| About This Archive | | DCHAS-L 2022 Index | | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | |
Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
|
Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Two new articles for ACS Chemical Health & Safety are available online. Date: Monday, February 7, 2022 at 6:52:37 AM Author: Ralph Stuart <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG> |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (17 articles) Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2022 14:58:09 +0000 Author: Monona Rossol |
Here is a blog post that list subscribers might be interested in:
https://gaussling.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/chemical-safety-as-social-science/
Chemical safety as social science
by gaussling
Chemical manufacturing safety is challenging to oversee consistently over time. A given manufacturing facility has many kinds of hazards, some common and some specific to plant activity. Specialized operations will produce hazards that manifest in ways ranging from obvious to obscure to counterintuitive. For those tasked with keeping operations free from injuries and mishaps, the hard part may be to keep everyone vigilant constantly.
I often compare safe practices to the handling of a rattle snake. Every time you pick up that snake, you have to be just as careful as the last time. Over time you may learn to predict or anticipate threatening snake behaviors, but you do not get to bank safety credits for past cautious behavior. Furthermore, it is necessary for you to change some of your basic behaviors around the rattler. For instance, you may want to alter your posture when standing near the snake so, if you lose your balance, you fall away from the snake, not onto it. Or, you may decide to bring the snake out only when there is not a crowd around you for fear of spooking the animal. A wrangler can cite many techniques to adopt when handling this venomous creature.
My views of safety policy and practices have evolved over time. In the academic and industrial lab facilities I have worked, safety policy varied from "don't get hurt" to academic departmental policies with the unofficial "for god sakes don't let a student get hurt" to "we reserve the right to dismiss you" if your accident involved a violation of policy. In these chemistry jobs I have functioned as a dairy processing lab chemist, student assistant, grad student, professor, chemical sales manager, senior scientist and process safety chemist.
What allowed my successful navigation through these experiences with body parts intact? Skill with a large shot of luck. And having been cautious by nature when it comes to hazardous energy and chemical hygiene doesn't hurt.
In my estimation there is a large social/psychological component to safety anywhere. Safe operations in a chemical plant requires an alignment of behaviors that lead away from mishaps due to all manner of influences, predictable or otherwise. To oversee safety at a facility, one must use facts and the power of persuasion to convince people to behave in ways that might seem needless or unnatural. There is a large social component to safety. That said, the threat of dismissal doesn't hurt.
(continued at the URL above)
---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post