scholarly journals A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR IDENTIFYING CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY INTENSITY IN HARSH WEATHER CONDITIONS

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar S.M. Moohialdin ◽  
Fiona Lamari ◽  
Marc Miska ◽  
Bambang T. Suhariadi
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Intensity Level ◽  
Activity Intensity ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Construction Activity

Harsh Weather Conditions (HWC) are environmental hazards that directly affect construction worker's health and safety, with a corresponding negative impact on their productivity. Climate predictions predict worsening scenarios of hot and humid weather conditions extending into regions not previously subject to HWC. The predictions pose a significant potential risk and elements of current practices in the construction industry seriously compromise workers' safety and productivity. HWC have been shown to have impacts on individuals and influence working environments which taken together lead to inhibiting the achievement of practical, safe and productive practices. This research aims to highlight the need to automatically identify the construction activity intensity in HWC, with proposing a conceptual framework of computerized vision analysis (CVA) system. This framework includes construction activity matrices that classify steel, formwork, and concreate work into macro and micro movements, with including the engaged materials, tools, and equipment. This system is expected to help in measuring the impacts of HWC on construction workers' safety and its implications on their productivity by identifying the activity intensity level and worker's idle time at the crew levels.

AN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK MODEL FOR PREDICTING FATIGUE OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN HUMID ENVIRONMENTS

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Yi ◽  
Albert P. C. Chan
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Heat Stroke ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Complex Data ◽  
Artificial Neural

Climate change is experienced in many countries located in tropical/ subtropical regions with generally hot/humid condition. Heat illness, particularly heat stroke, has caused a substantial increase in morbidity and mortality during heat waves. Thus, the high incidence of heat stroke is a pressing concern in the construction industry. Construction workers, being exposed to such unpleasant working environment, are at a higher risk of heat stress while undertaking physically demanding tasks. This paper aims to establish a model for predicting fatigue of construction workers in hot weather. During the period of summer months in 2010 and 2011, we conducted 39 field measurements on six construction sites in Hong Kong and collected a series of meteorological, personal, and work-related parameters. A total of 550 synchronized datasets were measured to establish the model. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), a type of artificial intelligence technology which implements more complex data-analysis features into existing applications, was applied to forecast the fatigue of construction workers. Performance measures including mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), R2, and root-mean-square deviation (RMSE) confirm that the established model is a good fitting with high accuracy. The ANN-based model presents a reliable and scientific forecast physical condition of workers which may enhance the occupational health and safety (OHS) in the construction industry.

scholarly journals EVIDENCE‐BASED PREVENTION OF WORK‐RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL INJURIES IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romuald A. Rwamamara ◽  
Ove Lagerqvist ◽  
Thomas Olofsson ◽  
Bo M. Johansson ◽  
Kazys Algirdas Kaminskas
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Musculoskeletal Health ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Work Related

Many construction work tasks are physically very strenuous and the incidence of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among construction workers is considerably higher than those in most other occupations. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to contribute to understanding a healthy construction site brought about by the best practices implemented by large construction sites to prevent WMSDs. A triangulation method made of interviews, site observations and studies on company's documents was used to identify the best practices in 13 several construction projects. A range of the best practices both in the pre‐construction and construction phases of the projects were identified in six different areas of the balance of the construction workplace system; however, there seems to be a significant need for good practices in the management of a systematic work environment. It is now established that Swedish construction industry has several best practices to protect work‐related musculoskeletal health. However, inadequate worker participation and the neglect of health and safety issues by designers in the planning process as well as the implications of some remuneration methods on the production schedule were perceived as detrimental to the musculoskeletal health of construction workers. Santrauka Daug statybos darbu yra fiziškai labai itempti, o su darbu susijusiu raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu dažnis tarp statybininku yra kur kas aukštesnis negu tarp daugelio kitu profesiju. Šio tyrimo tikslas – pletoti supratima apie sveikatos būkle ir jos svarba dirbant statybu aikštelese, igyvendinant didelius statybos objektus, siekiant išvengti su darbu susijusiu raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu. Tyrimams buvo taikytas interviu, pagristas trianguliacijos metodu, darbo procesu stebejimo statybos aikštelese metodas, buvo nagrineti statybos kompaniju dokumentai, siekiant identifikuoti 13 skirtingu statybos projektu. Geriausia praktika, prieš pradedant statybas ir jau statant, buvo nustatyta šešiuose skirtinguose statybu regionuose, tačiau tokia praktika yra svarbi darbo aplinkos vadyboje. Pripažinta, kad Švedijos statybos pramoneje taikomi keli būdai, kaip apsaugoti statybininkus nuo raumenu ir skeleto sistemos pažeidimu. Vis delto mažas darbininku domejimasis šia problema, sveikatos bei saugos problemu nepaisymas planavimo procese, kai kuriu atsilyginimo būdu itraukimas i gamybos veiksniu saraša buvo vertinti kaip faktoriai, žalingai veikiantys statybininku raumenu ir skeleto sistema.

