Dry sandblasting, grinding, cutting, sanding, polishing, and drilling of silica-containing materials like concrete, rock, glass, asphalt, cement and engineered stone are considered hazardous tasks in construction. This is because you create silica dust that is too small to settle that floats around undetected in the air that can be breathed in by you and those around you.
The tiny silica dust particles can penetrate your respirator if you aren’t careful. Make sure your respirator has been fit-tested and isn’t worn over a beard. You must also have the correct filters, as Silica dust is 100 times smaller than sand and can penetrate some filters.
Step 1: Understand what happens when you inhale silica dust.
Step 2: Know the silica content of your construction materials and substitute for less hazardous materials!
Damage to the lungs from silica dust and symptoms of disease may not appear for many years. Workers may not show any symptoms, even at the point of initial diagnosis, which is why prevention and health monitoring is critical. Often workers are diagnosed during routine health monitoring, as chest X-rays may show scar tissue formation even if you are without symptoms. Silicosis symptoms may include a dry cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, chest pain, and unexplained weight loss. Silicosis also increases your risk for other conditions like lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, kidney disease, and some auto-immune diseases.
Tell your doctor about your current or previous exposure to silica dust. To rule out silicosis, respiratory questionnaires, lung function tests, chest X-rays, and CT scans may be required.
Early detection of silicosis, before symptoms develop, can motivate you to stop further exposure, and improve your health outcome.
If you were exposed to silica dust currently or in the past, even if you wore respirators and even if you have no symptoms, you need routine health monitoring. Talk to your employer. Tell your doctor about your exposure. Engineered stone workers must see specialist occupational health doctors. Early detection is most important!
It is important to understand that there are very likely specific requirements you need to meet to ensure you are appropriately managing the risks. WorkSafe has plenty of information available to learn more. We have provided a few key links below for you:
You can also contact our friendly team if you have any questions.
Mental and Physical health can often be overlooked in the construction industry, but it’s a big contributor to time off work. With 78% of workers having suffered a mental or physical injury at work and an average 32 days off work for ACC claim injuries.
Injuries in your industry may seem like they are just part of the job, but they can significantly impact your output if not taken seriously.
Strains and Sprains
The construction industry has become the number one industry for ACC claims with strains and sprains, (also known as Musculoskeletal Disorders or MSDs), making up a whopping 57% of the problem.
Common injuries for construction workers can range from sprains, strains, and contusions (bruising) which can be caused by heavy lifting, repetitive movement, poor body posture, forcefulness or muscle effort, or the vibrations from continuous use of hand tools. Symptoms of a workplace injury can range from any kind of pain and discomfort located in and around the neck, shoulders, wrists, back, and knees.
It is well known that there are a range of factors that contribute to MSDs. It’s not just one single factor, such as the lifting technique (although for industries such as scaffolding and roofing handling techniques are an important factor).
The research firmly points to four groups of factors we need to tackle when addressing MSDs in construction:
Physical factors, such as:
Individual factors such as:
Psychosocial factors such as:
Work Organisation factors such as:
It may not surprise you that physical factors often take most of the blame and focus as their connection is easy to understand, measure and observe. There are also proven strategies to overcome physical factors such as machinery, equipment, and task modifications. Combining the other factors into your approach is where the construction industry will get the most benefit. Understanding how these factors can combine and influence each other to cause problems will be crucial.
The most common solutions to dealing with MSD are:
Data shows that sprains and strains often become more problematic later in a construction worker’s career, with the largest claims in the housing construction sector. Between 2015 and 2019, 57% of ACC claims were MSD injuries, with the average cost being $3700, and a total of 1.9 million compensation days paid out, costing a total of $325m!
There is a large range of costs that surface when someone has an injury on the job, especially when they can’t return to work the next day or sometimes for weeks or months. This has a huge impact on deadlines, bottom line, skills on-site, and team dynamics.
Have you thought about other ways you could be working to alleviate the stress on your body? It could be as simple as:
It’s common practice when you work out, that you warm up and cool down, so why is working any different? Accepting the reality of MSDs helps us formulate an effective approach to combat MSDs in our industry.
