Health and safety at construction sites continues to be a cause for concern after a national targeted inspection focusing on health risks for construction workers saw enforcement action taken at one in six of the sites that were visited.
During a concentrated two-week period of proactive inspections, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) demanded improvements, and in some cases put an immediate stop to work activities, where they fell short of expected standards.
Inspectors focused on significant health risk issues, such as respiratory risks from dusts containing silica materials, exposure to other hazardous substances such as cement and lead paint, manual handling, noise and vibration.