Safe behavior leads to safer work place

The summer months usually means employees plan vacations and time away from the office. Unfortunately, attention to safety can wane when trying to complete a project or experiment in order to get out the door.

Laboratory management this week were reminded during a Laboratory Information Meeting in the Administration Building Auditorium about the importance of attention to safety in the work place and at home, and that safety awareness is year-around at the Laboratory.

Individual behavior and safe work environments are crucial to maintaining safety. Workers often know what it is that needs to be done to keep safe, but they sometimes don't do what is required to stay safe. All Lab workers should be attentive to safety and managers should continue communicating the safety message to the work force in a positive way, managers were told.

One way to increase awareness of safety on the job is, before beginning work, think of the worst example of what might happen when not keeping safety in mind, and then plan work accordingly. This is one of the tenets of the five-step Integrated Safety Management (ISM) plan.

The five-step process is as follows:

• define the work
• analyze the hazards
• develop controls
• perform the work
• ensure performance.

The Laboratory is planning safety awareness sessions in September with managers and nonmanagement employees. The sessions will be given by a safety consultant; more information about the planned safety sessions will be publicized in the Daily Newsbulletin as information becomes available.

Additionally, nested safety committee in Laboratory organizations have been meeting to look at what actions the Laboratory, and the work force, can take to make their workplace safer. A spreadsheet has been compiled of actions that were sent forward as part of Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos' Director's Safety Initiative.

The Director's Safety Initiative was proposed at the January meeting of the Directors Central Safety and Security Meeting as a way to reinvigorate the nested safety committee process. The Director's Safety Committee thought that this was particularly important because of the ongoing increase in injuries resulting from daily work activities.

To read the Director's Safety Initiative spread sheet, click here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

For more information about integrated safety management and the five-step process, go to http://int.lanl.gov/safety/managing.shtml online.

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