Safety Attitudes / Safety Topics
Just for Friday 10/07/2011
A disastrous fire destroyed a facility in Texas last week...
Huge Fire at Waxahachie Chemical Plant: MyFoxDFW.com
Wait and see. When the smoke has cleared and the charred remains of the plant are completely sifted through, it will be determined that this fire could have been prevented with a thorough hazard recognition and control process.
When the report comes in from this fire I predict (and I could be wrong) that this company never did a Formal Hazard Assessment of their plant and that the employees never went through a good Hazard Recognition and Control Workshop (I checked my calendar and they are not booked for mine, nor have they booked it in the past). Let's face it folks, if they had properly assessed their plant and its processes, and developed the proper control, the fire would have been avoided. Yes, I do agree that it is not a 100% fool-proof process, but there is a better chance that they would have prevented this disaster if they did a thorough, validated hazard assessment.
Usually we go to work and, with blinding complacency, muddle through the day without injury. One day the hazard that was unseen will reach up and bite us in the butt and disaster strikes. As I am fond of teaching participants: "It is much better to prevent the injury than to react to the injury.". What causes injuries and damage to equipment? Hazards do!
If you are not conducting a Formal Hazard Assessment in your workplace, why not?
If you are not scheduling each of your employees for hazard recognition and control training, why not?
Wake-up and smell the smoke, it is time to prevent a disaster like this one from the past week. If you need some help getting this process done in your workplace, give us a call or find a good consultant that can. Many of our clients have studied and read ZERO! Responsible Safety Management by Design and been successful in moving forward with little help. If you want to read first and call later, I suggest you visit www.safetybooks.com and order this book for each of your staff members.
If we are purposeful in our search for hazards in the workplace through Formal Hazard Assessment, we are more likely to prevent the incidents in the workplace that will lead to disaster. Remember, we are all working to create workplaces where Nobody Gets Hurt. Have a safe weekend.
Carl Potter, CSP
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Just for Friday: 9/23/2011
This week Clarence Greene with KY Assoc. Elec. Coops sent this report to me. No matter what industry you serve, life can change in a split-second from an injury or death. This week, look for the hazards, evaulate them and control them so the everyone can go home every day without injury. Have a Safe Weekend, Carl Potter, CSP
Electrocuted Verizon worker's tragic death stuns family in mourning
BY Edgar Sandoval and Bill Hutchinson DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Friday, September 16th 2011, 4:00 AM
Todd Maisel/NewsVerizon worker, Douglas LaLima (inset), who was electrocuted on the job Wednesday, was mourned by his work partner at the scene. LaLima's grieving family said they were not told what happened. The grieving family of a Verizon worker electrocuted in Brooklyn can't understand how the veteran technician could have touched a live wire.
"We still don't know what happened," Douglas LaLima's father-in-law, Vincent Adinolfi, told the Daily News Thursday. "He was up there in that bucket. They haven't told us very much."
LaLima's widow, Vienna, 38, left to raise their four young daughters alone, was too distraught to speak, Adinolfi said.
LaLima worked at Verizon for 15 years.
"He was a great son-in-law," Adinolfi said. "We are all taking this very hard."
LaLima, 37, was in a cherry-picker, installing FiOS Internet cables on a utility pole Wednesday in East New York when he accidentally touched a 4,000-volt Con Edison line, a Verizon official said.
Witnesses said they heard a pop and saw LaLima engulfed in flames. Coworkers doused him with a fire extinguisher.
Firefighters arrived at Christopher and New Lots Aves. within three minutes, but LaLima couldn't be saved. Verizon spokesman John Bonomo said the accident was under investigation and that counselors were available to LaLima's work crew.
Raised in Marine Park, Brooklyn, LaLima married his high school sweetheart. The couple moved to Tottenville, Staten Island, to raise their daughters, ages 2 to 12.
"He was a great family man," Adinolfi said. "He lived for his family. That was his life."
Schedule a Hazard Recognition and Control Workshop for your employees. To learn more: CLICK HERE
Just for Friday: 9/2/2011
Safety: What Counts?
by Carl Potter, CSP and Dr. Deb Potter, PhD.
Albert Einstein is attributed with saying: “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” Although Albert likely had something in mind besides safety statistics when he made this statement, it applies. When is the last time you attended a safety meeting that did not include the annual, monthly, or weekly injury statistics? If you are like most safety professionals or operational leaders in industrial workplaces, you may be the person providing the statistics-oriented information. Certainly, it’s easy to count many types of “things” when it comes to safety, even leading indicators such as number of job briefings, job site visits, and observations. But, do these numbers tell the story of safety in your organization?
