Workplace accidents - where we are?

I read three articles 1) Why Safety Training is a Good Investment, 2)  Safety Training Pays Off Every Minute and 3) Training Adult Learners on importance of safety training for accident reduction. According to these, in US every year there are 4.0 million non-fatal injuries, 1.0 million man-days lost, every day 15 workers die because of workplace injuries / illness. Training the persons makes them to realize, recognize, evaluate and take effective measures for control of workplace accidents and avoid its ill effects / consequences. As pointed out in the 3rd article, to succeed careerwise, people will be learning relevant new issues. However, we have to make them realize that they have to learn safety aspects also. Otherwise, there will be bloodbath at the workplace as no attention is paid for ensuring the workplace safety. Any decision for increase production without safety means somebody will be hurt in the field. The decision maker may not realize that his decision is the reason for the deaths / injuries. Like, some people say 'to give human touch', decision makers have to give 'safety touch' and assess all consequnces arising out of their consequences.

Now-a-days, in western countries, when buying or placing order on a company, organizations conduct audit including quality, environment and safety audit. Similarly, while recruiting executives, these organizations should verify the safety credentials in the previous employment. For first timers, they can assess knowledge on safety systems, applicable legislations, etc or after recruitment, they can impart safety training. It is not sufficient only to see capabilities / past experience in achieving / reaching production targets alone. Assessment is to be done for SAFE PRODUCTION. Otherwise, accidents like at Bhopal, Deep Water Horizon, etc can happen and lead to closure of the unit or selling of the assets to meet obligations.

CHOICE IS YOURS. WHICH WAY YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR ORGANIZATION.

What is the level of safety followed in advanced countries and others?

It is common to read / hear about the accidents all over the world. However, what is surprising me is that the number of accidents, type of accidents, deaths / injuries due to accidents are occuring in advanced countries as well as in developing countries.

Though governments of developing countries claim about poverty, illiteracy, lack of resources to implement safety, need for development as the reasons for inability to control accidents, I am unable to find the reasons for the accidents in advanced countries. In these countries, as I understand, greater transparency exists, unions are strong and are powerful that question the managements about poor conditions w.r.t safety, huge amounts are spent for ensuring safe conditions, providing PPE, doing audits, etc. Prosecutions are also carried out on erring companies and punishments/penalties are imposted. Still many accidents take place in advanced countries like those in the other world. Most of the accidents appear to be preventable. I am not really getting any reason for this phenomena.

Whether this indicates that the attitude to safety is same whether the country is advanced or not. The motive is to gain short term benefies i.e profits. Accidents are taken as part of the job and the victims are compensated. Only the amount of compensation varies from country to country. Paying compensation appears to be a better business model compared to spending money on accident prevention.

Safety nets - test before use!!!

It is a good practice to have safety nets for works at height to prevent injuries during fall of persons. Small time contractors usually avoid provision of safety nets and even if they were forced, they will provide nets only below the place of work and shift the net as the work proceeds. Because of the cost, the quality of these safety nets also is questionable. In case of doubt, it is better to test the capacity of the nets by dropping sand bags of sufficient weight from height and see whether the net is intact or strands are broken or the net sags. This will also give confidence to the workers and will be an eye opener for the contractor if the net fails. Normally, safety nets should withstand 2200 kgf. They should be provided such that the fall of person is restricted to 2 m and the width of the nets is atleast 6 m from the place of work. There should not be any gap between the wall and the net. Any construction material / debris that falls should be removed immediately to avoid injuries to persons falling on to the net. At many construction sites, I saw construction debris accumulated on the nets with nobody to remove them.

If the floor is good, then one can provide mobile nets which I saw at a construction site. A scaffold structure is made with the net tied all around. This will be located below the place of work at height and is moved as per requirement.

A few construction engineers question about the need for providing the safety net or its practicality to provide. At many places, I saw even for a small work, scaffold is erected (11 storyes height at one software company building, 5 storey height at one super speciality hospital). Therefore, what is required is commitment to ensure safety. Else, we get 1000s of excuses for not providing the scaffold / safety net.

