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Zero Injury Performance: Raise Your Awareness |
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Safety: Webster’s dictionary says that safety is: Freedom from exposure to danger.
As we should all know freedom isn’t free. We all have to retain our alertness to possible exposures to danger. This is true whether we are walking quietly in the woods, or working diligently at our jobs. Modern industrial settings certainly demand that we not be distracted from a constant awareness of our surroundings. A danger can be lying in wait for us at any turn.
Webster’s goes on to say that safety is: Exemption from hurt, injury, or loss. As with taxes and death, there is no exemption from a need for safety. Some of the simple methods we use to be safe are:ý Wearing shoes to keep our feet safe. ý Wearing seatbelts to keep our family safe. ý Locking our doors to keep our homes safe.
Safety is only ensured when we are alert and aware enough to recognize the hazards that exist around us every day. We learn hazard recognition skills as babies and increase those skills as we grow older. Many tasks have higher risks associated with them, and so need an enhanced appreciation of the hazards that are present. Firefighting, Racecar driving, and Chemical plant operations are different from each other in all ways, except for the need for increased awareness of the hazards particular to their specific environments.
We use increased training and increased focus to maintain safety in high-risk situations. This ranges from Basic Safety and discipline training to ongoing refresher training. We use specific tools such as Safety Task Analysis Risk Reduction Talk –STARRT to ensure we are alert to the hazards of our tasks. Safety moments, Tailgate/Toolbox and meetings are a method to start each day or meeting with a heightened awareness for safety. MSDSs and Safe Operating Procedures are meant to keep us alert for, and inform us of, the dangers in our day-to-day activities. Team inspections are used to seek out hazards within an area before they can cause harm to us. We have to maintain the vigilance that is required to keep us safe in our high-risk environment. Proactively Protect Your Freedom From Exposure To Danger! |
