Comprehensive Report on Workplace Health and Safety in Construction

This report focuses on workplace health and safety issues within the construction industry, specifically addressing the risks faced by construction workers. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the prevalence of accidents and the importance of safety measures. The report then delves into the common activities and hazards present in construction sites, such as working at heights, exposure to dust and asbestos, and the use of machinery. It identifies key issues like fall-related injuries and dust inhalation, referencing relevant studies and statistics. The report also outlines the role of Zublin construction l.l.c and describes the construction activities and equipment involved. The report also discusses the various hazards like confined spaces, noise, and vibration, and their impact on worker health. Finally, the report proposes preventive measures, including the use of PPE, dust control methods, and modern technologies to mitigate risks and improve working conditions, emphasizing the need for behavioral changes among workers to enhance safety.

Running head: WORK PLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Work Place Health and Safety
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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WORK PLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Executive Summary
This paper discusses about the work place health and safety related problems among the
construction site workers. Along with this a few control measures for those workers are also
discussed in the report. . Health and safety issues in different industries around the world
have become major issues in the world. Therefore, it is reported that in the construction
industry the cases of accidents are very common and so it can be stated that in case of the
construction industry, the issue of work place health and safety is very important. The most
common work in a construction industry is general work related to the building and it may
domestic, industrial or commercial in nature. The building construction work also comprises
of new building work such as extension of new building, demolition of the old building and
making of new building. As a part of their work the workers are exposed to various risky
works such as working in a roof top, handling of asbestos, dusts without even using any kind
of PPE. Construction site works also includes the use of woodworking by using various
different types of machine and such types of machines are mainly associated with the
hazards. Moreover, it is reported that during the painting of the walls of the newly
constructed buildings the chances of inhaling metallic fumes and asbestos are very high. .
This study also found that in the year of 2013, fall related injuries were responsible for 36.9
per cent of all fatalities related to the construction industry. As a part of the preventive
measure, it can be stated that in order to prevent the inhalation of the cement and dust
particles, the primary measures should be the use of safety mask among the workers. the
use of sprinklers to precipitate the dust particles in the working environments and thus it will
reduce the exposure levels of the workers in the construction work sites. Another, important
preventive measures is to reduce the generation of the dusts in the construction site work
places by using the modern technology and it will help to improve the condition.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Description of Work of the Work Place and Activities........................................................4
Identification of Occupational Hazards................................................................................5
Background of the Research Findings...............................................................................10
Assessment of Risks.............................................................................................................12
Measures of Prevention........................................................................................................12
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................13
Appendix.................................................................................................................................17
Appendix.1..........................................................................................................................17

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WORK PLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Introduction
The idea of work place health and safety in different type of work places is very
crucial for the health of the workers as it is directly associated with the overall wellbeing of
the health of the workers. Health and safety issues in different industries around the world
have become major issues in the world. Therefore, it is reported that in the construction
industry the cases of accidents are very common and so it can be stated that in case of the
construction industry, the issue of work place health and safety is very important (Öney-
Yazıcı and Dulaimi 2015). According to the study ofKashwani and Nielsen (2017), it is stated
that in the construction industry, the nature of work is highly associated with the risks of
various accidents. Thus it is marked as an industry with having potential hazards and in this
context it can be stated that the issue of the hazards in the construction industry is very
common. In many studies, the researchers reported that a lot of improvements make the
industry a little safer, however in some countries this issue is a major threatening factor in
various developing countries of the world. In spite of lot improvements in the work place and
safety issues in the construction industries, the true fact is that this construction industry has
fatality and injury cases in most of the countries in the world specifically in the developing
countries. As per the findings of theMuhammad(2015), it is observed thatthere are a lot of
flaws in terms of infrastructure and the designs of the equipment used by the workers
working in a high risk conditions. The study identified that the technical flaws of the designs
(such as poor decision making due to lack of experience, poor use of codes etc.) were the
main reasons of having such adverse incidents in the work places of the construction
industries. Therefore, in other studies, it was reported that the management of the
construction companies have started to use modern equipment to improve the condition.
Therefore such initiatives to reduce the cases of accidentsin the construction industry were
quite successful in the reduction of the accidents by adding new equipment. However, it is
reported that in spite of using various initiatives for accidents reduction in the construction
industry, a significant number of accident cases were still reported. In this regard, it can be
stated that the main cause of such accidents in spite of having various modern equipment
installed in the construction work places is associated with the behaviours of the workers
present in the work places that is the workers are unwilling to use all the safety equipment in
the work places. Therefore, the researchers found that the only the behaviours of the
workers of the construction sites can only improve the condition (Grivna, Eid and Abu-Zidan
2015). Furthermore, there are various contradictory findings regarding this topic as well.
Along with the risks of fall injury in the construction industry, the case of dust exposure is
another serious area of problems of the construction workers in this industry.

