Safety - Field Sampling: Principles and Practices in Environmental Analysis - page 82

4
Safety
Field sampling is not a leisure time activity.
Safety must be practiced at all times.
Safety equipment must be used.
Clothing must be appropriate to the hazard.
A safe working environment is not an accident; it requires thought and work. Safety is
good from human, business, and economic perspectives. To realize these benefits a
number of things need to be done. First, safety information and physical resources are
identified or found. The types of fields to be sampled must be identified, along with the
type and concentration of the contaminants they contain. Once this is known, personnel
protection can be planned. Additionally, off-field and environmental protection must be
considered. When this is all brought together, a safety plan including the use of a
chemical hygiene plan (CHP), material safety data sheets (MSDS), and other resources
such as the Merck Index can be incorporated.
Safety can be, and often is, viewed as an unwanted expense. In reality it always results
in enormous savings. One key worker not doing his or her job for half a day can cause
serious delays in completing a sampling exercise. Often an accident happening to only
one worker will involve other workers as they help care for or evacuate the injured
person. In this case the work output of several persons is adversely affected. Add to this
the cost of transportation and medical treatment, and the expense can be quite a burden.
Even if everything is covered by insurance, repeated use of the coverage will result in
the increasing cost of insurance. From all ways of assessing accidents they are always
costly. This is a cost that need not be borne if personnel observe proper safety procedures
and precautions while on the job.
With all this said, “Who actually suffers when an accident occurs? The answer is
always the injured worker. The company suffers because of the lost work time, the need
to replace the worker, the increase in insurance costs. But, truly, in the end the only one
who really suffers is the injured worker. They suffer due to the injury itself, the recovery
time, the possible loss of a limb, the loss of wages, the suffering the family has to endure,
and the possible loss of the job. For this reason workers need to always use the proper
personal protective equipment (PPE) because they are the most important reason to
protect themselves from possible injury” [S.Ullom, Ullon Safety Resources, Inc.,
personal communication. (See Appendix B.)]