Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
person” to realize that Grimaldi and Simonds (1989) put it right when
they stated that, “Many (injurious) events, almost 9 out of 10 that occur
in work places, … can be predicted” (p. 3). The point they made is that
knowledge exists not only on how to predict injuries but also on how to
prevent their occurrence.
“Where do I start?” This is a natural question for the new “safety
person” to ask. Typically, someone is assigned the additional respon-
sibility of safety person as a collateral duty. It is not unusual to find
senior plant operators or chief operators who have been assigned this
collateral duty. It would be difficult to find a more challenging or more
mind-boggling collateral duty assignment than that of “safety person.”
This statement may seem strange to those managers who view safety as
a duty that only requires someone to keep track of accident statistics,
to conduct plant safety meetings, and perhaps place safety notices or
safety posters on the plant bulletin boards. In this day and age of highly
technical safety standards and government regulations, however, the
safety person has much more to do than place posters on a bulletin
board.
1.2 safeTy sTarTs aT The ToP
Section 5(a) of Public Law 91-596 (December 29, 1970), the
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), requires that each
employer:
1. Shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of
employment which are free from recognized hazards that are caus-
ing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his
employees;
2. Shall comply with occupational safety and health standards pro-
mulgated under this Act.
1.3 safeTy PoliCy
When organizing a plant safety program, the first action the plant
safety person should propose is that a formal organizational safety pol-
icy be written and approved by the general manager or other top plant
manager. A well-written organizational safety policy should be the cor-
nerstone of any organization's safety program. Various examples of
safety policies used by Fortune 500 companies and others are available
to model your own plant's safety policy after. The key to producing a
powerful, tell-it-like-it-is safety policy is to keep it short, to the point,
and germane to the overall goal. Many organizational safety policies are
well written but are too lengthy, too philosophical. The major point to
remember is that the organization's safety policy should be written not
only so that it might be understood by every employee but also so that
all employees will actually read it. An example of a short, to the point,
and hard-hitting safety policy is provided in the following:
