INTRODUCTION: Falls from heights contribute to 34% of fatal accidents in Singapore. Of these, 51% of the accidents occur in the construction industry. This retrospective review, of all persons falling from heights in the construction industry from 2006 to 2012 and attending a major hospital, analysed injury patterns and related them to mechanisms and contributory factors. METHODS: Information collected included injury and casualty characteristics, safety measures, pre-existing medical conditions and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Of 1,085 patients, 951 were male with a mean age of 39.8 years, mean height of 165.9 cm and mean weight of 69.7 kg. Most of the casualties fell between 0800 and 2000 hours. Among the severely injured patients, 2.4% had head injuries, 54.9% had chest injuries and 39.2% had abdominal and pelvic injuries. For these casualties, the mortality rate was 60.8%. For patients with less than major trauma, the commonest injuries were in the lower limbs (41.8%), upper limbs (40.8%) and spine (22.2%). All the casualties survived. Falls from scaffolding, formwork and platforms were the most common causes of severe injuries (41.1%). Safety helmets and harnesses were reported to be used in 1.8% and 4.1% of instances of falls, respectively. CONCLUSION Studying the patterns of injuries following falls at construction sites has the potential for injury prevention through safe practices, use of safety equipment and targeted training.
Humans ; Male ; Adult ; Female ; Construction Industry ; Craniocerebral Trauma/etiology* ; Protective Devices ; Head Protective Devices ; Retrospective Studies ; Wounds and Injuries/etiology* ; Injury Severity Score

BACKGROUND: In the construction industry, maintaining health and safety of workers often challenging. Among the workers at construction sites, painters are at particular risk of respiratory diseases and neurotoxicity. However, in Korea there is weak enforcement of workers' health and safety practices in the construction industry in Korea. Poisonings frequently occur at (semi)closed construction sites. In this study, we report a case of acute organic solvent poisoning during construction site painting. CASE PRESENTATION: A 71-year-old man was found unconscious at a construction site and immediately transferred to the emergency room. The consciousness level was 'stupor state' and the body temperature was hypothermic, at 32 degrees (Celsius). There were no acute brain or cardiac lesions that would have accounted for the faintness. In addition, blood and urine tests did not indicate a cause of loss of consciousness. He had been painting epoxy to waterproof the basement floor before fainting. According to exposure simulation, the patient was overexposed to various organic solvents, such as approximately 316–624 ppm toluene during the work before fainting. Considering the ventilation status of the workplace and the status of no protection, it is considered that exposure through the respiratory tract was considerable. CONCLUSIONS: The patient in this case lost consciousness during the epoxy coating in a semi-enclosed space. It can be judged as a result of acute poisoning caused by organic solvent exposure and considered to be highly related to work environment.
Aged ; Body Temperature ; Brain ; Consciousness ; Construction Industry ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Korea ; Occupational Diseases ; Paint ; Paintings ; Poisoning ; Respiratory System ; Solvents ; Syncope ; Toluene ; Unconsciousness ; Ventilation

BACKGROUND: Study of antioxidant vitamin consumption behavior, especially in high-risk groups with high exposure to toxic metals to reduce metal toxicity, is emphasized. This study aims to examine the structural relationships between knowledge, protection motivation theory constructs, and vitamin E and C consumption behavior among cement factory workers. METHODS: Protection motivation theory and food frequency questionnaires were completed by 420 factory workers. Data were subjected to structural equation modeling to examine associations between knowledge, protection motivation theory constructs, and vitamin E and C consumption behavior. Efficacy of current recommended models was also explored. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling showed high explained variance within the constructs of protection motivation theory for vitamin E and C consumption behavior and intention (56-76%). The overall fit of the structural models was acceptable for both vitamin E and C behavior. Knowledge, self-efficacy, response efficacy, and perceived vulnerability predicted intention, which in turn predicted vitamin consumption behavior. Significant relationships between knowledge and self-efficacy, response efficacy, perceived vulnerability, and perceived severity were also found, while self-efficacy and response efficacy showed significant relationships with vitamin E and C consumption behavior. CONCLUSIONS Considering that response efficacy, self-efficacy, and intention showed as strong predictors of vitamin E and C consumption behavior, specific attention should be paid to coping appraisals and intention when designing intervention plans. Additionally, establishing the predicting role of knowledge for protection motivation theory constructs and protective behaviors should be integrated into intervention programs.
Adult ; Ascorbic Acid ; analysis ; Construction Industry ; Eating ; Health Behavior ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Intention ; Male ; Motivation ; Self Efficacy ; Vitamin E ; analysis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to understand the present status of the work performance of the construction industry health managers and the developmental direction for the construction industry health management. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 149 health managers working in the construction industry. Data of a total of 130 participants were analyzed by excluding the missing data among field workers. The contents of the survey were the characteristics of the workplace, the difficulties and requirements of health management, and the level of job performance. RESULTS: The factors affecting measuring work environment task were age, number of workers, number of safety managers, and lack of support from the headquarters. The factors affecting managing work environment and physicochemical harmful factors were age, type of contract and conflicting business opinions. The factors affecting implementing health examination were age, type of contract, and number of safety managers. The factors affecting healthcare were age, type of contract, number of safety manager, presence of healthcare room, and conflicting business opinions. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to provide practical guidance and practical resources, and education for strengthening capacity. The support for business owners and managers support is needed.
Commerce ; Construction Industry ; Delivery of Health Care ; Education ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Work Performance

