As part of its business plan, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out more than 1,000 inspections between May and July, focusing on what businesses and workers were doing to prevent or adequately control the risks from construction dust.
HSE’s Dust Kills campaign supported the site inspections, which raised awareness of the inspections, provide helpful advice, information, and links to guidance, for employers and workers. Almost two million connections were made to the campaign via the social media channels alongside extensive stakeholder and press coverage.
The inspections by Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety revealed examples of good practice on sites and within companies. These included:
- The use of motorised water suppression alongside face fit tested FFP3 respiratory protective equipment (RPE) to reduce exposure to silicosis and lung cancer causing respirable crystalline silica (RCS)
- Air fed hoods (or powered air respirators) being used when using high powered cutting saws during carpentry to prevent exposure to asthma causing wood dust
- The inclusion of details of HSE’s campaign within company health, safety and environmental newsletters to raise awareness of the effects of dust exposure and the importance of effective control measures to improve the long-term health of construction workers
However, HSE’s inspectors also found many examples of poor practice, including:
- No on-tool extraction in place on high powered cutting saws that generate silica and wood dust
- Poorly maintained extraction equipment such as hoses and units making it ineffective
- Suitable RPE not being made available on site for workers to use or making it available but not ensuring it is used
- The health of workers not being considered when carrying out the simplest of tasks such as sweeping up indoors, which requires damping down to control the dust generated and the provision of suitable face-fit tested RPE
Mike Thomas, HSE’s acting head of construction division, said: “Regularly breathing in the dust generated by many construction activities can cause diseases like lung cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and silicosis.
“Every year we see construction workers die from these diseases caused or made worse by their work because the necessary precautions required to protect their long-term lung health have not been taken by employers and workers themselves.
“The 1,000 plus inspections completed took place across a range of construction sites to check the action businesses are taking to ensure their workers’ health is being protected. Some of the examples of good practice found on sites during the campaign are really pleasing.
“But, as can be seen by some of the poor practices found by our inspectors, where planning around the risks of dust and controls to prevent exposure are not even considered, it shows there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“A full evaluation of the inspection data is underway, and we will release more information in due course.”