Keywords: Hazard recognition Hazard awareness Safety management Construction safety hazard identification Occupation safety MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND

81 In order to enhance hazard recognition skill, employers inmost industries put workers through formal hazard recognition programs. Through these programs, workers are trained to actively gather and process the sensory cues that are precursors to incidents. Workers are then able to mentally relate current observations with knowledge and experience received from the past. When training programs are implemented effectively, workers ability to identify, process, and respond to hazards is greatly improved. The methods used to promote hazard recognition skills in construction tend to be different from those used in other traditional industries because work processes and environments tend to change rapidly. In the manufacturing industry, several analytical hazard identification procedures have been devised. For example, failure mode and effect analysis is a proactive method used to identify potential failure modes (mechanisms) that may adversely affect processes (Stamatis 2003); fault tree analysis graphically represents the interaction between these failure modes (Brooke and Paige 2003); and hazard and operability studies examines a process and identify hazards that may result due to operational deviations (Mushtaq and Chung 2000). Although such analytical methods maybe used in specialized applications within the construction industry (Abdelgawad and Fayek 2012), they are usually inadequate for construction because of the lack of standardization of construction processes.
Preconstruction hazard evaluation generally involves cataloging expected work tasks and brainstorming hazards that are linked to these tasks. Subsequently, a risk analysis is performed and suitable injury prevention methods are formulated to either eliminate or reduce risk. Such an approach prevails in literature and in practice (Albert and Hallowell 2013; Mitropoulos and

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Guillama 2010). In addition to preconstruction safety planning, construction workers use several methods to address occupational hazards as they are encountered at the work-phase. For example, job hazard analyses focus on sub-tasks as away of identifying hazards (Rozenfeld et al.
2010), checklists use pre-prepared templates to assist workers in identifying hazards (Fang et al.
2004), and worker-to-worker observation programs help workers to identify unsafe work practices of coworkers (Choudhry et al. 2007). Although these strategies have been deemed effective, a large proportion of hazards still remain unidentified. According to Fleming (2009), most hazard identification methods erroneously assume that workers inherently possess adequate hazard recognition skills. Further, several methods assume that workers are able to predict construction processes and associated hazards accurately even before initiating work. In other words, these methods are not robust to unexpected changes in scope, work methods, and conditions that are common on construction projects. Other limitations associated with current hazard identification methods and assumptions include that typical job hazard analyses fail to account for hazards that may arise due to adjacent work performed by other crews and pre- prepared checklists may not include all possible hazards in dynamic and rapidly changing construction environments. As a result, unidentified hazards may lead to the development of an inadequate safety program with a substantial potential for injuries (Carter and Smith 2006). Unfortunately, to date, there is a very small body of knowledge related to hazard recognition in the construction industry.

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