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The present report discusses about the safety issue of the workers of the
construction industry and thereby a few recommendations for improving this condition are
also discussed in a brief manner.
Description of Work of the Work Place and Activities
Zublin construction l.l.c group of companies of Abudhabi United Arab Emirates is
associated with strabag international one of the largest civil constructing for infrastructure,
residential projects and electromechanical contracting engineering group with arrange of
technical expertise in the region. Zublin construction l.l.c has over thirty years of experience
of reputation serving in the field of civil contracting, residential projects, electromechanical
contracting and leader for both innovation and financial strength in the United Arab Emirates
region.
The inspection/ study was undertaken at QASR AL HOSN-strabag refurbishment and
conservation of the cultural foundation building located approximately 600m from the coast
of the Arabian gulf near the junction of Khalid bin awalead street 22nd in the city of Abu Dhabi
city united Arab emirates. The company employees are over 1200 workers and staff in
different departments. The following activities included construction of, cultural foundation
building, national library, 900 seat theatre, arts exhibition space, federal council building,
cafeteria, rest areas, landscaping, water features and underground parking.
Equipment, tools machines and materials, included, hydraulic drilling machines,
excavator machines, grader machines, cranes, welding plants, hand drills, grinders, power
saws, sledge hammers, hand saws, concrete blocks, concrete slabs, sand, cement,
timbers ,gravel stones, and paints.
In Construction site work places a worker is engaged in various types of hazardous
works and as a result the chances of exposure to the hazardous conditions are very high
among the construction workers. In a construction site, the workers are engaged in various
types of strenuous works such as welding, breaking of concrete materials, building of new
concretes in the construction site, lifting of heavy materials, carrying of the materials to the
construction site from the location of the storage. The most common workin a construction
industry is general work related to the building and it may domestic, industrial or commercial
in nature. The building construction work also comprises of new building work such as
extension of new building, demolition of the old building and making of new building. As a
part of their work the workers are exposed to various risky works such as working in a roof
top, handling of asbestos, dusts without even using any kind of PPE. Along with this, in
various studies it was identified that along with the works of loading and unloading of the
heavy materials in the constructions sites, site movements of the vehicles are also reported

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WORK PLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
by the researchers. In this regard, it can be stated that construction site works also includes
the use of woodworking by using various different types of machine and such type of
machines are mainly associated with the hazards. Moreover, it is reported that during the
painting of the walls of the newly constructed buildings the chances of inhaling metallic
fumes and asbestos are very high and it is reported by the various researchers that the
workers generally do not use any type of PPE during performances of any type of hazardous
works in the site of the construction (Mohideen andRamachandran 2014).
Another crucial hazards associated with the construction site is the confined places
and thus it is observed that the workers have to work in a confined places in a construction
sites due to the messy environment of this work places and thus it is very crucial to identify
the hazards in order to protect the health conditions of the workers working in such confined
places (Behera, Mohantyand Prakash 2015). According to the study of Yilmaz and Çelebi
(2015), it is reported that the workers present in the construction industry may have to work
in various types of confined spaces such as excavation chambers, underground chambers.
These types of work expose the workers to the hazards by two ways. Firstly they have to
work in a narrow space and secondly they have to inhale impure air which may contain
dusts, hazardous substances in the confined spaces in the underground area (Mpofu et al.
2017).
Therefore, it can be stated that such kind of hazardous work in the work places
enhances the chances of having adverse incidents in a construction work place as well. In
this context , the study findings of the Barss et al. (2009), can be mentioned and the study
findings reported that such type of hazardous works in the work places of construction site
can enhance the risks of accidents among the workers. Along with this, the construction site
workers also involved in the works like plumbing, painting, electrical works. Therefore, the
type of working in the construction sites causes more exposures to the dusts among the
workers and as a result it causes various adverse health conditions to the workers of the
construction sites. According to the study ofZekri (2013), it is reported that another crucial
problem for the construction site workers is associated with the noises due to the various
works and along with this the machine related vibration problem may also cause adverse
health consequences among the workers of a construction sites. For example, it can be
stated that a worker involved in such works that exposes the workers to a huge amount of
vibration and it can cause local inflammation in that particular organ.
Another observational studies reported that repetitive movements of a particular
organ can cause chronic pain among the workers as repetitive movements of the organs is
associated with the onset of local inflammation among the workers and thus it can cause a

