EXCUSES

The truth is that every day you wake up, there are a thousand and one reasons not to get out of bed, a thousand and one reasons not to go to work, a thousand and one reasons not to keep that appointment…and the list goes on and on.

For every potential success, there are a thousand and one excuses.

The choice is yours; you can either choose not to make excuses and take your giant strides or conveniently dwell on the excuses and face the consequences.George Washington stated that 99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses; the reason is not far-fetched as they give several reasons for leaving undone what they should have done to attain success.

Funny enough, excuses are excuses whether legitimate or not. At this point, I think it is expedient that I define what the word EXCUSE means. The free dictionary defines it as 1. an explanation offered to justify or obtain forgiveness… 2. a reason for not fulfilling an obligation.

The story is told of three dogs of different sizes running down the street, along the way the smallest one tripped and fell but it immediately jumped back to its feet and caught up with the other two and even left one behind.

Now let’s analyze the situation properly- how easy and convenient it would have been for the little dog to wallow in self-pity under the excuse of “I tripped and fell” but no, it dusted itself up and even outran one of the other dogs that seemed to be leading earlier.

Does this sound like you? Remember, the universe does not leave any room for vacuum, there’s nothing like stagnation, it is either you’re moving forward or backward.

There’s no time to waste, no room for excuses…

You have postponed that article for too long; You have found enough excuses for not writing that test for too long; that project has not seen the light of the day; you have blamed your parents, the government and even God so much; your degrees and those professional qualifications have been deferred for too long; and success and gainful employment have eluded you for so long…all because of EXCUSES!

Would you get certified today or still hide under another excuse? Don’t forget that those who wait for the right time to do anything never get anything done.

Hybrid Consulting Limited, an approved training Centre for CIEH (UK), IOSH (UK), BSC (UK) and PMI (USA) and in partnership with CCS Training UK for NEBOSH is offering opportunities for GRADUATES AND PROFESSIONALS of all  disciplines to acquire HSE  and project management knowledge and skills to enhance their employability in the industry. As part of our contribution to your dream of securing rewarding jobs, through these certifications we offer some of our courses at almost 50% discount to fresh graduates and NYSC members.

The opportunity you have been waiting for is here. Take hold of the future now!

See you at the Top!!!

Welcome Back...Safety all the Way!

Dear Very Esteemed Readers,
I will like to specially welcome you back to this blog which over the years has been a reliable medium for safety awareness, advocacy and empowerment. Indeed, there have been several developments and changes in the last few years of this blog, but one thing still remains same - the need for safety by all!

Everyone desires safety, and so we definitely can be out of touch! This emphasises our relevance from generation to generations. Safety is a way of life, hence, it is a behaviour and no matter how long it takes to build, it is a worthwhile venture.

This blog is therefore better repositioned to bring you the very best of information on safety matters in Nigeria and globally. You are therefore invited once more to a rich collection of information that won't only entertain you, but also educate, enhance and empower you! You are ready for the best times on the web...visit and visit again and of course, spread the news!

Safety isn't costly, It's priceless!

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT (HSE) SEMINAR

The theme of this seminar/workshop is "Building a successful occupational health, safety and environment (HSE) career." The HSE profession is gradually gaining acceptance and recognition in Nigeria and this field is a goldmine because the statistics and records show that the present number of HSE professionals in Nigeria is far below the minimum required to take up the available roles and opportunities. This is more important especially now that we are embracing new technology and ways of doing things in all aspects of our socio-economic and political development. This program will among all other things, create a platform for dissemination of up-to-date information on the required processes to achieving competence in the field. Leading industry HSE experts will anchor the program and it promises to be a great time of discoveries and capacity building for all participants.

VENUE: Centre for Management Development (CMD)

Auditorium 3, Management Village

Shangisha, Magodo

Lagos State

DATE: Saturday August 28th, 2010

TIME: 12.00 Noon - 5.00 PM

The Vision/Program Objective

The developments and advancements taking place in Nigeria in the last ten years give a bright ray of hope that this nation will soon take her rightful place in the committee of nations as a great icon. There are various positive changes taking place all around us in government, technology, education, health, sports, to mention but a few. Part of these changes also involves evolvement of new careers and employment opportunities for the citizens of the country. We have witnessed new career opportunities and benefits in the oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing, banking, education, sports and entertainment.

However, in spite of all these new opportunities for gainful employment, there are still large percentages of Nigerians who are in the employment market even with good education. It is a known fact that some careers in the country have become over saturated and as a result have left a lot of people unemployed. It is also true that there are some others that have less than required number of personnel and as these needs continue to grow, influx of expatriates into the country to fill these positions will not end. The main reason for this among others could be the lack of competent Nigerians to fill these positions.

