Worker Visual Concentration as Risk Factor of Work on Scaffolding

Abstract

Problems concerning occupational safety and health are commonly found in the construction industry, including falling of materials, tools or people from height, stepping on objects and injuries by hand tools handling. Important factor in the occupational safety in construction industry is the use of scaffold. All scaffolds used in construction, renovation, repair (including isolating, modernization, painting and decorating), and demolition shall be erected, dismantled and maintained in accordance with safety procedures. Therefore, it is crucial to deal with scaffolds safety and risk assessment in construction industry; thus, way on doing assessment and liability of assessment seems to be essential for professionals. However, it is found that those professionals are prone to heavily rely on their own experiences and knowledge on decision-making on risk assessment. Materials and methods. Scaffold Use Risk Assessment Model (SURAM) accompanied by several submodules has been developed for assessing risk levels as various construction process stages with various work trades. The SURAM is the result of research project realized at the above 60 construction sites, both in Poland and Portugal where 728 observations have been completed including both harmful physical and chemical factors, stress level, worker habits, as well as a hundreds ex-post reconstruction of construction accidents scenarios. Results. We have found Worker Visual Concentration (WVCM) seems to be more direct predictor for developing of the unsafe chain leading to the accident than the workload, and concentration of harmful factors at the workplace. Conclusions. The developed Worker Visual Concentration Module (WVCM) of SURAM seems to be benefit for predicting high-risk construction activities and thus preventing accidents to occur, based on a set of historical accident data.