“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” George Orwell, 1984 We’ve all done it. We’re talking about something terrible and rather than calling it what it is, we choose words that are softer, less harsh. Or we call it something that completely hides our meaning. Instead of talking [...]
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.” [...]
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Will Durant In 2006, The Association for Psychological Science published a journal article titled Habits – A Repeat Performance. The article declared that habits make up approximately 45% of our everyday behaviors. They are learned and developed through repetition and [...]
“If we accept there is no such thing as ‘zero risk’ then we should not spin the meaning of words with assertions such as ‘all accidents are preventable.’ – Dr. Rob Long In terms of process safety, one definition of risk is, “[The] combination of the frequency of occurrence of harm [the likelihood] and severity [...]
“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.” Fyodor Dostoevsky OSHA does not require fire extinguishers. Not in most work places. The fire extinguishers that are in most work places are there because of insurance requirements. To use a fire extinguisher requires going [...]
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski A firefighter’s instinct in a fire scenario is to extinguish it, to throw water on it, to do whatever it takes to bring the situation back to a safe state. Sending a firefighter to an industrial fire without knowledge of what is [...]
“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson I previously wrote about the two grain bin accidents in Nebraska. That blog discussed the deaths, the hazards involved in those deaths, and what should have been happening before grain bin entry that could have kept the two victims in the [...]
“It is the sum of our contributions to safety management that determines whether the people we work with live or die.” Sir Brian Appleton Okay, I’m not a mind reader, but I think I already know what some of you may be thinking “A training blog? Come on! I’ve seen this before. Don’t safety people [...]
“Anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.” George Carlin While work-related fatalities are not a significant portion of all motor vehicle deaths, motor vehicle deaths are a significant portion of work-related fatalities. In 2015, there were 38,300 motor vehicle deaths. Of those, 1,806 were work-related—less [...]
“Two Nebraska workers have lost their lives in 2016 in the grain handling industry and far too many preventable fatalities and injuries continue to occur.” Jeff Funke, OSHA area director-Greater Omaha Area The Bureau Labor of Statistics attributes workplace injuries and illnesses to one of seven events or exposures. One of the seven, overexertion, is [...]