It is therefore important at this stage of our national growth and development to explore some of these career opportunities that have need for qualified and competent personnel. It is my desire, dream and vision that unemployment rates in Nigeria will be reduced as people embrace a career with so much benefits and potential, yet relatively unknown; not only for the individuals but for the country as a whole. I also see a Nigeria where there is value for life and reduction of incidents to the citizen in their homes, workplaces and the general society where they interact. This is the time to do and make things happen and create the Nigeria that we all desire. This is the background for this career development seminar with the theme ‘Building A Successful Career in Health, Safety & Environment (HSE).’

The purpose of this seminar is to provide in-depth information about the Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) profession that would assist anyone considering a career in this challenging but rewarding field. Many countries of the world have started the HSE journey earlier than us, but we can begin NOW in Nigeria and prepare for the harvest that is already available. Leading industry professionals in the field of HSE will be attending this seminar to help chart a path and provide useful directions to all participants on how to become qualified and competent persons with required skills for the workplace in Nigeria

It is my believe that this seminar will provide a platform to contribute our quota to the emergence of the Nigeria of our dreams; where:
1. there will be gainful employment opportunities for Nigerians in the field of HSE
2. safety, good welfare and occupational health of Nigerians will become a priority
3. environmentally safe practices will be embraced

Thank You.

Dapo Omolade
Organiser

Home Child Safety 1: Swimming Pool Safety

How many times have you heard in the news bulletin that children and sometimes adult were found drown in the swimming pools at homes or recreational centres? The average of such occurrences should be relatively high individually...say 10 times in the last 5 years.

Swimming is a popular and fun summer activity for children to relax, play and cool off the heat. However, a swimming pool can turn deadly in an instant. Numerous child injuries are reported each year in conjunction with swimming pool accidents, resulting in broken bones, permanent brain damage, neck or spinal cord injuries and death. Statistics on swimming pool accidents show that young children are especially vulnerable to pool injuries.

Drowning is the primary result of swimming pool accidents. According to reports, 1,500 children drown each year in a pool accident in the United States. Toddlers and young male teenagers are most at risk for drowning in swimming pool accidents. Many parents may not realize the danger swimming pools represent, but according to MedScape.com statistics, drowning causes 30% of all deaths for children under the age of 4. Additionally, for all children under the age of 14, drowning is second only to car accidents as the leading cause of death.

In addition, the consumer product safety commission in the US has received reports of 200 children drowning in hot tubs, bathtubs and whirlpools. While you may expect that most children who die in drowning accidents are unsupervised, the exact opposite is true.

According to Safe Kids USA, 88% of children who die in swimming pool accidents were supervised at the time of the accident, either by a lifeguard, parent, sibling or family friend. Only 10% of child drowning victims were completely unsupervised. There are fewer statistics available for child injuries in swimming pool accidents, since many minor accidents go unreported. Hospital reports in the US (New York alone) estimates that 2,600 children are injured in near-drowning accidents each year, but that doesn't include the many other injuries suffered in diving accidents, slips and falls around pools, or pool drain accidents.

In our part of the world, you may be quick to say we do not have as many swimming pools as in the US and other western countries. As true as this may be, we have recorded several incidents of swimming pool incidents in homes, recreational facilities and in schools. Interestingly, this has often occurred in the above average homes and families. A good example was the news in 2009 of the death of the grandson of the prime minister of Zimbabwe as a result of drowning in the swimming pool in the residence of the PM. Of course, there are many others like that which are not reported.

There are safety tips that are able to eliminate drowning at the pool or at the least, reduce the number of cases to the bearest minimum. Some of these tips are itemised below:

• Never allow your youngster to swim alone without any adult supervision. It is quite common to develop a cramp underwater, or for accidents like hitting your head while diving for example, to occur. It is paramount that there should be persons around to help in such situations.
• Do not allow children with no knowledge of swimming in or around the pool. For good pool safety make sure that all kids above the age of 4 attend a certified swimming class, or at least learn basic flotation techniques and life saving techniques in case of accidents.
• Children younger than 4 should always be accompanied by their parents in the pool.
  Enclose your pool with high fences, which can be locked. Do not leave the pool open and accessible since children can fall inside. Keep your pool safe, and keep your kids away from the poolside.
• Avoid leaving your kids alone even with small portable pools or water bodies like buckets, fountains, and barrels. There is always a danger of drowning occuring even in small bodies of water.
• In case of a backyard swimming pool, make sure that the cover of the pool is completely lifted over the pool. Do not partially open the pool. Also make sure that your child does not walk over the pool cover.
• Spas and Hot Tubs must also be avoided, especially in the case of younger children who are susceptible to overheating.
• Make sure that there is always a life saving floation device handy near the pool. Also, every parent should be conversant in basic first aid (cardio pulmonary resuscitation-CPR & artificial respiration –AR) techniques in case of any accident.
• The last, but not the least, to ensure swimming pool safety, be observant. Watch what your kids are up to, and supervise their activities. Do not leave them alone at any time around any body of water.

