Intervention research in occupational safety and health: Examples from construction

✍ Scribed by Knut Ringen; Erich J. Stafford

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 518 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199604)29:4<314::aid-ajim7>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

Construction is one of the largest industries in the United States. with 13% of the gross nutiorial product and 5 4 % of the liibor.force. It is also one of the most dangerous industries, uccounting for 15% of occupational fatalities and 17% of all workers' compensation costs. In 1989. the Building mid Construction Trades Depurtment, AFL-CIO, completed an agreement with the National Institute for Occupational Sufi@ and Health to develop (I nutional ILil)i~r-t12Lin(iRt~i)ietit initiati\v to improve occupationd safety and health throughout the construction industql. The aim was to remedy a lack of research on construction occupational sufee and health. The first years were spent on surveillance to characterize construction sufely und health problems, developnient of an~art?ness about safety and heulth issues among decisionmukers in the industp, mid some limited interventions. A second phase wa.s initiated in 1994, which focuses on intervention activities. Results from this joint program include a growth in annuiil federul construction safe? and health research expenditure.from $300,000 in 1989 to $12 million in 1995, a researck network that now eticotnpcisses more than 30 institutions, a national conference that established an agenda to change construc.tion stgety and heulth, four regional conferences to develop coalitions atid implementation strategies, and the development of a ,feasible gcic.11 to reduce ,fatality and injury rutes by 80%. The progruni rnay already be having an inipuct. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, lost-time injury rates for construction for the three most recent yeurs of reporting declined by 20%. @ 19% Wilcv-Liss, inc.