Still on Crash Helmets

Live from the city of Lagos!!!!!

Now, i believe this is a joke!!!!

But you never can tell...this is Nigeria!

The various types, shapes and quality of crash helmets on nigeria roads these days leave nothing to doubt about the strength of our ingenuity. I call it the will to survive! The onus is therefore on everyone to ensure its own safety as we have always done in many other instances. We can only hope that the responsible agency will rise to the challenge and enforce not just the use of any type of 'calabash' and 'gourds' as crash helmets but the acceptable and safe ones. This is a laudable crusade to entrench safety into the fabrics of our society and the truth is 'more lives will be protected and preserved from the consequences of road crashes' if correctly enforced.

Crash Helmet - You can't beat this ingenuity!!!

CRASH HELMETS

PPE such as crash helmet is desogned to offer some forms of protection to the users against identifed hazards. I recently saw these pictures and was alarmed!!! This must only be a joke...or what do you think?

Buckling Baby – the right way!

Hey there! I just saw this recently and I thought it makes a lot of safety sense!!!
Buckling up a baby definitely does not mean suffocating or perhaps killing him or her. Do the right thing! Get the right car seat and save your precious little ones from impacts of an accident.

A welding shield - Imagine THIS!

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is an important part of hazard management and control. However, its effectiveness is a function of use, quality and applicability. Just imagining this picture, you are so sure no protection is offer - just legality of use.

If you must use PPE, use the right one and correctly. It's your choice.

Building a Safety Culture

In one of the earlier articles on this blog, I have listed some principles of workplace safety programme. In all, eight principles were highlighted in the article and one of them is that ‘safety is a culture not just a programme.’

Let me start by giving a definition of culture. Culture has been defined in many ways and there are quite a number of controversies with the concept of culture. However, for the purpose of this write up, I will define culture as a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behaviour of a people. Simply stated therefore, culture is a way of life.

Now to the principle under discourse– safety is a culture. Safety is a responsibility and accepting this means that it could be learnt and shared over a period of time. This automatically translates to a culture because every culture started from a point of learning and sharing. Instructions were laid down and either willingly obeyed or otherwise. This information gets transferred from one generation to the other and over a period of time, it becomes the way of doing things. Sometimes, you may not even know the genesis of the things you do, but you just want to do it because it is your culture.

Safety is a culture. It’s not just a programme. In a culture of safety, people are not merely encouraged and compelled to work safely and towards a change; they are expected take actions when it is needed. They have to be proactive, take decisions and acts to ensure the safety of lives and property. Inactions in the face of safety problems and challenges are never the acceptable standards or values in a culture of safety. Everybody takes responsibility for his safety and that of others. There is no room in a culture of safety for those who point fingers, or refuse to accept responsibility for safety.

Every member of a community protects and advances the course of his culture. In fact, many a times, you consciously and unconsciously persuade others to accept your culture based on either the values you exhibit or the success that you achieve. This is exactly, what happens when you work, play and act in a safe way. It’s even more important in organizations because, new employees will eventually fit into the culture that permeates the system, either trained or otherwise.

Accident records in an organization is not a function of how comprehensive and detailed the safety programme is (although this is the starting point), but on the culture of safety in the workplace – how workers take responsibilities for themselves and others through hazard identification and analysis, near miss and reporting, obedience to safety rules and regulations and total adherence to workplace safe system of work. The programme is important since it will include training plans and the commitment of the management to safety ethics, but it cannot achieve anything positive until it translates to actions by all in the organization.

Building a safety culture in homes, schools, organization, society and the country as a whole is a task which must be accomplished in order to prevent losses of lives, environment, time, money, asset and property. When we loose all these resources to accidents, fire, disasters and pollution, growth and development are stalled and the populace suffers in poverty rather than live in affluence.

Building a safety culture is possible and doable! It’s a responsibility!

Crusade for Safety in Nigeria

In one of my training sessions recently, a participant asked a question which is the reason why I am writing this article. He wanted to know why safety is relegated to the background in Nigeria. I decided to probe to know the basis for his question and at the end; I was not too surprised because his work experiences portrayed his fears. This particular participant had worked in places where the only thing that mattered was production – I mean output figures.
It does not really matter how you do the job, just show the result or you are history. There is no idea, document, structure or process in place to ensure the health and safety of the workers. You may kill yourself if you choose, just be productive anyhow seemed to be the unwritten work procedures.

