You should be monitoring the health of your construction workers

Why & responsibility

Everyone should make an effort to stay healthy… When it comes to construction and the health of your workers, you are likely often working in loud or dusty environments, with airborne contaminants (e.g. silica or asbestos dust). In these instances there is a legal responsibility to monitor your workers health. You need to complete specific health checks to monitor the impacts to your workers health while working in these conditions.

As an employer, health monitoring is something you should provide for your workers. It is a proactive way of ensuring your workers aren’t at risk in the workplace. 

It is not an alternative to effective hazard control measures, rather, it helps you understand the effectiveness of your controls being used on-site. 

If a worker’s health is being affected by exposure to construction-related health risks, it’s best to find out as early as possible to prevent any further harm from occurring. It’s intended to detect the early signs of ill health or disease (e.g. silicosis, asbestosis, mesothelioma, noise-induced hearing loss) and helps you monitor and protect your workers from exposure to construction-related health risks. 

Health monitoring does not include general wellbeing checks or programmes, since things like cholesterol checks and healthy living programs aren’t specific to construction work.

You’ll need a registered medical practitioner with experience in health monitoring to perform, or supervise the medical tests. To assist your health monitoring efforts, HazardCo has partnered with Habit Health who provide medical checks nationwide. They’re experienced in health monitoring for the construction industry.

Remember, like all on-site health and safety, prevention is key. To ensure you’re meeting your legal requirements when it comes to health monitoring, get on-site with the HazardCo App, and complete an updated Site Review today. This will help you identify your hazards and put effective controls in place alongside health monitoring. Your HazardCo Advisory Team is available throughout the day to guide you through this – call 0800 555 339 to talk it over.