Approaches to occupational safety and health standards in construction sites in Anambra state

Elamah Daniel¹, Iyamu Osafanmen Victor² & Asodike Nkiru Chigemezu³

¹Building Technology Department Auchi Polytechnic Auchi Edo state

²Federal College of Education, (Technical), Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria

³Department of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic Oko

Abstract

This paper investigated the approaches to occupational safety and health standards in construction sites in Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The study analyzed over one hundred construction projects in the state, focusing on fifteen sites. To gather data, questionnaires were administered to 190 construction workers and engineers of various trades. Out of the total, 148 questionnaires were retrieved and used for analysis, resulting in a response rate of 77.89%. A validated structured questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Occupational Safety and Health Standards” (QOCHS) was developed by the researcher. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and an overall value of 0.76 was obtained for the three clusters. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions. The finding revealed that construction workers and construction engineers to a high level are aware of the occupational safety and health regulation on building sites. They also agreed that construction workers and engineers agreed on occupational safety and health practices in the building construction industry. It was found out that construction workers and engineer agreed on the ways for improving awareness of occupational safety to construction among workers in the building construction sites. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that Anambra State government should encourage a culture of safety within construction companies by emphasizing the importance of adhering to regulations and guidelines to prevent accidents and injuries on building sites.

Keywords

health; safety; occupational health and safety; construction sites.

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