Analysis of construction equipment safety in temporary work at height

Temporary work at height is one of the primary causes of construction accidents that result in serious injuries and fatalities. Many of these accidents occur because of falls from scaffolding and work platforms. In Europe, scaffolding equipment for temporary work at height is regulated by several directives. A directive is a legislative act of the European Union, which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. In this sense, the European standard is of great interest because it facilitates compliance with the requirements of a directive regarding temporary work at height. This paper presents the results of a research study that was conducted in Spain between March 2003 and 2004, in which 146 construction sites were inspected with a view to examining the scaffolding surface at each site. The building sites with scaffolding that complied with a European standard were compared with those with older (nonstandard) scaffolding. Both types were qualitatively evaluated to ascertain their safety levels. The findings reported in this paper demonstrate that the standardization of scaffolding equipment had a direct and positive impact on work safety conditions at construction sites. Consequently, fomenting standardization of scaffolding equipment in the construction industry can contribute to improving work safety conditions as has occurred in Spain. The methodology in the authors' paper can also be applied in other countries to evaluate their regulations or codes regarding personal protective equipment.