Results from a new International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) survey of safety leaders indicate that personal protective equipment (PPE) use in the heavy construction industry is on this rise, yet hundreds of thousands of workers in dangerous jobs are still unprotected. With the 2001 findings serving as a benchmark to assess future trends, the latest findings come one year after ISEA commissioned the first quantitative research to assess PPE use and awareness in the heavy construction industry.

Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA), a Stow, Ohio-based research firm specializing in the construction industry, conducted both the 2001 and 2002 research by a combination of faxed-back questionnaires and telephone interviews. This year's survey encompassed 213 safety leaders in both the private sector (construction companies, labor, insurance underwriters, trade associations, trade press) and the public sector (federal, state and local officials). Their responses indicated that six of 10 PPE types investigated (hardhats, protective eyewear, hearing protection, protective coveralls, face shields and safety shoes) showed an increase in the percentage of workers wearing them when needed. Among the other four types, respiratory protection use was virtually unchanged, while use of safety vests, gloves and fall protection decreased.

“Hardhats, high-visibility apparel (safety vests), and safety shoes or boots continue to be the most regularly worn PPE, with about three-quarters of workers wearing them when needed,” reports SMA President Jim McKeen. “Face shields — the least consistently worn PPE of those investigated — showed a significant increase in use, moving from 34 percent in the 2001 survey to 39 percent in the follow-up. Safety shoes/boots and safety glasses/goggles also showed substantial increases — up seven percent and 13 percent, respectively. Unfortunately, the survey indicated that fall protection use declined by 8 percent.”

As in 2001, this year's survey asked respondents to indicate the primary reasons why construction workers do not use PPE more regularly. For the second year in a row, the main reason by far cited by safety leaders is that “employers do not require or enforce use.” In the 2002 survey, that was the number one reason given for six of the 10 PPE types studied, and the number two reason for the remaining types. Other factors cited frequently were “lack of style/comfort” and “hampers job performance.”

Commenting on the survey findings, ISEA President Dan Shipp affirms, “We are encouraged by the upward trend in PPE use and awareness in the heavy construction industry. Nonetheless, with some 2 million Americans employed in dangerous construction jobs, the numbers indicate there still are hundreds of thousands of underprotected workers. And the ‘employers don't require or enforce use’ wakeup call now has sounded two years in a row.

“We will redouble our efforts as an association and through our member companies to deliver to the construction community messages that make a strong business case for workers who are equipped with and using their PPE when needed.”