History and Evolution of Construction Safety Regulations

Introduction: The Dangerous Nature of Construction Work

Author David L. Goetsch — who wrote Construction Safety and Health — along with several other authors and scholars, provides informative background on the area of construction safety and its development as policy in the United States. This paper reviews the inadequate and sometimes non-existent workplace regulations that led to the development of more adequate rules and laws throughout the 20th century.

Goetsch describes the construction industry as "an umbrella concept" that covers a number of specialized crafts, professions, and occupations (Goetsch, 2003, p. 2). Those include general contracting (single family and nonresidential); highway and street construction; bridge, tunnel, and elevated highway construction; plumbing, heating, and air conditioning; painting, paperhanging, and decorating; masonry, stonework, and tile setting; plastering, drywall, and acoustical work; carpeting and flooring; concrete work; structural steel erection; glass and glazing work; and wrecking and demolition (Goetsch, p. 2).

Today, construction jobs account for only five percent of the entire United States workforce, yet they also account for "more than 17 percent of the deaths in the American workplace each year." That juxtaposition of percentages is just one statistical indication of how dangerous it is to work in construction.

Background: The Need for Safety Regulations

"Needless destruction of life and health is a moral evil. Failure to take necessary precautions against predictable accidents and occupational illnesses involves a moral responsibility for those accidents and occupational illnesses..." (National Safety Council, MacCollum, 2006, p. 12).

Goetsch points to the fact that up until the turn of the 20th century, local legislators and the U.S. Congress — along with public opinion — were largely in support of management rather than the worker and laborer. In 1907, for example, over 3,200 miners were killed in accidents, yet very few safety regulations were in place or enforced during that period.

The lack of regulatory measures in the construction industry led to some bleak statistics. The death rate for workers on construction projects sixty years ago was over 12 deaths per 100,000; according to the National Safety Council, it has since fallen significantly. That said, it is also true that one in seven construction workers is injured on the job each year.

Goetsch writes (p. 3) that the need for regulation is critical because the construction industry has changed dramatically over the years; technology has evolved and brought greater resources to both managers and workers. He identifies four key factors: "inanimate power" (electricity, hydraulics, and pneumatics run the tools that do jobs but also make those jobs dangerous); "machines" (forklifts, for example, lift, move, and stack materials and reduce back injuries, but they also cause injuries); "materials" (science has brought many new materials into the construction milieu, but some — like asbestos — introduce new hazards); and "work specialization" (contractors now subcontract jobs to painters, electricians, roofers, and others, which "decreases knowledge and understanding across fields," opening the door to accidents "when a variety of specialists are working on the same job site") (Goetsch, pp. 3–4).

"When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for the roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it" (Deuteronomy 22, Kovarik, 2003).

History of the Safety Movement in Construction Work

The most prominent workplace safety legislation in the history of the United States is the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), passed and signed into law in 1970. But there were many steps in terms of safety laws and regulations leading up to OSHA. In reviewing the history of construction workplace safety, scholars go back to ancient Greece and Rome (45–125 AD) and to the ruler Plutarch, who said it was not "just" to expose "non-criminals to the poisons of lead and mercury mines" (Kovarik, 2003, p. 1). Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714) was considered the "Father of Occupational Medicine," Kovarik writes; Ramazzini, a professor of medicine at the University of Modena, Italy, published a book (De Morbis Artificum Diatriba) that "examined the diseases and problems" resulting from 52 occupations.

Health and medicine were among the many fields that Benjamin Franklin engaged with, Kovarik explains. Franklin was so concerned about lead poisoning in the printing trade workplace — and in the distilling of rum in lead vessels — that he published a health warning, which, while not a regulation, was a bold move through a widely respected publication.

The safety movement had its roots in England, Goetsch writes (p. 5). The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was a time of booming economies and plentiful jobs. It was also a time when child labor was used indiscriminately in England and in the United States. Children as young as 9 or 10 and into their early teens worked hard and long in "often unhealthy and unsafe" conditions, Goetsch explains.

When an outbreak of fever struck working children in Manchester, England, the public "began demanding better working conditions." The community protests were effective enough to motivate the British Parliament to enact the "Health and Morals of Apprentices Act" in 1802 (Goetsch, p. 5). The author asserts that this British legislation "marked the beginning of government involvement in workplace safety." Kovarik explains that children "were beaten into working 16 hours a day in textile mills" and became "stunted, diseased, deformed and degraded." In the United States, many writers and scholars held the "comfortable illusion" that byssinosis — "brown lung disease" resulting from cotton dust — was something that only England had to worry about (Kovarik, p. 4). However, U.S. surveys revealed that from 12 to 30 percent of workers in textile plants suffered from brown lung, which created the need for legislation.

In the United States between 1890 and 1920, workplace safety laws were enacted in many states, but Kovarik claims "they were primarily cosmetic and sometimes struck down by reactionary courts" (Kovarik, p. 5). For example, an Illinois law that limited women's working hours to eight per day was struck down by courts in 1895, and when employers violated weak laws they "were not penalized but were simply asked to stop violating" those laws (Kovarik, p. 5).

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal brought into reality the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), which guaranteed workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively. In 1936, the Walsh-Healey Act set safety and health requirements for government contractors. An important safety law passed in 1947 "guaranteed a right to walk off the job if workers believed it was unsafe" (Kovarik, p. 6). The laws and regulations that Kovarik described — along with OSHA regulations — helped reduce the occupational fatality rate from 7.46 per 100,000 workers in 1980 to 4.25 per 100,000 workers in 1995.

Conclusion

Hislop, Richard D. (1999). Construction Site Safety: A Guide for Managing Contractors. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers.

Kovarik, Bill. (2003). Industrial Health and Safety. Radford University / Media, Environment and History. Retrieved July 19, 2009, from

Levitt, Raymond E., and Samelson, Nancy Morse. (1993). Construction Safety Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

MacCollum, David V. (2006). Construction Safety Engineering Principles: Designing and Managing Safer Job Sites. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Schneier, Marc M. (1999). Construction Accident Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Legal Liability and Insurance Claims. Chicago: American Bar Association Publication.