Remember that they are the little ones, very vague and unaware and are very eager to explore all opportunities to have fun.

Home Child Safety

There is nothing more precious than a child. In many cultures and traditions, the birth of a child is regarded as the most tangible evidence of a marriage that is blessed and successful. The home is expected to be a safe haven, the place of safety and security for parents, visitors and also the children. This of course will not happen automatically except there is a concerted effort to achieve this goal. Most parents believe their homes are safe for their children but the accidents statistics that are received on daily basis world over suggest that most homes aren't as safe as they should be.

Along with the joys of parenthood comes a great deal of worries, not least how to keep our children safe. Whilst most parents worry about our children’s safety away from the homes, we often forget about the very real hazards inside our own homes. It may be impossible to eliminate every single hazard imaginable, but it is possible to eliminate as many hazards as possible and to be prepared for all eventualities. Always remember that ‘prevention is better than the cure’ and one of the most important aspects of ensuring children are safe is to supervise them as much as possible. Never leave children unattended!

Accidents happen in the home, even to the parents and adult alike. However, this potential for accident increases with a child in the house, whether a newborn or an adolescent, accidents can happen all too easily and sometimes with terrible consequences. The causes and consequences of home injuries vary considerably by age and developmental level, reflecting differences in the child's ability to learn and understand about what is around them. Their ability to move around their environment also changes what should be considered safe. The majority of poisonings and other unintentional injuries in the homes could have been prevented by following a few simple steps to make the child's surrounding safe for them at each level of development.

You may be surprise at what your kids are capable of doing and at sudden development in their activities such as rolling over, crawling and trying to climb up using an open drawer as the ladder. These may lead to unexpected accidents such as tipping hot liquids over themselves, making a shelf and its content fall, cutting themselves, choking, swallowing small parts, poisoning, falling from height and wandering outdoors or on to the streets alone.

Homes must therefore be made absolutely safe for children especially because of their novice tendencies. The act of ensuring that a home is safe for children is known as childproofing. Childproofing our homes is something that we have to carry out in great detail, especially when children are very young. Although we might all think we are responsible parents who would not let our baby or toddler get into any harm at home, there are many hidden hazards lurking which could injure a young child or baby or could result in something even more serious than that. Therefore, it’s important that you take practical steps to understand the potential dangers that are present around the house and to take preventative measures to keep your children safe. Therefore, to keep your children safe and secure, childproofing is must for every household with young kids and curious toddlers.

This article will therefore explore various childproofing strategies that will help to identify many hazards that could exist in homes and how to minimize the risks to the children and the family as a whole. This would be considered under different sections and aspects of the homes where these hazards are present and most of the times not obvious except by serious assessment and evaluation. Some of the areas to be considered in this article subsequently are:

• Swimming Pool
• Bathroom/Toilet
• Kitchen
• Bedroom
• Cribs/Cots
• Living rooms
• Curtains/Door & Window blinds
• Garden/Flower Pots
• Drugs/Medicines
• Chairs and Sofas
• Staircases
• Stores/Warehouse
• Electrical Equipment
• Tiles & Floors
• Outdoor environment

I will be giving some safety tips and suggestions within this scope in subsequent articles on Home Child Safety. Watch out for more details!

TYRE SAFETY (Part 1)

I will like to start this piece of writing by asking readers a very simple question... "When are your vehicle tyres expiring?" I can only imagine the neuronic activities going on in your mind now! I am very sure you that one of the surprising issue about this question is the fact that you don't know. Of course, I know you that you know and believe that vehicle tyres do expire. The very fact that tyres are organic and chemical products can only suggest my perceived assumptions. After all, other products similar in composition to tyres like plastics, petroleum bye products, drugs, food, etc do expire.
Going back to our initial question, there is no shame in not knowing this because as in most things in our part of the world, we are neither taught nor told and so we live perpetually in ignorance and wishes. As have been emphasized in many articles in this blog, safety is not all about wishes and prayers, but current knowledge and practice of what is safe and sensible.

Safety on the road depends on several factors, one of which is vehicle condition and tyres are very important integral part of a vehicle. It is that part that interfaces between the road and the vehicle and as such must be in good shape and other to perofm its duties. According to statistics available from Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), about 80% of automobile accidents in Nigeria are caused by burst tyres due to low quality and age. This is particularly due to the florishing tokunbo cars business in the country. As important as the tyres may be in road safety, it is very unfortunate to know that this is one part of vehicle that receives little or no attention at all. Part of this attention is the simple knowledge of the status of the tyre which includes manufacture date, expiration date, speed and load rating, construction, design type, etc.

