We talk a lot about health and safety in construction but most of that conversation still focuses on safety. Hard hats, harnesses, and fall protection are visible, urgent, and immediate. What’s harder to see is the slow harm being done by dust, vibration, noise, and poor design decisions made long before anyone sets foot on site.
In this episode of Build & Thrive, Jennie Armstrong speaks with Kevin Bampton, Chief Executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), about what occupational hygiene really means, why physical health is the industry’s next frontier, and how small changes now could save thousands of lives – and billions of pounds – in the decades ahead.
If you prefer to listen or watch, this conversation is available now as both a podcast and video. Just search for “Build & Thrive – Building Health into Construction” on your preferred platform or visit constructionhealth.co.uk for links.
What is occupational hygiene?
“Occupational hygiene” might sound academic, but its meaning is simple – it’s the science of preventing people from getting ill because of their work.
As Kevin Bampton explains:
“We’ve been around for 70 years. We started as scientists asking, what’s making people ill at work? Over time, that evolved into how do we stop them getting ill in the first place? That’s the heart of occupational hygiene.”
BOHS is both a professional and scientific body, representing the experts who study and manage workplace health risks. Its members set standards, conduct research, and campaign for better regulation and education. From the early days of warning about asbestos exposure to today’s focus on dust, noise and vibration, BOHS has consistently been ahead of the curve – looking decades into the future to predict what will threaten worker health next.
Safety we can see, health we often can’t
Jennie Armstrong asks the question many in the sector recognise: why has health lagged behind safety?
“It’s not that construction doesn’t care,” replies Kevin. “It’s that you can see safety. You can see someone about to fall off a ladder and stop them. But if something’s damaging their lungs today and won’t show up for 20 years, it’s much harder to act.”
This visibility problem shapes how companies prioritise risk. Safety is managed in the moment – helmets on, barriers up – while health is often left to chance. By the time the effects of exposure or repetitive strain appear, it’s too late to reverse them.
Construction also moves fast. Tight deadlines and time pressures mean short-term goals win out over long-term wellbeing. “If you don’t plan for health early,” says Kevin, “you’re just counting the damage at the end.”
A moral duty – and an economic one
For decades, health management has been seen as a compliance issue or a moral obligation. But as Kevin makes clear, it’s also a business necessity.
“Construction contributes hugely to respiratory illness in the UK – about 40,000 new cases of COPD every year. A good proportion of those overlap with respiratory cancers. If we just halved those, the savings could pay for the treatment of every child with cancer in this country. That’s the scale we’re talking about.”
The economic case doesn’t stop there. Poor health management reduces workforce capacity and adds hidden costs to every project. Using data from the Labour Force Survey, BOHS estimates that ill health and absenteeism add the equivalent of 15% in lost labour costs to a typical construction job.
That’s money lost not just through sickness absence, but through turnover, retraining, and reduced productivity from workers who are present but unwell.
“If you’re not looking after the people building your projects, you’re literally breaking your own business model,” says Kevin.
Why health must be planned in, not bolted on
One of the episode’s strongest messages is that managing health can’t be reactive – it has to be designed in from the start.
Jennie draws a parallel: “If someone was working at height without being clipped on, you’d stop the job immediately. But when we see excessive dust or noise exposure, people shrug and say, ‘that’s construction’. We need to treat health risks with the same urgency as safety ones.”
Kevin agrees. “You’d never turn up to site and then decide how many blocks you need or how much concrete to pour. Yet that’s exactly how we approach health. We wait until people get ill to think about prevention.”
Occupational hygiene isn’t about adding more forms or bureaucracy; it’s about thinking ahead – how tools, materials, and methods can reduce exposure before work begins. That might mean substituting harmful materials, redesigning work processes, or investing in equipment that controls dust and vibration at source.
Designing work that doesn’t “break people”
Health and safety statistics tell a mixed story. Fatalities and injuries have fallen dramatically – but rates of work-related illness remain stubbornly high. In fact, some conditions are worsening. Occupational asthma is increasing, and interstitial lung disease caused by dust exposure is rising despite decades of awareness.
“We’re going backwards on diseases like silicosis,” says Kevin. “We should be on top of things like noise and vibration – yet they’re still not being managed effectively.”
The consequences reach far beyond the individual. Many construction workers leave the industry in their late 40s or early 50s due to poor health, decades before retirement age. That shortens careers, deepens skills shortages, and increases the national cost of benefits and healthcare.
“When workers stop being economically active, they become economically dependent,” Kevin explains. “We lose tax revenue, and society pays for the outcome of preventable illnesses. It’s bad for individuals, bad for business, and bad for the country.”
Small changes, massive impact
The solutions aren’t expensive or complicated – they just require commitment and consistency. Jennie Armstrong shares examples from her work supporting contractors:
“We can manage noise and vibration. We know the causes, the tools, the mitigations. It’s often basic housekeeping that makes the difference – but people only act once something goes wrong.”
