FIT FORPURPOSE

摘要

It's fair to say occupational health has taken a backseat to the more dramatic issue of accidents and injuries in the construction industry over the years, with big improvements in the incidence of site fatalities in the last two decades. However, increasingly this focus is being questioned. Why? Heather Bryant, UK health and safety director at Balfour Beatty, makes it clear. "Construction workers are 100 times more likely to die from occupational diseases and ill health than they are from poor safety," she says, referencing historic Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data that points to an excess of 5,000 deaths per year, mainly from past exposure to cancer-causing materials such as asbestos. But it is not just the tragic overhang of the previous generation's ignorance of the harm caused by asbestos and other carcinogens that is causing concern. In Great Britain, between 2011/12 and 2014/15, 69,000 (3.1%) workers per year in the construction industry were suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their work, according to data from the HSE, the only body collecting data in this area.