The Building Site: Why health and safety are so important

When working in a physically demanding job, surrounded by heavy machinery and large vehicles, it’s important that the health and safety of staff as well as pedestrians passing by is considered. There are several different activities that could risk your health and safety on a building site, so it’s important that you understand how to keep your team safe and out of harms way whilst you work.

Carry out regular risk assessments to avoid ill-health on site

Risk assessments should be in place so that a building site can be analysed for any potential hazards prior to being used. This way, you can stop a risk in its tracks and find alternative ways to do things.

If something can’t be done a different way, at least you have the knowledge of how it may cause a negative impact on others, and you can prewarn staff so that they are aware of the risk. You can also offer training around these risks, such as learning to lift heavy weight loads correctly or how to safely operate a jackhammer in a public environment.

Staff should also have access to training booklets and manuals to refer to whenever they need them, as well as yearly cohesive health and safety training to ensure that they are up to speed with the regulations they must follow.

Provide the right PPE

According to these statistics, out of 81,000 workers suffering from work-related ill health (new or long-standing), 57% were musculoskeletal disorders caused by things like heavy lifting and strain at work.

There were also 40 fatal injuries to construction workers, and four to members of the public, in 2019/20.

To lower these tragic numbers and keep risk to a minimum, it’s important that staff have the right supplies when working.

Providing your staff with the correct PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to use on site whilst working and during breaks means that their safety is considered and if any accident were to happen, minimum injury would occur.

Things like safety harnesses offer fall protection to individuals that work from heights, as well as those below them. An average of 37 fatalities to workers and five to members of the public each year over the last five years; 47% of deaths over the same five-year period were due to falls from height.

Having hard hats, goggles, high-visibility garments, steel-toe-capped boots, ear defenders, and hardwearing working gloves will all protect workers when using abrasive materials, noisy and dangerous equipment and will make them feel much safer at work.

Follow safety signs and procedures and keep your site clean!

It might sound near impossible trying to keep a building site clean, but by reducing the amount of rubble on the floor and machinery left out, there’s less risk of workers or members of the public tripping over and hurting themselves.

By regularly sweeping your site, you’ll minimise dust in the air which can make it difficult for workers to see and can damage lungs if inhaled.

Keeping your site well signposted and ensuring that all involved adhere to safety procedures will avoid any unwanted accidents. Signposts also serve as a reminder and an easy way to keep employees informed about their surroundings. It’s important that all staff who enter a building site understand the construction safety signs.

Every building site should also have a site office and break room, allowing staff to safely take their lunch break away from the noisy and sometimes dangerous building site, recharge their batteries and regain some energy.