A Single Family High Rise

If you're looking for a new house, I'd definitely recommend looking in another neighborhood. This is not exactly home-owner friendly, if you ask me. Can you imagine trying to open the garage door on an icy day? Besides, no normal car would be able to go up and down this ski-slope of a driveway without ripping the muffler off.  But hey, look on the bright side, at least it's out of the flood zone, and you get a daily workout just going to get your mail.

What Motivates You to Work Safely?

A safety program is of limited value if the program is not supplemented by strategies designed to motivate all employees to allocate the necessary time and resources on safety. Every safety program needs to have well-defined rules and procedures, but have you ever asked yourself what it is that motivates you to work safely?

This can be a very difficult question to answer if you do not take a few minutes to gather your thoughts and remember what is important in your life. Motivation is "something that causes a person to act in a certain way or do a certain thing." If you still can't answer this question, perhaps the answer lies in one or more of the five basic items below: 

1) Money is very important to you. If you disregard the safety rules and procedures, you could become injured and be unable to temporarily or permanently earn your usual income. If you do not follow safety rules, you could be fired for insubordination and your income source would be gone. If you have very expensive tastes or a large family to support, your paycheck is probably very important to you.

2) Recognition and achievement are important to you. Perhaps you are aware that you must comply with safety rules and procedures to be considered for promotions. Maybe you are the type of person who seeks recognition for a job done safely.

3) You have a strong desire not to get hurt and you want to live a long and healthy life. Perhaps your lifestyle includes activities such as jogging, tennis, swimming, skiing, surfing, softball, or basketball. A serious injury at work could temporarily or permanently prevent you from participating in these "non-work" related activities. The fear of getting hurt motivates you to work safely at all times.

4) You are a very good safety leader and "team player." If you are one of these types of people, you will be concerned about the safety of others as much as your own safety. Your concern for the safety of others may motivate you to address safety concerns quickly before a serious accident occurs.

5) You clearly understand the potential disciplinary action that could result if you disregard safety rules and procedures. Perhaps you know of an incident where one of your fellow workers was suspended or fired for a safety violation and you want to avoid having the same thing happen to you.

SUMMARY: Every decision we make and every action we take is motivated by something. If you try to understand what motivates you to work safely, and frequently remind yourself of this motivation, then you will greatly minimize your risk of injury.

IT'S WORTH IT, ISN'T IT?

It's Your Decision

Most of us like to get our work done with the least amount of effort, and as quickly as possible. We all want to get the most work out of the energy we use on the job. This is good because it often results in discovering newer and more efficient ways of getting our job done. This energy-saving attitude can also be bad if we make a wrong decision and take dangerous shortcuts.

 

All of us at sometime or another have exposed ourselves to possible injury by taking a shortcut when, with a little extra effort, we could have done it the safe way. When we were kids, we took shortcuts by jumping the fence instead of using the gate. Now that we are adults we do it by crossing the street between the intersections. Why? Because we want to get there as quickly as possible, and use the least amount of energy we can while doing it.

 

There is no doubt about it, the safe way is not always the shortest or quickest way. The safe way usually takes some extra effort while the unsafe way often appears to be more efficient at the time. When we are faced with these situations, each one of us will make a conscious decision about what actions we will take next.

 

Sometimes we talk ourselves into taking an unsafe shortcut by flawed reasoning. We convince ourselves that it is worth taking the risk because we're in a hurry and can probably get away with it this time without being injured. After all, we have done it before and were not injured then.

Take the electrician who was working on a ladder. He was almost finished with the job except for a little work that he could do only by reaching a little farther than he knew was safe. He knows he will be taking a chance, so he has to make a decision whether to get down and move the ladder or to take a shortcut. Suppose he takes the shortcut. He may get away without having an accident, or he may fall and suffer an injury that will change his whole life - or even end it. Whatever the result, his decision to take a chance is not a good one. Whether he wins or loses this time; risking his neck to save a few minutes' time is rolling the dice - a gamble that he will, eventually, lose.

When you get right down to it though, most of us don't take shortcuts to save time as much as we do it because the safe way is just too much trouble. Like using the wrong tool because it's too much trouble to get the right one. Like climbing the rebar because it's too much trouble to get a ladder. Or maybe like lifting more than you know is safe because it's too much trouble to get someone to help you. Or maybe it's like the guy swinging around like a monkey on the side of some forms, holding on with one hand while trying to strip forms with the other, all because it's too much trouble to go get a safety harness and tie off like he knows he should. Or how about another guy that was chipping concrete without safety goggles because it was too much trouble to go hunt up a pair.

Remember, you always have a choice, but only you can decide to do it the safe way. The safe way is usually not the shortest or quickest way, but it's your decision.

Why Are These Arrows Pointing Towards the Roadway?

My guess is that the arrows are there to divert your attention from the large cardboard containers of pumpkins that appear to be only partially secured to the bed of this truck.

 

You can barely see that the load is tied from side-to-side but there's nothing on the back side to prevent the load from bursting onto a vehicle that's following too closely.

 

My advice: stay back, far back from this truck!!