For this first part of our discussion on tyre safety, we will look at just one aspect of these facotrs that control the safety of tyres in our vehicles.
Manufacture & Expiration Date of Tyres
As part of quality assurrance of vehicle's tyres, manufacturing dates are written on the sidewall of all original tyres. As a general rule, tyres will start serious level of deterioration after 4 years of manufacture. Depending on use and other factors therefore, expiration will commence from 4-6 years at the maximum after which the tyres must be destroyed or recycled for other uses. Please note that the date of expiration is not written on the tyres but as a user, it is your responsibility to use the date of manufacture as your guide to determining the year of expiration.

To read the manufacture dates on a tyre therefore, the following steps will be a useful guide:

1. Locate the DOT number on the sidewall of the tyre. It's easy to find since the first 3 digits are "DOT." They are displayed on both sides of the tyre.
2. After the DOT, look for a 10 to 12 digit number. The last four digits will sometimes be place be placed in an oval or circle and will only be numerical.
3. Determine the age of the tyres by reading the last four digits of the full DOT number from the sidewall of the tire.
4. The first two digits of the four digits date stamp will indicate the week of the year the tyre was manufactured. For example, on the tyre in this picture, “08” means 8th week of the year (this is of course the month of February)
5. The last two digits in the date stamp number will determine the year it was manufactured. For example, “06” on the same picture means 2006
6. For the above examples therefore, the last four digits of the full DOT number displayed on the sidewall of a tyre “0806” would dictate that the tyre was manufactured in the 8th week of the year 2006.

As a driver, passenger or general user of a vehicle, use this information to determine the age of tyres on your vehicle. Always request to see this number before purchasing any tyre. If these numbers are not on the tyre, then they have been probably removed to deceive buyers and users. It's not uncommon to be purchasing a year or maybe two year old tyres, but the newer the better and compare that to the price you're being charged for them. Tyres will expire even on the shelf no matter how new or beautiful looking it appears.

Please note however that the 4 digits tyre stamp started in the year of 2000. Tyres manufactured earlier than 2000 only have three digits in the tyre stamp and if that's all you have for a tyre stamp, don't worry about how to decode it...just replace the tyres for your own safety because such tyres are definitely over nine years old. However, for the sake of knowledge, a tyre ending in "239" could have been made in the 23rd week of 1989 or 1999. This will ultimately take you to that place (you know where I am referring to) earlier than planned.

Please take care and use tyres that are of good quality and up to date.

Coming soon: TYRE SAFETY (Part 2)

RISKY ADVENTURE

Heroism is a rarely used word in many societies and the actions that qualify one as a hero can vary and also may be very subjective. while in some cultures, taking a risk is an act of heroism, in some others, being brave and daring automatically qualifies one as a hero. Worst still, in some known regions of the world, the only symbol of heroism is death. Little wonder in such places, lives really do not matter a thing.

As a senior friend will always remark, "all heroes are dead and to be one, you must lay your life down..." Dear friends, in our part of the world, especially in Nigeria, death is a serious thing and until recently, suicide was a NO NO to us. Our heroism will have to come through other forms of activities and actions but not intentional death. However, in this same Nigeria, when you see some actions and activities being performed by people during play, work, or whatsoever, you have to argue very seriously with yourself and finally agree that this is a suicide mission perceived otherwise.

Now let's get thinking; how would you describe the actions of this man in this picture? Suicidal or heroic! Perhaps bravery and daring! Well, I will tell you without being sarcastic that this is a suicide attempt and in a society where lives matter, charges ought to be filed against such a person for attempting to kill himself. But can you imagine what the bystanders and perhaps, other family members will be saying about this person...your guess is as correct as mine!

You may however be thinking again now (as would be expected) that perhaps this is not real...a possible photoshop or computer manipulation. Well, I have news for you if this is your thought now.
There are many more risky and (very highly risky) actions that people carry out today all in the name of work. I have personally seen so many that i have stopped counting and I am sure, a good number of people have seen worst cases of unsafe acts and at-risk behaviours. Sometimes, you need to take a good look at your surrounding and see what people do described as work and you will agree with me that this picture here could actually be a child's play to what you will observe.

Work has never meant death or suicide in any dictionary and definitely it is not the same. We work to improve our lives and this objective can only be achieved when people work safely, giving room to be a ble to work another day. This man is probably working or trying to perform a task but you and I know this is not right...a work is only done well if it is done safely.

Let us take this message to our society and preach the good news of safety...if it not safe, don't do it because there is always a time to do right and safe.