Johnson, H M; Singh, A and Young, R H F (1998) Fall protection analysis for workers on residential roofs. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 124(5), pp. 418-428. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Safety during residential roof construction and repair activities is of significant concern since many injuries occur, especially as a result of falls. The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Hawaii Department of Labor commissioned a research project to investigate this matter. This study involves an evaluation of existing regulations, construction practices, and alternate fall protection measures. It is found that the current state of compliance is poor; fall protection plans are not prepared as required, and positive safety measures such as guardrails and personal fall arrest systems are not used. The reasons for this are many, including the extreme competitiveness of the home building and roofing industries, unsafe worker behavior, design difficulties, conventional construction practices, and a lack of knowledge. Fall protection regulations are misunderstood, and the fall protection plan is particularly prone to poor implementation. For fall protection systems to be implemented voluntarily, they must be feasible, simple, economical, protective, and flexible. Several systems were analyzed for their ability to meet these criteria. The most promising systems included prefabrication of the roof system and personal fall arrest systems use. This paper presents the findings of the study and recommendations for optimal enforcement with an aim at reducing fall injuries.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | safety measures, falls, competitiveness, occupational safety and health, implementation, home building, prefabrication, enforcement, roof, injury, compliance, regulation, roofing, repair |
| Subjects: | construction type, contractual arrangements, maintenance engineering, design practice, health risk and incident analysis, health safety and environment, building construction, health conditions and diseases, market analysis, occupational health and safety management, political science |
| Topics: | Governance, Construction Technology, Procurement, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Design Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here