Hispanic workers may be more likely to experience a deficient safety climate on construction worksites and it may account for their disproportionate injury rates. As part of a large study, the authors developed and implemented a 5-h training program to improve construction supervisors’ safety-efficacy, in order to enhance the safety climate on construction worksites. The training program covered fall prevention, silica exposure, leadership, communication, and safety planning. This study evaluated pretraining and posttraining changes and safety-efficacy six months posttraining. A total of 118 supervisors, contractors, and workers from more than 50 construction firms in Massachusetts attended the training. Statistically significant improvements were observed in participants’ safety knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Six-months postintervention, 58% of supervisors, contractors, or both, perceived that the training contributed “a lot” to their ability to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking workers, to take on a safety leadership role (52%), and to conduct effective training (62%). This study determined that when supervisors perceive that they have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to make changes, they may better fulfill their role as a safety leader. Construction supervisor training courses might be revised to include leadership and effective communication topics.

This study characterized whole-body vibration exposures in a set of vehicles that operate in open-pit mines and compared three different daily exposure parameters based on the ISO 2631-1:1997 and ISO 2631–5:2004 standards. Full-shift, 6 to 12-hour, continuous whole-body vibration measurements were collected from 11 representative types of vehicles in terms of hours of operation and number of vehicles used. For each type of vehicle, the exposure parameters (A(8), VDV(8), and S_ed(8)) were calculated for each axis (x, y, and z), and in addition, shear or horizontal (∑xy) and vector sum (∑xyx) whole-body vibration exposure. Findings showed that: (i) substantially higher shear and vector sum whole-body vibration exposures indicated relatively high levels of exposure on the non-predominant axis; (ii) the predominant axis of exposure varied across the different type of vehicles; (iii) there were differences in whole-body vibration exposure parameters regarding the standards-based predictions of potentially adverse health outcomes (the impulsive exposure parameters VDV(8) and S_ed(8) were higher and reduced acceptable vehicle operation times by one-half to two-thirds relative to A(8) exposures); and (iv) based on the predominant exposures and the time to reach daily vibration action limits, the operation of most mining vehicles would be limited to less than 8 hours a day. Differences in whole-body vibration exposure parameters impact the prediction of potentially adverse health outcomes and may introduce some uncertainty regarding how to best characterize a vehicle operator’s actual exposure.

Hispanic construction workers experience high rates of occupational injury, likely influenced by individual, organizational, and social factors. To characterize the safety climate of Hispanic construction workers using worker, contractor, and supervisor perceptions of the workplace. We developed a 40-item interviewer-assisted survey with six safety climate dimensions and administered it in Spanish and English to construction workers, contractors, and supervisors. A safety climate model, comparing responses and assessing contributing factors was created based on survey responses. While contractors and construction supervisors’ (n = 128) scores were higher, all respondents shared a negative perception of safety climate. Construction workers had statistically significantly lower safety climate scores compared to supervisors and contractors (30·6 vs 46·5%, P<0·05). Safety climate scores were not associated with English language ability or years lived in the United States. We found that Hispanic construction workers in this study experienced a poor safety climate. The Hispanic construction safety climate model we propose can serve as a framework to guide organizational safety interventions and evaluate safety climate improvements.