In the course of discussion in the class, another participant cited an experience he had many years ago, where a worker got injured and was told by the management that he has been paid for the accidents. How? His salaries! And that was the turining point in his life. He has to make a change in whatever capacity possible or he will also receive same reward shortly! 'If something is wrong, it will always go wrong.'

It’s not news that workplace safety is a relatively new concept in this part of the world. Prior to now, professing to be a safety professional in Nigeria to your parents or family is akin to joblessness when you can be a doctor, engineer, banker, teacher, etc. I have personally experienced this and I am sure others in this field will attest to this. This does not mean that there are no safety professionals and organizations in the country that preach and practice safety. In fact, there are regulations in the country that have been written to promote the health and safety of workers in the country. How effective and relevant are these regulations is a question for discussion some other time. Be that as it may, the number of such organizations is almost insignificant compared to the population of the country’s labour force.

In the forefront of this crusade are the oil and gas companies, of course some of whom still fall short of the acceptable and international standards. Other sectors of the economy such as construction, manufacturing, agro-allied, banking and others are trailing behind in issues of HSE.
Occupational health, safety and environment issues are gradually gaining recognition in the country, especially with some notable accidents and disasters that the country has witnessed in the recent times. Organisations are becoming more aware about their responsibilities to ensure that their workers are well protected from the inherent hazards they face while working due to compensations and sometimes violent confrontations and protests that they receive when accidents occur and workers loose their lives. In the same vein, workers are beginning to realize that it is possible to work and stay alive. 'After all, work does not mean death.' It only leads to it when control measures are not in place.

The need to obey simple safety rules and regulations is now, more than ever before, obvious and real considering many hazards which are part of the production or work processes, if not created by the task being performed itself. Of course, technological advancements and breakthroughs have made living interesting and comfortable, but they have also increased the risks of injuries through accidents which occur as a result of exposures to various hazards.

There is a great need for a comprehensive orientation and awareness crusades for Nigeria workers to work safely and demand of their employers, the right to work and go back home in one piece. It's a right! This crusade involves all and sundry and we must all stand up for a safe Nigeria. A safe workplace and environment where there is values for life. The days of ignorance are definitely over. It starts from and with you and I.

I can hear someone say but it’s the government responsibility! Yes. You are right! Government has a responsibility to play; but you have the greatest and most primary responsibility to stay alive. You have a responsibility to work and remain alive - Obey safety rules and regulations, follow safe work procedures and wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)! These are some of your responsibilities. It’s a choice and decision that you have to make and of course NOW!

Work safely! Stay alive! Remember, Nigeria needs you – either NOW or LATER!

Where Safety Professionals Work.

Since safety professionals provide technical assistance in identifying, evaluating and controlling hazards, safety professionals work virtually anywhere where people might be exposed to hazards. No matter what a company’s business is, its employees can encounter some types of hazards, either at work, getting to and from work or at home or play. Even working at a computer terminal can be hazardous, producing long-term injuries to the hand and wrist, back or other parts of the body.
Whether a company does manufacturing, mining, transportation, agriculture, chemicals, fuels production, construction, or provides services, it will always face hazards in some or all of its operations. It is likely that the company would employ or have contract with one or more safety professionals. It is common for companies to employ safety professionals at particular work sites. At corporate offices, safety professionals can coordinate the hazard control activities away from the work sites.
In recent years, safety professionals are working more and more in diverse and non-traditional worksites as many job opportunities have expanded to government, construction, transportation, service industries and consulting practices, among others. Such employment requires safety professionals to travel to different worksites to provide support to their internal and external clients.

Many companies have combined safety, industrial hygiene, environmental affairs, fire protection and ergonomics into a single function. A safety professional may advance by overseeing the work of all areas in the department. (Source: Career guide to the safety profession, ASSE, 2007)
Industrialisation is particularly playing a great role in safety professions as workplace is becoming rather complex and complicated and the chances of accidents have increased all over the world. This is an advantage in disguise as there is a growing need for safety professionals and in the african countries especially, the opportunities are overwhelming.
For aspiring safety professionals (most especially in the developing economies), welcome to a world of evolving opportunities!