Health and Safety in Construction
Keywords: duty holders, welfare, risk assessment, health, safety, safepass, client, design, construction, training, safe system of work, partnership, plant, machinery, work at height.
The Construction industry covers a wide range of activities, hazards, materials techniques, employment patterns, and contractual arrangements. In such circumstances, if safety and health standards are to improve, good management of construction projects is essential from concept through to design, construction, use, and eventual demolition. Poor management of the design or construction process is a prime cause of most of the deaths, injuries and illness in the construction industry.
The main types of accidents causing death during construction activities are:
- Falls from a height
- Site vehicles
- Falling or collapsing material (including trench accidents),
- Contact with overhead electricity lines
Non-Irish national workers have a very high fatality rate compared to Irish national workers.
Workers in the construction sector suffer from one of the highest non-fatal injury rates of any sector. The most common types of non-fatal injuries are :
- Manual handling
- Slips, trips and falls on the level
- Falling or collapsing material
- Falls from a height
The most common items associated with non-fatal injuries are temporary working platforms, scaffolds and ladders. Most serious accidents can be avoided by good design, good planning and the use of tried and tested techniques for building safely.
The aim of these construction pages is to provide information and guidance to all those in the industry so that construction activities are safe for all.
Learn more
Check statistics of fatal injuries and non-fatal injuries in the sector