Publications

ISSN 1798-6419

MTT Raportti 39 (2012).
Maatilarakentamisen turvallisuus ”Ne turvaliivit olisivat olleet asialliset kattotöissä” . Hellstedt, Maarit; Kivinen, Tapani; Kaustell, Kim; Mattila, Tiina; 48 s.

Abstract

Keywords: Construction,  safety,  production building,  agriculture, 

The farms have grown in size considerably during Finland's EU membership. The growth has meant big investments into new production buildings. In construction, there has been a shiftto large industry hall like projects from small-scale timber structures which have contained own timber and an own work contribution. According to the studies the most dangerous assignments in agricultural enterprises can be found under "other work “ as well as “construction” and “forest work”.

The objective of the project financed by Farmers' Social Insurance Institution was to improve occupational safety on farm building construction and renovation sites by disseminating current safety practices and by developing ways of action which are better than the prevailing ones. The project consists of a literature review, statistical analysis, as well as a farmer and designer interviews.

In the literature review the most recent domestic building occupational safety studies, and foreign research related to agricultural construction safety have been searched for the ways of action/good practices and their suitability to our conditions has been evaluated. In the statistical analysis the MATA occupational injuries database on farmers insurance claims during construction and renovation work for the years 2005 ... 2008 was compared with the register of Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions on the construction workers' injuries. According to the MATA database most injuries happened during “repair and maintenance work” (39,5%) of production buildings, during “renovation work and expansion work” (18,6%), and in “construction of new buildings” (26,5%) . These injuries caused the agricultural entrepreneurs altogether 46 505 disability days. The average accident caused the disability time of 38.6 days and the typical time for the accident was July.

Farmer interviews were used to assess occupational safety measures on the construction site, occurred injuries and their types, near-miss situations and the underlying factors which have led to the injuries. Also construction safety deficiencies as well as the direct and indirect costs caused for instance because of the delay in completion of construction project were discussed. Designer interviews aimed to find out how to occupational safety and health considerations are taken into account in farm building planning and counseling, and how this experience of the designers should be taken into account in order to improve safety at the situation at the construction sites on farms.

Contact: maarit.hellstedt@mtt.fi

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