Browsing by Author "Koh, TY"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

item: Conference-Full-text
Alcohol consumption patterns of construction workers in Hong Kong
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2017-06) Rowlinson, S; Shen, Y; Koh, TY; Sandanayake, YG; Ramachandra, T; Gunatilake, S
Alcohol consumption is prevalent among construction workers, and it may have negative implications for workers’ overall health, productivity, and safety performance. The alcohol-related risks are associated with drinking pattern and consumption volume. To understand the drinking pattern and help devise effective interventions to prevent drinking problem in construction workers in Hong Kong, the research team conducted a one-month drinking pattern survey with a convenience sample of construction workers on railway projects in Hong Kong, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) as the primary instrument. With 1203 valid responses, the research team compared alcohol-related risk exposure among different categories of workers through Chi-squared tests. The results showed that 16.6% of respondents drink excessively, and 28% drink in a harmful way. Furthermore, male workers are prone to more severe alcohol-related risks than their female counterparts, Nepalese workers are exposed to more severe alcoholrelated risks than their Chinese counterparts, workers in four trades (i.e., mechanics, welders, shotfirers, and miners) are more likely to experience alcohol-related risks than others, and workers in the age group of 30-39 are subject to more severe alcohol-related risks. The findings can help regulatory bodies formulate industry-wide codes of practice and prompt management to give special attention to certain categories of workers.
item: Conference-Full-text
A review of safety climate and risk-taking propensity in occupational health, safety and well-being in the construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Rowlinson, S; Shen, Y; Koh, TY; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, GI; Ramachandra, T
Studies which take safety climate as a safety monitoring tool are rarely reported. This study reports a benchmarking program to identify prominent safety management issues in three ongoing railway projects using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative aspect, the research team conducted a safety climate survey with three random samples, one sample from each ongoing project. A robust 11-factor structure of the safety climate questionnaire emerged after factor analysis. Most of the mean scores of safety climate indicators for subcontractors were below 3 (out of 4) and specific indicators were identified as in need of urgent attention. The main contractor’s direct labour scored similarly with subcontractors. Two main contractor management teams had to do more to take on the leadership role. The major weaknesses were the following indicators: work procedure for safety, safety compliance, safety priority over work pressure, safety cooperation and involvement, and appreciation of risk. In the qualitative aspect, the research team sought respondents’ comments on current safety management practice and suggestions as to further improvement in safety performance. Content analysis showed that conflicting safety rules and inadequate training were common in the three projects, and increased supervision was proposed as the way to improve safety performance.