Controlling the risk of accidents in the construction of industrial sheds

Barkokébas Junior, Béda

Laboratório de Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho / Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco / Universidade de Pernambuco / R. Benfica, 455, 3º andar, bloco C, Madalena, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil+55 2119 3828 / bedalsht@upe.poli.br

Lago, Eliane Maria Gorga

Laboratório de Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho / Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco / Universidade de Pernambuco / R. Benfica, 455, 3º andar, bloco C, Madalena, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil+55 2119 3828 / elianelsht@upe.poli.br

Véras, Juliana Claudino

Laboratório de Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho / Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco / Universidade de Pernambuco / R. Benfica, 455, 3º andar, bloco C, Madalena, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil+55 2119 3828 / julianalsht@upe.poli.br

Kohlman Rabbani, Emilia Rahnemay

Laboratório de Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho / Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco / Universidade de Pernambuco / R. Benfica, 455, 3º andar, bloco C, Madalena, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil+55 2119 3828 / emilialsht@upe.poli.br

Silva, Bianca Maria Vasconcelos

Laboratório de Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho / Escola Politécnica de Pernambuco / Universidade de Pernambuco / R. Benfica, 455, 3º andar, bloco C, Madalena, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil+55 2119 3828 / biancalsht@upe.poli.br

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The present work has as objective, to identify and to analyze the situations of risk of industrial accidents in the construction of warehouses, aiming at the implantation of writs of prevention with focus in the reduction of accidents. Therefore, one became necessary the study and the characterization of the conditions of existing work in the searched work sites, taking as reference the "method of evaluation and control of the risks for civil construction" elaborated by Barkokébas Jr in 2004. From periodic visits, photographic registers had been carried through and applied to a protocol based on the Brazilian Legislation of Security and Medicine at Work, specifically the Regulamentory Norm on environment and conditions of work in the industry of construction, generating at last, qualitative and quantitative pointers. The research contemplated an industrial shed of an operating company in Pernambuco, Brazil, being accomplished monthly visits to the ware house, executed between May and October of 2006. It was pointed out in the research, the great rotation of handiwork power and the raisednumber of workers of the sub entrepreneur in relation to the number of company workers, presenting approximately 94% in relation to the average of 65 employees. Amongst the results, the pointers show that the conditions of work in scaffolds had presented the biggest risks of accidents, recurrent of not conformity in relation to the requirements of the cited norm. The accompaniment in the warehouse limited the monitoring of the pointers, what probably contributed for a decisive form in the outcomes. One concluded, therefore, that the persistence and the contribution of the involved parts are basic to reach a differential, and, consequently, for the control of the risks of accidents.

Keywords

Keywords

Safety at work, civil construction, accidents at work

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The industry of civil construction

The industry of civil construction exerts an important role in the social and economic plan of the country for having great representation in Gross domestic product - the GDP, being responsible for 7,3% of the Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 [ 1 ], and, still, by its capacity on absorbing a great number of workers, employing directly 3.771.400 workers in all the country in this exactly year, representing 5.6% of the total busy population [2].

For the Industry, Ministry of Public Works and the Economy and World Trade

[3], the industry of the civil construction possesses extraordinary capacity of investment accomplishment, contributes for the equilibrium of the trade balance and generates significant amount of indirect jobs. The application of resources in this segment beyond translating economic benefits, classified in the national accounting as capital fixture, it also results in an improvement of the quality of life, once its products are good of infrastructure workmanships as highways, sanitation, lines of electricity transmission, housings, amongst others.

On the other hand, some particularitities of the industry of the civil construction affect the sector, making difficult its development. It is known that, despite the appearance of the occurred technological innovations in the sector, the industry of construction presents rudimentary activities, being basic the interference of man in all the processes, beyond the one that, the production line is static and presents a great diversity of activities

In accordance with Rocha apud Lago [ 4 ] studies of the FUNDACENTRO points some particularitities of the civil construction which affect the sector of form more drastic than any another industry, amongst them can cite:

• The size of the companies represented by small and micron companies;

Temporary character of the installations;• The diversity of the workmanships;• The rotation of the man power - which in accordance with the socio- educational profile of the Civil Construction worker in the State of Pernambuco (2004), research accomplished by the Industry of the Civil Construction Union of the State of Pernambuco - SINDUSCON/PE, demonstrates that the interval of predominant time of the worker’s permanence is from 1 the 5 years which represents 49.98% of workers; and,• The employment of workmanship force from other sources. According to

Véras [ 5 ], the construction works takes the constant change of the work environment, whose movement of the workmanship, during the production, is considered characteristic evident of the sector. Another important aspect is the logistic of the materials and the job done in theconstruction work, as form of planning for "the ideal" situation of execution

Security and Health at Work.