BACKGROUND: Due to an increasing number of workers aged 50 years and above, the number of those employed is also on the rise, and those workers aged 50 and over has exceeded 50% of the total fatal occupational injuries. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the selection and concentration by identifying the characteristics of high-risk groups necessary for an effective prevention against and reduction of fatal occupational injuries. METHODS: This study analyzed the characteristics of high-risk groups and the occupational injury fatality rate per 10,000 workers among the workers aged 50 and over through a multi-dimensional analysis by sex, employment status of workers, industry and occupation by targeting 4,079 persons who died in fatal occupational injuries from January 2007 to December 12. RESULTS: The share of the workers aged 50 years and above is increasing every year in the total fatal occupational injuries occurrence, and the high-risk groups include 'male workers' by sex, ‘daily workers’ by worker’s status, ‘craft and related-trades workers’ by occupation, and ‘mining’ by industry. CONCLUSION: The most frequent causal objects of fatal occupational injuries of the workers aged 50 years and above are found out to be ‘installment and dismantlement of temporary equipment and material on work platforms including scaffold’ in the construction industry and ‘mobile crane, conveyor belt and fork lifts’ in the manufacturing industry.
Construction Industry ; Employment ; Humans ; Occupational Injuries* ; Occupations

BACKGROUND: Since the Republic of Korea became a labor-force-importing country, the number of foreign workers has increased gradually, especially in the construction industry. The main objective of this study was to examine the differences in safety perception between domestic and foreign workers at Korean construction sites. METHODS: A total of 891 Korean and foreign workers were surveyed: 140 foreign and 751 Korean workers. The general characteristics and 25 factors influencing safety perception were considered in the questionnaire. Regression and correlation analyses were conducted to examine the variables of workers' safety perception. RESULTS: Differences of nationality (F = 7.379, p < 0.001) and workplace accidents were statistically significant for both domestic (F = 1.503, p < 0.05) and foreign workers (F = 7.868, p < 0.05). In contrast, age, education, and Korean language level were significant variables only for foreign workers. Correlation coefficients of 0.428** for Korean and 0.148 for foreign workers between two items e namely, "management's commitment to safety" and "blaming staff when they make mistakes" e support the conclusion that foreign workers do not trust management's commitment to safety, while Korean workers have confidence in these commitments. CONCLUSION: Foreign workers' level of safety perception should rise to the same level as Korean workers, especially in terms of obeying safety rules, safety education performance, and safety beliefs. Therefore, an improvement plan for the Korean construction industry is suggested in order to have a better safety level at construction sites with foreign workers.
Construction Industry* ; Education ; Ethnic Groups ; Humans ; Republic of Korea*

OBJECTIVEDust sample mass gain is too smaller to satisfy the limit of detection (LOD) even in most cases during dust sampling at workplaces nowdays, especially for respirable fraction. Therefore, it is aimed to solve the problem by increasing sample load with high flow rate samplers.

METHODSIn A and B two shipyards respirable welding fume was sampled by high flow rate cyclone samplers of FSP-10 (10 L/min) for 2-2.5 hours and normal flow rate FSP-2 (2 L/min) for 3-4 hours with a stratigy of parallele sampling at the same workpalce, in order to compare their mass gain, coincidence rate with LOD, and airborn dust concentration.

RESULTSSample mass gain of 0.97±0.40 mg and 1.61±0.86 mg respectively in the two factories by FSP-10 was significantly higher than that of 0.29±0.12 mg and 0.51±0.27 mg by FSP-2 (t-test, P<0.05 in both cases) , increasing herewith the coincidence rate with LOD from 26.8% (when sampling with FSP-2, calculated together with samples of the two factories) to 89.7%. However there was no significant difference in dust concentrations by the two different samplers, 0.53±1.88 vs 0.73±1.61 mg/m(3) by FSP-2 and FSP-10 in the shipyard A and 1.14±1.78 vs 1.01±1.63 mg/m(3) in the factory B (t-test, P>0.05 in every case) . In addtion, sample loading by FSP-2 was found to be correlated to sampling time (R(2)=0.7906, y=0.002 6x) , therefore, it has to sample for ≥192.3 min to meet the LOD (0.5 mg) in case of normal flow rate.

CONCLUSIONBy using of high flow rate cyclone FSP-10 the problem of LOD could be solved, along with increased sample mass and similar respirable dust concentration by the two samplers. Some techincal improvements of FSP-10 and increasing of LOD coincidence rate by other methods was also disscussed.

