Tool Box Talk

TOOL BOX TALK TUESDAY: “MOLE HILLS TO MOUNTAINS”

“Don’t make mountains out of mole hills”. Good advice and how many of us knew that we could actually control the outcome?

Many small things influence our lives, and not paying attention to them can sometimes have disastrous consequences —especially when it comes to safety.

Fortunately, most of us have been trained to keep an eye out for the “big hazards” that could cause injury.

But, sometimes, it’s the little or unnoticed hazards that can cause us the greatest harm.

We all become very concerned when our accident frequency starts going up.

We are even more concerned when we are one of the accident victims.

Then, we begin to look for the reasons: the systems, the equipment, or materials that are the causes.

We start to pay attention to everything that could cause accidents especially:

• any high-hazard operations

• heavy equipment

• dangerous machinery

• poor ventilation, or

• hazardous or toxic materials

Most of our investigations show that hazardous operations are not the ones causing the injuries.

The machines have guards, everyone is following safety procedures, and those working with hazardous materials are using their training and wearing their protective gear.

So, what is cause the upswing in accidents? We have found out that most accidents are caused by “little things” –things that were ignored until an accident happens.

Here are some examples of those “little things”:

• Walking past a tripping hazard and assuming that because “we made it” that everybody will too

• Lifting or moving heavy items by yourself and not asking for help

• Climbing on whatever is close by to reach something in a high place (standing on a chair instead of using a ladder)

• Leaving items in a walkway “for just a second” while we hurriedly work on getting something else done.

All of these are accidents waiting to happen and they will happen if they are ignored or overlooked.

Remember that shipping carton that someone left on the floor? It didn’t appear to be a real problem, so everyone just walked past it.

Nobody worried that it might cause a problem; everybody could see it sitting there – so nobody did anything about it.

Other times, we might have good intentions about fixing or reporting those “little things”.

But, too often, we get busy and forget about fixing the problem or reporting it so somebody else will fix it.

One company became very concerned when its accident frequency showed a large increase over a three-month period.

Management began an in-depth check of systems, equipment, and material that are considered to be high hazard:

heavy machinery, ventilation, toxic substances, machine guarding, etc.

To everyone’s surprise, none of these things was the cause of their accidents.

Chemicals were properly labelled and stored; machines were in good repair and properly guarded; the exhaust fans, sprinkler systems, respirators, etc., were all in good working order.

Instead, accidents stemmed from a variety of “little things” that had been ignored until an injury occurred.

For example, they found that serious falls had been caused by:

• A puddle of oil on the floor from a leaking forklift. No one had poured absorbent on the spill because it was “too small to worry about.”

It wasn’t too small, however, to make a passing employee slip and fall when he didn’t notice it. (Furthermore, the leaking forklift needs to be repaired so this accident won’t happen again.)

• A box of supplies that had been left on the floor in front of a shelf, instead of properly stored. It had been walked around dozens of times before someone finally tripped over it.

• A ladder that was placed in front of an outward-opening door “just for a minute” to change a light bulb.

It was knocked over by another worker coming through the door, and both he and the worker on the ladder were injured.

All these “accidents waiting to happen” had been ignored because they didn’t really seem that dangerous to the workers involved.

Employees all knew about, and carefully avoided, the major hazards found when repairing energized electrical equipment or bypassing machine guards.

We often intend to report a defective tool, extension cord, or stepladder to the maintenance department but don’t take the time, or forget about.

It is important to follow through on our good intentions, since these are just the sort of “little things” that can result in a serious injury to us or to other workers.

Little things do count and if we take a few minutes to pay attention to all the potential hazards around us we can prevent injuries from happening to ourselves and other employees.

It’s like that molehill that turned into a mountain. Little things do matter – especially when someone gets hurt because of that “little thing”.

I know that if everyone took the time to pay attention to all of the potential hazards around us – and then fix it or report it – we could prevent some of these workplace injuries – even some of the more serious ones.

If you are walking near one of those “little things” or even a serious safety issue, ask yourself, “Would I want someone else to report this if I knew that I might be injured because of it?”

If the answer is yes, then take the time to report it!

“Servant-leadership is more than a concept, it is a fact. Any great leader, by which I also mean an ethical leader of any group, will see herself or himself as a servant of that group and will act accordingly.” – M Scott Peck

Thanks, TO