scholarly journals An Innovated Integrated Prefabricated Quarter System for the Migrant On-site Construction Workers of China

2015 ◽  
pp. 233-246
Author(s):  
Tao Wang ◽  
Yulong Li ◽  
Guijun Li ◽  
Sijia Wu
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
The Government

Migrant construction workers from rural communities are the main workforce in the Chinese construction industry and urban development. While far from hometown, most migrant construction workers live in temporary quarters, with poor conditions, on or near the construction site. Although there are standards set by the government to guarantee the basic health and safety conditions of such housing, migrant construction workers in China suffer some of the worst living conditions, even compared to migrant workers in other industries. Health and safety accidents occur often enough in workers’ quarters to provoke young laborers from rural areas to seek employment in the service industry, where better living conditions are available. As a result, serious labor shortages in the construction industry have emerged in China over recent years. There is a significant requirement for the industry to improve the condition of living quarters, by applying both technical and management methods. So far, very few articles have addressed the methods for improving the accommodations for rural migrant construction workers in urban China. This paper aims to develop an innovated integrated prefabricated (prefab) quarter system for the on-site construction workers in China. The paper first discusses the current status of the traditional construction workers’ quarters to disclose the most urgent problems in need of resolution. Barriers that block the innovation of improved workers’ quarters are listed. Then an innovated integrated prefab quarter system is introduced. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed system are discussed. The strengths of the system with regard to the management of health, safety, and environment are analyzed and compared to the traditional system. An actual pilot project is studied as the validation of the prefab quarter system.

scholarly journals Pre-Qualification of Selecting Construction Project Contractors Using Health and Safety Criteria

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Patricia Omega Kukoyi ◽  
Innocent Chigozie Osuizugbo ◽  
Hosea Shemang Yohanna ◽  
Uche Emmanuel Edike ◽  
Israel Esther Ohiseghame
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Contractor Selection ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
The Right

AbstractContractors, among other construction stakeholders, are vital in achieving the set goals of a project. Adequately engaging a capable contractor is an important task for a client. This study aims at determining the reasons for clients contending with contractors that are not committed to health and safety (H&S). The study was conducted through a literature review, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 286 construction stakeholders in the Nigerian construction industry. Cronbach alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire used for data collection. Mean scores (MSs) were adopted to determine the major factors that influence clients’ selections and factor analysis was used to cluster variables of high inter-correlations. Findings from the survey reveal that H&S is not a clients’ goal or a project value hence, H&S is not viewed as a vital pre-qualification criterion for contractor selection. This results in a poor checklist concerning contractors’ quality assurance and inadequate verification of contractors’ H&S history. Therefore, appointing non-compliant H&S contractors. The findings provide information on the influence clients have respecting H&S as a prequalification criterion and towards construction workers’ H&S. This will enable construction stakeholders to make the right decision in the pre-qualification of contractors.

