Sep

8

I wonder if there are certain parallels between risk management in the financial world and the prevention of accidents at job sites.

When I first started my career as an environmental geologist about 20 years ago the emphasis at that time was on data validation of laboratory analytical results. In other words, if you collected a soil or groundwater sample and had it analyzed for petroleum or solvent constituents (volatile aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, lead, etc.) you wanted to make sure the laboratory provided you with results that were accurate and reproducible. There were many small labs and some not that good, so you had to check the Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QA/QC) of the lab reports closely — bad data could lead to bad and costly decisions. Sort of like analyst reports?

As lab methods became more standardized and the environmental lab business consolidated and good labs rose to the top, QA/QC (while still important) was not as much of a focus for environmental consulting firms.

Today much emphasis in the environmental field is placed on health and safety of workers. Major corporations want subcontractors who will come to their sites and perform work (such as environmental assessment and remediation and construction activities) safely and without incidents. Accidents are costly events on a lot of different levels — financially to the company and the person involved and emotionally to the accident victim and his co-workers and family.

In order to perform work now at many company sites you need to provide a health and safety plan (HASP) that will address the hazards you expect to encounter and what you will do if you run into those hazards. What telephone numbers do you call, where is the hospital, what actions are you going to take if X occurs, etc.? Identify the risks and plan ahead at all times. Avoid exposures to toxic compounds. Be trained in First Aid and CPR.

Now what is often seen in the field are risky work behaviors that can lead to serious injury or long-term disabilities. Why? Well, often the worker has been doing a task a certain way for a long time and he thinks the way he does it is acceptable and there is no reason to change. He does not appreciate or recognize the true risks in the way he does a task.

One old timer told me in the old days in Chicago it was considered perfectly acceptable for heavy equipment operators to go to lunch and drink ("pound") several beers and come back to work with a slight buzz and continue working.

In the field you try to make sure that people bring the proper tools for the job and the proper personal protection (i.e. hard hat, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, work gloves, etc.). You try to involve people who have the skills, the training, and the knowledge to do the work. And you always try to think of the worst thing that could happen in advance.

Now all this sounds rather dull and common sense but it is surprising to see how often one encounters risky behavior and how often a safety officer needs to remind people to protect themselves. People will do the darndest things to 1) Save time and be lazy; 2) Do it as usual when it is not a usual situation; 3) Be oblivious to the true risks — i.e. not educated in the task at hand; 4) See no benefit in doing something safely; and 5) Be part of a system which encourages risky behavior–i.e. "macho men don't need no stinking protection".

No matter how good your loss prevention system (and some have been shown to be extremely effective) is, however, the major thrust is that the individual is the one who has to take charge of protecting himself. Like the fight referee says, "gentlemen, protect yourselves at all times".

Well like investing there are times when you can overprotect yourself too. If you go to a site with minimal concentrations of constituents of concern wearing a chemical resistant suit in 98 degree weather you may die very quickly from heat stroke!

Always you need to adjust your level of protection to match existing conditions.


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