Common Sense and Safety

I was reading an article by Ron Joseph from Dayton Power and Light called "Safety and Common Sense."It brought to mind some of the accidents that have happened in the metals industry in the last year. Accidents caused by someone obviously not thinking before taking on a task, sometimes an unusual task, sometimes one that they had performed hundreds of times. For instance, reaching around, under or over  a guard; or standing on the top step of a stepladder. One of the most frustrating endeavors is getting employees sufficiently motivated towards safety to take the time to analyze the job in front of them and ensure their own safety. I have said many times that if we all take care of ourselves that we will all go home safely, but that really needs to go one step further and include looking out for our workmates also. Howard Mavity of Fisher and Phillips LLP, said that we need to develop a "pause and think mindset" within our employees that will help them to take that brief extra moment to make sure that their job can be performed safely not only for themselves but also for their coworkers.

With all of that said, we could come to the conclusion that the relationship between common sense and safety is defined by just thinking about what we are doing before we do it. Common sense also tells me that if I have an accident, I will be the one to suffer the consequences such as loss of income and PAIN!

 Common sense also tells us that we should always pay attention to our surroundings, wear appropriate PPE, practice good housekeeping, ask for help when needed and above all be serious about safety. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing so. There are those that say that safety is just common sense and others that say that safety has nothing to do with common sense. I fall somewhere in the middle of that conversation. Safety is not common sense, but "practicing" common sense is a large part of the safety equation. Just to illustrate, if I step out in front of a moving forklift suddenly, I very possibly will be hit by it, thus demonstrating a lack of common sense. By waiting and making eye contact with the forklift operator I would be displaying common sense thereby avoiding a really bad day for me. Unfortunately, we are not born with common sense, we have to develop or acquire it. When you think about it, common sense results from our using life experiences along with training we receive to cope with situations we face on a daily basis. The sad fact is that when we analyze the causes of accidents we find that 80% or better were caused by unsafe acts, which would reflect a lack of, or, failure to use common sense.
It has long been said that;
“No job is so important and no service is so urgent that we cannot take time to perform our work safely.”

   For some interesting reading, follow the link below for 28 common sense safety tips.

http://www.safetyawakenings.com/common-sense-safety-tips-rules-practices-workplace-occupational-download/