Safety Procedures at Construction Site – Safety Precautions and PPEs

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Any construction site is a dangerous occupation for all personnel, especially for labors working on site and so one must be prepared every day for safety. For this purpose, various safety measures have to be taken.

Safety Procedures at Construction Site

Personal protective equipment (PPE) are supplied to all the personnel’s working on site and even for the personal who are temporary visiting to the site Personal protective equipment (PPE) can be classified as:

• Minimum Personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Additional Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Minimum PPE Requirements for Safety at Construction Site

Hard Hat or Helmet

Hard hat or helmet is issued to each and every personnel working on site. It has to be worn all times at job site.

Safety Glasses

Safety glasses are required at construction site every time debris is filled in air due to activities on site.

Hand Protection Gloves

Hand gloves are supplied to all personals to protect against cuts when handling material or equipment’s, during cleaning operations, cutting metal studs or similar works.

Safety Vests

Safety vests also called as high visibility shirts. Purpose of safety vest is to keep the person always clear in view, even in the dark and he should be visible to everyone. Safety vests are of different bright colors like red, green, yellow so it's easy for workers to see and locate each other

Proper Clothing

Shirts, long pants and hard soul shoes, a 6-inch-high boot is recommended.

Additional PPE Equipments for Safety at Construction Site

Hearing Protection

It is compulsory to wear hearing protection equipment near any equipment, tool or machinery which makes loud noises. As per standard practice if you are 2 foot away from somebody and you need to shout to talk, putting hearing protection is necessary.

Respiratory Protection

Sometimes as voluntary respiration policy dust mask is supplied, any employee looking for additional comfort or safety while working with fiber glass, fire proofing, cleaning the floors or handling debris.

Face shields

A full face shield should be worn along with safety glasses when working in a high debris, operating grinder or any spark producing activity or similar activities or when done on site. An approved welding shield is compulsory to wear during all welding operations.

Safety Harness

The safety harness is an attachment between a fixed and mobile object and is usually fabricated from rope, cable and locking hardware. Full body safety harness to be used as a procedure for fall protecting system, ignorance can result in severe physical harm. Safety harnesses keep workers safe and are helpful in freeing their hands for work even while hanging on the side of a building.

Material Storage

Material on the job site should be stored properly when not in use to prevent injury and wastage of materials. Ensure proper storage and good housekeeping. Proper storage can prevent the falls of the materials leading to material damage and accidents. Weight of the material stored should be within safe loading limits of the building floor. Keep the passageway always clear for walking of personal and prevent injuries. Always store the material away from traffic. Store material at least 6 feet away from the openings in the floor and 10 feet from the edge of the floor if the wall is not built on edge of floor.

Manual Material Handling

The personnel should be aware of his weight lifting capacity and if required take the help of another person if required instead of taking all load himself and use proper lifting techniques. Always need to wear the safety equipment’s while working on construction site.

Mechanical Material Handling

Mechanical material handling also requires same amount of safety as in case of manual material handling. Equipment Operator needs to take care of the weight lifting capacity of the equipment like forklifts, cranes and other similar to avoid accidents. Ground personnel should be in machine operator’s vision always and should be aware of the safety procedures while working around the heavy mechanical equipments.

Basic Safety Precautions at Construction Site

In any construction project for basic safety precautions to be implemented are:

• Guard rails to be installed at open scaffold areas, all openings in the building floor, in the excavated areas, at mobile elevated platforms.
• Yellow stickers with safety notes to be pasted where necessary
• All the working platforms should be stable, properly braced, should not be overloaded and safe for the working personnel
• All the working areas and passageways should be free from waste or debris or any of obstruction like stored material
• The site should be clean all the times and the material should be stored safely
• There should be proper arrangement of collection and disposal of waste materials
• First aid should be available at all times on site for cuts burns or any mishaps
• Fire extinguishers to be placed on site on proper locations in case of any fire
• That should be proper lighting arrangements on the site especially when the work is carried out during the night stand

To summarize, world class construction project execution is impossible without proper health and safety management Read More: General Safety Issues at Construction Site