Expansion of Chinese economy and construction safety

Recent studies on the relationship between the present rapid expansion of the Chinese economy and the number and type of construction accidents are described. The paper outlines current health and safety legislation and studies on the causes of construction accidents through literature review, statistical analysis and recently undertaken field studies. The results show that the Chinese construction industry, because of rapid expansion, has entered a period in which there is likely to be a proportionally larger number of accidents because of the present lack of knowledge, skills and expertise in both application of health and safety legislation and general accident prevention measures. It is believed that the construction industry and the government can and should work together to reduce the peak value of present accident data. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible countermeasures that might be deployed to control accident rates.