An Introduction To Construction Safety: By Faizan Shafique

An Introduction to construction Safety

By Faizan Shafique

“No work is so important that it needs to be done without due consideration of safety”

What is Safety?  Safety is the prevention from accidents.

 Safety is the control of recognized hazards to attain an acceptable level of Risk.

What are accidents?  An accident is an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury  So, an incident becomes an accident in the absence of appropriate safety

Effects of Accidents • • • •

Injury (disability, pain, suffering) Damage (equipment, building) Loss (life, earning, output, time) Emotion (following injury, pain, death)

THE THREE E’s OF SAFETY ENGINEERING

Making design improvements to processes

EDUCATION

Ensure that employees know how and why to work safely.

ENFORCEMENT

Make sure that employees abide by policies, rules and regulations

Planning for Safety High

Ability to Influence Safety

Conceptual Design Detailed Engineering Procurement Construction Start-up

Low 1

Szymberski (1987)

Project Schedule

Safety and Health Professionals • An important member of the safety and health team is the safety and health professional (Safety manager or Safety engineer). • Companies that are large enough sometimes employ a safety and health manager at an appropriate level in the corporate hierarchy. • Duties include: –Hazard analysis - Record keeping –Accident reporting - Training –Standards-compliance - Emergency Planning

Why Construction is Dangerous? • Construction sites are ever-changing environments.

• Construction workers are constantly faced with new situations that may be potentially hazardous. • Workers work with potentially dangerous tools and equipment amidst a clutter of building materials.

Staying safe is only being human . . . Take care

Construction Safety in Pakistan Faizan Shafique

Conclusions of Research by Farooqi, Arif and Rafeeqi NED University (2008) The top three safety non-performance practices at building construction work sites are: • 1. Ear defenders not worn (while using noisy equipment) • 2. Protective footwear not worn • 3. Face masks not worn (in dusty conditions)

Conclusions of Research by Farooqi, Arif and Rafeeqi NED University (2008) Most of the safety non-performance issues belong to self protection category. This shows that the site workers themselves are either unaware of the importance of personnel safety practices or they do not want to wear protective gears and kits as they consider it as a hindrance in their work productivity. Also, it was observed that the site management seemed non-interested in emphasizing the need of personnel safety practices among their workers.

Conclusions of Research by Farooqi, Arif and Rafeeqi NED University (2008) Most of the companies lie in the range of extremely unsafe to moderately unsafe (about 58%). This shows that the overall level of the industry as regard to site safety needs drastic improvement. Safety seems to be on the less priority on the agenda even during the execution phase which is not a healthy trend. A mean value of Safety Performance Index of 0.52 indicates that even the basic practices required for safety are not present at most construction sites. Also, the scattered safety performance levels of firms indicates lack of standard safety management systems.

Dr Rafiq M. Chaudhry, NUST Top 10 Safety Implementation Barriers in pakistan 1. Worker cooperation/ behavior 2. Perception that safety hinders productivity and/ or quality 3. Lack of owner/ top management commitment and support 4. Lack of safety awareness and knowledge 5. Lack of teamwork/ partnering approach towards safety 6. Lack of familiarity & expertise with safety management techniques 7. Absence of safety regulatory framework in the industry 8. Complicated safety work rules make the workers non-responsive 9. Lack of proper training of employees 10. Lack of accident liability