Tag Archives: health and safety software

Women in Construction and the Problem of PPE

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A graphic of a woman working at a construction site.

Women in construction have a difficult relationship with personal protective equipment (PPE). On the one hand, PPE is critical for protecting them against chemical, physical, mechanical and other workplace hazards. On the other hand, PPE that doesn’t properly fit women’s bodies can be so uncomfortable or ineffective as to increase the risk of injury or death.

This article will examine the difficulties women have with PPE in construction, as well as ways in which to make positive changes for women in the industry.

PPE and the Hierarchy of Controls

In the hierarchy of controls for eliminating or reducing workplace hazards, PPE is the least effective control. It is the last line of defense in environments in which elimination or other controls aren’t feasible or don’t provide sufficient protection. Table 1 shows the standard hierarchy of controls.

A table of the hierarchy of controls

PPE is a critical component of construction safety. Construction sites are dynamic environments with … Read more...

Research Reveals Employee Engagement is Key to Both EHS and ESG Performance

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New research from Intelex finds that organizations continue to struggle with improving employee engagement in health and safety programs.

Workplace culture and employee engagement challenges are all too familiar within occupational health and safety. They are also likely to have a major impact on successful environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance, according to recent research conducted in Europe by Intelex Technologies LLC.  

The research report, Engaging Workers, Growing Business and Protecting the Planet, observes that improving EHS and ESG performance drives competitive advantage but that getting employees onboard with EHS initiatives may likewise slow ESG progress. 

The report, commissioned by Intelex, surveyed more than 700 EHS and ESG professionals from 10 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.  

The first chapter of the report, “Success is about people first and foremost,” focuses on several key research observations, among them: that … Read more...

Intelex Technologies: Learning from the Past, Understanding the Present and Evolving to Meet the Future

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As your needs have evolved – from managing paper spreadsheets to managing terabytes of ESG, EHS and Quality data that log everything from near misses to product defects to greenhouse gases – Intelex has evolved our technology and software to help you meet your challenges.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein

With 30 years of EHSQ experience, Intelex knows a thing or two about how health and safety, quality, environment and sustainability, ESG and risk management can preserve lives, protect the planet and sustain your business in tough times. Our founder story starts in Bhopal in 1984, with one of the greatest industrial disasters of all time. Forty years later, in 2022, the world is recovering from what is arguably one of the greatest worldwide tragedies in modern times: the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“We can’t … Read more...

Post-Brexit, Britain Faces an Altered Health & Safety Landscape

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The big change resulting from Brexit is that the British government is no longer accountable to any external authority or body when formulating and implementing health protection policy.

On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union in a move that has popularly come to be known as “Brexit” (‘Britain’ + ‘Exit’). The nation’s departure ended 47 years of formal association with its European neighbors since joining what was called the European Communities in 1973. It brought with it significant uncertainty about what would change from both political and economic perspectives and the impacts it would have on all sectors of the economy.

On the health and safety front, though, many observers felt that the impacts of the pullout would be minimal, said Kevin Bampton, CEO of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. Bampton made his remarks during the recent Health & Safety Matters virtual conference … Read more...

Work-Related Stress: Every Working Day, 2 Construction Workers in UK, Ireland Die from Suicide

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Work-related stress can aggravate an existing mental health problem, making it more difficult to control

Stress, depression or anxiety account for 51% of all work-related ill health cases and 55% of all working days lost due to work-related ill health in the UK. Stress impacts on all sectors and businesses of all sizes.

Perhaps one of the hardest hit occupations is construction. A new short film, “On the Edge,” from AKT Productions and Ambanja Films, depicts a construction worker who is on the edge, literally and figuratively. Suffering from both depression due to family concerns and work-related stress, he contemplates taking his own life.

Major contractors BAM provided a construction site in Whitechapel, London, as a film location and also consulted on the project. The film was supported by the Lighthouse Club charity, which provides emotional, physical and financial support to construction workers and their families.