Think for a moment about the factors related to an excellent safety culture that “count” that cannot be counted. Without trying hard, you can probably come up with a dozen or so. Consider the following examples of things that cannot be counted:
- The exemplary commitment to safety by senior management. If you had to count this you might count the number of times the leader mentions safety, attends safety meetings, or is in the field with workers. Yet you would miss the heart of the matter. It is impossible to count the deep foundational beliefs that some leaders have for the value of human life. This belief shows up in the leader’s values, which in turn are translated into actions that demonstrate true caring, compassion, and conviction when it comes to creating a workplace where nobody gets hurt.
- The safety mindset of outstanding performers. You can count the number of injuries a person experiences, you can count the number of days a worker works without an incident, and you can count the number of near misses an employee reports. Yet, you cannot count the attitude of an employee, even one who is the champion of the safety on the worksite, the person who goes above and beyond to ensure that his or her coworkers do the right thing even when the supervisor is not looking. You cannot count the number of employees who take responsibility to correct hazards as they are encountered rather than report them as someone else’s problem. Employees who perform their jobs well with commendable safety habits and attitudes are often the unsung heroes of the workplace.
- The principles of a professional safety representative or manager. Perhaps some of the least understood people in hazardous industries are the safety professionals in the organization. With training, education, and experience that gives them a grassroots awareness of the consequences of unsafe behavior, these individuals are sometimes perceived as “safety cops” who are looking for what is wrong in the workplace. It’s difficult to count the safety personnel who truly care about the people that work in their organizations, the moms, dads, husbands, and wives, sons and daughters who put themselves at risk in the conduct of their work.
You may agree, many times we focus solely on the numbers without looking at the very human aspects of the leaders, workers, and safety professionals. The next time you are conducting a safety meeting, be sure to recognize the contributions that people make every day in your workplace to make it one where nobody gets hurt.
Carl Potter and Deb Potter have dedicated their lives to working with people who work in hazardous industries. Their goal is to eliminate every workplace injury. You can be part of that effort by joining the Safety Institute. For more information and to register for a demo, visit www.SafetyInstitute.com. You can reach Carl and Deb at 800-259-6209.
Two great books about safety from the Potter's are: ZERO! Responsible Safety Management by Design and Vol. 1, 52 Weeks of Safety. Both of these books are available at: www.safetybooks.com
Other articles are available at: www.carlpotter.com www.motivationalsafetyspeaker.com
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Just for Friday: 8/19/2011
Kids Can Die From Being Left in a Car
Carl Potter, CSP
Recently, I read an article that said 22 kids have died in the U.S. this year as the result someone leaving them in a locked car. As crazy as this sounds, I think it might be worth talking about. Have you ever been so busy that you forgot and left something in the car and it was ruined because of heat? I'm telling my age when I say that my awesome collection of 8-tracks became unusable when I left them in the car. Back in the day of being a single-guy, those 8-tracks were important. As a father I can't imagine forgetting one of my kids and leaving them in the car. Surely, people are not so stupid that they would leave the kid on purpose?
It seems that experts say the car can heat up to deadly levels on a mild 70 degree day. According to Vincent Lannelli, M.D. 495 kids have died since 1998 from this tragic behavior.
If you see a child that has been left in a car, take action! If you can open the door and stay with the child, do it. Can't open the door and the child seems to be okay? Call 911. If the child is wet and sweating, break a window and get them out. The key is to be alert and willing to take action. If you see a sweltering set of 8-tracks it is likely too late to save them.
For this Just for Friday, pass the word to all your friends, family and employees. We get really busy and distracted and forget that the child we put in the back car seat is there because they fell asleep. You close the door and go into a store and have this nagging thought that you forgot something... what was it? By the time it dawns on you, it may be too late. The best action is to be aware and not get distracted and, for heaven's sake, don't leave a child in the car by themselves while you go into the store, even for just a moment.
P.S.: For animals, the same goes. Be kind to our animals too.
Let's work together to bring my Hazard Recognition and Control Workshop to your area, or company. Learn more about this workshop at: www.hazardrecognitionworkshop.com
For videos on demand for your next safety meeting go to: www.safetytopics.co/
Get 52 Weeks of Safety, Vol.1 at: www.safetybooks.com
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Just for Friday 8/5/2011
Striving for Safety Excellence
by Carl Potter, CSP
Aristotle said, "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
How safe can we be? This is a question that I get from many of the clients I consult to. It is as if there is an end to the journey of a "safe workplace." We set up safety management systems, processes, disciplines, and accountabilities that seem to be the end of the road...then someone gets hurt. Risk as I have noted in many of my writings and presentations is part of life. I am reminded of the risk every time I take off in my airplane.
