PPE AND RISK REDUCTION

Risk assessment and risk reduction are the corner stones of a safety program. Both concepts are simple to understand but complex and difficult to implement. A trained safety official can assess a construction site for example, and recognize that there is a risk of something falling from a third floor and striking somebody below. But he cannot tell when something might fall, what might fall, or the angle at which it might strike someone. So he does what he can to reduce the risk of whatever might fall hurting a worker on the ground.

He can reduce the risk, he cannot eliminate it. Except for respiratory and hearing hazards, that can be measured and protected against with some degree of specificity, most risk can only be reduced, not eliminated. How does this relate to PPE? If a PPE buying decision maker knows that there is a PPE product available, that may be able to protect better than what he is buying, is he not taking a risk by not upgrading to it? Even if it is just the perception of better performance or the probability of better performance, is risk being reduced as much as possible if it is not used?

Consider head protection. Suppose a PPE buying decision maker does his OSHA required due diligence and has learned as much as possible about head protection and how the various designs perform. He will know that there are smooth crown caps and caps with ribs and slots; he will know that there are 8-point suspensions and 4 or 6 point suspensions and he will  form some idea of how each works and which would or could probably work better. His conclusions or perception can be fact based, logic based, or just his gut feel or instincts.

Even if he feels it is just the slightest probability or possibility that the smooth crown, 8-point could perform better, he should upgrade to it if his goal is to truly reduce risk as much as possible. Another way to look at it is he knows the cap he feels is better probably won't do any worse (they all have ANSI stickers), so there is no risk there, it could just do about the same, so there is no risk there, and it might just do better so there would be reduced risk in that circumstance.

As is any upgrade, there may be an additional initial investment. Suppose the cap he feels has the potential to reduce the risk of injury requires an investment of an additional $10.00 per cap. Based on an average work year of about 220 days, that is about 4 cents a day investment in an extra margin of protection.

Wearing PPE reduces the risk of injury and/or the severity of injury when an accident occurs. Making sure you provide what you believe has the best probability or likelihood of providing the most protection reduces risk even more.
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WARNING: Any hazard analysis and risk assessment should only be done by trained, experienced safety officials.The evaluation and selection of PPE should only be done in accordance with OSHA Guidelines by trained, experienced safety officials. This blog is intended for informational purposes only. Any reference to a specific design is for reference only and is not an endorsement of any specific design or product nor a statement of suitability for any purpose. Please read this blog post "IMPORTANT NOTICE" dated February 8, 2011 for addition warnings and disclaimers.