Three Things You Can Do Today To Improve Safety In Your Shop

Oh my goodness!

The image of the pickup... at least he blocked the tire!

Getting guys to use PPE is a rough row to hoe sometimes. An electrician friend of mine works for the same firm that had an electrocution event late last week. The victim was on a construction project, working in the vault, and he took a VERY large hit. He will be OK, but he is still in the hospital and is looking at a number of skin graft operations.

I asked my buddy "Should he have been wearing his arc flash suit?" 'Yes' was the reply. "Was he wearing one?" 'Nope, but he was wearing his gloves' came the reply. Licensed electrician, 20 some years experience, and does something dumb like that.

As you say, you have to keep on your guys to work safe. Even when they know better, they will sometimes take the easy way instead of the safe way.

Yeah, but that tailgate doesn't look secure to me. I hope he did the propper checks for woodworm and rot on those props... (ooooh 'propper' checks geddit)

I musy admit I sometimes get sloppy cut corners make abreviated safety arrangements based one careful risk assessment and experience when I'm working on my own.
Letting my daughter use the welder or any of the powertools concentrates the mind and makes me do the whole safety check/training thing.

Funny thing is, after umpteen years it's still easy to forget to shut your eyes when blowing dust out of a hole

Del

I Like how he used the curbing to keep it from over-tipping

Safety first!

I had another look.. is this guy welding on the gas tank?

I saw that same picture in an OSHA Compliance and Work Place Safety Seminar. I don't know where that guy is but I'm willing to bet he's in Arkansas. I think that guy is auditioning for a part in 1000 Ways to Die. All he has to do is just bump one of those 4x4's and audios.

Eh, I'm thinking equatorial Africa, Camaroon maybe? Nigeria? IC? the environment does not scream Arkansas to me, bymmv...

I used to live in Arkansas. When I was there I did construction building Metal Buildings. One job in Little Rock, it was raining heavy outside and the General Contractor wanted us to get up on ladders and screw in side sheets with electric screw guns in the rain.

You can go from one County and meet everyone and they'll be as normal as any other state, go into the next county and you'd swear everyone was inbred.

Just to be fair. That picture could have been taken in any trailor park anywhere in the U.S. If I've offended anyone in Arkansas, I'm sorry. If you live in Clark County, I feel sorry for you.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm just returning to civilization. Glad you enjoyed this post. Milo

Milo- I'm not sure exactly where you are coming from on safety; but this particular essay of yours seems to convey an impression that rigid adherence to rules is the best approach.

In my opinion this presumes that the rules structure for proactive actions to insure safety is entirely correct and appropriate. And that the people involved should be beyond any mental process that would have them judging the actual hazards they face ant any particular time. Or indeed that they are incapable of good judgments about these hazards.

I submit that a leadership environment that prepares people to make good judgments of the situation at hand and react appropriately results in a far safer situation, vulnerabilities to out present tort system of law in the USA notwithstanding.

I can recall incidents in my own engineering experience when blanket requirements for PPE coupled with absolute requirements for me to complete a job made me so physically uncomfortable that I was a pure hazard on the job as dangerous as if I had a blood alcohol level of 0.3. Yet the circumstances of the particular task had no hazards in any way requiring the mandatory PPE.

I seen in my career many operations and enterprises with outstanding safety records where the use of PPE was strictly up to the discretion of intelligent and well trained individual members.

If one wants an outstanding safety record if for no other thing than it being the right and moral thing to do the issue needs to be approached at a much deeper level than simple imposition of a slew of arbitrary and in some cases punitive rules.

Ed Weldon

Ed, Thanks for a well reasoned and insightful reply.

I have seen very intelligent men, alert, in good cognitive order, remove a floor plate , take a couple steps to pick up a tool, then fall to great injury through the hole that they themselves just created.

I am not a big fan of worker judgement. when there are lives on the line. Workers (and I too am a worker) have conflicting goals which can color their judgement.

I too have balked at PPE that was in itself an enabler of injury, but for the most part, am comfortable that the rules are there for the majority of cases, and managaments job is to manage the (few) exceptions.

I am a bit of Fascist on safety issues. We are no longer bringing down our meat using flint lashed to long wooden poles, delivered personally at short range into large mammals. Injury is not a necessary part of the process of feeding our selves and our loved ones.

Given all the conflicting pressures and goals and challenges today, it is easy to give safety short shrift.

When in fact it should be Job 1.

"In the first place, do no harm" is where I am coming from.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment!

Milo