The impact of occupational health and safety regulations on prevention through design in construction projects: Perspectives from Spain and the United Kingdom

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Since the mid-1990 s, Prevention through Design (PtD) has become increasingly prevalent in the built environment. The acceptance of PtD has largely been due to the removal or reduction of risks during the execution phase of construction projects. European States have had the added impetus of national legislation. OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzes the influence of European Union Directive 92/57/EEC on occupational safety and health injury prevention in the project design phase. METHODS: Qualitative methods comprised individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a panel of experts. Sixty individuals from construction and related professions (architects, engineers, constructors, developers, and other construction experts) answered 17 key questions to establish national perceptions of the effectiveness of Directive 92/57/EEC in Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). RESULTS:The implementation of PtD in the project design phase in the UK is clearer since the regulations explicitly state the obligations of project designers as well as those of the coordinator. Interviews with Spanish experts show that, in Spain, the prevention culture is less frequently realized. CONCLUSIONS:The most significant differences between the European Directive and national regulations which influence PtD are linked to the Health and Safety Coordinator, and Health and Safety documents.

Validating DFS concept in lifecycle subway projects in China based on incident case analysis and network analysis

“…In addition, while DFS has gradually attracted the interests in construction industry, the shortages of available tools and the safety knowledge of the designers and their companies likewise hinder the implementation of DFS. To promote DFS in the construction industry and increase the designers' involvement in lifecycle safety management, regulations in different countries and regions have been established to address the designers' liabilities, with the most representative regulation in the United Kingdom's construction (design and management) regulations, which place responsibility on the DAEs (MacKenzie et al 2000;Gambatese et al 2005;Martínez-Aires et al 2015). Instead of the legislation, Tymvios and Gambatese (2016) argue that the owners should be the targeted group in construction industry, and business case method could generate the owners' interests to adopt DFS.…”

Comparison between collective protective systems in Brazil: safety platforms and safety net type V

“…It is expected that the training of health and safety professionals will consider the need for instruction on the development of the design process addressing concepts and aspects of safe work. The young, newly trained architects and engineers in the EU are more familiar with and tend to assimilate better the planning concepts of workplace safety than professionals with more extended training [35]. It is also hoped that the schools in Brazil educate professionals with a greater interest in improving the OSH area to become an increasingly present reality in construction sites.…”

The design coordination role at the pre-construction stage of construction projects

“…The second area is knowledge and understanding of how the Directive and national laws implementing it have been translated into practices and procedures on projects and their impact on OSH outcomes. The only reported study into the impact of Directive 92/57/EEC covered only outlines of its transposition into national laws in Member States and changes in accident rates after the Directive came into force (Aires et al, 2010(Aires et al, , 2016. Although there has been a proliferation of commentaries by expert practitioners on various aspects of the CDM Regulations in the UK based on reflection on their individual experiences (e.g.…”