Sun flowers for radioactive material decontamination - WTF Facts : funny, interesting & weird facts

WTF Facts : funny, interesting & weird facts

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Stress and its impact on safety

I attended a seminar on occupational health and one of the topic discussed was stress management. Ill effects of stress on the person and its consequences are known to persons. It can create health problems for the person as well of lack of concentration, multitasking of the brain, non-cooperative body organs, etc which in turn can lead the person in doing work in unsafe manner.

A participant in his presentation told the audience that while opting for a job offer in a company, he insisted on working 0900-1700 hr job though in that particular company, the serious business  generally starts after lunch and will go on in to late night hours. He requested the company management to see his talent and output and not about working hours which the company agreed and the presented said he is happy and doing well even at the age of 71 now.

Though choice of working hours is somewhat difficult, still trying for the best package helps the persons to do well in their job.

Superiors at all levels too need to be counselled for proper behavior with subordinates so that the staff below are not stressed.

My boss used to tell me that one can argue with superior but not the other way. He said, it is the responsibility of superiors to listen to subordinates and try to solve their problems in the work place rather than adding the problems.

Employees at subordinate level too need to be counselled for not to think too much on an issue which will disappear after sometime.

In a joke circulated widely on internet, every person facing a problem will have two choices.
1. You can solve it, then why to worry.
2. You can't solve it, then also why to worry.

Let us be stress-free and be happy with what we are doing and what we can do instead of worrying about works which we can't do.

Etiquette / decorum during safety meetings, classes

Participants in the meetings and training programmes find it disturbing when they see some audience 

• argue without end
• talk with others
• get phone calls with loud ring tone
• converse in phone loudly not bothering about the session
• sleep (some with roaring sounds)
• read something
• etc

Such acts make it difficult for the meetings/classes to conduct smoothly and nothing can be achieved. Persons indulging in such acts should think how do they feel when they are conducting the meeting / class and then they will realize the mistakes they are making.

It is essential for all to maintain the discipline / decorum / etiquette atleast when they are in a group and if they do that even when they are alone or in closed rooms also, then it speaks of their good cultured behavior. And safety culture is defined as the way we behave when no one sees us.

Ensuring use of PPE (personal protective equipment) by employees - whose responsibility?

Recently, in a conversation during an audit, I heard the following instructions to supervisors and employees about the use of PPE:

1. Tell the shopfloor incharge to check for wearing safety shoes by all as there are some visitors.
2. Tomorrow, audit team is coming. Tell everybody to wear safety shoes and goggles.
3. Arey baba, wear shoes. Otherwise, we will get non-conformity (NC) by the audit team.
4. If you don't wear safety shoe, unnecessarily, safety man will write letter.
5. etc

The above will only show (shoe) that we have to wear safety gear only to please somebody and that the manager will not get any remarks from visitors or audit / inspection team. Nobody thinks that PPE are required for our own safety. The way we wear our clothes without being told by anybody, why don't we tell that PPE are required to protect our body parts, but NOT to protect the skin of plant manager / supervisor.

This shows that though we shout from roof top that safety is our first priority, it is, in fact first from last. It is in a way, an abusive word. Or, hatred term. Some managers may even have hatredness by seeing the safety persons even from distance and may be cursing the fellow.

In such organisations, who can save the workmen. Even GOD can not save them, as they want to inflict injuries to their own workmen from whom they want to get better production. 

Here, even workmen should be blamed for not wearing PPE. Else, why one should tell or keep on telling wear this, wear that, and so on. Don't they know? Supervisors / managers / safety officers should only do monitoring job to correct the mistakes made unknowingly, not to tell everyday same thing to those who do not want to follow. Such persons should be removed from the work. Then only, others can be protected. Otherwise, youngsters who join the organization may pick up or learn the work to do in a wrong way. 

Here, the issue is not about wearing only safety shoe or helmet or something else. This way of working leads to wrong work practices and poor safety culture. 

And an expert defined safety culture as the way we work (or do things), even when nobody is watching.

Starting problem with vehicle not used for some time

I am having scooter which I sparingly use as I my regular use vehicle is a motor cycle. Today, I gave my motor cycle for servicing and I had the problem of starting my scooter. When I took it to mechanic, he examined and on enquiry with me about its use, told me that we should not leave petrol in the vehicle which is not in use for a long time. Instead, he suggested to fill the petrol as and when required and use it. He said that the evaporation of petrol coupled with degradation of lubricating oil which will be mixed with it during filling leads to this starting problem.
Another problem I find with battery start vehicles is discharge of battery.

This is a lesson learned today.

Safety education - a subject to be made compulsory at all levels in schools and colleges

Even after so many years of industrialization, with all available knowledge, still, accidents are taking place. This only shows that managements pay only lip service for safety in their organizations. 

It appears managements think that having a safety department means that it is the responsibility of safety department to ensure safety and that other departments like production, maintenance, quality, etc need to be told what is to be done for ensuring safety of all. 

This also means that safety is not part of all activities and it is seen as an additional activity like an extra organ in a body, which nobody likes. 

Though people like to remove the extra organ, if it is not possible to remove for any reason, then people bear with it, cursing it or their fate. It appears, safety department is also in a similar situation. One can not avoid it because it is mandatory to have certain number of safety officials as per the local government's legislation. At the same, like the extra organ people don't like it. 

The fact that there is lot of friction between safety and other departments in the organizations shows that there is no safety culture. And culture is defined by experts as the activity which one does even when nobody else is watching. Good culture leads to safe work behaviors and no accidents.

This is all because, it appears to me that safety is not taught from the childhood. If it is included as a subject like language / maths / science / etc, then it is imbibed in the minds and is treated with all respect it deserved. Safety management should not be thought as the work of safety department. It should be an integral part of all activities. 

Cockroach chase leads to factory fire - how to eliminate cockroaches in your place?

Today, I read in a forum, i.e indiansafetyprofessionals@yahoogroups.com, that a house wife died of burns when she sprayed a cockroach killer in the kitchen near the gas stove which was ON. The spray, being flammable caused explosion.
Husband of the lady who tried to extinguish flames is still in the hospital due to burns.

I too had similar experience, though without injury, which I posted earlier. http://safetychat.blogspot.in/2010/09/safety-of-cockroach-killing-sprays.html

Then, when I searched internet for similar incidents, following links were found.

1. Man sets his factory on fire to kill cockroaches.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11/15/no-factory-smoke-without-roach-fire/

2. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-27/cockroach-spray-sparks-house-fire/2772730
http://www.mfb.vic.gov.au/News/Killing-cockroaches-with-aerosol-spray-starts-house-fire-.html


Best solution I found to get rid off the cockroaches is to use the latest HIT GEL and I am not finding any cockroach in my flat for the last few months (more than three months). Occasionally, when I find something, I use it and my house is free. Otherwise, there were hundreds of cockroaches, hidden behind tiles / corners / books / papers, etc and being in apartment complex, I thought no amount of treatment will solve my problem as they can come from other flats, even if I eliminate in my house.

The youtube video of the company can be seen in the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z9kv40SNpk

Some solutions given below:
1. http://housewifehowtos.com/clean/how-to-get-rid-of-cockroaches/
2. http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/nr/2000/sp0007.pdf