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serious health related consequences among the workers (Dagan and Isaac 2015). In the
study of Wang et al. (2017), it is observed that the workers, who were engaged in works with
repetitive movements, had the higher chances of having injury in their work life. Therefore, it
can be stated that the injury due to the repetitive movement work can also shorten the
overall work life of a construction worker. Along with this, the poor management system of
the construction company can also enhance the chances of adverse health consequences of
the health workers. In this regard, it can be stated that in most of the developing countries of
the world, this construction industry mostlycomes under the unorganized sectors and so it
can be stated that in the unorganized industry sectors the regulations related to the shift
timings of the workers. In most of the cases, the management and construction site
engineersencourage the workers to work for a long period of time and as a result the
workers of the construction industry are exposed to the dusts and noises for a prolonged
period of time. Therefore, it can be stated that poor managerial skills causes serious health
consequences to the health of the workers (Yilmazand Çelebi 2015).
Identification of Occupational Hazards
In a construction site, the workers are engaged in various types of strenuous works such as
welding, breaking of concrete materials, building of new concretes in the construction site,
lifting of heavy materials, carrying of the materials to the construction site from the location of
the storage. Therefore, it can be stated that such kind of hazardous work in the work places
enhances the chances of having adverse incidents in a construction work place as well.
Occupational health hazards and associated risks encountered by employees during the
process of carrying out the tasks.
The following hazards were identified at the workplace during the inspections are:
1. Physical hazards : noise, radiation ,vibration and heat
2. Ergonomics hazards: manual handling, workplace layout and space
3. Chemical hazards: dusts, fumes fibres, liquids, paints and solvates
4. Biological hazards: insects bacteria and mites
5. Psycho social hazards: shift working, working hours
6. Thermal heat and temperature
7. Electrical hazards
8. Transportation hazards and
9. Trips, slips and falls.

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Along with this, in the construction site, the cases of fall injuries are also very
common in the construction sites. Such adverse incidents are very common in the middle-
east countries along with other middle-east countries of the world (Amick III et al. 2015).
According to the data of the World Health Organization, it is reported that in spite of
a lot of advancement in the field of technologies, the issue of construction worker’s poor
health conditions has become a well-recognized problem of this industry. Therefore, the in
various studies, it was reported that the low use of equipment, lack of sufficiently craftsmen
(skilled worker), difficulty in acquiring needed materials, and lack of adequate infrastructure
and other facilities are promoting the cases of accidents among the construction industry
workers in the world (Sousa, Almeida and Dias 2014). Not only this but in some studies it
was also identified that there are various other factors that can contribute to the accident
cases in the construction industries of the world.
As per the findings of the Rahmani et al.(2018), it is reported that the health and risk
in a specific work places refers to the condition in which the condition or the circumstances
has the potential ability to cause serious health related injuries among the workers working
in the construction site. In a construction work site a worker may face risks in various ways
and terms such as chemicals hazards, electricity hazards, hazards from inhalation of the
dusts, fall injury due to working in a severe height condition. Therefore, it is quite obvious
that the such condition promotes the cases of fall from distinct height and thereby causes fall
injury among the workers of the industry.
While discussing about the nature of the work places present in case of the
construction sites, it can be stated thatmost of the construction sites are temporary in nature
and as a result most of the construction managers compromise the issue of security for the
workers in their work places. However, it is quite obvious that the changing nature of the
works in a construction site promotes the safety managers of a construction site to
compromise with the security of the workers in a work place (Vitharana De Silva and De
Silva 2015).
While discussing about the primary hazards of the construction industry, it can be
stated that the cases of fall from a severe height is one of the major threats to the workers
working in a construction industry. According to the study of Zekri(2013), it is stated that
around the world almost 337 million of people face accidents due to such hazardous work
places and among them approximately 2 million and 310 thousand people died and along
with this almost 160 million of people face injury. Such kind of conditions is not only related
to the problems of work force loss but it also affects the financial earnings of a particular
company. As per the finding of the Yilmazand Çelebi (2015), the occupational accidents in