Look Up and Around for Power Lines

Power lines carry 4,000 to 345,000 volts that can kill a worker on contact. OSHA regulations state that a minimum safe distance of 10 feet must be maintained for up to 50,000 volts. It’s the “circle of safety” rule.

Check out your work site. Know where power lines are located and look for lines not seen due to obstructions. Assume all lines are energized and potentially dangerous, even if they appear to be insulated.

When operating any type of equipment with an articulated boom, it may be difficult for the operator to judge the distance between the equipment and the power line. Weather conditions and bright or dim lighting conditions can make it even harder to judge distances.

That’s why someone on the ground watching around the operator can have a much better view of clearances. A spotter is one whose only job is to watch the operator and the position of the equipment to make sure there is a safe distance from overhead lines and other hazards.

Fallen power lines can be dangerous to anyone since they may be “live.” Stay away from downed power lines even if they’re not humming, sparking, or “dancing.” You should make a 911 call to report the location of the fallen line.

For your own safety and well-being, you must stay clear of any person or object that is in contact with a power line. If you touch that person in a rescue attempt or try to remove the object, you will become part of the ground fault and likely be electrocuted.

If you hit a power line while operating equipment, stay calm. Don’t make contact with control levers as they may be electrified. Don’t attempt to leave the equipment unless told to do so by a rescuer. Advise others to stay clear since anyone on the ground has the greatest risk of being injured.

 

If you have to get off the equipment due to a fire or other danger, jump clear and try to land with both feet together. Avoid touching the equipment and ground at the same time. Shuffle away keeping your feet together on the ground. It is likely that electricity is radiating through the ground around the equipment. If you run or take large steps, you increase the chance of creating a path for electricity to travel up one leg and down the other.

What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

The title of this opinion piece is probably one of the most popular and truthful safety slogans. Professor Nathaniel Burke uses it at the start of those clever and informative Farmers' Insurance commercials. And it got me thinking about a letter to the editor in this morning's (7/28/14) Columbus Dispatch from an area vice president of Halliburton. Yes, that worldwide organization to which Dick Cheney's name is attached along with billions of dollars of inflated and unbid contracts in Iraq. That should raise a red flag right then and there. But that's a discussion for another time.

 

I do not claim to be an expert in horizontal fracking. Nor am I a chemist. I can, however, lay claim to being properly credentialed to deliver 10 and 30 hour training for OSHA construction safety with more than 30 years of experience. The aforementioned letter is a response to an explosion and fire at a Monroe County, Ohio fracking well site to which first responders may have been exposed to the effects of a "proprietary product."

 

The letter cites that first responders had immediate access to material safety data sheets or MSDS, "required to accompany all chemical compounds at all times."  What the writer doesn't mention is that when listing the individual components and their percentage of the whole, if it is proprietary or "a company/trade secret," it can be noted in that manner. Other parts of the MSDS address emergency procedures, fire and explosion potentials, first aid procedures and so forth. But these are usually stated in a very general fashion such as "do not fight the fire with water" or "respiratory protection and gloves are required."

 

Which brings us to what proprietary ingredients the letter writer claims to have been passed along to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources and the Ohio EPA. To be fair, I have no knowledge of who said what to whom. But hopefully there was some level of disclosure to protect lives and property.  Halliburton further claims they "remain committed to providing any technical expertise and support to ensure the matter is thoroughly investigated."

 

That sounds all well and good. However, be warned that "what you don't know can hurt you." An MSDS can be an incomplete document when it comes to listing all of the components which make up a particular chemical product in a manner that otherwise masks itself as a trade secret. 

If you are an emergency responder, take the time to find out what's going on with that new business or industrial site which suddenly springs up in your area of responsibility. Do they have a written safety plan? What is their emergency response plan? Will they willingly provide you with MSDSs on chemical products manufactured, used or stored there?  Will your inspection of that information reveal proprietary ingredients which requires further disclosure to protect you and your responding organization? 

 

If you need further proof of the unknown, recall the 30-second commercials put out by the oil and gas trade organization featuring an idyllic setting in which a young lady states "some people were surprised when we allowed fracking on our farm."  She goes on to say that "we checked the facts and checked with experts and guess what, it's safe."  Statements like that tend to infuriate me for many reasons, not the least of which if taken at face value, puts innocent lives and property in danger. I firmly believe, in reality, there is too much that is unknown about the short and long-term effects of horizontal fracking.

 

For my heroes, those first responders out there, that's why I've vented a bit here to make sure that you find out what you can about what's out on that industrial site in case you must respond to save the lives of workers who may find themselves in a life-threatening situation.

Coming to a Rather Abrupt Stop

AKA, You Never Know What Might Happen on a Jobsite with Active Traffic

 

I don't have any investigative notes on this photo, but will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions:

 

1) The traffic control was confusing (?!?!?) for what appears to be an intersection.

 

2) The date of the photo would indicate a time when texting was perhaps less of a distraction than it is now.....so, what could possibly be the contributing factor? 

 

3) The driver may have been forced into the fresh concrete by someone changing lanes or driving recklessly.

 

Oh, and check out those rebars. They need to be capped.