Nearly one Irish construction worker in five retires prematurely according to research by Ireland’s Construction Workers Health Trust (CWHT).
‘There's an old saying that a hard day's work never killed anybody,’ CWHT chairperson Michael Brennan told the Irish independent. ‘That might be right, but try it for 10 years, 20 years or 30 years, then it starts to kill you.’
A CHWT survey found that sheet-metal workers, floor layers and electricians ranked highest for the proportion of workers retiring before the age of 50. Overall, some 17% of the workers in the study retired before the age of 50.
The CWHT was set up in 1994 by a group of construction trade unions. Its medical teams travel the country giving free health check-ups to building workers. It gives health screenings to 10,000 workers each year. Over a third of all workers who attend these screenings have either high blood pressure, high cholesterol or both.
