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發表於 2013-3-11 01:32:35
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回應 神秘新一代 #1 的帖子
Health and Safety is an important part of any civil works. It is amazing that I came across so many situations in my travels that I felt were unsafe. The middle east is one of the worst in terms of health and safety. China is just as bad, so is HK.
I was staying with my sister while in HK, and it so happened that the exterior of the apartment buildings are to be renovated. Bamboo scaffold are being erected by a crew of 10 to 15 workers around the building. All workers were equipped with safety harnesses, but the harnesses were never used. Being a civil engineer from overseas, I was nosy enough to talk to the foreman who took pride in telling me that erection of bamboo scaffolding is a Chinese art that no other countries can copy. He evaded the question regarding workers not using the safety harnesses. It appears to me that the safety harnesses are placed on the workers as a necessary evil and not for safety. I think there are lots of work for the HK Ministry of Labour to do in achieving proper workmen safety!!!
Health and safety is not just for the workers, but also for the public. There are so much on-going civil works in HK on infrastructure maintenance on the streets. I happen to pass by a street work site where a worker was dry sawcutting some concrete sidewak, with so much dust flying on the adjacent live sidewalk with many pedestrians. Could the worker use a wet-cut method or have another worker use a vaccuum to suck up the dust?
Health and safety do cost money and slow the work progress in a lot of situations. I started working as a civil engineer since the late 70s and had seen health and safety evolved so drastically in Canada since then. The greatest improvements were from the late 1990s to the turn of the century in Canada through intensive education of the workers and the public. One cannot expect total elimination of accidents with proper health and safety measures in place, but the chances of accidents will be drastically reduced. |
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