Safety And Risk Management For Health Hazards In Construction Sites

Introduction: Work place description

Discuss about the Safety and Risk Management for Health Hazards.

Kenoss had been given a contract by the ACT Government to carry out work relating to the resurfacing activities. This means the work assigned to Kenoss was that of construction industry (Employsure, 2015). The company had two sites one in which was the main site and the other one served as a store. It is evident that construction industries like that of kenos are important contributors to the economy of any country. In fact they are viewed as key drivers of economic growth more so in the developing countries. This industry is of relatively labor intensive nature and therefore the opportunities are quite many in this field.  Some laborers may be skilled, unskilled or even semi-skilled (Aneziris et al., 2009). With the kind of work done at construction sites the environment therein is often considered risky and there are often many ill health problems to the staffs as well as high rates of accidents.

These risks are not just for the employees alone but also end users and other practitioners. In all this regard the knowledge on the management of the health and safety risks at the sites has always been minimal as it was in the case of  kenos and the project manager present at the site i.e. Al-Hassan. For any construction company to ensure that work has been done well there is the need to identify quality expectations and they should be communicated visually to all the workforces (Hassan, Obasha and Hanafi, 2007). It’s hence the duty of managers to encourage employees to regularly measure themselves and determine how they perform on a daily basis. This seems not to be the case with the Kenoss Company.

Construction sites are very important in any economy however they are among the most risky places for any individual to work in. this therefore calls for a lot of cautiousness to be exercised every time anyone is at the site either handling materials in either form or just even on a site visit with other interests (Giang and Low Sui Pheng, 2010). Workers in such sites are often subject to many ill health problems and fatalities. Most of the construction activities whether buildings, roads etc are a risk to safety and health and this could be but not limited to working undergrounds, on heights, doing work in places that are confined or even in close proximity to materials that are likely to fall, the handling of heavy loads in a manual manner, handling and use of substances that are hazardous, too much noise, dusts use of risky equipment and exposure to live electric cables as in the study case (Ismail and Ghani, 2012).

Health hazards at construction sites

After mining sites construction sites are ranked the second most dangerous working environments in many countries (Charles, Pillay and Ryan, 2007). Through major accidents and working conditions that are poor there has been an increase of deaths, severe injuries and disabilities that are permanent in the past years. This indeed sends a signal of negligence to health and safety regulations either on the part of companies involved or people at the sites (Doloi, 2009). Such increased scenarios are becoming a threat to the growth of this industry since most laborers are shying away from taking up jobs in various sites.

With the risks mentioned above there is need to device means of handling them within time so as to prevent them from occurring or to reducing the extent of the damages caused. Therefore the main focal point of dealing with such hazards is to use communication means as well as control strategies (Hallowell and Gambatese, 2010). These techniques are believed to reduce ill health problems and accidents. Once a construction company adopts a risk assessment strategy, good and prompt communication means then the risks can be managed, transferred, minimized, accepted or shared with ease. It’s through risk assessment strategies that the degree of risks that employees may face due to an exposure to safety and health hazards can  be used to  make an establishment of what can be used to control or rather reduce risks and offer protection to the health of involved parties. Using risk assessment, communication and control those people involved in the project at the site are able to get information and be educated on the actions to be taken in case of a risk (Maytorena et al., 2007). People are also able to get early warnings of any disasters ad how emergencies can be handled. This therefore indicates that risk assessment, communication and control are the cornerstones of the legislation dealing with health and safety.

There are work health and safety laws and acts that have been put in place however these acts are not that effective in many countries. This is because there is very little knowledge in regards to an industry’s response and especially the practices that need to be used for the health and safety risk assessments as well as communication (Wu, Gibb and Li, 2010). People do not know how to deal with hazards on time to save the victims from fatal accidents, disabilities and deaths. The processing of risk information is also unknown to many. The lack of such crucial information and also good experience has set limits on the risk intervention processes that aim at the improvement of health and also the work environment is safe.  There is need to identify safety and quality expectations and set achievable goals (Kikwasi, 2010). All these considerations can then be integrated into a project plan at the site which is cohesive. This ensures that everyone t the site is fully aware and responsible to be engaged in the proactive plans for any looming workplace hazards.

