Safety in the Shadows

Near miss incidents have often been referred to as Safety in the Shadows, because this is where the heart of the accident problem lies. Near miss incidents offer management an opportunity to rectify a system breakdown before an accident happens. Because there are no losses as a result of an undesired event does not necessarily mean that the event is insignificant. Risk assessment of near miss incidents will determine which ones warrant a full investigation. This will help to track and eliminate the source of the problem at the root. 

Just because an injury is minor does not mean that the event that caused the injury was minor. The event should be investigated and the potential and probability of recurrence evaluated. The next similar event may have far worse consequences due to luck factors. (Remember, under slightly different circumstances. ..) 

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It should be emphasized that the only difference between a near miss incident and a hit (exchange of energy) is luck. Numerous writers have come to the same conclusion. These include Bird and Germain (1966), H. W. Heinrich (1931), W. E. Tarrants (1980), Petersen (1997), and others. Yet, the safety profession seems to ignore this valuable information. Safety can only be successful if near miss incidents are viewed as the true safety in the shadows, and are identified, reported, and acted upon. 

Smith, S. L. 1994. Near-misses Safety in the shadows. Occupational Hazards 33-36. 

With so much information and work that has culminated in this book, numerous people need to be thanked. I would like to thank the industrialists and miners that I have dealt with over the past 38 years. I learned industrial safety from them and a great deal about near miss incidents from their near miss investigation systems and from their experiences in dealing with the aspect of safety in the shadows. ... 

Studies and reviews sponsored by the manufacturer of tibolone have over many decades argued that, as one reviewer puts it, tibolone may provide a safer alternative to traditional hormone replacement therapy , but even this review adds that the impact of tibolone on the risk of breast cancer or cardiovascular and thromboembolic events is not well defined (2). Bearing in mind that these are precisely the questions that have cast a shadow over other forms of hormone replacement therapy, this is a serious defect in the evidence about the drug s safety it is possible that the extent of use of tibolone has been insufficient to provide well-documented answers. 

Seciuity is on the mind of every citizen of Planet Earth, and these concerns are closely tied to events in the Middle East. The political and economic climate currently shared by Middle Eastern nations is grave, and casts a shadow over the safety of everyone in the world. Events in the region burst into violence daily, consuming lives and resources while threatening a far wider conflagration. 

Because those who had designed the control structure recognized the potential for some distance to develop between the training of the AWACS crew members and the continually evolving practice in the no-fly zone (another example of asynchronous evolution of the safety control structure), they had instituted a control by creating staff or instructor personnel permanently stationed in lUrkey. Their job was to help provide continuity for U.S. AWACS crews who rotated through OPC on temporary duty status, usually for thirty-day rotations. This shadow crew flew with each new AWACS crew on their first mission in the TAOR to alert them as to how things were really done in OPC. Their job was to answer any questions the new crew... 

The redesign of the safety department included the appointment of a local who was appointed as the shadow manager SHE. The intention was for him to shadow the SHE manager and be developed to take over as SHE manager, which he did after a year. The restructuring process also allowed for the appointment of two safety trainees to ensure that local employees were being apprenticed in safety for the future needs of the organization. In the past, mostly security personnel were transferred to the safety department. The first Arab female safety trainee was appointed to one of these positions, and she became the second female safety professional in the country. 

A local person was appointment as the shadow manager for the SHE department and was placed on a fast-track development program to take over for the SHE manager within a year in an effort to develop and promote local talent. Two safety trainees were selected and appointed as safety apprentices and put on a 2-year developmait program leading up to the position of safety coordinator. The first Arab female safety trainee was appointed. 

FIG. 5.2. MSHA s FATALGRAM foregrounds two miners (on their knees) and prc.scnts two others as. shadow-like objects in the background as a massive block of rock falls on their head. Source U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Metal and Nonmetal Mine Safety and Health (1991c),... 

Ensuring alarms claimed as an IPL in Event 6 of Table 7 are completely independent of the Safety Instrumented Function (i.e., separate DCS oontrollers are utilized for the control funotions, alarm functions, and the shadowing functions of the BPCS)... 

Laser triangulators Relative simplicity Performance generally independent of ambient light High data acquisition rate Safety constraint associated with the use of lasts source Limited range and measurement volume Missing data in correspondence with occlusions and shadows Cost... 

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