The Impact of Heat Waves on Occurrence and Severity of Construction Accidents

Abstract

The impact of heat stress on human health has been extensively studied. Similarly, researchers have investigated the impact of heat stress on workers’ health and safety. However, very little work has been done on the impact of heat stress on occupational accidents and their severity, particularly in South Australian construction. Construction workers are at high risk of injury due to heat stress as they often work outdoors, undertake hard manual work, and are often project based and sub-contracted. Little is known on how heat waves could impact on construction accidents and their severity. In order to provide more evidence for the currently limited number of empirical investigations on the impact of heat stress on accidents, this study analysed 29,438 compensation claims reported during 2002–2013 within the construction industry of South Australia. Claims reported during 29 heat waves in Adelaide were compared with control periods to elicit differences in the number of accidents reported and their severity. The results revealed that worker characteristics, type of work, work environment, and agency of accident mainly govern the severity. It is recommended that the implementation of adequate preventative measures in small-sized companies and civil engineering sites, targeting mainly old age workers could be a priority for Work, Health and Safety (WHS) policies.

Accidentalidad Laboral en el Sector de la Construcción: el Caso del Distrito de Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Periodo 2014-2016

“…También es referida la peligrosidad que revisten los andamios y escaleras pueden ser muy peligrosas cuando se usan incorrectamente (Chan et al, 2008). Investigaciones en zonas del sur de Australia, donde el factor meteorológico se ha relacionado con la accidentalidad, muestra que los trabajadores varones han sufrido una proporción desproporcionadamente mayor de accidentes graves en comparación con las trabajadoras durante épocas de verano, debido a subestimar el riesgo y sobreestimar su capacidad para hacer frente a ella, lo cual ha incrementado el gasto medio de los trabajadores masculinos por accidentes de este tipo (Rameezdeen, et al, 2017).…”

Association between air temperatures and occupational injuries: a case-crossover analysis using workers’ compensation claims data in the construction industries in Northern Italy

“…Because of a combination of external thermal environment, heat sources in the workplace, and internal heat generation by physical activity associated with strenuous muscular work, climate changes and eventual heat exposure represent an even greater challenge to workers' health and safety, especially in persons with pre-existing illnesses (2,7,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28). The risk of heat-related health effects appears significantly increased in outdoors workers, including construction workers (CW), for several reasons (1, 3,18,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. First and foremost, even though the mechanization of many tasks may reduce the strenuous physical labour carried out by CWs, many activities still require exhausting manual work, and extensive mechanization requires economic resources that are often beyond the financial capacity of many small companies (i.e.…”

“…First and foremost, even though the mechanization of many tasks may reduce the strenuous physical labour carried out by CWs, many activities still require exhausting manual work, and extensive mechanization requires economic resources that are often beyond the financial capacity of many small companies (i.e. < 10 employees) (30,37,38). Second, due to the physical nature of construction industry, CWs usually perform a large share of their activities outdoors, poorly protected against meteorological factors such as extreme heat and solar radiation (30,39).…”

“…Second, due to the physical nature of construction industry, CWs usually perform a large share of their activities outdoors, poorly protected against meteorological factors such as extreme heat and solar radiation (30,39). Third, health and safety training in CWs are frequently inadequate, and again small companies are less likely to implement appropriate procedures and guidelines (30,32,(37)(38)(39)(40). Hence, many CWs may continue to work beyond a safe heat exposure limit as they are unaware of the risks associated with the heat exposure, or have inappropriate knowledge of the preventive measures, e.g.…”

“…Increased environmental temperatures may affect health and safety of CWs also as an increased risk for occupational injuries (OIs) (1, 29,30,41,42). As high temperatures can affect cognition, hamper concentration, reduce vigilance and increase fatigue, working during extreme warm weather would ultimately increase the risk of mistakes, accidents and injuries (18,35,36,(42)(43)(44), especially in subjects who otherwise would spend little time outdoor, such as part-time or seasonal workers (29).…”