Ergonomics and Construction: A Review of Potential Hazards in New Construction

Details

• Personal Author:
  Schneider S ; Susi, Pam
• Description:
  Ergonomics is a growing field within occupational safety and health. Ergonomic hazards are those where the design of the work or workplace causes injury, e.g. musculoskeletal problems. Injury rates attributable to ergonomic hazards are skyrocketing, accounting for the majority of "occupational diseases" in the 1989 annual survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. While interest and attention has been growing, most of the focus has been on industrial and office workers. Almost no research has been done in the U.S. on ergonomic problems of construction workers. This paper is a review of potential ergonomic hazards in construction work. It summarizes the findings from published literature reports as well as findings from a year-long investigation of health hazards on a new construction site in suburban Washington, D.C. The review is structured to follow the sequence of events in the construction of a new building. The review will also, simultaneously, refer to ergonomic solutions that exist, where they have been developed or devised. This review will only deal with the hazards of new construction. Renovation of existing structures, the segment of the work which is growing, is not discussed here. Many of the same problems and principles apply however. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Construction Industry Cumulative Trauma Disorders Ergonomics Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety

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• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Construction-industry Construction-workers Cumulative-trauma-disorders Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Occupational-hazards Risk-factors Safety-research
• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Louisiana ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 6
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033444
• Citation:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 15-21, 1993, New Orleans, Louisiana. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 1993 May; :104
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• Performing Organization:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights, Washington, DC
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19900928
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, May 15-21, 1993, New Orleans, Louisiana
• End Date:
  19961231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:720beee1dd7df360171656bb8e8b0b5bc3f776506699498542a9c5c716331e61ee40033f857c7878cd1c6425e11586a6a486f6b21f7343d3aa0514da0b17fe91
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189024/cdc_189024_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 357.29 KB ]