The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has outlined its approach to preventing unnecessary deaths caused by exposure to dust on construction sites, centred on a new ‘Dust Kills’ campaign.
image: Dust Kills website
… campaign aims to raise awareness of the risks and encourage contractors and workers to…. get guidance on how to protect their long-term health…
Scottish Construction Now writes:
Thousands die every year from lung diseases caused by the job they do – this is wrong and needs to stop. Workers in construction develop lung cancer, silicosis and other chronic diseases that put a stop to any enjoyment of life and sadly often lead to an early death.
The Health and Safety Executive wants to prevent unnecessary deaths caused by exposure to dust on construction sites….
HSE is not prepared to stand on the sidelines, to watch and document death and disease from exposure to dust. Our ‘Dust Kills’ campaign aims to raise awareness of the risks and encourage contractors and workers to visit our campaign website to get guidance on how to protect their long-term health.
HSE inspectors are visiting construction sites across England, Scotland and Wales throughout October to check the control measures in place to protect lives.
It’s easy to dismiss dust as an inevitable nuisance. It is far from that. 3,500 construction workers die every year from cancers related to exposure to dust, and many more succumb to other severe chronic lung diseases. These deaths are preventable.
HSE is committed to raising awareness of the long-term health risks caused by exposure to dust. Our national consciousness of the basic need to breathe freely in order to survive has been brought into sharp relief by the Covid-19 pandemic. Families and communities across the UK and globally have been devastated by this respiratory disease. Let’s then consider the workers who build our homes, our safe spaces that we share with those we love and nurture – they frequently risk their own lives to build our proverbial castles.
