Anything is Possible
Often we take for granted that sometimes, stuff just happens. The work environment is just dangerous, and we sometimes have no choice but to accept the risk. Steel workers building skyscrapers, miners, and carpenters work around dangerous equipment or in hazardous conditions that just don’t allow 100% safety. We can try to mitigate the conditions, but “we just have to accept some losses.”
…or do we? Take a table saw, for example. We can put guards on them, we can put child locks on the power switches, we can require the use of push blocks, etc, but when we operate the saw, we all know there is just no way to guarantee that we won’t get a finger cut off by the saw blade. Therefore, there is a decent chance that, if you operate a table saw for a living, you may lose one of those precious digits.
Take a look at these videos. Then, go back to your facility and take a look at those areas where we have decided that there is nothing we can do but accept an elevated level of risk. Remember, the best safeguard is to engineer the hazard out of the process.
