Conference discusses occupational accidents

Out of 11 occupational fatalities this year, eight were in the construction industry, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority's chief executive officer Mark Gauci said yesterday.

Addressing a conference on Building In Safety, being held as part of the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, he said that of 4,726 occupational accidents last year, 571, or 12 per cent, were in the construction industry.

These figures, he said, were very low compared to those of other countries but each death or occupational accident was one too many.

Greg Haywood, project manager of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, said there were more than 822,000 accidents in the EU 15 in 2001. More than 1,200 workers were killed and some 26 million days were lost because of ill health.

He said that 18 per cent of the non-fatal accidents were in construction as were 24 per cent of the fatal accidents.

Mr Haywood said that in the EU 15 there were 12 million employees in the construction industry generating a turnover of more than €900 billion. Accidents and ill health cost an estimated €75 billion a year.

Dr Gauci said the construction industry contributed to between 12 and 13 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product annually and about eight per cent of the country's workers were employed in the sector.

He said the OHSA had also worked on a European level. Talks were currently ongoing regarding a new directive protecting workers who could be exposed to rays of optical radiation. This directive also had the aim of protecting workers who worked outdoors so could be at risk of skin and eye damage.

Following the OHSA's work, the European Commission accepted to make changes in several parts of the directive.

The authority gave so much importance to the construction sector that following a call by the European agency, it accepted to hold another campaign aimed at the sector next year. For this aim it was also actively taking part in a purposely set up working group.