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the construction industry can be divided into three major groups and as per this findings the
injuries that affect an individual for more than 3 days by causing the disability in the worker
is generally marked as a major construction occupation related injury. On the other hand the
accident that affects a worker for less than three days are generally marked as minor injury.
In this regard, it can be stated that the major injuries among the workers can cause legal
consequence and as a result the cost of the accidents can be calculated easily. Therefore, it
is quite evident that in such unorganized sectors like construction injury the cases of cost
calculation by the management or by the workers are mostly neglected. In spite of such
negligence in the cost calculation of the accidents of the workers, it was found that, the
approximately out of 300 accident cases, 29 cases of accidents have the potential to cause
major injuries among the workers and along with this in 1 out of 300 cases the workers faced
causality and thus it is very crucial to identify the costs of the minor accidents as well (Yilmaz
and Çelebi 2015). As per the findings of the International Labour Organization (ILO), it is
stated that the number of accidents in the construction contribute greatly to the overall
number of accidents caused by the occupational hazards around the world .Therefore, it
can be stated that in every year approximately 60,000 workers face causalities in
construction industry. Construction sector is an extraordinary hazardous sector due to its
nature of production procedures and labour centric features. Excessive monetary losses
occur due to such accidents. All the costs that caused by work-related accidents in
aconstruction industry aren’t generally calculated and as a result proper preventive
procedurescannot be taken at satisfactory level (Öney-Yazıcıand Dulaimi 2015). While
cases of accident in the construction sites around the world, it can be mentioned that in The
Turkish Construction site every year almost 6000-9000 cases of occupational hazard related
accidents are reported. From this data it was interpreted that among all the accident cases,
almost 400 workers died and almost 400 workers became disable partially due to this
accidents in the construction sites. In recent time, around the world, it is observed that the
numbers of accidents are enhancing day by day and thus the amount of work day loss has
also been enhanced. Inthis regard, it can be stated that in the different countries of this world
almost 1,650,250 work-days are lost in every year due to such accidents cases around the
world (Yilmaz and Çelebi 2015).
As per the data of the Turkish industry, it can be stated that, the construction sector
in Turkey is one of the major players of accident related adverse incidents in the construction
work places. From the data of the Turkish construction industry, it can be stated that in the
year of 2012, the construction sector of the country snatched the first place among all the
industries in terms of accident cases. Therefore, it can be mentioned that in the specified
year, almost 9209 accidents were reported in the construction site of the country. In this
overall number, the construction sector contributed almost 12.29 per cent of overall

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accidents and the death rate contributed 34 per cent of overall deaths in the country related
to the occupational hazards (Yilmaz and Çelebi 2015).
Years 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Occupational
Accidents
6480 7143 7615 5574 6877 6437 7749 9209
Occupational
Diseases
3 5 16 6 9 31 16 30
Permanent
Disability
324 428 364 377 288 319 406 568
Death 290 397 359 297 156 475 570 256
Proportion in
the
Number of
Total Death
26 per
cent
25 per
cent
34 per
cent
34 per
cent
13 per
cent
33 per
cent
33 per
cent
34 per
cent
TABLE.1- Accident in Construction Site (Source-Yilmaz and Çelebi 2015)
From the above data, it was reported that although the rate of death in
constructionsite is stagnant, still the number is low and it is a major area of concerns for the
industry players as well. It was reported that, almost in each workday, almost 22
occupational accidents take place and along with this, around 1.2 workers become disable
permanently and approximately 1 worker dies due to construction accidents in Turkey.
Moreover, it was found that the death rate is almost 3-4 times greater in construction sector
than the other segments of the industry in the country. In US, almost 20 per cent of
construction accident took place in the construction site of the country and among them only
5 per cent of the workers are from the country. In Japan, construction site related accidents
is accountable for almost 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the total of industrial accidents, and
in case of Ireland this is almost 50 per cent and on the other hand in Ireland and 25 % of the
cases were reported in the United Kingdom (Kanchana, Sivaprakashand Joseph 2015).
The study findings of the Sanchez, Peláez and Alis(2017), it is stated that the rate of
accidents in the construction industry is only the ice berg of the overall picture.

