CONSTRUCTION firms face a clampdown from health and safety inspectors if they are deemed to be ignoring threats to their employees’ health.

The Health and Safety Executive has warned firms in Yorkshire that immediate action to close down sites will be taken where potentially dangerous activities are discovered by inspectors.

HSE has launched a ‘health as well as safety’ campaign to tackle poor standards and unsafe work on building sites across Yorkshire which are being targeted as part of a nationwide drive to cut ill health, death and injury in the industry.

During a month-long campaign HSE Inspectors will be turning up on sites unannounced to make sure high-risk activities, particularly those affecting the health of workers, are being properly managed. These include working with harmful dusts such as silica and asbestos and other hazardous substances.

Inspecting teams from HSE’s construction sector will carry out visits to sites in West, North and South Yorkshire, the East Riding and Humber region where refurbishment projects or repair works are underway. Up to 300 sites, including in the Bradford district will be targeted.

HSE said that if unacceptable standards are found, its inspectors would take immediate enforcement action, including halting any potentially dangerous activities.

It said the latest initiative had been launched as an estimated 7,000 people working in construction in Yorkshire last year were suffering from ill health caused by their work.

Kirsty Hirst, HSE principal construction inspector, West and North Yorkshire, said: “Industry has made much progress in reducing the number of people killed and injured in its activities, but for every fatal incident, about 100 construction workers die from a work-related cancer.

“A shorter inspection initiative focusing on health risks for construction workers in June saw enforcement action taken at one in six of hundreds of sites visited nationwide.

“Time and again, we find smaller contractors working on refurbishment and repair work failing to protect their workers through a lack of awareness and poor control of risks. This isn’t acceptable – it costs lives, and we will take strong and robust action where we find poor practice and risky behaviour.

“Through campaigns like this we aim to ensure contractors take all risks to their workers seriously, and not just focus on immediate safety implications.”

Further information can be found online at hse.gov.uk/Construction/campaigns/safersites/index.htm