Toiture n°34
Because it doesn’t only happen to others!
Raising awareness of risks is one of the main missions of OPPBTP, the prevention body for construction professionals. It is therefore only logical that it has, for many years, fought against one of the most serious accidents in the sector: falls from height. Ten years after the launch of the broad national campaign “Working at height: zero room for error,” various institutions have committed to giving prevention fresh momentum through the initiative “Because it doesn’t only happen to others!”
Launched by OPPBTP in mid-May with support from the Ministry of Labour, CNAM, occupational health and prevention services (construction and cross-industry), and the National Pension Fund for Local Government Employees (CNRACL), this new communications campaign will focus primarily on “the human factor [to] raise awareness of the personal and professional consequences of falls from height and demonstrate that it is always possible to work at height safely.” With the explicit aim of triggering a wake-up call, it relies on compelling testimonies and hard-hitting videos, notably a seven-minute short film and podcasts.
For even if, after a decade, the painstaking awareness-raising work is finally beginning to bear fruit, the figures remain telling: road accidents aside, falls from height are the leading cause of serious or fatal accidents in construction. In 2021, they caused 24 deaths according to the National Health Insurance annual report; more than 4,500 occupational accidents were recorded that same year in the roofing sector, with falls from height accounting for around 17% of accidents resulting in at least four days off work, and, above all, 26% of new permanent disabilities.
OPPBTP’s data-collection tool has also helped establish the profile of the typical victim: an operative from a very small or small business who falls from less than three meters while working on a renovation site for a private client. Generally speaking, one fall from height out of two is linked to a roof giving way or to a failure of collective protection.
The causes are therefore known, the severity of the consequences as well, and the potential victims identified even before the accident… The prevention effort has never seemed so indispensable.
Brice Alexandre Roboam