In the scope of the security and health at work, the industry of the civil construction is one of the sectors with the highest deficit, taking in account the high indices of employment-related accidents, thus presenting one high tax of accidents, serious injuries and deaths [6].

The International Organization of the Work registered the occurrence of approximately 250 million industrial accidents and 160 million illnesses related to work in the world. As for the fatal accidents, millions of accidents occur about 1.1 exceeding the traffic accidents (999.000), violence (563.000), wars (502.000) and AIDS (312.000). According to Ministry of the Social welfare, in Brazil during the year of 2004, there had been registered 458,956 industrial accidents, being 28,540 (6.22%) relating to the industry of construction. The same source still indicates that in Pernambuco there had been registered 9,043 industrial accidents, being 5.85% referring to the industry of the construction [ 7 ].

The raised index of accidents generates great losses of economic and humanresources and for society, the worker and the company, who, according to Barkokébas Junior et al. [8] it can take proportions huge enough even when considering only economic costs, therefore the human costs are immensurable, in order that, the life of a human being and the disability cannot be quantified. In accordance with Véras et al. [5], the implantation of the security of work in the work sites is an indispensable tool for the satisfactory development of work, considering that workers will feel themselves satisfied in knowing that they are working in an environment free of risks of accidents. The author adds that, the concern in creating a organizational culture directed toward the Security and Health at work must come from the high administration of the company who must integrate, in the efforts of the organization, effective actions toward security, health, well-being and moral of its employees, through a structuralized approaching on the evaluation and the control of the risks at work.

Hall apud Félix [6] evidence that professionals of security and health findoperational and technique limitations in implanting programs of security and health at work management, with satisfactory quality and results. As well as in programs of quality and environment, the organizations mainly adopt systems which are not preoccupied with cultural changes in the organization, implanting them without the contribution of its employees during the process.

For Félix [ 6 ], the constructive and organizational disposal of the environment of work are determining factors even though for the failure of some enterprises and that the industry of the construction is deeply influenced by the intervention from these factors, for being one of the oldest and conservatives segments to changes, withholding paradigms, which statistically is compromising the quality, which goes from the creation of a work site with strategic points for optimization of the productivity, the techniques of control and supplement management and man power, through administrative methods.

However, many companies, due to information and/or recklessness, adoptmeasures of security in order to attenuate a situation of existing risk in its productive process, or either, attribute a palliative resource, ignoring that, for the system effectiveness of management in security and health at work it is necessary to adopt preventive methods. Inserted in this context, work considers to evidence the importance of the accompaniment of the measures of Security and Health of Work - SST, through the analysis of pointers of referring security to the work site of a warehouse of an operating construction company in the city of Jaboatão dos Guararapes/PE, Brazil. The studied company constructs in average, a warehouse each five months, which generally are the time of construction of each unit. Also it contracts and subcontracts an average of 73 employees, being changeable in accordance with each phase of the workmanship.

OBJECTIVE

To present the analysis of the generated pointers of security from periodic comments at a worksite of a company of the operating civil construction in the execution of warehouses in the city of Jaboatão dos Guararapes/PE, Brazil, being thus identified, the importance of the accompaniment of the actions of the Security guard and Health of Work - SST to be adopted and/or implanted in the activities that come to demonstrate to necessity of the control of risks and/or improvements of the process.

METHODOLOGY

The methodology adopted in the research takes as reference the method of assessment and control of the risks for civil construction in the field of the engineering of security at work, elaborated for Barkokébas Jr, in 2004.

The security pointers are generated with the data observed in auditor ships carried through at the work sites of the company periodically, in which photographic registers of situations found in workmanship and applied to a protocol based on the Brazilian Legislation of Security and Medicine at Work had been carried through, specifically, the Norm Regulamentory n.18 - Conditions and Environment of Work in the Industry of the Construction [9]. According to the found situation, the protocol enumerates the situations of as, when the situation is in compliance with the norm; disagreement, when it does not take care of to the serious and imminent norm and of risk. In accordance with Norm Regulamentory n.

3 - Seizure and Interdiction [10], one considers serious and imminent risk all ambient condition of work that can cause employment-related accident or occupational disease with serious injury to the physical integrity of the worker.