How to handle safety and health risks at a construction site

This is a case perceived to be negligence of the health and safety measures at construction sites. The case was between a project manager Munir Al-Hasani and Kenoss Contractors. The ACT government contracted Kenoss to carry out the resurfacing of roads. Kenoss in its operations runs two sites i.e. an office site and a site for the storage of materials. For kenoss to accomplish its mandate it had to subcontract O’Meley Truck Hire to deliver materials to the construction site. This was done on the 23^rd of March 2012. The driver of this truck that was to deliver materials to the site was Michael Booth and he made the deliveries alone (Employsure, 2015).  Despite having been at the site several times Booth was not aware of some hazardous risks at the site. While entering the site, Mr Booth tipped his truck so as to offload the deliveries. In the process of doing so, the bucket touched too low and came in contact with the power lines where an electric arc was formed. The contact was severe to the extent that the explosion caused burn marks damaging and deflating the truck tires. Mr Booth tried jumping out of the truck but he was electrocuted and died o the spot. No amount of resuscitation could bring him back to life (Enhance solutions, 2014).

In his defense O’Meley said he had not undergone through a site induction exercise prior to the incident neither had he ever attended talks organized on safety talks. After hearing the case the court concluded that a breach of work health and safety act 2011 was committed by kenoss. This breach of the act had exposed Mr Booth to the risk of death due to the acciedent. Kenos as a company breached the act by using a site manager Al-Hasan who does not have the authority to perform the duties of an officer (Enhance solutions, 2014).This led to the company i.e. Kenoss to be fined $ 1.1 million for the safety breaches it committed which led to the death of Mr Booth.

It’s evident that the site had some live electricity wires that were a disaster in waiting. Therefore to avoid the death of Mr Booth, this electricity problem could have been dealt with and a correction dome before proceeding with construction work (Chia- Kung and Jaafar’, 2012). Mr Al-Hassan could not have been given the roles of an officer in charge by Kenoss having known well that he was not experienced on matters to do with health and safety risks at a construction site. If an experienced officer was in charge he/she could have known what exactly needed to be done in terms of issuance of first aid services to Mr Booth which in the end they may have saved his life. Employment of an experienced officer would have also been of help to Mr Booth to offer directions as he drove in to deliver the materials by warning him of a live electric wire at the site (Cheng et al., 2010). Alternatively since Al-Hassan was not experienced he may have not seen the need to report to the authorities about the live wires which led to electrocution of Mr Booth unlike if an experienced officer was in charge.

What happened and how SAFEWORK resolved the issue in the case study

The company had not placed any safety signs at the site or even flags which were to act as warning of the presence of live power lines

The access road to the work site could have been poorly done and managed and therefore leaving Mr Booth with no other entrance points apart from the area of live power lines

From the turn of events it’s evident that the contractor had poor management techniques. This is because he had not bothered to attend trainings on safety at work places. The management also exercised negligence at work because they let Mr Booth to do the deliveries to the site alone without any other person accompanying him (Employsure, 2015).

The construction site appeared as though it was a dumping site since the entrance gate did not have any locks to regulate traffic movement in and out of the site.

Failure to turn off power lines during the delivery of materials time also contributed to the incidence happening hence another case of duty negligence.

Having had the officer in charge as the son of the general manager, kenos proved to have poor corporate culture. The company assigned duties to individuals based on relations and not qualifications as it’s a regulation of working conditions (Enhance solutions, 2014). The organization also proved beyond doubt in their defense that it did not have good documentation and an approach to safety that is supposed to be systemic.

If I was working at the site I would advocate for enforcement of safety and health regulations at work so as to avoid future incidents (Caccia, 2009). I would also make recommendations to the management to ensure they employ staffs in different sectors on merit basis and not on how one relates to the top management. With an aim of sensitizing the rest of the staff on risks at work place I would recommend the training of all the people working at the site on matters relating to safety and health risks. This would equip everyone at the site with (especially) first aid skills on matters that may arise in future that need urgent administration of first aids. I would advocate for installing of safety signs at the areas that people need to keep out of reach due to looming dangers (Aneziris, Papazoglou and Kallianiotis, 2010). To avoid future accidents from occurring I would advise the management to ensure the entrance has locks and well organized so that people do not confuse it with a dumping site in future. Finally I would request for an assessment of electricity connection in the entire site to avoid any future power accidents.

What could have been done differently?

Conclusion

Form the case of Kenoss and Al-Hasani it’s evident that there was a lot of breach to the work and health act by kenos which led to the death of Mr Booth. If only the company had taken into account all the looming risks and rectified the problem of the live power lines the driver could not have lost his life. It’s therefore important that companies especially those that are in the construction industry should take the safety and health risk hazards seriously so as to avoid accidents that may be fatal or even lead to irreversible disabilities. All work need to be taken with the seriousness it deserves and this starts with employment of qualified personnel to oversee activities in different sectors. It’s also the responsibility of construction managers to undergo trainings regarding safety practices at work places. Construction companies should always work on minimizing dangers and accidents at work places.

References

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