Air Pollutants, Occupational ; analysis ; Construction Industry ; Dust ; analysis ; Environmental Monitoring ; instrumentation ; Occupational Exposure ; Ships ; Workplace

BACKGROUND: Construction painters have not been studied well in terms of their hazards exposure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the exposure levels of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) for painters in the construction industry. METHODS: Activity-specific personal air samplings were carried out in three waterproofing activities [polyurethane (PU), asphalt, and cement mortar] and three painting activities (epoxy, oil based, and water based) by using organic-vapor-monitor passive-sampling devices. Gas chromatograph with flame ionization detector could be used for identifying and quantifying individual organic chemicals. The levels of TVOCs, by summing up 15 targeted substances, were expressed in exposure-index (EI) values. RESULTS: As arithmetic means in the order of concentration levels, the EIs of TVOCs in waterproofing works were 10.77, 2.42, 1.78, 1.68, 0.47, 0.07, and none detected (ND) for indoor PU-primer task, outdoor PU-primer task, outdoor PU-resin task, indoor PU-resin task, asphalt-primer task, asphalt-adhesive task, and cement-mortar task, respectively. The highest EI for painting works was 5.61 for indoor epoxy-primer task, followed by indoor epoxy-resin task (2.03), outdoor oil-based-spray-paint task (1.65), outdoor water-based-paint task (0.66), and indoor oil-based-paint task (0.15). Assuming that the operations were carried out continuously for 8 hours without breaks and by using the arithmetic means of EIs for each of the 12 tasks in this study, 58.3% (7 out of 12) exceeded the exposure limit of 100% (EI > 1.0), while 8.3% (1 out of 12) was in 50-100% of exposure limit (0.5 > EI > 1.0), and 4 tasks out of 12 were located in less than 50% of the limit range (EI < 0.5). CONCLUSION: From this study, we recognized that construction painters are exposed to various solvents, including carcinogens and reproductive toxins, and the levels of TVOC concentration in many of the painting tasks exceeded the exposure limits. Construction workers need to be protected from chemical agents during their painting works by using personal protective devices and/or work practice measures. Additional studies should focus on the exposure assessment of other hazards for construction workers, in order to identify high-risk tasks and to improve hazardous work environments.
Carcinogens ; Construction Industry ; Flame Ionization ; Humans ; Organic Chemicals ; Paint ; Paintings ; Protective Devices ; Solvents* ; Volatile Organic Compounds ; Water

BACKGROUND: safety and healthy working environment has received numerous research attention over the years. Majority of these researches seem to have been conducted in the construction industry, with little attention in the health sector. Nonetheless, there are couple of studies conducted in Africa that suggest pressure in hospitals. Therefore the aim of the study was to examine how pressure influence safety behavior in the hospitals. With reference to the relevance of safety behavior in primary health care delivery, there was the need for the study. METHOD: Data was obtained from 422 public hospital employees. Respondents were assured that all information would be kept confidential to increase the response rate and acquire more accurate information. Collection of questionnaires from participants took four weeks (20 working days), after which the data was analyzed. RESULTS: The result of the study showed that work pressure correlated negatively with safety behavior. General safety climate significantly correlated positively with safety behavior and negatively with work pressure, although the effect size for the latter was smaller. Hierarchical regression analysis showed management commitment to safety to moderate the relationship between work pressure and safety behavior. CONCLUSION: When employees perceive safety communication, safety systems and training to be positive, they seem to comply with safety rules and procedures than voluntarily participate in safety activities.
Africa ; Climate ; Construction Industry ; Ghana* ; Hospitals, Public ; Methods ; Primary Health Care ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: Outdoor workers are at risk of high ultraviolet radiation exposure, and may have difficulty using sun protection. The objectives were to determine the prevalence of sun protection behaviors in a sample of outdoor construction workers, and to assess which factors predict better sun protection practices. METHODS: Participants were recruited via construction unions. Workers answered a questionnaire on demographics, skin cancer risk, sun protection behaviors, and job. Sun protection behavior scores (from questions on sunscreen use, sleeved shirt, hat, shade seeking, sunglasses) were calculated by converting Likert-scale answers to scores from 0 to 4, and taking the mean (separately for work and leisure). Determinants of sun protection behavior scores were examined for work and leisure using generalized linear models. RESULTS: Seventy-seven workers had complete questionnaire data (participation 98%). Sun protection behaviors used most often were hats (79% often/always) and sleeved shirts (82% often/always); least prevalent were shade-seeking (8% often/always) and sunscreen (29% often/always). For both work and leisure scores, the strongest predictor was skin type, with fairer-skinned individuals having higher sun protection behavior scores. Workers had higher scores at work than on weekends. Workplaces that required hats and sleeved shirts for safety purposes had higher protection behavior scores. CONCLUSION: This high-participation rate cohort helps characterize sun protection behaviors among outdoor workers. Workers practiced better sun protection at work than on weekends, suggesting that workplace policies supportive of sun protection could be useful for skin cancer prevention in the construction industry.
Cohort Studies ; Construction Industry ; Demography ; Leisure Activities* ; Linear Models ; Occupational Health ; Prevalence ; Radiation Exposure ; Skin ; Skin Neoplasms ; Solar System*