Prevention and early intervention are key to maintaining a healthy musculoskeletal system so you can carry out your day-to-day duties on-site and personal activities you love to do in your own time. Ensure you keep fit and healthy; regular exercise, a good diet, and sleep can assist in keeping your body ready to take on work and recover faster.
Did you know businesses are legally required to monitor the health of their workers?
On construction sites, workers can be exposed to many hazards that can cause them harm over time.
Some common hazards are:
Continuous exposure to these hazards can cause progressively worse health issues for your workers. This is why it is important to monitor your worker’s health. Specifically their lung function, hearing, vision, and work-related musculoskeletal conditions.
If your worksite exposes your workers to environments that will cause them harm, we recommend beginning the process of monitoring your worker’s health immediately.
To further assist your health monitoring efforts, HazardCo has partnered with Habit Health, who provides nationwide medical checks. They’re experienced in health monitoring for the construction industry, and their efficient, cost-effective service is discounted for HazardCo members.
They can offer:
Did you know that nearly 1 in 4 Kiwi adults report experiencing poor mental wellbeing? This makes up a significant percentage of our workforce in New Zealand. This means that there is a good chance that you or someone you work with is struggling with or at some stage has struggled with their mental wellbeing.
We all know that work can affect your physical health. There are risks and hazards on-site that can cause you harm like slips, trips, falls, hazardous substances, dust and so many more. Working can also impact your mental health in more ways than one.
Some common workplace hazards that can affect a worker’s mental health are:
Businesses should try to prevent mental health harm at its source. Identifying risks and controlling them should be done by communicating with workers about what workplace conditions are harming their mental health. Things like low job control, low support, poor environmental conditions, and exposure to injury or harassment can increase the likelihood of mental harm.
Businesses should look to create workplaces that remove exposure to stressors, such as:
Start managing mental health at work today. Have a toolbox meeting to discuss the common issues that impact your worker’s mental health. Discuss ways to eliminate or minimise these risks. It’s good practice to keep records of your meetings, this can be done in the HazardCo App.
Get in touch with the HazardCo team if you have any questions
Noise is a very common risk across many different types of worksites. One of the most common sources of loud noise is machinery and equipment.
Machinery and equipment operate at high speeds and generate a great force that can generate significant noise. In certain worksites, this noise can be at increased volumes for long periods of time. Noise poses a risk to workers as it can cause long-term and irreversible damage to their hearing. Once the risk to workers hearing is identified it should be managed by either removing or minimising the risk.
Hearing protection should only be used when extra protection is needed after using the above noise controls. If hearing protection is required:
Workers should be aware of the risk that exposure to excessive noise has to their hearing. Talk about managing noise during your safety meetings and keep a record of it in the HazardCo App. Make sure workers are provided with the appropriate training in the correct use, maintenance and storage of hearing protection. A Training Register template is available on the HazardCo Hub which can be downloaded and filled out.
You can view these resources below:
Is your work too noisy?
WorkSafe NZ’s Hierarchy of controls for noise video
If you have any questions about noise in the workplace, give HazardCo a call on 0800 555 339.
We want to make sure that you have everything you need to work safely in a COVID-19 world. With this in mind, ensure you complete a COVID Task Analysis (you can use this as your COVID-19 Plan) and make sure you share it with your team before turning up to site.
Download yours below, which includes our advice on how to operate on-site safely:
A COVID Task Analysis is a simple and effective tool that helps you identify COVID hazards, risks, and the appropriate controls. All workers involved should discuss the Task Analysis so they understand the controls that will be put in place to minimise the risk of COVID on-site.
It’s important to us that you’re healthy and safe during this time, so get in touch if you’d like to chat about how HazardCo can support you, you can give us a call on 0800 555 339 or email info@hazardco.com.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the most common workplace injury and cause of lost time at work, so spending time to focus on it makes good business sense.
Research has shown that the old approach of teaching a person how to lift correctly has not been effective in reducing these problems. Many workplaces pay to bring various experts into the workplace to help them address Musculoskeletal disorders but a lot can be done inhouse by those leading the business.
