Page 69 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018
P. 69

HAZARD AWARENESS
Going on Offense for Safety
The next time you are around any hazard, remember to focus on the presence of the hazard and not allow your mind to get lost in unrelated compulsive thought. BY STEVE OPPER
www.ohsonline.com
JUNE 2018 | Occupational Health & Safety 65
Within the safety industry, it has been proven that the vast majority of ac- cidents can be attributed to human error. It is also believed that human error is inevitable, since we have all heard the saying “To err is human; and to forgive, divine.” Believing that people are predestined to make errors and cause accidents left the safety industry only one option for accident prevention. This option was to create new tools, better equipment, and workplace procedures to defend against accidents caused by human error.
A defensive strategy for preventing accidents al- ways places barriers between the craftsman and the workplace hazard. This is both the physical barriers, such as gloves, hard hats, and glasses, but also in- cludes the mental barriers of strictly enforced step- by-step procedures. These are the two most pre- dominate strategies within current safety programs and have created an impressive selection of tools, equipment, and step-by-step procedures designed to keep people safe. As these defensive strategies have improved, the number of deadly accidents has de- clined. Yet even with all the wonderful equipment at our fingertips, we lose too many workers to fatal ac- cidents every year.
Having a strong defense for preventing accidents is only half of the solution for safety. These defen- sive strategies cannot compensate for the human error side of the equation. All the protective barri- ers in the world can never be 100 percent effective when subjected to the power of human limitations. Some of these limitations can simply make an em- ployee decide to ignore all safety measures. Others can cause them not to see present hazards until it is too late. They can even make an employee incor- rectly recall workplace procedures from memory and begin taking unsafe actions. What makes these human limitations so deadly is that they seemingly come out of nowhere and blindside us when we least expect it. When this happens in a hazard-filled environment, our awareness for the present danger is eroded. Limited levels of awareness for present danger are always the cause of every accident, but because we don’t look at accidents in this manner, we claim them to be caused by human error. This process of human limitations producing reduced levels of awareness goes on continually every day, but we have never been trained to recognize and
compensate for these very human traits. We haven’t developed offensive strategies to stop human er- ror because we don’t really believe that it can be stopped. This is the myth, over time, I would like to prove false as I explain what going on offense for safety really means.
Creating an offensive strategy, to complement the excellent defensive strategy already in place, is the next step in the evolution of needed safety skills. Haz- ards in the workplace have become increasingly more deadly, so a good defense can no longer win every time. As in football, a good defense can keep the game tied at zero to zero and can even score occasionally to win the game, but without a good offense it is impos- sible to obtain the highest levels of success. The high- est levels of success in safety are measured by working safely your full career and not having any co-workers injured or killed. This level of success can become a reality only when our existing defense is combined with a new, powerful offensive strategy.
An offensive strategy in safety would combat ac- cidents produced by human error by revealing the human limitations which repeatedly creates these errors. Many of these limitations are identical within us all, but some are unique to the individual, de- pending on environmental exposure and learned responses. Every person has the power to compen- sate for these inherent weaknesses, but no one can defend against a threat that he doesn’t even know exists. Knowledge is power for every task you will ever complete, and learning about yourself can give you the power to combat the human limitations that cause human errors. Everyone needs this power in the face of modern-day hazards that always remain 100 percent poised to make us pay for any moment of unawareness to these dangers.
I began searching for the causes of human error after losing two friends to workplace accidents. I knew we must be missing a piece of the safety puzzle for these accidents to occur. Both men were excellent power linemen and not the type to make the errors that cost them their lives. If these men could suf- fer an accident, then I knew that nobody was really safe. We needed to understand the information that produced human error, and in the beginning I didn’t have a clue as to what the solution may be. However; today I can say the information is no longer missing. My findings, after 20 years of research, can be found


































































































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