Open AccessFramework to Improve the Attitudes of Construction Workers towards Safety Helmets
Author(s) -
Anita Odame Adade-Boateng,
Frank Fugar,
Emmanuel Adinyira
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of construction in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.26
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1823-6499
pISSN - 2180-4222
DOI - 10.21315/jcdc2021.26.2.4
Subject(s) - procurement , personal protective equipment , occupational safety and health , construction industry , intervention (counseling) , engineering , business , construction site safety , operations management , risk analysis (engineering) , marketing , construction engineering , medicine , nursing , disease , structural engineering , covid-19 , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Construction workers in various studies across the globe have indicated that there is some discomfort with the use of safety helmets, and that some workers do not use safety helmets as required, resulting in a compromise to their health and safety protection. This study investigates the processes involved in the selection and procurement of safety helmets for construction workers and assesses these efforts by interrogating the discomforts experienced by users in spite of these selection considerations. The study focuses on safetyhelmets used by construction workers, as this is a common form of personal protective equipment (PPE) usually given out on construction sites to prevent head injuries, which are among the severest forms of occupational accidents in the industry. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey conducted with construction firms operating in Ghana and semi-structured interviews with construction workers. The findings from the study indicate that in spite of the purported considerations by construction firms in the selection and procurement of PPE, construction workers continually experience several discomforts with the use of safety helmets. The study proposes a Behaviour-Based Safety Intervention Framework to guide the selection and procurement of user-friendly PPE that improves the user experience of safety helmets.