Construction Management Occupational Health Safety

Question: Discuss about the Construction Managementfor Occupational Health Safety. Answer: Occupational Health Hazards In any construction related job, there always exists risk of exposure to various kinds of chemicals that in turn possess risk of inducing occupational health risks. The occupational-related health hazards can be classified into six categories namely, asbestos, silica-related health hazard, musculoskeletal syndrome, noise resulting in hearing disorder, dermatitis, and hand-arm vibration disorder. According to Gilham et al. (2016, pp.290), less than 40% of workers are usually aware of these facts, whereas majority of commonwealth are unaware of these health hazards induced by occupation. The most common and severe health issue found in most of the constructional activity is the asbestos-related health problem. Asbestos is the most necessary ingredient in most of the construction sites and is involved as a key component in materials requisite. It has been confirmed that continuous exposure to asbestos leads to serious health issues such as severe lung disease and even cancer. Breathing asbestos dust can cause mesothelioma, a rare and fatal type of cancer resulting in serious illness or even death. This disease is also found in the family members of the workers, as the asbestos fibers are carried by them from the work site to their respective houses (Lacourt, 2014, pp.532). The common symptoms of mesothelioma are a dry cough in the chest with pain in shoulder and even chest. In addition to this, there also exists the risk of another chronic lung disease known as asbestosis, where small tissues are created in the lungs resulting in breathing difficulty. The common signs are breathing problem, congestion, pain in the chest, and cough. Besides these cancerous diseases, inhaling the asbestos fib res can also affect the pleural causing pleural effusion, pleural thickening, pleural folding and pleural plaques that can accommodate watery secretion which leads to difficulty in beathing. According to Stayner et al. (2013, pp.205), these types of pleural syndromes are noticed in most 50-60% of the regular asbestos workers. Inhaling asbestos fibres can also lead to developing risk of laryngitis among workers who are routinely exposed to cancer. Continuous exposure to asbestos fibres also decrease the immune system of the workers that further aids in development of chronic complications of the respiratory tract (Naimi, 2013, pp.334). Mitigation Strategies In a report by Schulte et al. (2013, pp.1), it has been detailed that once detection of any of the above disease associated with asbestos exposure, it is difficult for the worker to afford the treatment cost. Particularly, in the US and European nations, the company may provide only one-third of total expense. Still the damage caused to the physiological system is indispensable. Above all, it is better to take prevention measures than treatment. For the safety of workers, every construction company should organize control programs to minimize the effect of asbestos. These programs includes particular steps the be implemented by the employees and others staffs discussed in the below section. According to Occupational Safety and Health Act, the employees should be provided with instructions regarding health hazards for a particular task. They should be equipped with the masks and other sanitization products while undertaking the task. Proper decontamination of the workers clothes should be done in order to protect the employees and their families from exposure to asbestos fibers. Proper training activities should be organized by the companies for the awareness of the workers working with asbestos. The training activity should involve (i) health hazards associated with the exposure to asbestos. (ii) maintaining personal hygiene (iii) proper disposal process needed for asbestos materials. (iv) engineering control procedures required to be implemented. (v) specific handling procedures to be adopted while handling with asbestos (Schulte, 2013, pp.1). Workers subjected to exposure to asbestos in a construction industry must be specified in OSHA standards, so that proper safety and monitoring assessment can be provided. The workers should ensure the asbestos exposure limit and use personal safety equipment. Regular medical monitoring of OSHA standards workers should be arranged by the company. These mitigation strategies are reasonable and cost efficient for the company for the safety of its employees (Goetsch, 2014). Rules and Regulation for Occupational Diseases There are various regulatory acts implemented by the Oman government towards the occupational hazards. According to Article (22), repeated medical tests are provided for workers suffering from the occupational disease. They are given sick leaves and the opportunity to switch over workplace if needed. According to the article, the employee need not bear any medical cost related to occupational disease, which is not facilitated in most of the other countries. According to Article (24), a medical examination is needed to do of each and every worker exposed to any contagious disease during their retirement period (Daher, 2015). References: Daher, E., 2015, October. An Analysis of Global Safety Trends in the Oil and Gas Industry-Impacts and Challenges in the Years Ahead. In SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil Gas Conference and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers. Retrieved from https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-176502-MS Dated 21 Oct 2016. Gilham, C., Rake, C., Burdett, G., Nicholson, A.G., Davison, L., Franchini, A., Carpenter, J., Hodgson, J., Darnton, A. and Peto, J., 2016. Pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer risks in relation to occupational history and asbestos lung burden. Occupational and environmental medicine, 73(5), pp.290-299. Goetsch, D.L., 2014. The Basics of Occupational Safety. Pearson Higher Ed. Lacourt, A., Gramond, C., Rolland, P., Ducamp, S., Audignon, S., Astoul, P., Ilg, A.G.S., Rinaldo, M., Raherison, C., Galateau-Salle, F. and Imbernon, E., 2014. Occupational and non-occupational attributable risk of asbestos exposure for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Thorax, 69(6), pp.532-539. Naimi, A.I., Cole, S.R., Hudgens, M.G., Brookhart, M.A. and Richardson, D.B., 2013. Assessing the component associations of the healthy worker survivor bias: occupational asbestos exposure and lung cancer mortality. Annals of epidemiology, 23(6), pp.334-341. Schulte, P.A., McKernan, L.T., Heidel, D.S., Okun, A.H., Dotson, G.S., Lentz, T.J., Geraci, C.L., Heckel, P.E. and Branche, C.M., 2013. Occupational safety and health, green chemistry, and sustainability: a review of areas of convergence. Environmental Health, 12(1), p.1. Stayner, L., Welch, L.S. and Lemen, R., 2013. The worldwide pandemic of asbestos-related diseases. Annual review of public health, 34, pp.205-216. Cooper, R., Al-Kandari, H., Garlapati, A. and Dine, N., 2013, January. An Insight into Significant Challenges Faced by SHE Profession: An International Perspective. In ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition. American Society of Safety Engineers.