Safety is an important part of life that people sometimes overlooked until it costs them money or personal discomfort. Webster’s dictionary defines safe as “the condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt, injury, or loss.” As a wastewater professional, can you do your job safely? This book is intended to stress the importance of safety in the workplace by dividing it into two categories: Risk Awareness and Risk Management.
Risk Awareness
Safety is a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week job. Safety requires continuous education to bring awareness to the causes of accidents. Safety is an attitude, which is why anyone with the right attitude can reduce accidents. By controlling the way we think, habits can be changed, …show more content…
One big cause of accidents in the workplace is the workers engaging in unsafe acts. Statistics from safety authorities show nine out of ten injuries are the result of unsafe acts by the workers, which is why it is important to discuss reasons for unsafe acts. The 7 main reasons for unsafe acts are:
1. Ignorance – A lack of experience or training
2. Indifference – Knowing what to do, but not caring
3. Poor Work Habits – Workers develop bad habits for poor training
4. Laziness – Safety require an effort, some workers don’t want to make an effort
5. Haste – When rushed, workers take dangerous shortcuts
6. Poor Physical Condition – A lack of fitness can lessen endurance and alertness
7. Temper – Impatience and anger can cause …show more content…
This though process will help to prevent unsafe acts, which will help to avoid accidents, creating a safer work environment. The SAVE process is a 4-step process that must occur before each decision a worker makes that may present some hazards. The SAVE process goes as follows:
1. SCAN Use the scanning stage to aggressively search for information to make your decision in the safest manner. Your eyes and ears are the tools needed for this step.
2. ASSESS Identify potential hazards to your decision; use the information for your scan to find these hazards. Predict all possible outcomes of the decision, both positive and negative.
3. VERIFY After weighing the outcomes to your decision, make one last check to be sure you’ve considered all hazards, and the potential outcomes of your decision.
4. EXECUTE After you’ve made the decision to control the situation, it’s now time to put the decision into effect.
By using the SAVE process over and over, the workers will become safety conscious, and be better prepared to prevent accidents. The whole process only takes a few seconds to accomplish, but by using the SAVE process, safety will become a daily habit, and not be set aside to