In the past 15 years we have seen impressive changes in construction safety and health research.

CPWR – The Center for Construction Research has fostered a large and successful national community of organizations dedicated to construction safety and health. Peer-reviewed scientific research articles are the basis for building our knowledge base on how to prevent injury and illness. There is a rapidly expanding body of applied research that is steadily improving in quality.

More Research on Construction Safety and Health is Published

Since 1992, we have seen a steady expansion of the publication of studies in construction safety and health in peer-review scientific journals. The total number of articles published each year has increased by 3-5 fold (Fig 1), and the number of articles published from studies funded by the CPWR Construction Center and its consortium of university partners has also increased (Fig 2).

Figure 1: Construction-Related studies in PubMed database

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Figure 2: CPWR-funded studies in PubMed database

Declining Fatality Rates for the Most Hazardous Construction Occupations

While the overall fatality rate for construction remains approximately the same as a decade ago, death rates for the two most hazardous construction occupations are declining. The rate at which Ironworkers and Power Installers are killed on the job has steadily declined. While reported non-fatal lost work time injuries have declined, this may be the result of under-reporting rather than improved safety.