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March/April 2023 issue

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Our interest in past failures is our most likely safeguard against repeating them

Open-access content Tuesday 25th October 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

One of the major lessons that should have been absorbed from the Aberfan disaster 50 years ago (see p 17) had to be restated forcefully in Lord Cullen's report on the Piper Alpha drilling rig explosion and fire which took 167 lives. That lesson was that when a regulator gets too close to the industry it polices there is a high risk that
its regulation becomes slack.

But even when we do respond to critical incidents with strong controls at a country or company level, they can become eroded with time. There is a natural wearing away of the priority we give to a risk when it has not eventuated in decades. Many managers in our workplaces are too young to have felt the shock from the Bhopal, Flixborough or Seveso incidents.

Business will also lobby to soften what it believes is unnecessary regulation that binds its hands. In the 20-year run-up to the global financial crisis which started on Wall Street in 2008, the US authorities, urged on by the banks, removed many financial services regulations. One of these was the Glass Steagall Act. It required financial separation of the assets of speculative investment banks and commercial and domestic banks that handled mortgages, small business loans and current accounts.

The unsecured gambles by investment banks in the 1990s and 2000s ended up bringing down the commercial arms of institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. America sneezed and the rest of the developed world caught a cold.

Glass Steagall had been enacted in 1933 to ensure the circumstances leading to the 1929 Wall Street crash, which prompted the previous global recession, could not reoccur.

In the safety world, the obvious way to try to guard against repeating history is to keep reading it. Anyone looking for a shortcut should read the book Disasters -- Learning the Lessons for a Safer World (bit.ly/2ej15kA) by former HM chief inspector of factories David Eves, which captures the lessons from almost 100 disasters, ranging from the sinking of the Titanic to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

There is also merit in studying history as it is made. Siemens' director of environmental protection, health and safety, Graeme Collinson, tells us in this month's leader interview (p 44) that he has made a habit of trying to glean lessons for his employers from major incidents, wherever they happen.

But guarding against the natural complacency that comes with successful OSH management cannot depend just on research. One active technique is to view circumstances that are endotic (familiar) as exotic. Walking a shopfloor, office or transport yard as if you were a visiting OSH practitioner can produce a sense of defamiliarisation that may provide new insight into hazards there.

Another is to ask employees routinely whether the risk level in their work has changed.

If you remember the past and scrutinise the present, there is little more you can do.

You may also be interested in...

 The value of good cultural fit in tailoring safety messages for migrant workers

Tuesday 25th October 2016
Levels of awareness and competence can create significant communication challenges in some jurisdictions. On some projects in the Middle East, migrant workers may never have seen the tools they are to use and may not comprehend the risks. In such situations, induction and on-the-job training need a highly-practical focus, clearly showing unsafe practices versus safe ones. Non-verbal communication, supported by videos and images, and innovative techniques, such as industrial theatre, can convey safety and health messages.
Open-access content

 Accentuating the positive

Tuesday 22nd November 2016
Negative headlines, fines, problems and inspections all focus on what is wrong or what people can’t do. These begin to follow us around like a negatively-charged dark cloud. Perhaps we should reflect on our own behaviour because our words and actions can have a profound effect.Positivity is infectious; it’s motivating, engaging and it makes people feel better about themselves. Negativity makes people switch off and turn away. Let’s encourage what people can do rather than say what they can’t.
Open-access content

 Health budgets may need defending post Brexit decision

Monday 26th September 2016
They revealed there was no decline in domestic spending in the British economy after the vote to leave the European Union in June. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has now rowed back slightly on its pessimism about the initial impact of the Brexit decision, upgrading its UK growth forecast to 1.8% for 2016. Share prices are buoyant and the pound’s post-referendum slide against the dollar has stopped. So far, so good; those who predicted an immediate economic tumble after the referendum have been wrongfooted.
Open-access content

 Balancing risk with personal freedom

Wednesday 31st August 2016
Many of the drivers and some of the teams are lobbying for a new device developed by Mercedes, named the “halo”, to be fitted over the front of car cockpits. The halo is designed to shield drivers from pieces of flying debris, but opinions are divided; Hamilton was quoted as saying it should be optional and that he prefers to take the risk.There is a contrast between apparent personal freedoms being curtailed “because of health and safety” and a society in which people generally feel so safe that they take it for granted and want redress when harm arises.
Open-access content

 The sustainability side of OSH in 2017

Tuesday 20th December 2016
Teams of researchers set about trying to lift the lid on a world of work which you, as a reader of this publication, are very much a part of.The book provides a fresh and current perspective on OSH, recognising it has a rich and colourful history that has increasingly been shaped by public perception. For me, the research enabled us to explore how the OSH professional can confidently respond to these changing needs to shape the future. Adaptability, it seems, is key.
Open-access content

 Are you a practitioner or a professional?

Monday 29th August 2016
It’s certainly not because it is a rarefied classification. There was a time when profession was reserved for more obviously learned occupations such as teaching and law. But in the past 50 years it has been extended to encompass those in business support functions including human resources and information technology, whose roles are certainly no more significant than those controlling occupational risk.
Open-access content

Latest from Opinion

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 A reasonable balance to strike

Friday 24th March 2023
Safety interventions should be practicable and cost-effective, but too much of an imbalance towards safety does not make economic sense for employers, argues Geoff Vaughan, who suggests ‘gross disproportion’ provides a practical limit.
Open-access content
web-Risk-iStock-1369259703.jpg

 Not so common sense: predicting risk properly

Tuesday 21st March 2023
Common sense means different things in different countries and cultures. Far better to consider public, industry and expert types of knowledge, writes Angela Gray CMIOSH, technical lead at IOSH.
Open-access content
web_Jeremy-hunt-holding-dispatch-box_credit_Fred-Duval_shutterstock_2275701011.png

 Spring budget and occupational health

Friday 17th March 2023
Richard Jones CFIOSH, comments on the occupational health aspects of the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's first budget statement.
Open-access content
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