Accident rates in Europe’s construction industry have declined steadily and steeply since 1994 but remain unacceptably high, according to new statistics published in the latest edition of the magazine of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (issue 7).

Based on preliminary data from the 2001 European Statistics on Accidents at Work collected by Eurostat, fatal accidents in the sector fell by 29 per cent between 1994 and 2001, while the rate of non-fatal accidents dropped by 20 per cent. The steepest decline occurred between 2000 and 2001, the latest year for which data is available: over this period non-fatal accidents per 100,000 employees fell from 7,518 to 7,213 and fatal accidents from 11.4 to 10.4 per 100,000 in the pre-enlargement European Union (EU) of 15 Member States.

Nevertheless, fatal and non-fatal accident rates in construction remain around twice as high as the EU sectoral average. The risks are even greater in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): for example there are 9,500 non-fatal accidents per 100,000 employees each year in construction firms employing less than 10 people compared to 5,000 in firms with over 250 employees.

The differences between SMEs and larger construction businesses could reflect differences in the resources available to maintain and develop work safety, although it is also possible that the smallest companies operate in sub-sectors where the overall risk of accidents is higher, according to Eurostat, the European Commission’s Statistical Office.

Issue 7 of the Agency magazine, which focuses on the construction industry in the run-up to the Agency’s 2004 ‘Building in Safety’ European week campaign (October 18-22 2004), includes a number of articles that explore ways to improve occupational safety and health (OSH) standards in the industry.