I’m angry right now. I tell my employees to never write anything in anger because you’ll be sorry later when you’ve cooled off. I’m going to go ahead and write this in anger because I’m pretty sure I’ll still be angry later.

I just spent an hour on OSHA.gov reading news releases, weekly fatality reports, investigation summaries, statistics, etc. I also spent some time searching the internet for news stories on workplace accidents. Then I did the thing that always gets me the most, I began reading obituaries of those killed at work. These are not merely employees, these are people – people with families. Of course, it always lists the survivors. I always pay particular attention to the children and grandchildren. In this day and age, obituaries have been dramatically changed by technology. There are pictures on funeral home websites of those killed, and there are comments left from friends and family. These people were loved – this was a mother’s son, a little girl’s daddy. These people will be missed.

Frequently, I’ll spend an hour like this and I always start out saddened by the stories of tragedy brought on by workplace accidents, then that sadness turns to anger. Anger because if you look at the details of the incidents that resulted in injury or death so many of them could have been easily prevented. If you look at the fatality reports you can see that the knowledge, procedures, technology, and recognized best practices to prevent these injuries have been around for years. Years. Yet this still goes on.

There are employers out there that do care very much about the safety of their employees and do all they can to protect them. They don’t do it for financial reasons. They do it because it’s the right thing to do. I applaud you if you’re one of these employers. These companies can still have a tragic accident. This rant is not about you. It’s about those that didn’t make the effort in the first place.

Some of it is ignorance on the availability of solutions to these hazards or even that a hazard exists. That’s really no excuse. With the volumes of information on the internet, it’s hard to believe that in a few minutes you can’t find some answers that might save lives.

Some of it is the, “that won’t happen here”, mentality. It can happen anywhere. Just spend an hour as I just did and you’ll see lots of people who thought the same thing. Thinking that, “it won’t happen here” is just foolish. Don’t hang your hopes on that as a safety strategy.

Some of it is the belief that “we’re not sure if that regulation applies to us, in our state or industry, OSHA hasn’t really adopted that standard so we’ll wait.” Waiting for OSHA to adopt the latest fall protection standard, combustible dust standard, electrical standard, etc. before you take action might play well in the boardroom, but it doesn’t play well at the funeral home. Forget about the OSHA regulations, if you have an existing hazard and an organization has written a national consensus standard addressing that hazard, pull your head out of the sand and adopt that standard best that you can.

Recently, a potential client, a safety professional wanting to do what is right said, “the bean-counters (his word) say we’re not implementing a safety standard because going along with business as usual and having an accident or getting a citation is less expensive than implementing the standard.”

To start with, that is an awfully brave thing to say when you operate an adding machine and not a piece of industrial equipment. No offense is meant to CFO’s and accounting folks, they often are among the first to push for safety as they see the monumental costs associated with not doing safety well. But not everyone is on board with that thinking.

Secondly, he is probably wrong about the math. There have been numerous studies done that show safety is good for the bottom line long term. Safety makes good business sense in a lot of ways. The studies are out there and easy to find.

And lastly, you can’t justify that statement anywhere but the boardroom. It’s horrible anytime someone creates a balance sheet with money on one side and people on the other. Life’s too short for you to be remembered as the guy that saved a few bucks to help the bottom line next quarter, but someone died as a result. I saw Warren Buffet on TV last night. He said something like, “too many people worry too much about next quarter’s numbers, not enough are thinking about the lifetime of an investment.” Think longterm.

Sorry for the rant. And I was right, I’m still angry. I know as an employer myself, of employees that are out in facilities everyday facing hazards, it can be challenging. There is a bottom line I want you to think about. The bottom line is there is what’s right. The bottom line is we can easily prevent so many of these tragedies – let’s do it. The bottom line is that the information to accomplish this for so many hazards is out there and easy to do. The bottom line is the people running businesses of all sizes in this country are good people, the people with bottom line responsibility are good people, all I ask is that you consider these bottom lines that I have pointed out. Not just the bottom line reflecting the company’s profit. There is what’s right.

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My working world revolves around two primary electrical hazards: shock and arc. I know what causes these, I know how real the dangers are, and I understand how the proper training, PPE, and electrical design can be used to protect people from the inherent dangers that are electricity. But I tend to forget that to get to that bus duct you have to go up in a lift. To access that rooftop air handler you have to walk across a roof. To get to the electrical room you have to walk across a fork lift path. Plus there are confined space hazards, chemical hazards, and vehicular hazards just to name a few.

There are so many things that can be said about safety and it will all sound cliché at this point. I just want to remind everyone that workplace safety encompasses a lot of things. Tunnel vision doesn’t do any good. Don’t fall into that overly focused rut I have been in, pay attention to what is happening around you.

Amanda Jerrell
Electrical Engineer
Lewellyn Technology, Inc. 

Jay Smith, Jr.
Executive Vice President
Lewellyn Technology

www.lewellyn.com

In this episode of the Workplace Safety Show, Jay and Daryn discuss a recent OSHA citation as well as a photo of an electrical worker working in a live panel without personal protective equipment (PPE).

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In this episode of the Workplace Safety Show, Jay and Daryn discuss Lewellyn Technology’s immediate solution for companies that are between 70E non-compliance and an Arc Flash study.

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Be sure to follow the Workplace Safety Show on Twitter! @WorkSafeShow