Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Planning in the Construction Environment

Photo-01, The Workers when Actually Performs the Job on Site (rvgomeseria)

“This article is an excerpt topic of the author’s Thesis Dissertation from PUP (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) Master of Science in Construction Management (MSCM), and theoretical course background of Ph.D. in Building and Construction Engineering (AIU SSE USA) concerning building construction job safety using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) within the critical phases, and functions in the construction environment. Again, it is the "Most Read" article composition provided in the ResearchGate and Academia platforms based on observation and researches in the human-altered ecosystem.”

Insight

Hazards exist in every workplace and station wherever a job is performed. With all the job operations, the built-environment construction operation is riskier in many different forms in every corner and area, such as sharp edges, falling objects, flying sparks, chemicals, noise, and other myriads that are the cause of potential danger in every situation. It is with this kind of environment in mind that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had been formulated to set a standard that requires all employers to provide mandatory protection for employees from the workplace hazards to prevent and maintain a healthy environment. Thus controlling a hazard, within the built environment, at its source is the most prevalent way of protecting employees especially in the construction area. The kind of hazards or worksite conditions would depend on the design, planning, and construction operations and from those could be determined, with the help of OSHA, the recommended work practices prescribe the controls on how to manage or eliminate hazards to the possible extent.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), the worksite analysis based on the working environment is one of the four elements that apply. The worksite analysis is an essential element necessary to establish the processes which aim at identifying safety and health hazards in the worksite conditions by analyzing the identified risks. However, in the construction industry, an effective safety management system would identify the required safety and health hazards by proactive analysis of the workplace condition and thus arrive on the controls by reducing or eliminating hazards through a team approach, review and provide input on the given programs, initiative processes, and procedures.

Importance of PPE in the Construction Environment

Construction companies have their procedures to facilitate and conduct a thorough worksite analysis, through systematic processes that would provide information as needed to recognize and understand the hazards and potential hazards of the entire work program within the construction environment. One of the possible types of worksite analysis could be by making an inventory of potential hazards within the workplace of the construction environment by using the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) assessment.

Within the construction environmental practice, the required workplace safety is the process of protecting and preventing employees from work-related illnesses and injuries that could occur. It may start with the development of an institution’s Environmental, Safety and Health Policy statement, principles and the work implementation with a safety plan and program for the protection of individual employees.

The essential use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the construction job would help to reduce and maintain employee’s exposure to identified hazards when the engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective in reducing risks to acceptable levels as mandated. The PPE is a mandatory use within the construction environment especially when hazards are present. However, using PPE has a limitation in that it does not eliminate the source and may result in exposure if the PPE fails.

Effective management of employee’s safety and health protection is a decisive factor in reducing the extent and severity of work-related injuries and illnesses and their related cost impact. In fact, the creation of an effective safety and health program forms the basis of good employee protection, which can save time and money, as well as increase productivity, reduce employee injuries, illnesses and related worker's compensation costs.

To assist employers and employees in developing effective safety and health programs, OSHA has published the recommended Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines on various applications, i.e. the construction environment.

Planning, Design, and Construction Job Safety

A job safety analysis must precede any task since it helps in integrating of accepted safety and health principles and practices by an individual into a particular task or job operation. In the job safety analysis, each basic step of the job must be adhered to so that potential hazards are identified recommendations sought for the safest way of doing the task. In other fields, this procedure has been described as a job hazard analysis or job hazard breakdown.

Some individuals prefer to expand the analysis into all aspects of the job, not just safety, but a total job analysis approach. The methodology is based on the idea that whereas safety is an integral part of every job and is not a separate entity.

The terms "job" and "task" are used interchangeably to mean a specific work assignment, like for example "operating a grinder," "using a pressurized water extinguisher," or "changing a flat tire". Job hazard analysis is not suitable for jobs that have been defined too broadly such as, "overhauling an engine”; or defined too narrowly, like "positioning a car jack." For such cases, the method used is to observe and guide a worker when actually performs the job (Photo01). The advantage of this method is that it does not rely on individual memory and that observing or performing the process prompts in the recognition of hazards that could accidentally occur. For infrequently performed or new jobs, observation may not be the correct way to go about since the worker and the supervisor could both be untrained.

In all steps of planning, design, and construction there must be a group of experienced workers and supervisors to facilitate the process to complete the analysis of the scenarios that emerge during the discussion. The advantage of this method where most persons involved would have adequate experience and help promote a more acceptable work procedure. In the group mentioned above, the assigned members of the Health and Safety Committee must also participate in the process to simplify and ratify the approach.

The benefits of doing a job hazard analysis become evident during the analysis process per se since it would identify hazards which were earlier not foreseen. The process also helps to increase the job knowledge for all the participants. While Safety and Health awareness gets highlighted, nevertheless, communications between workers and supervisors have to be improved, and compliance with safe work procedures that have been agreed must be promoted.

The job hazard analysis results in a better understanding of it and helps to update the written work procedure. It can serve as a teaching aid for initial job training or as a briefing guide for infrequent jobs. It could also be used as a standard for Health and Safety inspections or observations. Most importantly, a job hazard analysis would guide and assist in a comprehensive accident investigation of the task.

The job hazard analysis involves four basic stages relating to all aspects of Planning, Design, and Construction. It must be understood with respect to the job to be analyzed, the work breakdown structure that has been tabled, identifying any potential hazards, and determining the required preventive measures so that they may overcome any of the implied hazards.

Conclusion

Experiences throughout the design, planning, and construction, it can be said that the construction period is the riskiest part of a project where safety policy and practices need to be paramount and followed by all. The Construction Industry does not differ on the principles of how to manage people, reports, trend analysis, and construction studies are necessary and essential references coupled with the latest information concerning the Engineering and Infrastructure Framework for business decisions.

Write-Up References can be Read from this Links;

Gomeseria, R. V.; (September 2019); "Planning, Design & Construction - Safety & Security Policy;" VIEWPOINT JOURNAL, September 2019 Edition, Official Quarterly Magazine of the CEAI Publication, Consulting Engineers Association of India

Gomeseria, R. V. (2019, September 8). Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Planning in the Construction Environment. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/VQ4CK

Gomeseria, RV; (September 2019); “Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Planning in the Construction Environment;” Retrieved from; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335687969_Personal_Protective_Equipment_PPE_Planning_in_the_Construction_Environment