Too much to loose

Graphic video clip about hand injury.

Safety Beacon - Caps and Plugs

The Truth Behind Big Words

Let me throw this idea out at you: Do you still be believe in the big words of CEO's and other big shots in companies that their goal is to make sure that people work safe and have healthy and safe workplaces for the sake of the employees? It took me a while to grow up and to understand that the foremost and only goal is to make sure that there are no recordables or lost time because that makes the company (and the CEO or whomever) a) look bad, b) costs more money, and c) raises a red flag with OSHA (or other regulatory institutions) which then closes the circle, because we are starting again with a).

It is all either about money or appearance. It is never out of ethical or moral reasons, out of the goodness of people's heart (reader's excluded - you know whom I am talking about, right, I am sure you know plenty of those folks in the above paragraph).

So - I guess I am no longer so naive. Too bad really. Because my faith in humanity gave me the passion and enthusiasm for my job. I'm not quite sure anymore how I am going to get that back. If you have an idea, please share it with me...

Hose Hazards

Online OSHA Outreach Training

Online training is rather in vogue nowadays. It can be easily accessed, is often less expensive than having an actual instructor perform the training, it complies with OSHA regulations and can be done anytime during the day or the weekend.

But no matter how well an online training course is structured, there are major flaws. Recently a new hire had to attend my safety orientation and he proudly announced that he had just completed the OSHA 10-hr Outreach online. He explained to me that he even had to take a test at the end of each section to pass the 10-hr training. “That’s great”, I said, “that means that the information I am about to give you is not new and you can tell me about your online training experience”. Well, to make a long story short, it turned out that he had no clue about even the most basic safety rules. When it came to fall protection, he did not know the difference between fall arrest and fall restraint, had never heard about SRLs, and could not give example of passive fall protection. I finally gave up on trying finding out what he knew and what not and just continued with my orientation training.

When we were done, he looked at me and said: “I now understand the difference between real training and online training. I wish you would have done the 10-hr.” Well, of course I was pleased to hear that but that’s beside the point. The point is that he spent 10 or more hours going through the online training and did not get anything out of it. I have yet to review one of those programs, so I cannot tell whether he was simply not paying attention at all and it was just a routine exercise with such a simple set-up that only his short term memory was involved but he did not retain any of the information or whether his example is only one of many.

No matter how well you set up online training, you will never be able to replace a trainer. Face-to-face interaction, the ability of ask questions, the trainer being able to get the vibes from the group whether they are paying attention and whether they are interested or not, hands-on training, workshops, group or partner work, all that is missing on online training.

I have been very lucky to have gone through training that was presented by an instructor whose knowledge, training skills, dedication and passion for safety is unrivalled. I owe him a lot. I use many of his approaches because there are none better.

I can only hope that I will have many opportunities to retrain those folks who have gone through the online training with dubious results. Safety training is not about looking at slides or texts on a screen and taking a quiz, but it is about actively starting the safety spark in each and everyone of the guys out in the field or in the manufacturing plans who are dealing with imperfect systems and designs and  who need to know how to protect themselves from workplace hazards.

Meike Patten

A fail-safe way to annoy a police officer

Someone sent me this video clip a while ago. A good icebreaker for a scaffold/aerial lift training.

Trench/Excavating Fatality - Again!

“A worker at a storage center in Brooklyn Park became buried in a trench he was digging Wednesday morning and died, authorities said.

The incident occurred about 9:15 a.m. at Public Storage, in the 8100 block of Lakeland Avenue N., said police inspector Todd Milburn.

The man, working for a private contractor, was digging the trench for a foundation at one of the facility's numerous buildings, when the "ground collapsed and buried him," the inspector said.

Efforts by police and fire personnel to revive the man failed, Milburn said.

The identity of the man, who was buried in soil up to his shoulders, has yet to be released.

State workplace safety investigators are trying to determine why the trench collapsed, Milburn said.”

And once more – a life lost in a trench excavation. What is wrong with us? Why can’t we make people work safely in trenches and applying their safety knowledge and following safety rules and regulations. The hazards of trenching -- and how to prevent trenching casualties -- were well known even before OSHA issued its standard -- like somewhere around 2300 years before OSHA. Just ask Heroditus:

All the other nations, therefore, except the Phoenicians, had double labor; for the sides of the trench fell in continually, as could not but happen, since they made the width no greater at the top than it was required to be at the bottom. But the Phoenicians showed in this the skill which they are wont to exhibit in all their undertakings. For in the portion of the work which was allotted to them they began by making the trench at the top twice as wide as the prescribed measure, and then as they dug downwards approached the sides nearer and nearer together, so that when they reached the bottom their part of the work was of the same width as the rest.

-- The Histories of Herodotus, The Persian Wars, Book 7 Polymnia, c. 484-425 BC

Not even knowing anything specific about this incident, I bet that the trench was neither sloped nor a trenchbox used, that the spoil pile was too close to the edge, that there might have been vibrations and resulting cracks and fissures (traffic, heavy equipment), and – looking at the last amount of rainfall, there could have been water in the trench and the soil soaked with water. Where was the competent person? Was there a competent person?

These preventable accidents make me sad and angry. It is not as if this is a brandnew issue and we have never dealt with this before. What can we do to drive excavation safety even more? I know, there are many companies out there, doing the right things and who knows how many lives have been protected and saved because of that. But what about the others that never seem to learn and always think it can only happen to another contractor, another person, people in another town?

This victim had dreams and plan, maybe wanted to go to a ballgame this upcoming weekend, take his family on a trip to Disneyland. Dreams and plans crushed by thousands of pounds of sand and dirt. Here is now another family without a husband and a father or brother. Here is now another family who will be heartbroken and who have to deal with this loss for the rest of their lives. Do you feel their pain? Do you see their tears? Do you see that little boy who may not play catch with his dad/granddad anymore. And if you feel and see, then let's figure out what else we can do in the future to avoid accidents like this.

Meike Patten, MPSafetyTraining