Effective Safety And Health Planning On Construction Sites
[ONITSHA AND AWKA OF ANAMBRA STATE]

Welding fumes- which may include a cocktail of all kinds of metal fume- can cause serious health problems in the long term. The respiratory system is affected and as chemicals are absorbed, they can slowly affect the brain and internal organs.
Dust: All kinds of dust are bad for the health. There are higher death rates from respiratory disease and from lungs and stomach cancers in dusty trades. Cement dust, silica wood dust and medium fireboards pose particular risks.
Low- cost solution for reducing dust are to get material pre-cut off site where exhaust ventilation can be used, and to dampen work and isolated dusty work. Good hygiene facilities for washing and changing and proper protective clothing are needed for hazardous jobs and this is seldom the case in developing countries. Ideally exhaust ventilated tools and tools fitted with a water supply for dust suppression should be used.
2.3.5    BASIC SAFETY PRINCIPLES
2.3.5.1    Obiegbu (2006) defined safety as behavior that people work safely because they behave safely; that in this sense safety is not just instruction, but is also management and supervision in creating a behaviour modification programme and enforcing it through supervision. He stated further that safety program begins with management creating a goal and then implementing a plan; and that one of the key elements in extracting safe bahaviour is measurement.
2.3.5.2    SAFETY      PROGRAMME OUTLINE:-   He   fashioned   out   the following safety programme outline template to drive the realization of safety objective and ends:
•    Establish a goal of safety.
•    Create a safety program
•    Educate management and supervision
•    Begin measuring safety as a part of job performance
•    Make safety, and planning for it, a job site priority
•    Make employees responsible for, and accountable for safe behaviour.
2.3.5.3    DAY TO PAY SAFETY
As it is often said;” take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves;” this dictum has relevance in his advocacy of day to day observance and practice of safety rules and provisions in project execution, when he stated: ‘safe behaviour often gets lost in the press of day to day work load. First line field supervision has to over come the tendency to work unsafely “just this once in order to get the job done” and replace it with planning to avoid situations where work deadlines and safe working behaviours come into conflict.
Supervisors should immediately stop any unsafe condition. Workers should be made responsible for unsafe behaviour and immediately notified and possibly disciplined when working unsafely. Corrective action is the most important part of getting safety behaviour in the field. Employees who consistently ignore afe    working    procedures    should    be    giving    warnings,    suspended    and eventually terminated’
2.3.6    CONSTRUCTION REGULATIONS
2.3.6.1    Chudley and Greeno (2006) defined them thus “These are statutory instruments made under the factories Acts of 1937 and 1961 and come under the umbrella of the health and safety at work e.t.c, Act 1974. They set out the minimum legal requirements for construction work force. The requirements contained within these documents must therefore be taken into account when planning construction operations and during the actual construction period. Reference should be made to the relevant document for specific requirements but the broad areas covered can be shown thus”:- this is shown in appendix A They presented health and safety at work e.t.c. Act 1974 in the format shown below.