Citation

Hinze J. Safety Sci. 2008; 46(4): 565-565.

Affiliation

University of Florida, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction, Center for Construction Safety and Loss Control, Gainesville, FL 32611-5703, United States (hinze@ufl.edu)

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2007.07.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Construction safety is a global issue in that it is a concern wherever construction activities take place. The reality is that the construction industry continually has injury and fatality statistics that make it one of the most dangerous industries in which to work. Even though tremendous improvements have been made in safety performance in some countries, the construction industry continues to lag behind most other industries. This has been the experience within most countries. As the world has become smaller through technology and through cooperative arrangements that cross many borders, the issue of construction worker safety has become a well-recognized problem and represents a concern that is shared worldwide.

The construction safety problems that exist are rarely unique to a single country. In the global market, construction problems are very similar from country to country. This is quite evident when attending international construction safety conferences where the themes of primary interest have general appeal to all participants. Since construction safety problems appear to be ubiquitous, this also means that the problems of construction safety can be addressed and solved on a global scale, resulting in improvements that can be observed on a global scale. Thus, solutions to safety problems in one country can readily be adopted in other countries to generate further improvements.