CERC 2017: New Frontiers in Applied Construction Research

The University of Washington's Center for Education and Research in Construction (CERC) hosted their annual New Frontiers in Construction Conference on March 16, 2017. The annual CERC conference highlights research and its relevance for pressing issues facing the Construction Industry. This year over 120 attendees were eager to learn about the newest construction safety and health research.

ERC Faculty member, Dr. Noah Seixas discussed the mission of the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety with conference attendees. Dr. Seixas highlighted new Spanish language OSHA training initiatives, intended to provide essential safety training to one of our most vulnerable worker populations. Dr. Seixas also discussed the Safety and Health Empowerment for Women in Trades (SHEWT) Project, and recent findings on barriers and risk factors for women in construction.

Several students shared their research findings at the CERC conference, including Christopher Mak, current Northwest Center ERC trainee in the Construction Management Occupational Safety and Health Program (CMOSH), and Miriam Clakins, 2015 Exposure Science MS graduate. Christopher talked about his findings in a study on LED lighting on construction sites, while Miriam discussed heat-related illness among construction workers.

The day also featured great talks from Diane Davies from PACE, a pre-apprenticeship program dedicated to training underserved communities, and Dr. Katharina Klemt-Albert, Director of the Department of Construction Management and Digital Solutions at Leibniz University in Hannover.

ERC Student Summer Internship at UW's Major Capital Projects Division

Construction Management Safety and Health (CMOSH) Trainee, Christopher Mak, spent his summer interning for the University of Washington's Major Capital Projects Division, where he participated in a case study on Temporary LED Construction Lighting at the UW Animal Research and Care Facility Construction Site.

Temporary LED lighting
at the project site
(Photo: Chris Mak)

Mak’s research focused on UW’s implementation and utilization of low-voltage LEDs for temporary construction lighting, and understanding why it was chosen over other options. His case study built off of previous research conducted by Yi Jie Huang in 2014, where Huang studied temporary construction lighting at the UW's Bothell Phase 3 Project.

Key findings from his case study included more consistent compliance to the lighting requirement, better maintenance of lights when LEDs were used. He also found that there is a need for a temporary construction lighting schedule to understand energy costs, and a material cost database for better access to cost data. These findings will help inform the University of Washington on how temporary LED lighting can be used to its full benefit.

Over the course of 8 weeks, he spent 15 hours a week on-site participating in site walk throughs, safety meetings, and even follow-up procedures of a near-miss incident that occurred during his internship, in addition to conducting his case study. While nobody was injured in the near-miss incident, the follow-up meetings and investigative reports provided Chris with a unique learning opportunity and gave him a taste of the day-to-day life of an EH&S professional. The internship also gave Mak the opportunity to shadow Skanska's EH&S officer, Chiung-I Hwang.

CMOSH Trainee Christopher Mak

"Through this internship I was able to see the daily operations of a multimillion dollar, publicly owned construction project. I witnessed safety and health practices through 'morning stretch and flex', job site safety meetings and announcements, and CPO's campus-wide safety meeting and site walks."

Safety and Health Empowerment for Women in Trades (SHEWT)

© Oregon Trades Women, Inc / 

Dawn Jones Redstone

Construction workers experience many health and safety concerns including falls, being struck by/against machinery, musculoskeletal disorders, and chronic health hazards from contaminants. Women workers face additional gender-specific hazards such as inadequate physical protection, unsanitary facilities, and stress from discrimination and harassment. As opportunities for women in the trades continue to grow in the Pacific Northwest, better understanding of tradeswomen's unique exposure to workplace hazards is needed.

Northwest Center ERC Faculty Member Noah Seixas, PhD, and DEOHS Staff Member Hannah Curtis, MPH have embarked on a project designed to identify the primary work-related health and safety risks to tradeswomen, and inform intervention strategies to address this population's health and safety challenges.

© Oregon Trades Women, Inc / 

Dawn Jones Redstone

The Safety and Health Empowerment for Women in Trades (SHEWT) project is a two-part collaborative project with the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center and Washington Women in Trades. Funding and support for SHEWT is provided by the State of Washington, Department of Labor and Industries, Safety and Health Investment Projects.

Phase I (2014-2016) used focus groups and a survey to investigate the nature, range, and extent of health and safety risks affecting women in the construction industry in WA State. Building off the research findings, phase II (2016-2018) will address tradeswomen’s workplace psychosocial stressors through the development, implementation, and evaluation of a pilot mentoring program. This program will train journey-level women and men to support female apprentices as they navigate construction work and safety cultures. 

Hannah and Noah's research has guided by several key questions regarding the safety and health of women in trades:

• What are the health and safety exposures related to workplace stress, injury risk, and psychosocial factors experienced by women working in the construction trades?
• How are exposures different between tradeswomen and tradesmen?
• What support systems exist to address women’s work-related risks and how could they be improved?
• What impact would a mentoring program have on health and safety communication and compliance for female apprentices?   

From the phase I focus groups conducted with 19 tradeswomen and 6 tradesmen, researchers   learned that key workplace stressors affecting tradeswomen are:

• Dangerous work environment
• Physical limitations
• Inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Physical overcompensation due to a need to constantly prove themselves
• Gender discrimination and unequal training
• Sexual harassment
• Fear of layoff for reporting concerns
• Poor work-life balance
• Tokenism
• Lack of support

Survey analysis is ongoing but preliminary results from 198 tradeswomen and 93 tradesmen, representing a wide variety of trade professions and career levels around WA State, revealed:

• Women scored significantly higher than men on the perceived stress scale
• Women were more likely to report PPE not fitting properly, especially for coveralls and full harnesses
• 40% of women felt discriminated against at work because of their gender
• More than half of the surveyed women reported pushing themselves past their physical comfort at least half of the time to get the job done

Solutions suggested by survey participants included improved education and training; mentoring; and increasing women's representation in leadership roles.

Upon completion of phase I, Research Coordinator Hannah Curtis said, 

© Oregon Trades Women, Inc / 

Dawn Jones Redstone

"It is disheartening, but not altogether surprising, to learn that the physical and psychosocial stressors affecting tradeswomen at work have not changed much in the past three decades. Women continue to represent a small minority (2.7%) of skilled trades workers, which contributes to their health and safety needs not being met. Talking with tradeswomen opened my eyes to the hazards of working in a hostile, male-dominated culture, but it also revealed the strength of women who have real pride in their work and are breaking down employment barriers."

The SHEWT project is now in phase II through 2018. During phase II Noah, Hannah, and other project contributors aim to assess the effectiveness of a mentor program to combat some of the workplace risks and stressors tradeswomen have reported.

The Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center "Heartbeat of Health and Safety Podcast" program recently interview Hannah and other project contributors about the SHEWT project, and the risks women in trades are facing. Listen to the podcast episode here.

To learn more about SHEWT, visit the project website.