ABSTRACT
Once one understands the paths that led to the incident and its boundary conditions, it is possible to propose and eventually to apply barriers that could prevent the recurrence of such events. Hollnagel (2004) classifies the barriers as Physical or Material (PB), Functional (FB), Symbolic (SB) and Immaterial (IB). Relatively to the Physical Barrier, the human action and the energy or mass transference are prevented by a material or physical limiting element. The Functional Barrier is dynamic and acts by preventing that an undesired action can be completed, using logical or temporal devices. The Symbolic Barrier requires personal interpretation of a conceptual element such as warnings or visual demarcations. In the case of the Immaterial Barriers, the previous knowledge of the worker acts as a barrier that allows the final task to be achieved with safety. As a complement, the conception of a dynamic model was presented by Rasmussen (1997) and divides the routine and environment in three
1 INTRODUCTION
Among sectors of the Brazilian economy, the civil construction represents one in the highest growth in recent years (Fochezatto & Ghinis, 2011). At the same time, it has today one of the highest rates of accidents and fatalities according to Egle (2009). More than 54.000 accidents occurred in 2009 on the building industry (AEPS, 2009). Despite these facts, it is possible to see the urgency of several initiatives to improve Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) through government actions, using legislation and inspection. These initiatives include models for evaluating OHS performance, management structures and specific models for the incident analysis.
