I appreciate the paraphrase from Jay.  But Jay and I went around about this more than once.  Common sense is cultural and presumes a common frame of reference.  For some of my researchers, common sense is to NEVER trust that clean water will come out of the tap and to NEVER trust that electrical power will be consistently applied to a particular piece of research equipment.  Or even that the lights will actually come on when the switch is turned on.

I think it's risky for health and safety professionals, born and raised in the US, to assume that our flavor of "common sense" is applicable to an incredibly diverse work force.  I think it's probably more reasonable to presume no baseline health and safety knowledge and start from there.  More work, certainly, but then the health and safety professional has some confidence that everyone is starting from the same spot.

My thoughts, only, and you should insert a disclaimer here.

Debbie
-----------------------------------

Debbie M. Decker, Campus Chemical Safety Officer
Environmental Health and Safety
University of California, Davis
1 Shields Ave.
Davis, CA  95616
(530)754-7964/(530)681-1799 (cell)
(530)752-4527 (FAX)
dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu
Co-Conspirator to Make the World A
Better Place -- Visit www.HeroicStories.com and join the conspiracy

-----Original Message-----
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Ernest Lippert
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:04 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] CSB Texas Tech Case Study

To All,
What is obviously lacking, in addition to effective communication, is
common sense. A point I make in safety training is: "Careful
consideration must be given to every operation where the risk of
injury may occur. Always, education, information, and common sense
should dictate the consequentially proper procedures", (paraphrased
from Jay A. Young).
Regards,
Ernest Lippert

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Erik A. Talley  wrote:
Your Friend, Erik Talley, has recommended the following page on CSB Startup NET

Title: CSB Texas Tech Case Study
URL: http://www.csb.gov/newsroom/detail.aspx?nid=386

----------
NOTE: If your e-mail account doesn't automatically turn the URL above into a link, you can copy and paste it into your browser.

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post