Unruly behavior of employees with safety officers

 I heard many times from my friends in safety department in various government and private organizations about the tough talk and occasional insulting behavior by those in the production line when discussions take place on safety issues. The hazards identified are ignored with a sarcastic remark that safety officers do not have any other job other than pointing out and the hazards pointed out are often not considered fit for action. They do not try to learn from incidents happened elsewhere saying that it is too theoretical and will not happen in their plant because of their confidence on their management skills.
We have ignore the unruly behavior of others as it is not in our control and we should not get disappointed and stop doing our job. We have to collect case studies of other organizations that resemble situations in our work place and keep circulating to all employees including top management for information.
We have to be bold and if required we have to take up to the notice of higher authorities when junior level people do not listen. Most of the time, people will sit straight when issues are put in writing with a copy marked to group heads and CEO or MD. I am sure this will help over a period of time in controlling unruly managers.

Sharjah blast damages over 10 shops, 15 cars

Sharjah blast damages over 10 shops, 15 cars

There is a blast in a cafeteria due to gas leak from LPG gas cylinder that caused damage to 10 shops and 15 cars. We underestimate the destructive power of domestic LPG cylinders and nothing happened till now does not mean that we are safe. We have to check the condition of the cylinder, condition of the regulator and condition of the hose. We have to turn off the regulator when not in use. It is common only to close the knob on the burner instead of closing the regulator also. There were many incidents of passersby on the road getting injured/died because of fragments generated during the blast hitting them.

Lathe machine accident

A news paper report about 10 days ago mentioned about death of a sweeper near lathe machine in an engineering work shop. The lady sweeper was hit by pieces of drill bit that broke while threading a job piece on the lathe. It appears that excessive force was applied to do threading by the operator. While the woman died at the spot, the operator received serious injuries. This accident reminds about the need for job hazard analysis, proper training and supervision in any work.

Iron powder catches fire

A CSB investigation finding mentions that iron powder combustion lead to a fatality and injured another. The atomized iron powder dust dislodged during inspection by maintenance workers caught fire. Though, we know dust explosions, like ammonia fires/explosions, iron powder fire also is difficult to digest. Such information should be brought to the notice of all employees so that they will not be lax on their part.

Dust explosions are said to be more dangerous than normal explosions, as initiation of dust explosion can disturb the settled powder making it airborne and lead to secondary and tertiary explosions.
CSB mentions that metal powder dust flash fires and explosions cause more serious injuries than flammable gas or vapor fires because of radiant heat. A CSB study on 281 combustible dust fires and explosions during 1980-2005 indicate 119 deaths and more than 700 injuries due to these incidents.

The best way to avoid dust explosions is to have dust collections systems, regular wet mopping, flameproof electrical fittings, maintaining atleast 50% humidity, static charge discharge mechanisms, etc and maintaining records to ensure that safety systems are maintained.
A news item on the above is also available here(1), here (2) and here(3) , here(4)..

Training and its effectiveness

Training the employees for skills is a major task for any organization. And imparting skills to do the work safely is much more bigger task. Generally, class room safety training provides only basics, do's and dont's, SOPs, etc along with case studies. But, for the person to work safely, on the job training i.e. shopfloor training can be effective rather than class room training. And the person under on-the-job training requires proper guidance and supervision till he understands the implications and is moulded. This type of training may be costly for the managements as the number of persons trained under one instructor will be limited to a few at any given time. If the number of trainees increases, then the amount of time and attention by the instructor on each of the trainee will be reduced.

Though, nobody is interested in getting involved in accidents, still the occurrence of accidents indicate about the lack of knowledge and may be complacency developed over a period of time. With the on-the-job training and subsequently effective supervision can lead to accident-free workplace.

Importance of Learning - II

Most discoveries are made regularly every fifteen years – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), in his play, The Doctor’s Dilemma, (1906)

When organizations put all their efforts, over a period of time,the number disabling accidents will come to single digit, but stagnate and not much progress is made beyond this (w.r.t. safety).

Some of the departments working for a long time without accidents may start having accidents again after some time. Like fortunes, safety record also undergoes different cyclical periods.

Man is an animal without education. We are educated animals. We make mistakes again and again, may not be at the same place / operation / plant or by same person; but similar mistakes are made, may be by different persons. Most of the mistakes are made not because of lack of knowledge or skill. Rather, it is because of an overdose of it.

When we join in the department or new to work, we have formal education but not the specific knowledge and skill about the job to be done. At this time, we are likely to get involved in accidents because of lack of knowledge and skill. After some time, we acquire both knowledge as well as skill and will be attentive. Once, we are used it, over a period of time, we try to find short cuts.

SHORT CUTS IN SAFETY CAN SHORT CIRCUIT OUR SAFETY AS WELL AS OF OTHERS

Once this mentality / attitude sets in, we are prone to accidents. Most of the accidents occur to persons who are either new or well experienced.

When an accident occurs, every body becomes emotional, may be, even take oath not to repeat such mistake(s). BUT soon, we forget or we assume that it will not happen to us and go back to our old ways of doing it. This is called NIMBY syndrome i.e Not In My Back Yard Syndrome. (A term used by Trevor A. Kletz - as I understood).

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," (sometimes called Santayana's Law of Repetitive Consequences) – George Santayana (1863 – 1952), a philosopher

We have to UNLEARN the WRONG LEARNINGS and LEARN the safe ways of doing the job.

ORGANIZATIONS HAVE NO MEMORY. ONLY PEOPLE HAVE MEMORIES AND THEY MOVE ON – Trevor A Kletz, an internationally acclaimed safety professional, in his book, Lessons from Disaster.

Organization fail to learn the lessons from accidents. Even if the lessons are drawn, then remembering and following them subsequently is a question. How long they remember is another question. Lessons are forgotten, when persons attitude changes or persons are shifted / retired without passing the lessons to youngsters.

God gives us enough opportunities (near misses). The issue is that we should be ready to grab it (analyze the near misses for root causes and remedy the system). Else, the opportunity is lost (leading to accident).

Definitely, time will heal the wounds (of accidents and its pain), BUT we should not loose our sight of lessons from it. We should have an eye to observe the near misses that occur before an accident. Nothing will happen all of a sudden without warning.

Near misses and accidents, either in our plant or others, are the best sources of learning and correcting. If we are not bothered, or afraid to discuss these near misses, then some thing bigger awaits us and we have to pay for it. No body will be penalized or punished for noticing and discussing the near misses. Most of the employees have fears to face the queries raised during root cause analysis / discussions and therefore may not report it. By doing this, we are making self goal not bothering about long term benefits.

Seminars / workshops on case studies are a way of learning, particularly, when we hear from the persons who are actually involved in it.

It is well recognized that training helps to create awareness among the employees and thus reduce the accidents. Though, we can not attribute seminars as the only reason, however, safety statistics over a long period (including before and after training) lead to a downward trend in accidents and severity (man-days lost).

The benefit of such programmes can be seen only when the message (lesson) is carried and spread to all those who did not participate in these programmes.