This study explores the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) in the Nigerian construction industry, with a focus on its potential benefits and associated challenges. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed to select 52 construction professionals from Benin, Edo State,an emerging urban center with extensive construction activity. Adopting a quantitative approach, the research utilized a five-point Likert scale survey to assess perceptions of the benefits and barriers to VR adoption. The survey was pretested for clarity and reliability, and data were collected via the Qualtrics platform. The findings indicate that the key benefits of VR include improved task-technology alignment, enhanced workplace safety through virtual training, and more effective remote collaboration. VR was also found to enrich user experience and learning engagement by simulating high-risk scenarios to aid hazard prevention. Nevertheless, the study identifies several critical barriers to adoption, such as uncertainty regarding learning outcomes, technical disruptions, and high implementation costs. Despite these limitations, VR holds considerable promise for transforming training and professional development in the construction sector. To maximize its impact, the study recommends the development of customized training modules, technological improvements to enhance system reliability, and government support to mitigate implementation costs. Overall, VR has the potential to significantly improve training effectiveness, safety standards, and operational efficiency in the Nigerian construction industry, provided that the identified barriers are adequately addressed.

Amid growing global attention to occupational health and safety, the construction industry faces critical challenges associated with engineered stone, which emits high concentrations of respirable crystalline silica during processing and has been linked to severe lung diseases. In response, Australia enacted a comprehensive nationwide ban on engineered stone in July 2024. Drawing on media framing theory, this study analyzes public discourse and sentiment surrounding the ban by examining 7,198 comments collected from Reddit and YouTube. Through Latent Dirichlet Allocation, three dominant themes emerged: health risks and safety concerns, economic impacts and industry transition, and regulatory implementation. Sentiment analysis revealed that 55.5% of the comments expressed negative sentiment, mainly centered on economic concerns, while 21.3% were positive, emphasizing health benefits, and 23.1% were neutral. Economic impact frames predominated among negative comments, whereas health risk frames were more common in positive ones. These findings suggest that future policy communications should more effectively integrate narratives around both health protection and economic transition. This study contributes to the methodological development of sentiment analysis and offers practical insights for policy formulation and implementation.