Safety Blast
Thursday, 16th of December 2021
Most of us have probably heard the old sayings, “It’s The Little Things That Count”, and “Practice Makes Perfect”.
There are many small things happening in our lives. It is easy to forget them or ignore them. Often, these small things have serious consequences; particularly when it comes to safety. We have all been trained and on alert to watch out for the Big Hazards that could harm us, but the Little Hazards can cause some serious injuries too.
Little Things Count. Little Hazards like puddles, ice or snow, wet floors. Open file drawers, loose equipment, boxes of files, waste baskets overfilled, frayed electrical cords, carpet runners loose can cause Big Hazards. Practice Makes Perfect when it comes to Safety Awareness. Sports players “practice”. Musician’s “practice” Robbie had a wedding ceremony “practice”, just to insure everything goes a smoothly as possible. We should also “Practice” for the Little Hazards.
Many people think the Big Hazards are the cause of most accidents. We are trained and “practice” watching for the Big Hazards. Instead, accidents more frequently come from a variety of “Little Hazards” that had been ignored or walked around until an injury or accident occurred. How many Little Hazards to you see every day ?? Walk around, until someone gets hurt. We all will say then, “yea – I knew something like that was going to happen.”
- A puddle of oil on the floor from a leaking forklift. No one had poured absorbent on the spill because it was “too small to worry about.” It wasn’t too small, however, to make a passing employee slip and fall when he didn’t notice it. (Furthermore, the leaking forklift needs to be repaired so this accident won’t happen again.)
- A box of supplies that was left on the floor in front of a shelf, instead of properly stored. It has been walked around dozens of times before someone finally tripped over it.
- A ladder that was placed in front of an outward-opening door “just for a minute” to change a light bulb. It was knocked over by another worker coming through the door, and both he and the worker on the ladder were injured.
All these “accidents waiting to happen” are ignored because they didn’t really seem that dangerous to the workers involved. Most employees know about and carefully avoid, the major hazards found when repairing energized electrical equipment or bypassing machine guards.
We often intend to report a defective tool, bad extension cord, or stepladder to the maintenance department but don’t take the time, or forget about. It is important to follow through on our good intentions since these are just the sort of “little things” that can result in a serious injury to ourselves or to other workers.
Minor injuries left untreated are also “little things” that can cause big trouble if ignored. “Just a scratch” can become infected; a speck of dust in the eye can scratch the cornea and cause severe eye damage if not attended to. So, be sure to report even seemingly minor injuries and get appropriate first aid treatment to Safety or People Operations.
Little things do count and if we take a few minutes to pay attention to all the potential hazards around us we can prevent serious injuries from happening to ourselves and other employees.
Have a Safe Day
Stay Safe My Friends !!