Hospitalized injuries among bridge and tunnel construction workers

The aim of the present study was to compare relative risks for hospitalizing injuries among 7761 Danish workers engaged in the construction of different types of major tunnel and bridge traffic links during 1991-2000 in order to determine construction types with high injury risk. Standardized hospitalization ratios (SHR) for injuries were calculated by type of construction (low-level bridge, high-level bridge, bored tunnel and submerged tunnel). All employed males in the total population of Denmark were used as the standard population. Neither the SHR nor the distribution of injury types were independent of the construction type (p<0.05). The hospitalization ratio was highest for bored tunnel workers (SHR= 1.91; 95% CI: 1.65-2.21) and here toxic gases and smoke were a major problem, whereas head injuries were more frequent among workers engaged in other types of construction. The substantial variation in SHR values with construction type might be an argument for inclusion of workers safety in pre-project decision making.