scholarly journals Issues with Senior Workers in Hong Kong Construction Industry: Preliminary Observations and Intervention Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30
Author(s):  
Tas Yong Koh ◽  
Steve Rowlinson ◽  
Stephen Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Psychosocial Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Workforce Productivity

There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing trend is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry. The implications of this ageing trend for the construction industry are the decline in workforce productivity due to old age, compromised health, safety, and well-being; and the shortage of workforce. Coupled with various organisational and institutional shortcomings in the industry that lead to unfavourable working environment, these situations not only negatively affect the economic viability of the construction industry but also give rise to other psychosocial problems experienced by the older workers. Despite these situations, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in the construction industry.There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible interventions to improve the working conditions of the senior workers. With these objectives, in this paper, we first report the findings of a small scale survey on the care of older workers in Hong Kong construction industry, and second propose potential intervention by combining the findings of the survey and our industry observations of the practices implemented by progressive contracting firms in Hong Kong. The findings reveal that despite the industry under appreciation of the ageing workforce, there are interventions implemented by progressive contracting firms that can potentially provide health and safety protection to the workforce of all ages although these firms are small in number. This article is an extended version of a conference paper that appeared as Koh et al. (2019).

scholarly journals O5A.4 Overexertion related age-specific wmsds claims among construction workers in ohio, USA: 2007–2013

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. A42.1-A42
Author(s):  
Harpriya Kaur ◽  
Mike Lampl ◽  
James Grosch ◽  
Steven Wurzelbacher ◽  
Chih-Yu Tseng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Full Time Equivalent ◽  
The U.S

BackgroundAs the proportion of older workers in the U.S. increases, understanding the health and safety needs of an aging workforce is critical, especially in the hazardous and physically demanding construction industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2016 the rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in construction was 32.7 per 10 000 full-time equivalent workers, which was 11% higher than the rate for all industries combined. The objective of this study was to examine the rate and cost of WMSDs due to overexertion, the leading cause of WMSDs, among construction workers by age group in Ohio using workers’ compensation claims.MethodsOverexertion related WMSDs allowed claims, submitted to Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation (OBWC) by workers in the construction industry for injuries occurring from 2007–2013 were analyzed to compute rates of allowed claims and claim costs by age group. The American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau was used to determine the proportion of construction workers in each age group in Ohio. For this study, age was categorized as 14–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54 and ≥55 years old.ResultsThere were 7434 overexertion related WMSD claims accepted by OBWC for construction workers who were injured due to overexertion in 2007–2013. Workers 35–44 years old experienced the highest claim rate of 7.28 per 1000 for WMSDs due to overexertion. However, the highest mean medical compensation cost for WMSD claims due to overexertion was for construction workers 55 years and older.ConclusionOverexertion-related WMSD claims appear to rise and then fall with age (≥55). There is a need to understand how aging interacts with WMSDs risk factors. Age-specific interventions to reduce WMSDs may help to retain older and skilled workers whose knowledge and experience might otherwise be lost when workers need to leave work because of debilitating WMSDs.

scholarly journals PRACTICAL VALIDATION MEASUREMENTS OF A PHYSIOLOGICAL STATUS MONITORING SENSOR IN REAL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar S.M. Moohialdin ◽  
Bambang T. Suhariadi ◽  
Mohsin K. Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Physiological Status ◽  
Physiological Monitoring ◽  
Status Monitoring ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Parametric Statistical Test ◽  
The Impact

The construction industry is one of the most hazardous industry and construction worker's health and safety in hot and humid weather conditions become a topic of a great interest for researchers and practitioners. Various physiological monitoring sensors have been employed to measure the physiological impacts of such weather conditions. However, the ability of these sensors to deal with the dynamic nature of the construction industry still under controversial arguments and there is a need to justify their applicability in real working conditions. This paper aims to investigate the accuracy of an off-the-shelf physiological monitoring sensor (Zephyr BioHarnessTM 3) in a real working environment when considering the impact of hot and humid weather conditions. Fifteen different construction workers participated in three site measurements, with monitoring two physiological parameters heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR). A non-parametric statistical test (Mann-Whitney) was applied to identify whether there is a significant difference between the medians of live data in the remote monitoring station and saved data of the sensor internal memories. The results showed that there are significant differences between live data and saved data. These differences were highly noticed in the third site measurements, as it included working in confined areas and trenches. The accuracy of live data is highly affected by types of activities and appropriate positions of the wireless connection devices (ECHO gate and repeater).