“It was just a ‘good timing’ moment because AKT had the skillset, ideas and same desire to raise … Read more...

Key Principles and Technologies to Implementing a Robust Safety Program

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Creating a workplace that is striving to achieve and sustain safety performance success begins with one critical question: Is safety your organization’s principal value?

Achieving safety and health success is measured in various ways and with an ample set of metrics that quantify and qualify success. However, I would venture to guess that most organizations still look to a specific number of measures to define overall success: Metrics that measure loss, the time between failure, the duration of loss and the severity of the loss.

The reality is, most organizations still want to understand that loss and its severity are improving with time, and that’s okay. Yes, I said it: it’s okay.

Creating a workplace that is striving to achieve and sustain safety performance success begins with one critical question: Is safety a core value or better yet, is it the organization’s principal value? To define it in terms of … Read more...

Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset: Best Practices for Reducing Worker Injuries and Illnesses

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Training is one thing employers can do to protect their most valuable asset – their workers – and ensure these individuals return home every day just as healthy as when they arrived.

When researchers in Ireland set out to document the experiences of workers across a variety of industries who had suffered on-the-job injuries, they ended up with 20 different stories. Their final report included first-person descriptions of what happened before, during, and after their subjects’ individual incidents.

Each is a fascinating case study of not only their personal traumas, but also the overall financial toll the incidents took on themselves and their employers.

One manufacturing plant worker, for instance, was clearing a blockage in a machine when another employee switched it on, causing two large blades to activate. The affected worker, Hugh O’Carroll, lost the tops of his index and middle finger on his left hand as a result.… Read more...

10 Tips to Prevent Workplace Injuries

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Each day, millions of workers head to manufacturing facilities, oil and gas refineries, mines, shipyards, airlines, food distribution hubs, farms, stores and more. Thousands of workers won’t return home from work.

Over 1 million work-related deaths occur annually, according to estimates from the International Labour Organisation and hundreds of millions of workers suffer from workplace injuries and occupational exposure to hazardous substances worldwide.

These fatal injuries and illnesses are emotionally and financially devastating for the workers and their families. For employers, the loss of an employee in a workplace incident results in the loss of a coworker and friend, in many cases, as well as possible citations and fines for violations of workplace safety and health standards, the cost of medical bills, lost productivity, workers’ compensation insurance increases and low morale among the workforce.

The best way to avoid these disruptions and costs is to eliminate workplace hazards. Read our … Read more...

The Top 7 Tips to Fight Workplace Fatigue

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While there is no one solution to fit everyone’s needs, here are some general strategies that workers and employers can use to manage workplace fatigue and work safely.

Long work hours and irregular work shifts are common in our society. Many workers around the world spend over 40 hours a week at work and hundreds of millions of people work full time on evening, night, rotating or other irregular shifts. Work schedules like these may cause workplace fatigue.

Shift workers may be scheduled to work days, evenings, nights and/or on a rotating or on-call basis. They may work extended shifts (more than 8 hours long), rotating or irregular shifts or consecutive shifts resulting in far more hours than what is considered a typical 40-hour work week. Long work hours and the fatigue associated with them can increase the risk of injuries and accidents and can contribute to poor overall health. … Read more...

142 Workers Were Killed at Work in Great Britain in 2020/21

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Provisional data released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) shows that a total of 142 workers were killed at work in Great Britain in 2020/21, an increase of 29 from the previous year, though the number of deaths in 2019/20 (113) was low compared to recent years.

In statistical terms, the number of fatalities has remained broadly level in recent years – the average annual number of workers killed at work over the five years 2016/17-2020/21 is 136. The fatality numbers released by HSE relate to workplace incidents. They do not include deaths arising from occupational exposure to disease, including Covid-19.

Over the past 20 years there has been a long-term reduction in the number of workplace fatalities, demonstrating that Great Britain is one of the safest places to work in the world.

“Whilst the working world in which we now live has created new health challenges for workers and … Read more...