• Ed B (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    I was once written up during a "safety inspection" because I had placed an object on top of a book case. The safety officer explained to me that it was against the rules to put anything on top of a bookcase because it might fall on someone's head and cause injury. In this case, the object I had put on top of the bookcase was my felt hat. I told the safety officer that, (a) if a felt hat plummeted the one or two feet from the top of the bookcase and landed on someone's head, it was unlikely to cause injury, and (b) as the bookcase was in my cubicle, the most likely head for the hat to fall on was my own, and if my hat fell onto my head, I might as well take that as a sign that I should just leave it there, put on my coat to match it, and go home.

    She was, of course, not amused by my response. Safety officers take their jobs very seriously. Which leads me to the corollary: People who have the most pointless jobs always seem to take them the most seriously.

    I was written up in a toxicology lab for not securing nitrogen gas tanks to the wall with the required chains because the general services people would not install the chain anchors on the wall. We taped the chains to the back of the tanks so it looked like they were anchored. We then placed Bio-Hazard stickers on the doors. The inspectors refused to come in to inspect.

  • (cs) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    SenTree:
    DaveK:
    Still, it used to be worse. <image snipped>
    Ouch ! Roo bar fail ?
    Roo bars are good when the roo's on the ground in front of you when you hit it. They can't save you if it's flying through the air toward you ...

    http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/fatal-impact-with-kangaroo/2006/10/17/1160850924121.html

    Nasty, especially when it wasn't his fault.
  • LHC (unregistered) in reply to Ed B
    Ed B:
    I was written up in a toxicology lab for not securing nitrogen gas tanks to the wall with the required chains because the general services people would not install the chain anchors on the wall. We taped the chains to the back of the tanks so it looked like they were anchored. We then placed Bio-Hazard stickers on the doors. The inspectors refused to come in to inspect.
    I worked in a paint store that sold ladders years ago. We kept the ladders in a rack and were required to have a chain attached to the rack going across the ladders to prevent them from falling out of the rack. Unfortunately, we were not required to have the rack bolted to the floor or any other surface. So instead of having one ladder fall out of the rack, the rack and five ladders fell over on a customer.
  • (cs) in reply to kastein
    kastein:
    iToad:
    The US equivalent is the MSDS. If you look around, you can find an MSDS for water.
    ask and ye shall receive... It even has a CAS Number! (7732-18-5) What I find most ridiculous is that they have a company listed that the chemical is produced by, AND have it listed as "not hazardous by inhalation". Uh, ever hear of drowning? Oh, and they have firefighting measures listed.

    OK, maybe I don't understand the MSDS all that well or something... I don't work near chemicals, but on this one for water it says: Incompatibilities with Other Materials: None.

    Now, last I checked, alkali metal tends to have a rather explosive reaction with water. If I look at the MSDS for Potassium (an alkali metal) I find: Incompatibilities with Other Materials: Water, oxidizing agents.

    Shouldn't this incompatibility list be reciprocal?

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Jay:
    I was once written up during a "safety inspection" ... my felt hat...

    You wear a felt hat? What are you a pimp or something? Who wears a felt hat in this day and age.

    I know a few people who wear felt hats. I also see fedoras, berets, and tricorns. What I don't see very often are baseball caps.

    You know what I haven't seen at work in a while? A stove pipe hat.

    ...Granted I work in the video game industry, so there are some "eccentricities." But I'm glad for that.

  • Watson (unregistered) in reply to Erzengel
    Erzengel:
    OK, maybe I don't understand the MSDS all that well or something... I don't work near chemicals, but on this one for water it says: Incompatibilities with Other Materials: None.

    Now, last I checked, alkali metal tends to have a rather explosive reaction with water. If I look at the MSDS for Potassium (an alkali metal) I find: Incompatibilities with Other Materials: Water, oxidizing agents.

    Shouldn't this incompatibility list be reciprocal?

    That's not the only information that is not available about this substance:

    Odor: none reported pH: Not available. Evaporation Rate:Not available. Boiling Point: 100 deg C Freezing/Melting Point:Not available. Solubility: Not available.

    Section 12 - Ecological Information No information available. [Instead of "fundamental necessity for all life as we know it"?]

  • (cs)
    From: ********************** Sent: 12 December 2008 10:46 To: ******* Staff Subject: Please watch where you are going

    Hi all,

    We have had incidents of people walking into the first aid box by the Performance and reporting team,

    Please watch where you are walking.

    To try to prevent injury to people walking into the first aid box we have placed a plant next to it, yes that means that if you are not watching where you are going you are going to have to deal with the plant before you have to deal with the big metal box on the wall.

    If you still walk into the first aid box (after walking over the plant) then please send a complaint to the Health and Safety officers: ************, ******************* and *********************.

    If you are injured by not watching where you are going, then please contact a first aider: *********************, ******************** and ********************************.

    Thank you and regards, *******************

    Please remove me from this mailing list.