scholarly journals Appraisal of the Challenges to Ensuring Occupational Health and Safety Compliance within the Nigerian Construction Industry

2019 ◽  
pp. 488-495
Author(s):  
Charles I. Arum ◽  
Temidayo O. Osunsanmi ◽  
Clinton O. Aigbavboa
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Occupational Health ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Compliance Rate ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Safety Requirements ◽  
Safety Regulations

The construction industry is known for the high number of accidents occurring within the industry. This is due to the hazardous working processes which have led to severe injuries, disabilities and fatalities. Towards reducing this hazards numerous health and safety regulations have been provided by construction firms in Nigeria. Despite the provision of the regulations hazards and accidents is still experienced on construction sites. Thus, this study appraised the challenges of ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations by construction workers in the Nigeria construction industry. Data were obtained from safety personnel and construction professionals using questionnaires through a convenience sampling method. One hundred and thirty-eight were used for the analysis out of one hundred and sixty-eight that was distributed to the respondents. The questionnaire was analysed using SPSS V 24 adopting Factor analysis and mean item score. The findings clearly show that construction workers compliance to health and safety requirements is below average while the factor analysis shows inadequate safety equipment, low awareness to occupational health and poor compliance to health and safety requirements are the major challenges hindering the compliance rate. The study recommends that implementation of the use of innovative measures and hi-tech devices such as radio frequency identification for effective monitoring of construction workers. It also recommends the involvement of construction workers when making the health and safety policies. This study contributes towards improving the occupational safety experienced on construction sites within the country.

scholarly journals Occupational Health and Safety in the Kuwait Construction Industry: The Rationale for Research

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Robertson ◽  
Felicity Lamm
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Workplace Health

Over half of all construction businesses in Kuwait are small firms employing fewer than 10 employees, most of whom are contingent, migrant workers. There is also anecdotal evidence that the practice of employing illegal migrant labour in the Kuwaiti construction industry, particularly amongst sub-contracting firms, is rife. There are disturbing indications that the injury and illness rate amongst construction workers is extremely high. The paper will present the rationale for the proposed study and highlight the characteristics of the Kuwaiti construction industry. A brief review of the literature outlined in the paper will also attempt resolve (or not) the following questions: what are the intersections between the literature on contingent workers and the literature on OHS in the construction industry? In addition, what does the research literature say on the extension to which cultural factors shape employers' practices and attitudes toward employment relations and workplace health and safety? Finally, areas for future research on the topic will he identified and mapped out.

scholarly journals The Sustainability of Health and Safety on Construction Sites in Zamfara State

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 03003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismaila Oladunni Muhammed ◽  
Adegbenga Raphael Ashiru
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Construction Sites ◽  
Infrastructural Development ◽  
State Construction ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Descriptive Statistical Analysis

Construction industry has been attributed to be the growth of Nigerian economic and infrastructural development. Annual reports show that consistent accidents on construction sites in Zamfara State has affected substantial number of workers as they become temporarily or permanently disabled, thereby making many construction sites a death trap. It is as a result of high construction site accident currently experiencing in Zamfara state that this research was carried out to appraise the sustainability of health and safety of construction workers on sites. Subsequently, SPSS Version 20 was used to analyse descriptive statistical analysis. Furthermore, the findings highlighted that the performance and output of construction workers on construction sites depends on proper practice of health and safety. The research findings also recommended ways to enhance employers and employee’s compliance to existing laws guiding health and safety on Zamfara State construction sites.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document