A simple incident during the construction

Recently, I heard an accident from my friend who experienced during the floor tile work in his apartment. Tiles were purchased and brought to the apartment. The marble tiles (about 10' x 6') were kept in an inclined position in the corridor outside the apartment. The corridor is about 4' width. Next day, when he went to construction site, one of the worker commented that the tiles are having vertical straightline cracks and appear to be joined with white cement.
To check the condition, the person in-charge for laying the tiles was called. Both my friend and the worker pulled one tile to vertical position and checked for cracks. To the dismay of my friend, there were such vertical lines as if joined by white cement. Then, 2nd tile also was brought to vertical position and then the third. While checking the third, by holding the tiles in vertical position with my friend on one side and the worker on the other side, slowly the tiles started moving towards the worker's side as the center of gravity (C.G) shifted. This could not be seen initially, but shortly both understood something is wrong and tried to push the tiles to the wall without success. The tiles were now heavy and beyond the capacity of the both persons. Both shouted for help.
Immediately, workers in the ground floor rushed and with great difficulty, the tiles could be put back into position. By that time, the worker had chest congestion because of the weight of marble tiles on him. Immediately, he was rushed to the hospital and the person was alright in a day.
The above accident is unimaginable for ordinary folks like us. The fact that the experienced construction worker also did not caution before examination shows that we have to learn a lot.

Later, on enquiry, the supplier informed my friend that they are not cracks but lines which come during polishing and that he will not spoil his reputation by supplying damaged tiles. He offered to replace the tiles of much superior quality and premium brand, even if one single tile shows cracks.

Similar to the above incident, I remember, few years ago, when my child (about two years old at that time) climbed over the refrigerator racks to take some fruits, the refrigerator started falling towards the floor.
Fortunately, I was next to the refrigerator and immediately could hold and stop the fall of the unit. Otherwise, my child could have got injured under the falling refrigerator.
Same is the case, when we go up the portable ladders and try to access by over reaching. Then also, ladder can fall on the side because of shifting of C.G.

Disposal of gas cylinders ?

Recently there was leakage of chlorine from a cylinder in the Mumbai Port Trust yard and few were affected. Subsequently, I read that all these unclaimed chlorine cylinders lying in the yard for more than 10 years were disposed by dumping them in the sea, under the supervision of a responsible officer of Disaster Control Authority.

This is not a good practice to dispose the cylinders. By dumping the cylinders in the sea, we will be causing harm to the fishes under the water.

It is difficult to dispose a cylinder, if we do not know the contents. However, it is not a new issue to dispose chlorine cylinders. The chloro alkali industry which is well established in the country could have been approached. Every such manufacturing facility is equipped with neutralization / transfer methods. Every two years, the cylinders are tested by the manufacturers at their facilities by emptying the cylinders, cleaning, checking for corrosion, hydro test, etc.

It is unfortunate that a crude method is followed to dispose these chlorine cylinders and in the process creating a hazard for the marine environment.

This disposal is no different from adding effluents to water bodies by some erring industries.

Why safety principles are followed in an organization?

1. Genuine concern
2. Humanitarian feelings
3. Regulations
4. Strict enforcement by authorities
5. Powerful unions
6. Past experience with accidents
7. ISO/OHSAS system implementation
8. Client's requirement
9. Stage show
10. Dedicated team of safety professionals and listening management

Safety management OR managed safety

It is usual for us to hear and read about the commitment expressed by CEOs, CMDs, ... at various functions. They say, SAFETY FIRST, QUALITY SECOND AND PRODUCTION NEXT. After the function is over, these same people will be enquiring about the production statistics for that day without bothering to enquire about safety status. Managers will be fired, if they report drop in production or come with their problems. Such managers may be threatened to find another job or transferred to less important posts and will be given earful in the presence of others, sometimes in front of juniors also. The CEO / CMD wants to prove that he is the boss. If this is the situation, what the managers have to do. They will pressurize their subordinates without much thought about safety. Because, bypassing safety systems will show immediate results i.e increase in output, though in the long run it can result in more accidents and may even lead to breakdown. But, people do not think such breakdowns are because of failure to follow safety. They think it as an event which they attend to rectify and go on. If any accident occurs, then it may not be reported, not investigated and will be covered as a minor accident. Thus the management actually will be practicing the principle of PRODUCTION FIRST, QUALITY NEXT, SAFETY LAST.
If someone is concerned about the accident, if this someone is a union person or safety officer, then the accident will be investigated and some measures may be implemented. Otherwise, it is lost with no record.

Generally, only those accidents where injured have to be taken to hospital for surgery or saving life, will be reported. All other accidents will be recorded as minor accidents. In such organizations, naturally, safety record will be the BEST and the CEO can boast to the world that he leads by example, that he spends so much money on safety systems, training, etc, etc. And one morning, there will be the news of a major accident, shuts down all operations and investigation begins into its activities by the regulator.

