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From: Daniel Crowl <crowl**At_Symbol_Here**MTU.EDU>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Simple benchmarking scale for safety
Date: Sun, 1 May 2016 08:09:43 -0600
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: CAPEgXxxiDpnPC8zM0NGpvf1P_rQJTM4nxwDuCPFUum-taWD5bA**At_Symbol_Here**mail.gmail.com

Demystify: 

=E2=80=8BWith all these lab incidents there has been a lot of discussion about what to do. One thing that is missing is a simple benchmarking scale to gauge your safety program.

Last July I was at a process safety workshop in Hong Kong and saw a presentation by Hugh Sullivan of ERM - a consulting firm. He presented a scale that works for all safety programs, including lab safety and process safety. I took the liberty of adding a 0 on the scale because, sadly, I have encountered this many times.

The benchmarking scale is:

0 - no safety program, maybe even disdain for safety.
1 - reacts to accidents only
2 - follows rules and regulations
3 - management systems exist such as hazard analysis, pre-startup reviews, etc.
4 - performance indicators - including leading and lagging
5 - adapting - safety is a core value

Several comments:

a. you need to work your way up thru the scale - you can't jump from 2 to 5
b. many folks think that following all rules and regulations is adequate. Sorry, but that only gets you to a 2.

Dan Crowl
Adjunct Professor, University of Utah
Professor Emeritus, Michigan Tech University

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