1. Survey your workers for discomfort pain and injury using a body map:
To start a discussion around MSDs print and hang a poster of a body on a whiteboard or wall (see body map at the end of this article). Next to the poster, provide a marker or stickers for the workers to use to place crosses on the body parts where they have experienced pain or other MSD symptoms in the past week or month. Each worker can also make a mark at the bottom of the poster to indicate that they have contributed. When there is the same number of marks at the bottom as the number of workers, or it’s been established that everyone who wants to contribute has done so, the patterns that emerge from the poster can be used for a toolbox discussion and brainstorming session.
2. Ask your workers to take photos of things they think contribute to discomfort, pain, and injury at work:
Ask workers to take photos using their mobile phones over a two-week period. Each person (workers and managers) should take two or three photos of something that they perceive as risky or that they find triggers MSD symptoms at work. They can also take pictures of work situations or equipment that they perceive as helping to prevent MSDs. The quality of the photos doesn’t matter and they don’t have to be self-explanatory. Ask each worker or manager to provide brief explanations of their photos. To give an example of a photo of a risk, it might show the height of a ladder on a vans roof rack (which requires force and an awkward body position for workers to reach). An example of a picture of something that helps to prevent MSDs might be a photo of colleagues helping each other during a pressured time. Each person can be helped to print out their photos and stick them to a board (e.g. in a lunchroom or meeting room). Once the photo shoot is over, arrange a toolbox talk at which all the photos are on display and the topics raised can be discussed. The aim is to establish a shared understanding of what the photos represent.
3. Think about the physical and mental demands on your workers
There are well known physical and mental demands of work that lead to MSDs and lower productivity. Identify if you have any of these issues in your business:
Aim to address these demands by:
4. Where possible get work up off the ground:
Working and handling at ground level places strain on our bodies which overtime can develop into MSDs. Take photos of tasks that require stooping and bending to complete at your workplace. Look for items that are stored on the ground. During toolbox talks discuss ways which the task can be redesigned by raising the work off the ground for example with a trestle, pallets or providing a table. If it can’t be raised, can we extend our tools or modify our position to compensate?
5. Where possible eliminate overhead work:
Jobs that require overhead work are 2 to 3 times more likely to result in a shoulder injury. Overhead work becomes more hazardous when the arms are elevated over 60 degrees. Use a toolbox talk and photos to identify where overhead work is required. Where possible aim to eliminate it and where it must remain look to design alternative ways to complete it. This includes reducing the force required, using lighter and smaller tools, keeping the arm below 60 degrees and using frequent rest breaks.
If you have any questions get in touch with the HazardCo Team today
You know that old saying… “no pain, no gain’”. Well this is not true! Just because you work in the construction industry doesn’t mean that you need to be affected by short or long term pain.
Aches and pains are some obvious symptoms of musculoskeletal disease (MSD), but have you thought about what impacts MSD are having on you outside of work in your personal life?
What if constantly performing the same repetitive movement all day is causing you acute pain that means you aren’t able to kick the football around with your kids after work, or play golf on the weekend with your mates? Do you really want your work to impact your personal life, or your workers lives when there are some simple steps that could prevent it from happening?
As a business owner have you thought about the hidden costs?
Data shows that strains and sprains often become more problematic later in a construction worker’s career, with the largest claims in the housing construction sector. Between 2015 and 2019, 57% of ACC claims were MSD injuries, with the average cost being $3700, and a total of 1.9 million compensation days paid out, costing a total of $325m!
There is a large range of costs that surface when someone has an injury on the job, especially when they can’t return to work the next day or sometimes weeks or months. This has a huge impact on deadlines, bottom line, skills on-site and team dynamics.
Risky work that can cause MSD’s can be as simple as overhead or floor level work, manual and hand intensive work.
Have you thought about other ways you could be working to alleviate the stress on your body? It could be as simple as:
It’s common practice when you work out, that you warm-up and cool down, so why is working any different?
Accepting the reality of MSDs helps us formulate an effective approach to combat MSDs in our
Industry. There are a lot of myths out there about MSD, such as its caused by poor manual handling techniques. The trouble with myths is they create unnecessary fear and hinder progress so they need to be challenged. Over time, new evidence emerges to help us understand the reality of the situation and
our understanding of MSDs has changed significantly over the years. For example Len Rings saying “Don’t use your back as a crane” is no longer repeated as we now know you need to move your spine through its whole range of motion regularly to keep it healthy and strong.