Though the regulators scream about lack of safety procedures and systems, nobody is bothered, even the public. Because, they have stake in the company in the form of investment, jobs, contracts, auxiliary business, etc.

We are living like fools where we do not want to see the facts and when something happens, we are happy to discuss threadbare till the topic is HOT or interesting till something new happens. Even media also does the same.

How to improve safety culture - an example

Be a Roman in Rome, is a proverb i.e we should behave the way others do. Similarly, the attitude of the employees for safety reflects its culture, the thinking and will power of the top management and efforts put into it. If accidents are viewed as part of the work and that the injured can be compensated, then the accidents will continue to occur, because it is cheaper to pay for an accident rather than investing in safety systems. It appears costly to change the designs, incorporate safety features, provide training, provide PPE, etc. This is the reason why in many sites, accidents recur. However, if there is strict enforcement of regulations of the land, then there will be a sea change in the attutude of the management towards safety. Now, they think it is cheaper and rewarding to invest in safety rather than pay penalty and worse, go to jail.

Such a change is possible. Suppose, we go to a new place where the language spoken is different. Then, we try to learn or atleast try to find ways to communicate. The need forces us to find ways to communicate and get what we want. Necessity / need forces a person to chage.

Similarly, if regulations are enforced, then factory mangements though feel like fish out of water for sometime, soon they will understand and follow the safety principles prescribed under rules and regulations.  Can we term this as cultural change. I think this is a cultural change. And it happens because someone somewhere is monitoring with a whip in his hand, ready to punish the erring managements.

About Bhopal accident

There was an article on Bhopal accident comparing it with that of BP oil spill. The article can be read at this LINK. The author noted about the poor response of our industry leaders to the injustice met by the victims in comparison with the active involvement of industries at USA against BP. There are many persons in responsible positions in various companies who can come under the Sec 300 of IPC and may not be knowing that they are committing such blunders.
It is essential that top management of all industries should be informed about their responsibilities under various statutes when permissions / licences are issued by concerned government authorities. e-mail is the best service available which can be utilized by regulatory agencies to send e-mails from time to time to these leaders of the organizations.
What I feel is that most of the management representatives do not know about minimum safety procedures to be ensured in their organizations under various statutes and punishment / penalties for violators. Once this is known, definitely violations will come down as nobody likes to trouble himself of attending criminal proceedings against him.

Safety education - at what level it can be started?

I attended a one-day seminar on occupational hazards. The chief guest for the programme was Secretary for the Labour Ministry of the state government. In his address, he talked about various safety issues and finally he came to the subject of safety education. He advised the organizers of the event to coordinate with his senior staff and also of education department to introduce safety subject from school level onwards. He promised to talk to the secretaries of other departments for work in this direction. A noble promise indeed.

I never studied about safety, accident prevention, etc in my entire period of education. When I joined in the job, safety was touched upon during the training but there was no separte paper. Now for last few years, I am seeing that my children are having a chapter on road safety and environment protection. My juniors in the organization are having separte papers in their training programme on industrial safety and environment protection and I am taking classes for them on industrial safety. Really, a good development in our organization. Without studying safety subject, people are not aware of importance of safety and its benefits to the organizations.
In internet, we do have access to lot of information on safety, can see thousands of videos on selected topics. I feel that these videos as appropriate should be shown to children from high school level onwards and are discussed by teachers. At college level, videos on accidents (particularly those of CSB, WORKSAFEBC, HSE, etc) are to be shown and students should be asked to comeout with their own ideas and suggestions for preventing such accidents including design changes. US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is doing a great service to the world and they even send DVDs of videos free of cost whichever part of the world you are.

The pass mark for safety subject should be atleast same as that for other papers and it should be compulsory subject and not an optional subject.

If a person does not study about safety during his education years, then he will not understand the importance of safety in his employment years and he will be moulded by his workplace seniors in such a way that safety will not a priority to say the least. He may even think that safety procedures are an obstruction to his career growth, to his bonuses, etc till he lands in an accident or accident case depending upon his level of employment. I found this type of attitude when I discussed with my fellow safety professionals from various industries and the story is same. Not many care for safety or advise of safety professionals.

Therefore introduction of safety subject from school level is VERY IMPORTANT and should be continued upto degree level and specializations can be introduced at post graduation level.