Construction Safety Alliance (CSA)

Purdue University West Lafayette, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In order to make a significant impact in the safety and health culture of the construction industry, a vision that embraces meaningful and effective partnerships are critical. The Construction Safety Alliance (CSA) provides the framework of this new vision. It represents a cooperative effort that includes: universities, labor organizations, construction companies, owners of constructed projects, trade associations, local and state governments. The Alliance will address problems that are specific to different regions, different trades and different industry. The focus of the Construction Safety Alliance (CSA) is to help bring to fruition the NIOSH goal to "develop, implement and evaluate a NATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAM for intervention effectiveness research and preventive service systems research in construction safety and health." The main focus is to embed safety measures as critical components in construction, and to address NIOSH's National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). In doing so, it will link safety with quality and productivity which typically mark the success of construction projects. Key projects for FY 2001 include: Prevention of falls from elevations, Safer trenching operations, A pilot survey of small construction companies using the Dunn & Bradstreet model, Zero accident work sites, Development of web-based dissemination tools and a scalable database for safety practices in construction. Expected deliverables from these five projects include: * Intervention approaches (i.e., engineering controls, administrative controls, training and education, and personal protective equipment) for reducing accidents in trenching and high-elevation projects, * A user-friendly interactive database that companies could use to track injuries and illnesses and improve the bottom line, * A model for best practices to promote zero accident work sites, * Prototype of demonstration projects in trenching and falls from elevations.