Do parents have safety metrics for their children’s safety? Do we put up banners to demonstrate the significance of our children’s safety? I am betting not on both. It is not needed as we naturally VALUE the safety of our children. We may never have the same level of VALUE of safety towards other adults as we do for our own children, but remember, our children are not a safety “priority”, we VALUE...

“An operator’s behavior is strongly influenced by their working situation and the human and organizational factors that characterize the situation. If unsafe behavior is noted, the most effective way to prevent it from happening again is to eliminate the conditions that produced it. This implies that time and thought must to given to an analysis. It could, for example, reveal that operators circumvent...

“If there is the will to achieve, if true accident causes are known and remedies are effectively applied, there can be no question of results. From the point of view of the industrial executive, no innovations are required. He may apply to accident prevention the very same methods that are successful in controlling the quality and volume of products. The task is simple but not easy. It requires...

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has cited Meeder Equipment Company of Rancho Cucamonga and referred D&D Construction Specialties, Inc. of Sun Valley (D&D) for criminal prosecution in two separate cases of workers’ deaths related to confined spaces. All employers must recognize, evaluate and control confined space hazards to ensure workers’ safety. …...

The immediate and proximate causes of industrial accidents such as “falls of persons” are known to lie in two general groups, namely, mechanical or physical and personal. Both causes are controllable by management, and in the case of both, management has an unexcelled opportunity to exercise remedial action. Management further has a strong incentive to prevent accidents, because accident occurrence...

OSHA has issued an LOI regarding 1910.119(h)(3) Contract employer responsibilities.  Here is 1910.119(h)(3) as reference: 1910.119(h)(3) Contract employer responsibilities. 1910.119(h)(3)(i) The contract employer shall assure that each contract employee is trained in the work practices necessary to safely perform his/her job. 1910.119(h)(3)(ii) The contract employer shall assure that each...

It amazes me that in the year 2023, 30 years after the PRCS standard was promulgated, we still have Entry Supervisors who can NOT explain:➡ Why Oxygen Concentration must be measured FIRST (then LEL and then Toxicity)➡ The Correction Correlation with the LEL readings➡ Why OSHA defined the LEL of 10% as a Hazardous Atm STOP regurgitating the government standard(s) and calling that training! TEACH the...

Many these days will decry the concept/practice of “Cardinal Rules” as if they are a bad thing and then suggest that workers go out and identify “Stuff That Kills you” (STKY) which is at the very heart of the Cardinal rules administrative control approach.  The belief is that once the serious hazard is identified that a group of workers who perform these high-risk tasks will have the...

Many in our profession seem to be on this kick that “what gets measured gets manipulated”. That is NOT the fault of the metric but rather a very immature (in safety) management group. Go to the finance group and tell them we are going to stop measuring profit and losses, after all, they can’t be trusted as “what gets measured gets manipulated“. Instead, we are only going...

“Dependence must be placed largely on the recognition by management of its moral rather than its legal responsibility for preventing accidents, not only because existing legal requirements are limited in scope, but also because it is a most difficult task to be practical and fair in any attempt by law to achieve wholly safe employee working conditions. This is due in part to the fact that the...

Safety should not be like trying to figure out how to get out of a panic room!  Those who have played the group game “panic room” where you try to figure out clues to eventually unlock the door to win, can maybe relate.  When we put safety goals in place and do not provide the resources, training/skills, and support to achieve those goals we will get the “panic room” approach to safety. Trying...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been alerted to reports and rumors that suggest it is dangerous to use a wireless phone while filling your vehicle with gas or in the presence of flammable materials.  The rumors and reports may be fueled by warnings posted at gas stations or included in wireless phone owners’ manuals suggesting that wireless phones should not be used around fuel...