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Hazards in the Construction Site of UAE
While discussing about the construction site of UAE, it was observed that the in UAE,
the construction industry is one of the major players in the field of economy and thus it is
very crucial to identify the hazards of this sector so that workers of this sector can be
protected in a well manner. In this regard, it can be stated that as the country is focusing
towards the promotion of the tourism in their country, a huge number of new constructions
are planned by the government and as a result a lot of workers are working under various
construction projects (Mpofu et al. 2017). As per the data of the labour department it was
reported that, almost 2.7 million workers are registered under the labour department of the
country and it is the duty of the government to protect the health of the workers in various
construction sites (Alhajeri 2011).
As per the study findings of Sousa, Almeida and Dias (2014), it is reported that in
spite of a lot improvements in the safety issue in the construction sites, in the last decade,
almost 5500 people faced fata; accidents in the construction sites and almost 75000
workers have become completely disable. Not only this, it was also reported that due to the
work related accidents in the work places, more number of people are facing problems while
performing their assigned work; however no such problems were reported by them
previously. In the construction industry, it was stated that 30 per cent of all fatal cases were
reported. In case of the accidents in the GULF region countries, it can be stated that in the
year of 1999, almost 923 construction site accidents of Grade IV were reported in the
country side region of the country and due to these incidents almost 1097 construction site
workers died. In this year, the total construction work force of the country was almost
24,286,000 and so the accident rate was almost 3.8 per 100,000 workers and the fatality
rate among the workers was almost 4.5 per 100,000 workers (Zakeri 2013). According to
the study of Shibani et al. (2012) it was reported that almost 130 construction companies in
the country had participated in this study, and the study reported that most of the companies
did not have proper understanding regarding the work place health and safety issues as a
part of their construction works. In this regard, it can be mentioned that along with the fall
injuries in the UAE construction sites, the risk of heat stress is another major problem for the
construction site workers of the country (Acharya, Boggessand Zhang 2018; Alshebaniand
Wedawatta 2014). The report of EHS Today(2017),stated that, in the year of 2017 the UAE’s
Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation will identify a mid-day work cessation during
the summer in order to protect the workers from the heat stress.
Another crucial problem of the construction site workers is associated with the fall
case from a specific height and thus it is very crucial to identify this problem for the health of
the workers. In this regard, the study findings of the Nadhim et al. (2016) can be mentioned.
The study findings showed that, the problem of falling from a height has become a global

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problem and it is one of the leading causes of fatal injuries among the workers of the
construction industry. In the study, almost 297 articles were reviewed and among them only
75 articles were included for the final study. It was reported that the fall related injuries in the
construction sites was associated with the 48 per cent serious injuries among the workers
and 30 per cent caused fatal injuries among the workers as well. This study also found that
in the year of 2013, fall related injuries were responsible for 36.9 per cent of all fatalities
related to the construction industry and in case of Australia this percentage was almost 12
per cent and in UK almost 31 per cent construction site workers died due to the fall injuries in
the construction sites of the country (Nadhim et al. 2016). The study revealed that in almost
all the accident related cases, the unsafe condition of the work places are mainly responsible
for the accidents related to the fall cases and along with this, it was revealed that the main
causes of fall injuries in the work places were improper work surface, improper guardrails,
unprotected walkways, sloped or slippery surfaces (Nadhim et al. 2016).
Another crucial factor for construction site workers is associated with the high level of
noise and it is very common for them to expose to such high level of noise in their work sites.
According to the study of Kashwaniand Nielsen (2017), it is stated that in a construction site
the workers are generally exposed to high level of noise during the performances of different
type of works and so it is very crucial to protect them from such hazards. Therefore, the
study concluded that almost 60 to 70 per cent of the workers in a construction site are
exposed to high level of noise throughout the working days. Therefore, the chances of
having partial or complete deafness among the workers are very high (Nadhim et al. 2016).
Another crucial that is associated with the idea of inhalation of dusts and asbestos among
the workers in the construction industry workers. In the study of Xing et al. (2018), the issue
of dust is one of the major concerns for the workers who are working in this construction
industry. The study also have identified that construction industry is associated with the
generation of heavy pollutes to the environment and thus the workers of this industry are
greatly exposed to this hazards.
Background of the Research Findings
The study was undertaken QASR AL HOSN, strabag refurbishment and conservation
of the cultural foundation building located approximately 600m from the coast of Arabian gulf
near the junction of Khalid bin awelead Street 22nd in the city of Abu Dhabi is united Arab
emirates. From this study, it was reported that the main hazard due to this projects is
inhalation of dusts by the workers of the construction site.
From various studies, it was reported that, in the construction industry, the cases of
cement exposure are very common. Therefore,cement workers in the construction industry