MRO Today - The issue is safety

The issue is safety

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Safety directors will tell you, horror stories are one of the most effective ways to drive home the importance of properly using personal protective equipment. Many times, the way to a plant worker's brain is through a queasy stomach.

Grisly tales, videos and photos of plant workers losing body parts when improperly wearing PPE, or not wearing it at all, open eyes and ears (and an occasional barf bag). But stories recounting how proper usage saved life and limb can be just as effective.

At Haynes International in Kokomo, Ind., a beat-up hard hat is passed around during safety orientation classes. It serves as a prop for an incredible tale.

In 1997, a 52-pound chunk of metallic waste dropped 20 feet from an overhead transportation system onto a worker's head. Emergency crews were immediately summoned. But the worker, who was wearing the hard hat, sustained only a minor cut to his scalp.

"Considering the severity of the accident, we were all amazed," says plant safety manager Steve Fischer. "There's no question about it; his hard hat saved his life."

Ha-Keem Stanton, a welder for Fluor Daniel in Jacksonville, Fla., was just as smart, and just as lucky.

In 1999, an air hose powering a co-worker's pneumatic impact wrench broke free and began to whip violently. A hefty metal attaching mechanism turned the hose's end into a potentially deadly weapon.

Stanton, unaware of the danger around him, was hit squarely in the face by the hose end. Workers who came to his aid were afraid of what they would find. But the only real damage was to his safety glasses. One of the stems was bent, but the lenses, which absorbed the impact, did not shatter.

Stanton says that a few days prior to the incident, he had switched from wearing small, sunglass-style eyewear to a variety that offered more protection and exceeded American National Standards Institute requirements.

"If I'd had those (other) glasses on, I would've definitely lost an
eye," he says.

The point is this: Mishaps do occur. But listening to safety specialists (plant safety directors, and manufacturer or distributor reps) and using appropriate personnel protective equipment can reduce the chance of serious injury or death in the event of a mishap.

I hope this issue of MRO Today helps you become a smarter and safer plant manager or employee.

This article appeared in the August/September 2000 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2000.