Exploring Fatalities and Injuries in Construction by Considering Thermal Comfort Using Uncertainty and Relative Importance Analysis

Minsu Lee, Jaemin Jeong, Jaewook Jeong and Jaehyun Lee
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Minsu Lee: Department of Safety Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea
Jaemin Jeong: Department of Safety Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea
Jaewook Jeong: Department of Safety Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea
Jaehyun Lee: Department of Safety Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-30

Abstract: Fatal injury and accidents in the construction industry occur under the influence of outdoor weather conditions such as temperature, humidity and wind speed in all four seasons. Previous research in this area has focused on hot and cold weather conditions: hot weather causes heat rash, heat cramps and heat fainting, while cold weather causes fatigue, lumbago, and cold finger sensations. However, other weather conditions are also associated with, and cause, fatal injury and accidents. Accordingly, this study analyzes injury and fatal accidents in the construction industry based on the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) as it pertains to thermal comfort using an uncertainty analysis. Furthermore, using a neural network, relative importance is analyzed considering injury and fatal accidents. This study is conducted in five steps: (i) Establishment of the database, (ii) Classification of accident types and weather conditions, (iii) Calculation of thermal comfort, (iv) Analysis of injury and fatal accidents based on thermal comfort, and (v) Calculation of the relative importance of thermal comfort during injury and fatal accidents. Via the research process, 5317 fatal incidents and 207,802 injuries are analyzed according to 18 accident types in all seasons. It was found that ‘falls’, were the most frequent fatal incident and injury (2804 fatal incidents and 71,017 injuries), with most of these occurring during the autumn season. The probabilities of injury and fatal accidents in the ‘fall’ category are 86.01% and 85.60%, respectively, in the outside comfort ranges. The contribution of this study can provide data for a database on safety management considering weather conditions.

Keywords: physiological equivalent temperature; fatal accident; outdoor thermal comfort; monte carlo simulation; deep learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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