Flying a small airplane is risky, but so is walking across the street in a cross-walk. If the driver of a vehicle is distracted because they are texting while driving and hit the pedestrian in the cross-walk, the law says the driver is at fault, but it didn't help the walker who is in the hospital. Safety excellence is practiced when we all strive to be safe. As a pilot I can put my hands in my mechanic's hands expecting him to do an excellent job, which he does. My job is to prepare for the engine to quit at the worst possible moment. If we both practice safety excellence, then we are making it a habit.
Habits come from being willing to allow accountability. Have you ever been driving and had a passenger say, could you stop texting while driving? If it makes you mad and you get upset, I hope the fuming is directed at yourself and not the person observing your behavior. How about the time your co-worker pointed out that you didn't have your safety glasses, hearing protection, or gloves on when you should have? Did you tell them to, "Kiss-off!"? Excellence comes from acting rightly on a repeated basis.
I think one of the best driver improvement programs is the one where you have an observer. This type of program is best when the driver being observed wants to be better. As a flight instructor, I can tell you that the best time I spend is with a pilot who I am observing to sign-off for the flight review and they tell me right up front, "Don't hold back; if I am doing something that can be improved, don't spare my feelings." That is excellence!
For this Friday, let's consider our own attitudes towards being excellence. If you think you have arrived at the end of your safety journey, and as safe as you will ever be, then you need some work. Stop and discuss this with your crew, team, or co-workers and ask them if they are as safe as they can be. Striving for excellence means we are striving to continue to improve so that nobody gets hurt.
Have a safe weekend,
Carl Potter
Striving for excellence in safety means recognizing hazards, evaluating and controlling them. If you would like to see about scheduling a Hazard Recognition and Control Workshop conducted by Carl Potter, visit: www.hazardrecognitionworkshop.com or call: 918-455-7000 to check open dates for your organization.
Get your copy of Carl Potter's Volume 1 - 52 Weeks of Safety at: www.safetybooks.com
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Just for Friday 7/29/2011
What We Desperately Need in this World is Integrity
by Carl Potter, CSP
It doesn't matter if we are trying to improve safety, quality of life, or the economy, one thing that is required in all situations is integrity. This sounds a little like ranting about a trivial event but, while I talked to my son, Paul, yesterday he explained why he was unable to answer my phone calls. Paul is 26 and on his own working for a major corporation as a database manager. Many of my clients know him because he has worked in our company over the past years. When he didn't answer, I was concerned that he didn't return my call as he usually does. But, he couldn't because of the lack of integrity of others.
While having dinner the other night with friends at a local restaurant he inadvertently left his iPhone on the table. When he returned to the restaurant a little later to see if it had been turned in, the manager said that it had not. Big surprise?
We live in a world where many people lack integrity. This is not a new issue in human history, but don't we want to be better?
One definition of integrity is "Doing the right thing when nobody is looking or when nobody will know." It is my experience that those who take something that is not theirs or that they have not worked for seem to never have enough money, time, or happiness. People without integrity are always looking over their shoulders, concerned that someone may take something from them…imagine that. Martin Luther King said, "It is always the right time to do the right thing." In a world of tough economic times, terrorists that live to strike fear into the hearts of others, and those who don’t respect the property of others, wouldn’t it be great if everyone took just a little more responsibility?
Responsibility is something I talk about in all my safety presentations because it is crucial to success. Michael Korda said, “Success on any major scale requires you to take responsibility… in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility.” If you want success, learn to take responsibility. To learn responsibility, practice integrity.
To work safe, we must practice integrity. Just a few hours before writing this article, I was driving to town. A driver passed me because, well - I can only surmise that I was not going fast enough, although I was driving the speed limit. He must have been in a hurry because after passing me he passed the next two vehicles as well. You might think, there he goes, the picky safety guy! But, he passed both times in a no-passing zone. Last week, a group of Amish farmers were touring farms in New York to learn ways that they can improve their crop production. A driver following a slow-moving farm tractor decided to pass in the no-passing zone, hitting the van carrying the Amish farmers. The van was subsequently run over by the tractor, killing several passengers instantly. Integrity means following established safety practices when operating a vehicle on the road. In this case, a lack of integrity affected several families.
Sadly, these families cannot recover their lost loved ones. My son Paul will get himself another iPhone, Android or whatever phone techie-type people use. He’ll take responsibility because he went to college and got a degree while working two and occasionally three jobs and can now afford to buy another one. The person who is walking around with Paul's phone may brag about heisting the phone, but will also cause others to wonder what will be taken next – trust will be eroded between the “heister” and those close to this person. This week, do your best to take responsibility, act with integrity, life will improve and you're more likely to go home from work uninjured, too.
Thanks for allowing my rant!
Carl Potter, CSP
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