They are the following pointers generated and represented through graphs: Quantitative pointer - ICQ, Qualitative Pointer - IQl, Economic Pointer - IE and per capita Pointer of Risk - IRpc. The quantitative pointer presents the performance graphically of workmanship with relation to the conditions of security and hygiene at work during the carried through inspections, indicating the number of items in serious and imminent disagreement and of risk. The qualitative analysis allows identifying the quantitative indices observed at the work site in each inspection, indicating items that had displayed greater incidence of imminent serious disagreement and of risk with NR 18. The economic index in accordance with presents the costs related to the liabilities of security of the work the quantitative analysis, and having as reference annex II of the NR 28 - Fiscalizations and Penalties. The values of the fines are simulated in function of the number of workers at the work site and the gravity of the occurrence, considering that, the values fixed in NR 18 are based on UFIR, whose adopted value is of R$ 1,0641. And, finally, the index per capita risk, that indicates the amplitude of the risk in relation to the number of workers displayed to the risk, offering conditions to identify the degree of percentile risk in each inspection. Table 01 mentions to it the number of workers of the work sites for visit, presenting the rotation of the man power, and still, the raised number of workers from other sources in relation to the number of workers of the company

Table 1 – Number of workers per visit

RESULTS

The quantitative pointers had been represented through a graph, which indicates the number of items in disagreement with the norm and the seriousamount of situations of and imminent risk (GIR) of the warehouse, as show graph 1.

30

2010                        12                        11 103                             4                             7 013                        118                          8 03 mai 06               25 mai 06                12 jul 06                28 ago 06               05 out 06

GIR                Desacordo               Linear (GIR)               Linear (Desacordo)

Graphic 1 – Quantitative pointer

In the analysis of data, it was observed representation for an increasing graph, reaching in the last visit a value almost the four times in relation to the value of the first visit, being equivalent a 30% increase. How much to items in disagreement, a line of increasing trend was also evidenced, having an increase of May the August of 2006, and later, a reduction of only 20%. In the subsequent stage, the data had been analyzed qualitatively, being pointing items of the protocol that had gotten the biggest numbers of occurrences.

DESACORDO GRAVE E IMINETE RISCO

NR 18.4 Áreas de vivência 3

NR 18.6 Escavações e Fundações 1

NR 18.7 Carpintaria 1 9

NR 18.8 Armações de Aço 4 5

NR 18.12 Escadas, Rampas e Passarelas 9

NR 18.13 Proteção contra queda 63

NR 18.14 Mov.e Trasp. de materiais e pessoas 1

NR 18.15 Andaimes 15

NR 18.18 Telhados e Cobertas 12

NR 18.21 Instalações Elétricas 5

NR 18.22 Máquinas e Equipamentos 23

NR 18.23 EPI 3

NR 18.24 Armazenagem de Materiais 2

NR 18.26 Prot. Contra Incêndio 1

NR 18.27 Sinalização de Segurança 2

NR 18.29 Ordem e Limpeza 40 5 10 15 20 25 30

Graphic 2 – Qualitative pointer

As mentioned previously, the protocol was based on the Brazilian Legislation of Security and Medicine of the Work, specifically the Norm Regulamentory Nº18, which deals with the conditions and environment of work in the industry of the civil construction. And, knowing that the NR18 is constituted by 39 items had been considered 16 items judged of bigger relevance for the typology of the work sites studied. Exemplifying, one judged unnecessary the use of the item 18.5 - Demolition, for not being about a demolition workmanship and/or that it possesses this type of activity. Soon, graph 2 shows the number of boarded occurrences ofitems for the protocol, accumulated during the 5 visits.

In relation to the situations in serious imminent risk, item 18.15 - Scaffolds had greater representation, being evidenced 05 occurrences, and, after that, the item 18.22 Machines, Equipment and Diverse Tools presenting 05 situations of serious and imminent risk. How much to items in disagreement, item 18.12 - Stairs, Curbs and Passage lanes presented 09 situations in disagreement, as well as the item 18.7 Carpentry.

It is perceived in graph 2, which item 18.15 - Scaffolds if it detached in relation to the boarded others items. The constructive method of the cover with the use of metallic structure and the proper typology of the construction demanded the use of scaffold in all the period of the construction of the warehouse, being able to be pointed as determinant factors.

In accordance with the NR18, the scaffolds are classified in truss simply supported and facades truss, predominant truss in the searched shed, beyond mobile truss, suspended truss and rocking and truss.

Figures 1, 2 & 3 – Scaffolds/ trusses.