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    "The Learnings"?

    Cultural Learnings of OSHA for Make Benefit Glorious Environment of Office Workers

  • (cs) in reply to Sam
    Sam:
    Campbell:
    Reminds me of urine colour comparison charts we had above the urinals at work - sort of like universal pH comparison charts with bands of yellow varying from light "you're ok" to dark "see the nurse". The idea was that we could compare our urine colour to see if we were dehydrated or not. Admittedly we were often outside in 40+ Celsius heat but it all seemed over-the-top to most of us who weren't Darwin award candidates.

    These signs are posted above the urinals in a couple of military bases I've visited. Both of the bases were in the south east United States where it can get fairly hot. During physical training, I can easily imagine that someone would forget to drink enough water, and dehydration is a real issue.

    There were also signs with detailed instructions on washing your hands and listed penalties if you were not washing your hands according to the directions. This might seem silly, but how many times have you seen someone leave a bathroom without washing their hands at all?

    On a trip to Turkey (where it also gets rather hot) the tourguide started the first day with the advice to "if you don't need to piss, you need to drink". Only 1 person suffered dehydration during that trip (out of about 40 in the group), and she'd ignored the advice...

    Common sense works a lot bettter than rules and regulations when it comes to safety. Of course common sense has never helped create jobs for bureaucrats, who are most easily recognised by their total lack of the stuff.

  • (cs)

    I always found it funny to ask Health and Safety people to help me. My favourite was when I had to install a conduit on a wall that involved using a ladder indoors.

    After asking them to help I managed to waste a full 2.5 hours being trained on how to climb a ladder, and then they still refused to help because 'they where not best suited to assist me'.

    After that I always made sure I followed procedure and asked for a full H&S mitigation report for any manual activity. When my boss asked why everything took so long, I simply told him the offical process that was in place.

    So, as normal: to break a process - follow it.

  • PaulG (unregistered)

    Very amusing follow up. Someone banged his head on the first aid box today. He was busy moving the plant. (I am not kidding about this)

    From: ********************** Sent: 12 December 2008 10:46 To: ******* Staff Subject: Please watch where you are going

    Hi all,

    We have had incidents of people walking into the first aid box by the Performance and reporting team,

    Please watch where you are walking.

    To try to prevent injury to people walking into the first aid box we have placed a plant next to it, yes that means that if you are not watching where you are going you are going to have to deal with the plant before you have to deal with the big metal box on the wall.

    If you still walk into the first aid box (after walking over the plant) then please send a complaint to the Health and Safety officers: ************, ******************* and *********************.

    If you are injured by not watching where you are going, then please contact a first aider: *********************, ******************** and ********************************.

    Thank you and regards,

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Merijn
    Merijn:
    I was just so flabbergasted to read these. Even while working as a consultant in fairly large banks and it-corporations I have never ever met such a leaflet. Apparently they don't exist in my country, the Netherlands?

    Are you not sure what country you live in?

  • (cs) in reply to anon
    anon:
    Merijn:
    I was just so flabbergasted to read these. Even while working as a consultant in fairly large banks and it-corporations I have never ever met such a leaflet. Apparently they don't exist in my country, the Netherlands?

    Are you not sure what country you live in?

    Wait, how can /you/ criticize? *You're* not sure what country he lives in either!
  • Pual (unregistered)

    Surely you can't feel anything but disbelief while reading this?

  • Timeslice (unregistered) in reply to DaveK
    [image] If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud. [image] If a door is closed, karate chop it open.

    Courtesy of safenow.org

  • Mallory (unregistered)

    I wish my office took H&S this seriously. We ran out of shelving space due to a policy change, and suddenly had boxes of files stacked everywhere. And our file boxes are standard size, but our files are not, and are of two different sizes. So the lids were never on, and the tops were not level, and boxes were stacked several high. This often meant that if you bumped into them, they would fall on you.

  • Mallory (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent

    Actually, some people (very rare) can sneeze with their eyes open. But apparently they can't focus their eyes while they sneeze.

    I hate when I'm driving and I start to sneeze. Especially on the motorway.

  • (cs)

    I see nothing unusual with such safety concerns for kindergartens.

  • Clint (unregistered) in reply to cparker

    I am a Safety Manager, and I am sure from reading your comment that you have no clue what a Safety Professional’s job really entails. Telling you about your hat may seem small, but your behavior will show others that it is ok for objects to be placed on the locker. Next thing you know, a different employee places a wrench on the locker and you end up in the hospital blaming your company for not having a safety program after it smacks you in the head. Think before you speak.

  • eric bloedow (unregistered)

    that one about the keyboard tray reminded me of a story: a hospital or school (i forget which) had several computers on mobile platforms, to move from room to room as needed. employees repeatedly broke the keyboard trays by SITTING on them! they put written messages on them, told every single employee multiple times PER DAY not to do that, and they STILL broke the keyboard trays at least once a week!

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