Prevention of occupational diseases – an overview of different controls during tunnelling activities

The construction industry is a demanding and dangerous industry. Construction workers are exposed to a variety of serious occupational health hazards and have high rates of occupational illness. This paper gives an overview on effective controls for common hazards construction workers face during tunnelling activities; namely noise, diesel engine exhaust and vibration. A literature review was conducted in order to identify efficient controls using the databases Taylor & Francis, Scopus, ProQuest, The American Society of Civil Engineers and Science Direct. In addition, grey literature relating to the subject from Australia, the UK and Germany was examined. The search strategy utilised a combination of key words and strings. Studies eligible for inclusion were papers, reports or web-based guidance materials that were associated with construction, tunnelling, demolition works, and controlling health risks. In total 36 studies were included. The identified controls were classified by their effectiveness based on the Hierarchy of Control. This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different controls and gives an overview of different controls in order to reduce the risk of occupational diseases.