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Calculated risk
Calculated risk CH&S Netways
L
ife is filled with risk. Everyone of us wakes up and begins our day and in most cases fails to notice the risks that we take. Each one of us is always taking some sort of risk – driving to work, eating a particular food, taking an over the counter medicine, even walking to the kitchen. People don’t tend to see these every day activities as a risk – primarily because they are familiar and the consequences of the potential hazard are potentially small. Each of us is doing a risk/benefit analysis for those activities and is calculating the potential risk. In most cases, people don’t think about those particular risks. Not only do people not think about the potential risks, also they fail to see the potential hazard. This failure to see the potential hazard skews the calculation of risk in that risk/benefit analysis. And often results in a perception that something is safe or the consequences of an unsafe action are small. It is this particular mind set that works against those of us trying to implement a positive safety culture in our work place – the mis-calculation of risk based upon the unobserved hazard. Throughout the life of this journal, there have been numerous columns and articles on the hazard recognition. Yet, even those of us who work with these concepts on a day to day basis sometimes fail to see the hazards that are right in front of us – as we are looking for the obscure or are dealing with the hazard ‘‘de jour’’. Recently, fatigue, fire, and complacency have all been news items. Yet, did you stop to think about how those particular common hazards might effect your workplace? My guess is that unless you were in San Diego County – you did not think much about your evacuation plan or how fire proof your particular facility is. You probably didn’t even consider that while the FAA report showed that pilots are more likely to make errors due to fatigue – how that might impact the next laboratory assignment. And, just when was the
36
ß Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
last time that you really reviewed that site safety and health plan? As each of us is extremely busy and we are working to meet the next deadline – we tend to filter out those little warning signs. We don’t tend to make the connections that the fires in southern California might have highlighted a particular issue in my own safety program on the east coast. Do I have an effective evacuation plan? Do I have a workable personnel accountability plan – should we lose the main switch board? Can I communicate with those who are traveling? In many cases – some of these questions were addressed with some of the events of September 11 – yet have you looked at them recently? Are they still valid? The pilot fatigue story that went across the news – might have stirred some discussion about whether or not you are going to fly to that next meeting or drive. But, did you consider how that same hazard might impact how you run a particular laboratory class? (Is the fact that your schools team beat a historical rival and everyone was out partying all not going to impact their judgment?) How about the laboratory preparation? etc. Fatigue is a large hazard that we tend to overlook – yet fatigue impacts judgment. It impact reaction time, and is a behavioral contributor to many accidents. For safety and health professionals – it is our job to recognize some of these routine hazards. We need to put a spot light on those things that most take for granted or step over every day. We need to think about – if that even happened – what can be learned for my particular situation? Do I need to take a fresh set of eyes to a particular aspect of my safety plan? Will that really work? These are questions that keep many of us up at night – yet because we are worried about the issue – we may fail to see the solution that is right there in today’s paper. We fail to have all the facts – and mis-calculate the risk.
1871-5532/$32.00 doi:10.1016/j.jchas.2007.11.009
L
ife is filled with risk. Everyone of us wakes up and begins our day and in most cases fails to notice the risks that we take. Each one of us is always taking some sort of risk – driving to work, eating a particular food, taking an over the counter medicine, even walking to the kitchen. People don’t tend to see these every day activities as a risk – primarily because they are familiar and the consequences of the potential hazard are potentially small. Each of us is doing a risk/benefit analysis for those activities and is calculating the potential risk. In most cases, people don’t think about those particular risks. Not only do people not think about the potential risks, also they fail to see the potential hazard. This failure to see the potential hazard skews the calculation of risk in that risk/benefit analysis. And often results in a perception that something is safe or the consequences of an unsafe action are small. It is this particular mind set that works against those of us trying to implement a positive safety culture in our work place – the mis-calculation of risk based upon the unobserved hazard. Throughout the life of this journal, there have been numerous columns and articles on the hazard recognition. Yet, even those of us who work with these concepts on a day to day basis sometimes fail to see the hazards that are right in front of us – as we are looking for the obscure or are dealing with the hazard ‘‘de jour’’. Recently, fatigue, fire, and complacency have all been news items. Yet, did you stop to think about how those particular common hazards might effect your workplace? My guess is that unless you were in San Diego County – you did not think much about your evacuation plan or how fire proof your particular facility is. You probably didn’t even consider that while the FAA report showed that pilots are more likely to make errors due to fatigue – how that might impact the next laboratory assignment. And, just when was the
36
ß Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the American Chemical Society Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
last time that you really reviewed that site safety and health plan? As each of us is extremely busy and we are working to meet the next deadline – we tend to filter out those little warning signs. We don’t tend to make the connections that the fires in southern California might have highlighted a particular issue in my own safety program on the east coast. Do I have an effective evacuation plan? Do I have a workable personnel accountability plan – should we lose the main switch board? Can I communicate with those who are traveling? In many cases – some of these questions were addressed with some of the events of September 11 – yet have you looked at them recently? Are they still valid? The pilot fatigue story that went across the news – might have stirred some discussion about whether or not you are going to fly to that next meeting or drive. But, did you consider how that same hazard might impact how you run a particular laboratory class? (Is the fact that your schools team beat a historical rival and everyone was out partying all not going to impact their judgment?) How about the laboratory preparation? etc. Fatigue is a large hazard that we tend to overlook – yet fatigue impacts judgment. It impact reaction time, and is a behavioral contributor to many accidents. For safety and health professionals – it is our job to recognize some of these routine hazards. We need to put a spot light on those things that most take for granted or step over every day. We need to think about – if that even happened – what can be learned for my particular situation? Do I need to take a fresh set of eyes to a particular aspect of my safety plan? Will that really work? These are questions that keep many of us up at night – yet because we are worried about the issue – we may fail to see the solution that is right there in today’s paper. We fail to have all the facts – and mis-calculate the risk.
1871-5532/$32.00 doi:10.1016/j.jchas.2007.11.009