“Did you ever notice, there’s no blue food? Whenever I say that, people say, ‘Ha! What about blueberries?’ But no-o-o…blueberries are purple.” — George Carlin
My wife loves blue food. She has George Carlin to thank for that.
It’s not because George Carlin’s comedy convinced my wife to love blue food. It’s because George Carlin’s comedy convinced food producers to make blue food. Before George Carlin shared his observation that there was no blue food, there was no blue food[i]. Afterwards, food producers recognized that there was a gap that could to be filled. And filled it.
Now, there are lots of blue foods. My wife loves them all.
What Do Blue Foods Have To Do With Safety?
Blue food illustrates an important aspect of making observations: the mere act of observing a situation can change the situation. This is no less true with safety than it is with blue food. One of the most important things we do as safety professionals is to observe unsafe situations.
When we see something that seems unsafe, we should say something about it. Not to ourselves, but to the people in those situations, or to the people in a position to do something about those situations. Identifying a gap is often all it takes to prompt others to do something.
This isn’t about enforcing safety rules or imposing solutions on an unwilling audience. Neither of those approaches have a lasting effect. But when we identify a gap and others take it upon themselves to fill that gap, the solution is much more likely to stick. Just as George Carlin’s observations that there were no blue foods prompted many food producers, unbidden and unforced, to fill that gap with new blue foods.
George Carlin’s casual observation also spurred a field of research that is still working to understand and explain the rarity of blue foods.
Missing Pressure Relief Valves
I recently participated in a process hazard analysis. The process included several pressure vessels, each equipped with a pressure relief valve. The process also included an equal number of identical filters, one for each storage vessel. The filter housings had an inside diameter that was significantly greater than 6” (15 cm), so were not mere “piping accessories”. Likewise, they were equipped with block valves on the upstream and downstream side and a bypass line, so the housing could be isolated from the process for filter media changes.
“Since the line pressure is more than 15 psig, aren’t these filter housings pressure vessels?”
“Yes! And they’re code stamped.”
“And with those block valves, can’t the housing be isolated from the pressure vessel and its pressure relief valve?”
“Yeah, but it’s no problem. In a fire, the gaskets would melt and relieve the pressure.”
“Oh, good. So, you’ve got sizing calculations to show your failed gaskets will provide adequate relieving capacity?”
The production manager, with no further prompting, suggested that they look into providing each housing with a properly sized pressure relief mechanism.
Not All Food Is Blue
Many times, it will be enough to observe that something is missing, that there is an unsafe condition.
“You’re right, it probably won’t happen to you, but what would happen to you if…”
People are likely to come up with their own solution. And because they’ve come up with it on their own, their consistent follow-through is more likely.
What if they don’t come up with the solution you wanted them to come up with? It’s entirely possible that it’s because the solution you wanted them to come up with isn’t appropriate or even necessary. Or it could be a failure of imagination on their part. Or yours. You could fall back on simply enforcing the rules, but will that work? Remember, it was a gap that sparked the conversation in the first place. Sure, they will do what you tell them to do while you are standing there, but will they continue to after you leave? Maybe, maybe not. Don’t underestimate the power of making a simple observation.
Not all food is blue. When it is blue, though, it is because someone made a deliberate decision to make it blue. And not because George Carlin shamed them into doing it.
[i] There actually are a few natural blue foods, but they are extremely rare. Dr. Jeffrey Bland wrote a wonderful piece on why, if you want to know more. But I would argue that even the general interest in blue foods is a result of George Carlin’s shared observation.
