Safety: Not So Common Sense Safety Thoughts, Part 2

If we stop to think about some commonly-held safety beliefs, we find they don’t make sense. Let’s take a look at some examples to prove this point.

• “If my supervisor doesn’t tell me to do it, then it must not be important.” Try applying that “logic” when you need to use the restroom.
• “The company is legally required to identify dangers and post signs, so I don’t need to think about dangers that signs don’t identify.” Signs help, but provide only partial information; assess the area for dangers. If you’re killed by an arc blast, no amount of legal penalty on the company is going to fix that.
• “If there’s no sign requiring a particular PPE and it’s not mentioned in the procedure, you don’t need it.” Think of PPE as personal safety tools. Would you refuse to use a screwdriver to remove a cover simply because the maintenance procedure doesn’t mention a screwdriver?
• “I can ignore background noise.” The sounds in your environment can provide useful safety information.