Posted By Jonathan Breeze Joel, I have in front of me a copy of HSG 33 "Health & Safety in Roofwork". On page 45 is a series of photos of roofers laying composite sheets. Underneath is a footnote that says "Note only 1 of these workers is protected against the sun. They should all be." The worker in question is wearing a t-shirt, hi-vis vest & shorts & the rest are not wearing tops. It is very indirect evidence I know, but it does hint that in the case in question, shorts are not a problem. However you know your own process best and your risk assessment will help you decide. If for example I was laying a bitumen roof, then I definitely would wear long trousers for protection, as hot bitumen on the legs is no fun at all!

Posted By Allan St.John Holt Maybe I can help with this? As (arguably in the case of construction) the country's largest single employer of short-wearers, Royal Mail has been told by our lead inspector that HSE doesn't expect the construction industry to ban shorts in the summer because of IV risks and so would not seek to impose a ban on us. On the other hand, they do of course expect a risk assessment, and in our case we have done a medical evaluation of the risk of skin cancer and its occurrence in our workforce versus the population at large, and find that there is no significantly increased risk from the job. On this basis we issue IV-proof workwear, are trialling floppy sunhats to replace baseball caps, and issue advice on self-protection. We don't issue sunscreen on medical advice, as there can be personal problems with doing so en masse. Of course this completely ignores the issues you have identified such as skin contact with substances and other construction-related hazards, so your results may well be different. I don't think our risk assessment will help you, because it's very job-specific in terms of exposure hours, but I can put you in touch with our medics if this would help. Allan

Posted By Alan T As burns from a known radiation source (the sun) are an identifiable hazard, it would follow most employers risk assessments would assess a worker exposed to 8 hours sun needs some sorts of protection or risk reduction measures. Also most construction site workers are exposed to substances and minor hazards like wet concrete, wood splinters, sharp ends on rebar etc as well as the cold/hot weather. Most employers are now striving to reduce accidents to zero hence it is now common place to ban shorts to try to prevent sun-burn and that one off accident that could have been prevented. Of course like most H&S decisions this tends to lead to other questions, are short sleeves to banned, are long trousers now PPE and if so should they be provided by the employee or employer. My thoughts are most employers are correct in banning shorts, it covers a large area from those hazards stated above, most employers now also provide advice on sun protection and some sun-cream, they do of course also already supply the required hat. From my experience it’s harder to keep the hats on than persuade the odd person to keep their long trousers on. Alan