Assessing the impact of peripheral vision on construction site safety

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to observe the impact of peripheral vision on construction safety. The study further intends to create awareness of eye diseases in construction safety, an important root cause for most construction-related hazards and accidents.Design/methodology/approachThis study focuses on the impact of peripheral vision in terms of construction site safety. Experiments were conducted with construction employees with different qualifications, ages, expertise and previous safety training experience. The experiments were conducted with an experiment set consisting of a tangent screen to measure the peripheral angle of the participants. The study measured peripheral vision, which helped determine the vision field accordingly. In this context, a total of 32 participants were investigated in terms of their peripheral visual angle and the field of vision. The data collected were analyzed in terms of several statistical tests such as One-Sample t-test, multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression.FindingsThe results of the study indicated that there are significant differences in peripheral vision in terms of age of participants, work qualification, work experience, area of expertise and previous safety training experience. The study further revealed that most of the participants failed to satisfy both OSHA requirements about peripheral vision, and normal limits defined in the previous literature. The study further implies that participants, who reported previous sight problems or eye diseases are more vulnerable to construction site accidents.Originality/valueConstruction site safety remains a major concern for most construction companies despite the latest developments in technology. Several companies are struggling with poor safety performance, occupational injuries and illnesses, and work-related accidents resulting in fatalities. However, the root causes behind several construction accidents are still vague due to different dynamics in the construction industry. Among these root causes, poor sight, vision and or eye diseases constitute an important part. Hence, the study provides empirical evidence with the workers checked for eye health to help policymakers and industry practitioners in terms of developing awareness for eye-related injuries and accidents and review their safety programs accordingly.