Prevention Through Design (PtD) Initiative, ASU, sponsored by NIOSH
The five-year PtD Initiative aims at engaging compelling stakeholders from agencies, industry, and academia in order to advance PtD. PtD holds the promise to substantially reduce exposure of construction workers to safety and health hazards and minimize the rate of accidents, morbidity, and fatalities. When properly implemented, PtD facilitates the identification and mitigation of exposure from early project stages, i.e. from conceptual design, in contrast with the prevalent practice of waiting for construction to start. However, to date, PtD knowledge and implementation are still scarce. Such lack of PtD awareness negatively impacts the wellbeing of construction workers. Safety records in Australia and the UK (where PtD is more widely practiced) point to a disparity between their results and the US, indicating that PtD may play a significant role in reducing fatalities in the US construction sector.