ISSUES & TRENDS FORECAST: Reducing construction health risks
It’s very troubling to learn that construction fatality rates in several European countries and Japan appear to be lower that those in the U.S., sometimes by as much as 50 percent. Comparisons can be tricky, because of differences in the way statistics are kept in different countries. Yet, Dr. Jim Platner, associate director of research of the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights (CPWR) and a leading U.S. expert on construction health and safety, shared with me his opinion that “we know they do better than we do, but exactly how much better is really debatable.â€
One possible factor may be the impact of European Union legislation in 1992 on the “Control of Hazards on Temporary and Mobile Construction Sites.†This directive required all member countries to enact regulations to require construction owners, designers and contractors to consider safety issues from design to the execution of construction projects.