The figures 1 and 2 evidence the system absence keeping-body and baseboard in the perimeter of the scaffold; the inadequate access, that would have to be carried through incorporated stairs to the structure of the truss; and, the incomplete carpeting of the work floor. Yet, figure 3 shows the unstable support of the base of the truss, in detriment the rank of solid low shoes. In figures 4, 5 and 6, notice alarming situations of scaffold installed in the work site, displaying the risk of fatal accident to the laborers of the activities.

Figures 4, 5 & 6 – Scaffold

Of the referring incidences to item 18.12 - Stairs, slopes and passageways, classified as disagreement, had been also selected some situations in order to exemplify and to facilitate the agreement. In figure 7, a worker detected itself using stairs of hand supported in unleveled floor, without steady superior support, and, still, without collective protection in the laterals; in figure 8, he verified himself that, the steps of the hand stairs were not Inter-stopped, or either, they did not have way device to hinder the slipping same them; and, in figure 9, is presented stairs of inadequately used hand being as one passageway.

Figures 7, 8 & 9 – Ladders, Curbs, and passageways

Of the items in relative disagreement to the activity of carpentry, it could be verified in figure 10, the absence of protection of the light bulb, in order to prevent the particle projection proceeding from the group of benches buzz saw; in figure 11, incomplete the lateral closing of the table of the buzz saw, beyond the making uneven of the floor; and, in figure 12, evidenced it truncated and/or broken tooth presence in the record of the buzz saw. It is worth to stand out, in this last case, that the situation was classified as serious and imminent risk, therefore, presented great potential to cause a serious accident.

Figures 10, 11 & 12 – Carpentry

Graph 3 presents the economic pointer that simulates the liabilities of

Security and Health of the Work attributed to the company, relative to the studied work site. The values of the fines are stipulated through the existing picture in annex II of the Norm Regulamentory N.28 - Fiscalization and Penalties, which are based on the seriousness of the infraction and the number of workers of the establishment. It is verified that the trend line if held of increasing form, arriving to reach R$50.832.25, superior value the 3 times the initial value. It is worth to remember that the Real, Brazilian currency, are equivalent to approximately €2,70.

Graphic 3 – Economic pointer

And, finally, the per capita Index of Risk - IRpc, that indicates the amplitude of the risk in relation to the number of workers/collaborators of the work sites, represented on table 2. According to the adopted method, one verifies the number of workers in the workmanship at the moment of the inspection, the quantitative index of items in serious disagreement and imminent risk, and, then, the following formula is applied separately for the quantitative indices:

IRpc =

quantitativeindex ×100nmber ofwor ker s

The NT indicates the total number of workers; IQt DES, the quantitative index of disagreement; the IQt to gir, the serious and imminent quantitative index of risk; IRpc DES, the per capita index of risk in relation to IQt DES; and finally, the Irpc to gir, that it represents the per capita index of risk in relation to the IQt to gir. Of the analysis, it is observed that in the last visit, a great increase in relation to the too much values occurred, having prominence, the IRpc to gir, in function of the amount of items in serious imminent of risk and to the lesser number of workers, thus presenting, greater risk of accidents to the workers of the work site.

Table 2 – Risk index per capita

CONCLUSIONS

When analyzing the security pointers, one concludes that, the systematization proposal, through the identification, quantification and qualification of the risks, fulfills with effectiveness its function. However, the performance of thesecurity pointers becomes engaged, since, it did not have a systematic directed toward the control of the risks.

After analysis of the pointers, one verified that the absence of theaccompaniment of the actions and measures of Security and Health of the Work demanded by the situations detected in conformity with the legislation did not provoke the negative and/or indifferent behavior of the graphs.

It can be assumed, through the results, that a bigger intensity in theaccomplishments of periodic meetings with the mends of the company, in the elaboration of training and the spreading of the results containing requests and relative recommendations to the Security and Health of the Work of the work site would reflect an improvement in the displayed indices. Therefore, the persistence and the contribution of the involved parts are basic for the control of the security pointers and, consequently, for the control of the risks and improvement of the process.

At last, the security and health at work must be considered as one of theintentions of the company, of form to be implemented and kept by all the members of the organization, in contrast, of the simple submission of the minimum requirements that the security norms demand. The results and the continuity of the research make possible the development of the methods and the implantation of new procedures that always allow the adoption and/or improvement of the measures of security, aiming at, the control of the risks of accidents, or either in the reduction of the number of industrial accidents.

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