Approximately a month ago, on one of the forums I frequent, I got a great compliment on our RRP series of articles. The catch with this compliment was he also mentioned that he did not agree with all the points made, and he left it at that. After thanking him, I asked in all curiousness what points did you disagree with. The answer and conversation that ensued actually surprised me, as it simply involved the Tyvek suits.
In his case, he had a 15-month year old at his house and he felt no matter what the regulation said (EPA does not require one to be worn), a suit should be worn as OSHA requires. While his reading of the regulation was slightly flawed, his point wasn’t, which brings us to the Ultimate Safety Tool – your head with includes our common sense & analytical ability.
In his case, while OSHA does not require the suits to be worn except in certain circumstances, why would he want to take a chance with a newborn at his house? What OSHA or I might deem perfectly safe, might not be the safest thing to do in his case or yours. While we briefly touched on this in our Safety Third article, aka taking Personal Responsibility for one’s own safety, we need to remember that our actions affect our families, people we might interact with during the day, and of course those we work with or for.
On the homeowner front, it constantly amazes me how many people will just simply state, oh I saw them do it this way on TV or on the internet. Folks, please take some time, analyze what you need to do, while taking into account your own abilities, risks you may face, and your experience doing those tasks. Just because you may see me or others working in shorts with sneakers and sunglasses on, does not mean that it is safe for you to try doing the same thing around your own home. Nor does it mean, you should go crazy and throw on every piece of safety gear and #1 assume it will keep you safe or #2 will make you any safer. Please remember, no matter where you are, you always have the ultimate safety tool with you – it is up to you to use it for something more than a hat rack.
Additional Info & Websites
- Tool Box Talk: OSHA Record Keeping form – as a reminder, it is supposed to already have been posted (Feb 1st & left up till April 30th) Now would be a good time to review it with all employees, to see what can be improved and a reminder of what needs to be reported
- Common sense & the internet; there was an interesting “study” done recently which is described in this article. While this study & article picks on some students for recently falling for a 1998 hoax involving an octopus that lives in a tree, and they go into describing how gullible they are and don’t have the critical evaluation skills – I daresay most adults wouldn’t do much better. As the famous saying goes, on the internet, no one knows you are a dog – so be careful with what information or videos you utilize.
