Few workers consider it their responsibility to help identify dangerous conditions or procedures, that is assumed to be the job of the safety staff. The problem with that logic is that the staff is not expert at every process in the company, they are risk managers who find problems and recommend mitigation strategies. By far the most successful example is the introduction of hard hats for construction workers.
An unusual characteristic of people is that when first introduced to a new environment, they assess the physical layout and anomalies practically jump out at them, though they are reluctant to identify them. Once a part of the company or organization, they walk past these same problems day after day, and they become invisible. This is the normal way people process and accommodate environments, but it complicates the effort to identify and remove hazards.
No matter how vigilant, inspections can not find all the conditions in a work environment that can be dangerous to workers. The people who work in the area of a hazard have usually already assimilated the condition into their environment and no longer perceive it as a hazard. For this reason, real answers to not get put in place until after an accident has occurred.
The notion that rules, regulations and personal protective gear requirements follow mishaps which resulted in damage, injury or death is known to professional safety personnel as the concept of blood priority. Until someone gets hurt or something is broken, actions aimed at preventing such an event carry little weight. Even for preventive mechanisms adopted because of such an event must be accompanied by continuous reminders to be accepted by workers.
People simply do not believe that accidents and injuries will happen to them, that they are somehow immune for the possibility. In part, they think that the people who get hurt were doing something they should not have done, and should have known better. Further, people naturally consider themselves too smart to fall victim to a workplace injury of any kind with or without protective measures.
Reality bears proof that this is simply not the case, there is no evidence that any significant proportion of injured workers are incompetent or careless. Injuries happen to all manner of employee, because they are all human and are susceptible to the most dangerous of things--distraction. Anything that causes a distraction or alters the normal pattern of behavior can result in an injury.
At one time or another, everyone gets distracted, whether it is something in their home life, a bad experience or even illness. Because of this the airline industry takes special precautions, since a single mistake can be catastrophic. They use multiple pilots to crew an aircraft, and every phase of flight is run by checklist.
Personal protective gear is designed to help individuals remain injury free even when things go wrong. Unfortunately, people see this equipment as unnecessary and resist using them consistently. One notable exception is the introduction of hard hats in construction areas, which has come t be a symbol of good work and is popular, yielding high compliance rates and lives saved.
An unusual characteristic of people is that when first introduced to a new environment, they assess the physical layout and anomalies practically jump out at them, though they are reluctant to identify them. Once a part of the company or organization, they walk past these same problems day after day, and they become invisible. This is the normal way people process and accommodate environments, but it complicates the effort to identify and remove hazards.
No matter how vigilant, inspections can not find all the conditions in a work environment that can be dangerous to workers. The people who work in the area of a hazard have usually already assimilated the condition into their environment and no longer perceive it as a hazard. For this reason, real answers to not get put in place until after an accident has occurred.
The notion that rules, regulations and personal protective gear requirements follow mishaps which resulted in damage, injury or death is known to professional safety personnel as the concept of blood priority. Until someone gets hurt or something is broken, actions aimed at preventing such an event carry little weight. Even for preventive mechanisms adopted because of such an event must be accompanied by continuous reminders to be accepted by workers.
People simply do not believe that accidents and injuries will happen to them, that they are somehow immune for the possibility. In part, they think that the people who get hurt were doing something they should not have done, and should have known better. Further, people naturally consider themselves too smart to fall victim to a workplace injury of any kind with or without protective measures.
Reality bears proof that this is simply not the case, there is no evidence that any significant proportion of injured workers are incompetent or careless. Injuries happen to all manner of employee, because they are all human and are susceptible to the most dangerous of things--distraction. Anything that causes a distraction or alters the normal pattern of behavior can result in an injury.
At one time or another, everyone gets distracted, whether it is something in their home life, a bad experience or even illness. Because of this the airline industry takes special precautions, since a single mistake can be catastrophic. They use multiple pilots to crew an aircraft, and every phase of flight is run by checklist.
Personal protective gear is designed to help individuals remain injury free even when things go wrong. Unfortunately, people see this equipment as unnecessary and resist using them consistently. One notable exception is the introduction of hard hats in construction areas, which has come t be a symbol of good work and is popular, yielding high compliance rates and lives saved.
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