The CDM Regulations Can Be a Crucial Factor for Improving Safety Performance on Construction Sites - Literature review Example

The UK shares some similarities with the United States as Weil (2001) indicates that the construction site has been and continues to be one of the most dangerous workplaces in the United States. In 1999 the number of fatalities was 1190 and the number of injuries that involved absence from work being 193,765. Though the rate of injury is much lower than the preceding ten years it remains above that for the private sector as a whole and large variations within the industry are masked by industry averages.

The third-highest number of fatalities of any occupational group is for construction workers. It is therefore not a surprise that the industry has been the focus of OSHA policy for several years.Other researchers agree with this as Hallowell (2010) indicates that the US construction industry has a fatality rate of 11.1 per 100,000 workers and a recordable injury rate of 239 per 10,000 full-time workers. In order to indicate the magnitude of the situation, Hallowell (2010) further states that the construction industry employs 8% of the American workforce but accounts for 21.

7% of all work-related deaths.Lingard et al (2010a, p. 813) indicate that the construction industry in Australia has a similar profile in terms of occupational health and safety as with other developed countries including the USA and the UK. The construction industry is one of the highest risk industries in Australia. In 2002-2003 construction workers in Australia were more than two times more likely to be killed when compared to workers in other industries. Statistics for Australia for 2006 indicate that construction has consistently been the third most dangerous industry which has been surpassed only by transport and storage and agriculture for the past three years with a rise of 9% in the number of fatalities recorded in 2006-2007.

The preliminary data for 2006-2007 indicated that the rate of fatalities in Australian construction was 7.8 per 100,000. However, HSE (n.d.) indicates that while reliable information is available in the UK for fatal injuries non-fatal RIDDOR reports are subject to under-reporting as estimates of the true level of accidents somewhere around 30,000.