Check out CHASNZ top five MSD myths in construction.
Let’s do our bit and raise awareness on-site around MSD. Next week we will give you some exercises that you can do to avoid being affected by MSD and if you are hurt how physiotherapy can help you.
If you have any questions reach out the the HazardCo team
Dust is a common hazard found in the construction industry, especially around demolition or refurbishment work. Demolition involves all different types of materials that could create hazardous dust (airborne contaminants), so understanding the risk your workers are exposed to will help you to identify how best to manage the risks.
Hazardous dust can cause a number of health conditions, including skin and eye infections, silicosis, lung cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). The effects of dust inhalation are not always immediately obvious, particularly when breathing it in, and can cause life long health issues or death.
Health and exposure monitoring
It is the businesses responsibility to have a process in place to monitor the health of their workers when exposed to health risks.
If you are finding that your workers health is deteriorating because of the work they are carrying out then it’s important to monitor their health. It can help identify whether the controls to manage hazardous dust are effective and are actually preventing harm. Health monitoring should include:
It is important that you get your worker’s consent to monitor their health and engage them in this process.
Health monitoring should be carried out by a trained and competent person. For more information or if you’d like to organise health monitoring for your business contact our partner Habit Health.
Controlling
Controls to minimise the exposure to dust in the workplace could include:
Making sure your workers have the right tools and information to complete the job safely includes training and understanding the risks involved, what to do if anything should go wrong, as well as the correct use, storage, and maintenance of PPE.
Other controls to consider are:
Use of the HazardCo Demolition task analysis template, available from the HazardCo HUB, will provide you with additional controls that may be suitable for your work.
Our team of health and safety experts are just a call away if you have any questions or would like to discuss further
Do you know what you need to do before you demolish or refurbish a property, building or structure? Find out what the asbestos regulations mean for you before doing any work.
Identifying Asbestos
Planning is key to identifying all potential hazards and the risks involved when doing any sort of demolition or refurbishment work. Asbestos can be found in buildings constructed or renovated before the year 2000 and as such it is more than likely to be present at your next job. You can find out more about where asbestos can be found in this WorkSafe resource.
Asbestos or asbestos containing material (ACM) must be identified and removed by a competent person before the demolition or refurbishment is started (unless demolition is required to gain access to the asbestos). Things to consider when planning your work:
If the competent person is unsure whether asbestos is present it must be assumed that it is and all steps taken to mitigate the asbestos risks. If asbestos is identified you must notify all parties involved such as the homeowner, landlord, occupant and/or the contractor in control of the site.
Asbestos Management Plan
Any works where asbestos has been identified will require an asbestos management plan. This outlines where any asbestos or ACM has been identified. Your plan must contain the following:
Other information may be included in the asbestos management plan, such as:
Emergency Planning
An emergency plan is required for demolition work where plant and structures contain asbestos. When developing the emergency procedure, you should consider:
The procedure should include:
The emergency procedure must be carried out if there is an emergency.
If the plant or structure is not structurally sound or is going to collapse, WorkSafe NZ should be notified as soon as possible.
Disposal of Asbestos
Before demolition starts, think of how you are going to dispose of the waste. Having a good waste containment and disposal process is just as important as having safe processes for working with asbestos.
Asbestos is considered special waste and special waste needs to be handled, buried, pre-treated or tested before it can be disposed of at the landfill. You need to make an application if you want to dispose of special waste.
Applications are often called special waste disposal declarations. Contact your local landfill to enquire about what they require before taking any material to them.
Not all landfills or transfer stations are authorised disposal sites, check with your local council to find out where your local authorised site is.
Double-bag all waste, all waste including single use masks and coveralls, cloths and plastic sheets should be double-bagged in heavy duty plastic bags. Twist the top of bags tightly, fold the necks over and seal with adhesive tape. Clearly mark the outer bag as asbestos waste.
Check with your receiving landfill for further details especially around handling details. There are often restrictions around how the material is offloaded.
If using skip bins or wheelie bins on site, be aware that many providers of these bins do not allow asbestos to be disposed of in them. Check your provider first for approval.
