U.K. To Begin 2023 Construction Site Inspections

The U.K.’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning construction workers that the long-term impact on their health from moving and handling heavy items on construction sites can leave them struggling to stand, walk or sit down with an impact on tens of thousands of workers every year. HSE inspectors will now be inspecting construction sites, focusing on the health risks of moving and handling materials on-site. Supporting the inspections initiative is HSE’s communications campaign “Work Right Construction. Your health. Your future.” Inspections in 2022 found widespread methods that can protect workers as well as many examples of poor practice, some of which resulted in enforcement action. The law requires employers to control the risks of ill health of their workers, which includes pain in muscles, bones, joints and nerves that can develop over time. However, in the most recent period, an estimated 42,000 people in the U.K. construction industry suffered from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder, which can cause years of agonizing aches and pains. This amounts to 53% of all ill health in the construction sector. If moving and lifting were managed properly, a physical job on a building site would not disrupt every part of a worker’s life.