Kevin adds that many firms prove progress is possible.
“Five years ago, I met companies showing me steel fabrication lines where 60-year-old women were producing high-quality work because modern construction methods eliminated the heavy lifting and long travel. They changed their processes and kept their talent.”
It’s a reminder that healthier workplaces aren’t just safer; they’re more productive, diverse, and sustainable.
Government and policy: progress, but gaps remain
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has become more focused on health in recent years, shifting its strategy towards prevention. Yet, as Kevin argues, government support remains patchy.
“We’re still stuck in secondary prevention – catching people when they’re already ill, rather than stopping it from happening. We need infrastructure that helps businesses prevent illness in the first place.”
Currently, the UK has just 700 occupational hygienists, a fraction of what’s needed to serve the nation’s workforce. Without stronger incentives, funding, and education, that gap will remain – leaving many small firms without access to specialist advice.
“It shouldn’t be futuristic science,” Kevin says. “It should just be how things are done.”
The missing half of “health and safety”
Construction’s health and safety managers play a crucial role but, as Jennie notes, many are still more comfortable with safety than health.
“There’s a big difference between a health and safety professional, and a safety professional who happens to have the word ‘health’ in their title,” she says.
Kevin encourages professionals to start small:
“If ‘health’ is in your job title, ask yourself how much of your day is actually spent on it. You don’t need to be a scientist. Most construction health risks are visible – dust, noise, vibration, manual handling. If you can see it, you can do something about it.”
His advice is practical: don’t wait for measurements or reports to confirm what’s obvious. If you can hear excessive noise or see dust clouds, act now. Replace brooms with vacuums, automate where possible, and design out manual handling.
“It’s common sense,” Kevin says. “But it takes courage to speak up and stop work for health reasons – the same courage we’ve already developed for safety.”
Changing culture: from compliance to care
Throughout the conversation, one message comes through clearly – culture change is everything.
Construction has historically valued toughness and resilience. But as Jennie observes, “When someone says they’re fine, that doesn’t mean they are. We need to move from reactive care to proactive support.”
Kevin draws parallels with the military’s evolution:
“We used to fight wars by throwing people at problems and hoping for the best. Now we use skill, planning, and technology. Construction is on that same journey. It’s not about throwing people at muddy fields – it’s about building smarter, safer, healthier processes.”
The future of occupational hygiene isn’t just about avoiding harm; it’s about creating workplaces that enable people to thrive.
Final takeaway: health is not a cost – it’s an investment
One of the most powerful ideas from Kevin Bampton is also the simplest:
“You don’t get up in the morning thinking, I want to shorten my life by going to work. Health isn’t a cost. It’s an investment.”
By planning for health early, companies save money, retain skills, and protect lives. The choice is not between productivity and wellbeing – the two are inseparable.
“If you design for health, you design for success,” says Jennie Armstrong. “Healthy people build better buildings.”
🎧 Prefer to listen or watch?
This full conversation is available now on Build & Thrive as both a podcast and video.
Search “Build & Thrive – Building Health into Construction with Kevin Bampton” on your preferred platform or visit constructionhealth.co.uk for links.
✅ Key takeaways:
- Health still lags behind safety because its risks are harder to see.
- 40,000 new cases of work-related respiratory illness arise from construction every year.
- Poor health management can add 15% to labour costs.
- Prevention must be planned in at design stage, not left until damage occurs.
- Occupational hygiene offers practical, affordable solutions to protect workers.
- Cultural change is key: from “zero tolerance” to “zero harm”.
- Health is not a cost – it’s an investment in people, productivity, and the future of construction.
🎙 Watch or listen to the full podcast with Kevin Bampton, hosted by Jennie Armstrong, on Build & Thrive – available now on YouTube, Spotify, Buzzsprout and all major platforms.
🎧 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2431164
📺 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEoibJLDuFnnT3qSQw37LKPG6xlyvCj7B
Join the Conversation!
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Drop a comment below or share this post to help break the stigma. Together, we can make wellbeing part of the culture – not just the policy.
Thank you to GKR Scaffolding for sponsoring the Build & Thrive podcast and supporting our mission to improve health and wellbeing across the construction industry.
At Construction Health & Wellbeing, we help organisations create healthier, happier, and more sustainable workplaces.
Contact us today to learn how we can support your strategy.
Learn more about the people and organisations mentioned in this episode:
Jennie Armstrong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniearmstrong/
Construction Health & Wellbeing: https://constructionhealth.co.uk/
Kevin Bampton:
- Website: https://www.bohs.org/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-bampton-6b55441a3/ │https://www.linkedin.com/company/bohs/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bohsworld
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/BOHSworld
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BOHSworld
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0pTnkODfIHad5s9dpuPrpw
GKR Scaffolding (sponsor): https://gkrscaffolding.co.uk/