Document your disposal process in your Asbestos management plan and Asbestos Task Analysis (TA) considering the above.
As a HazardCo member you have access to a library of TA forms located in your Hub, which include demolition and the removal of non-friable asbestos for anything less than 10m2. Use of these resources will help you to identify the hazards and risks in your workplace and the recommended controls.
Our team of Health and Safety Advisors are here to help you with anything you are unsure of, give us a call on 0800 555 339, option 4.
The year’s end has snuck up on us once again, bringing the added pressure of work deadlines, projects, social events, and family commitments. It’s time to check in our your wellbeing!
With these additional pressures occupying our headspace over the festive season, injury rates and incidents tend to increase. The team at HazardCo have a few tips on ways to manage your stress, energy levels, and overall wellbeing at this busy time.
Deadlines – short deadlines for projects and pressure to reach end-of-year-goals can add additional stress to the holidays and cause health and wellness to fall by the wayside. As always, communicate early on, and involve everyone in the project timeline and any dependencies… that way time pressures become a shared problem. And if you do have a looming deadline you don’t think you can make, now’s the time to start talking about it and looking at options with your wider team and client.
Temporary Workers – great for covering annual leave and busy periods, these staff members are often at a higher risk as they don’t have the experience or knowledge of processes specific to your workplace. If you engage temporary workers to cover annual leave or busy periods, it is important that they are inducted correctly, and receive full and correct safety instructions and supervision for any work with machinery or unfamiliar tasks they may be doing.
Social Events – whether it’s purely a social catch-up, or an end of year work party, remember to drink responsibly; monitor and manage alcohol provided to staff, and never drink and drive. This way everyone can have a safe and enjoyable time celebrating their achievements throughout the year.
So, whether you are actively working, or in the midst of the holiday season, try to stay focused on the job at hand, and pay close attention to the task you are performing.
The HazardCo team wishes you all the best for a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to catching up in 2022!
A construction site can be a risky place. We are aware of the common hazards that we see daily but what about the dangers you can’t see? We’re talking about respirable crystalline silica dust (RCS).
There are serious health and safety concerns emerging from the exposure of silica dust for those who work in the construction industry, so we want our tradies to be aware of this threat so they can protect themselves and their workmates on-site.
RCS is found in products such as stone, brick, rock, concrete, asphalt, and mortar – common materials used in the engineering of kitchen, bathroom, and laundry stone benchtops. These materials are cut, ground, sanded, and polished, and through these methods, fine dust is released, known as RCS.
This dust is extremely harmful when inhaled, and high exposure can result in significant health risks, including Accelerated Silicosis – an aggressive respiratory disease that scars the lungs and causes progressive respiratory failure. This disease is dangerous amongst the construction industry, as workers could be exposed to silica dust inhalation on-site, without being aware of it.
It is important to understand the risks associated with exposure to high levels of RCS so that employers can make necessary efforts to protect their workers. WorkSafe New Zealand has outlined several measures that employers can take to minimise exposure, and ultimately mitigate risk:
Using alternative materials that contain a lower silica content.
Isolate work areas that are likely to produce RCS exposure with physical barriers or computer numerical control (CNC) machines to contain the dust
Using dust collecting tools with an H-class HEPA filter.
Wet cutting to prevent dust from becoming airborne.
Regular cleaning practices such as low-pressure water cleaning, wet-wiping, and using an H-class HEPA-filtered vacuum are essential.
Using appropriate respirators at all times that are fit-tested to each worker and cleaned after use. Wearing disposable coveralls or other protective clothing is crucial to ensure that the worker does not take these contaminants home with them.
Employers should ensure that workers who may have been exposed to silica dust inhalation are health monitored. These workers should be tested in order to identify any changes in their health status due to exposure to hazardous contaminants.
The majority of confirmed silicosis cases report having no symptoms. Therefore it is crucial that your workers are educated on both the health and safety risks of RCS, and the measures that can be taken to prevent it.
No one knows the hazards of the job better than your workers. Let’s make sure they are aware of this safety concern, so we can get them home safely at the end of each day.
Want to know more? Get in touch with our friendly team at HazardCo today.
