Construction workers’ use and experienced comfort of personal protective equipment in a winter climate.

Abstract: The aim of the thesis was to find out about the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in a middle-sized company in the northern part of Sweden in general was like, due to the winter climate by looking at factors promoting and inhibiting the use of PPE. The study design is a case study in focus groups conducted in one company SA Englund AB. There were 3 focus groups and 12 participants in total. The questions were written by the project- team and the questions about the winter climate were written by the author. The focus group questions were conducted in Swedish and asked in February in Sweden when it is winter. The approach with asking the questions in the focus groups in February was for the workers to have a fresh memory of PPE in the winter climate. The results showed that a construction site is a complex work environment, and the use of PPE differs from person to person. There is not a single answer on how to work with the use of PPE, but to improve PPE in general and in a winter climate has been discussed. Sub-categories include: demands of the customer, the fear of looking foolish, providing complementary supplies of the suppliers and the combination of working indoors/outdoors. The conclusion is that there are many contributing factors to why PPE is not always being used when it should. PPE is also being used at some sites all the time like helmets. This is a sign of good safety culture in many eyes while it can be a problem with bent forward postures and helmets that causes neck problems. Another problem is the performance pay, which leads to shortcuts when using PPE to save time. The thesis was written within the field of work environment and ergonomics with a focus on working preventively with accidents and ill-health in the work environment.