occupational health hazards [48] Upper extremities' and lower back pain were also found common problems among construction workers [49] 2002 Significantly increased rates of medically reported musculoskeletal disorders were found among the workers [50,51] 2003 According to Gervais, back disorders among the construction workers can be prevented by proper planning, training and management practice, biomechanical hazards minimization with suitable working conditions…”

Confined site construction

“…The importance of effective allocation and storage of plant and materials on‐site cannot be underestimated. As one of the leading contributing factors to accidents on‐site (Jaselskis and Suazo, 1994), on‐site management professional must ensure the proactive delivery of plant and materials to site, thus minimising the possibility of an untidy site. One of the key strategies in mitigating such instances and improving the delivery of material to site is through the use of just‐in‐time delivery, where the resources are delivered to site as necessary, thus minimising the site storage requirements.…”

Importance of safety considerations in site layout and organization

“…The construction industry is notorious for its poor safety record when compared with other industries (Bentil 1990;Stanton and Willenbrock 1990;Jaselskis and Suazo 1994;King and Hudson 1985). Every year, a considerable amount of time is lost as a result of work-related health problems, accidents, and "safety incidents."…”