CDM and occupational health are two of the topical issues set to stimulate debate at this year’s Safety & Health Expo. SHP looks more closely at how both are shaping the future of construction.
According to the Health & Safety Laboratory, construction remains a high-risk industry. While only about 5 per cent of UK employees work in the sector, it accounts for 27 per cent of work-related fatalities, and 10 per cent of reported major injuries.
Additionally, those working in the construction sector face a number of serious ill-health issues, including occupational cancers, along with the physical health risks. The Health and Safety Executive estimates that past exposures in the construction sector annually cause over 5,000 occupational cancer cases and approximately 3,700 deaths.
With these headline figures in mind, Safety & Health Expo features a fully comprehensive education programme that will cover many of the pressing issues facing professionals working in construction and how they can tackle these.
In April, the revised legislation for Construction (Design & Management) Regulations came into force, which will have a significant impact on the construction industry, specifically small-to-medium-sized enterprises. The exhibition will host two keynote sessions in the revamped IOSH/SHP Arena, which will explore the challenges that this legislative change will pose for safety and health professionals and the construction industry.
On the first day at 3pm, James Ritchie, head of external affairs and deputy chief executive for the Association for Project Safety, will chair a panel session on ‘CDM – embracing change’, which will look at the issues and approaches to the practical implementation of CDM 2015 to date, and will offer an opportunity for the audience to field questions. Simon Toseland, compliance services director at the Salisbury Group; Clive Johnson, group head of health and safety at Land Securities; Paul Bussey, associate at Scott Browning; and David Lambert, head of safety, health and environment at Kier (&UKCG), will join him on the panel.
“The health and safety industry can assist with the implementation of CDM 2015 by taking a proportionate but considered approach to construction health and safety risk management,” says James Ritchie.
“Small, simple projects should only require the production of short, simple, construction phase plans and provision of clear information from designers on only the significant residual design risk issues in their designs. This approach relies on those construction health and safety practitioners who advise clients, contractors and designers, to ensure that they are not creating unnecessary bureaucracy in order to ‘cover backsides’. There is, and will be, a need for good clear risk management advice on larger or more complex projects and health and safety practitioners, who have a good understanding of the design and construction process and how to coordinate health and safety, will have an important part to play in the delivery of CDM 2015.”
The IOSH/SHP Arena’s will host a second session on Thursday, 18 June at 1pm, which focuses on CDM. Led by Martin Cook, director at Turner & Townsend, the session, ‘CDM 2015 – an opportunity and framework for improvement’, will introduce both practical and effective solutions to risk and performance management.
While CDM will clearly be high on this year’s agenda, occupational health is an increasingly important issue for the construction sector, with cases of occupational ill health on the rise. HSE reports that more construction workers have been killed by occupational cancer than accidents. For every fatal accident in 2012-13, approximately 100 construction workers died from a work-related cancer.
Jason Anker from Proud 2b Safe will contribute a sobering presentation in the IOSH/SHP Arena on 18 June at 10.30am, which highlights just how vital it is that the safety and health of all workers remains a priority. Jason was left paralysed from the waist down after an avoidable incident on a construction site in 1993 after falling off a ladder. Jason’s honest and graphic account of the devastation the incident has had, not just on himself but also family and friends, underlines the need to think seriously about attitudes towards safety in the workplace.
On Wednesday, 17 June at 1pm, IOSH will present a session in the arena that specifically focuses on occupational cancer. Asbestos sufferers Keith Tonks and Linda Lakin will share their stories, highlighting how even very low levels of asbestos exposure, inhaling as little as three or four fibres, could cause mesothelioma. These real-life stories bring to the fore why occupational health issues need to be taken much more seriously by businesses.
“Serious, often irreversible, long latency disease ought to be a very high priority for the construction industry, including H&S professionals attached to the industry. The single biggest cause of this kind of disease in construction is ‘dust’. This includes respirable crystalline silica, wood dust, plus a variety of other components,” states Chris Keen from the Health & Safety Laboratory, which will be exhibiting at the show.
“Successfully tackling the issues will require a cultural shift in the industry, and associated supply chains. At the top of the supply chain, architects etc. should consider occupational health risks when designing projects. At the other end of the supply chain, workers and supervisors have to recognise the importance of controlling exposures to ‘dust’, etc. Tool manufacturers and suppliers have the potential to play a key role in moving the industry forward by building in exposure controls as standard on power tools, especially those known to generate high dust exposures such as circular saws and sanders.”
Keen adds: “The industry has proved that it can make significant health and safety improvements as the huge decline in fall from height related fatalities proves that. And the wide recognition of asbestos risk demonstrates that the industry understands at least some of the issues around long latency disease. We don’t generally need to devise new technical solutions to exposure control, just ensure that recognised solutions are properly, and sustainably, implemented.” With occupational health high on the agenda for many industries, not just construction, the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) will once again host the occupational health theatre.
Several sessions that specifically explore occupational health for those working in construction include one by Mike Slater, director of Diamond Environment Ltd, who will discuss how a collaborative approach to tackling lung disease in construction is needed.
To coincide with Health and Safety Week, a Health Symposium will be taking place at the Safety & Health Expo on Thursday, 18 June. To tie in with the focus on occupational health, the all-day event will start with a panel debate on occupational health chaired by Steve Perkins, chief executive of the BOHS.
The second session will look at the business case for occupational health. A successful case study from Thames Water will follow a presentation on the return on investment that companies can get by looking after employee health.
The final session will be a series of educational workshops. Experts in different issues in occupational health, including respiration, legionella, stress, noise and wellbeing, will be going around each table to discuss the various pitfalls and opportunities that health and safety professionals can face.
For more information on Health and Safety Week or Safety & Health Expo and to register for your free visitor pass, please visit www.safety-health-expo.co.uk/SHP
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