The Relative Costs of Accidents Following the Establishment of the Health, Safety and Environment Management System (HSE-MS) for the Construction Industry in Tehran

نویسندگان

1 Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IC-TUMS), Tehran, IR Iran

2 Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IC-TUMS), Tehran, IR Iran

3 Truma Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

4 Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IC-TUMS), Tehran, IR Iran

5 Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

6 Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

doi
چکیده

Accidents in the construction industry are a significant problem in many countries around the world. Occupational accidents result in reduced workinghours, loss of life, and other related costs. These accidents result in socio-economic losses such as disability support costs, loss of working time, and increased medicalcare needs. They also create a lot of waste for communities and labor organizations.Objectives: Despite extensive studies calculating the cost of accidents, our understanding of these costs is still not clear or practically applicable; consequently, theultimate aim of the present study is to provide a new framework for the calculation of the (direct and indirect) costs of construction accidents.Methods: In this paper, using a new and structured seven-step approach, the costs of construction accidents were calculated. In order to calculate the total cost ofconstruction accidents in the city of Tehran for 2013 - 2014, the severity of accident results were first classified into five groups: 1, short-term absences from work; 2, longtermabsences; 3, partial disability; 4, total disability; and 5, death. The types of costs resulting from accidents were also categorized: 1, production disturbance costs;2, human capital costs; 3, medical costs; 4, administrative costs; 5, transfer costs; and 6, other costs. These costs were classified according to the direct or indirect costsresulting from the incident and the imposition of costs on workers, employers and society. Finally, the calculated amount of investment in HSE-MS was analyzed usingstatistical tests.Results: The present study indicates that before and after the establishment of HSE-MS that the maximum calculated cost was related to the production disturbancecost (before: $568,000; after: $80,500) and the lowest cost was related to transfer costs (before: $15,000; after: $3,000) and other costs (before: $98,000; after: $28,500).Statistical analyses indicates that there is a significant difference (P = 0.007) between the direct and indirect costs of accidents for before and after the establishment ofHSE-MS. In other words, the direct and indirect costs had multiple, significant differences. The present study indicates that the indirect cost is four times greater than thedirect costs.Conclusions: Accidents resulting in death, total disability and partial disability impose huge costs that are borne by society, and employers bear relatively low costs dueto the health, treatment and welfare systems provided by society for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured workers and their families. Also, the results of this studyshow that investment in the HSE-MS is effective and associated with reduced accidents.