Safety Rule Book

It is advantageous to have a copy of the safety and health policy of the organization reproduced in the safety rule book. This helps during the safety induction process and also serves as an ongoing reminder of the safety cnltnre of the organization. 

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Hazardous reactions are pointed out in specific cases. In addition general safety rules for work with fluorine and fluorinated agents are thoroughly discussed on pages 25 and 26 of this book and on pages 13 and 14 in the 1976/1992 editions. 

Many organizations that have evolved over a long period of time come to believe that the system of safety rules that they have developed is invulnerable to human error. The existence of a "rule book" culture can produce a complacent attitude which assumes that if the rules are followed then accidents are impossible. This is based on the belief that a rigid set of rules will cover every contingency and that interpretation by individuals to cover imanticipated situations will never be required. Of course, all rules will at some time require such interpretation, and the need for this should be accepted and built into the system. 

Rule Book Culture An organization in which management or workers believe that all safety problems can be resolved by rigid adherence to a defined set of rules. 

We finish this section with a list of basic safety rules for laboratory work. Most of these rules wiU become better understood as you study various other chapters in this book. However, this is a good place to start so that you can get into a chemistry laboratory and function safely. 

The CSB web site is an excellent source for reading thorough reports about major chemical accidents. It is often the case that the list of what went wrong is, in retrospect, a list of completely preventable errors and usually there are several errors that act in combination to lead to catastrophic events. All of this can be applied to much smaller, academic lab projects, however. Applying the basic questions of PHA to all laboratory experiments will prevent accidents and incidents almost 100% of the time. Reading through the various incidents that serve as introductions to most sections of this book invariably leads to the observations that that could have easily been prevented if basic safety rules had been followed. 

Most companies have rules about safety and health for employees, customers, products, and use of equipment. These may take several forms policy statements, rule books, operating procedures and manuals, assembly or maintenance... 

The Board s instructions defining operating, technical and engineering standards (e.g. The Rule Book, General Appendix, Working Manual and all Codes of Practice) form an integral part of this Safety Policy. 

BRB therefore provided a general mission statement about corporate commitment to occupational health and safety and it set up very broad guidance about how this intention could be translated into action. But the actual implementation was very much left to each department. Beyond this the company s rule books and manuals served as additional safety devices. Indeed these were the traditional means of incorporating health and safety into everyday... 

A wide range of documentary sources of health and safety information were referred to by those interviewed. The most frequently mentioned were as shown in Table 6.1. In addition to these, a variety of other documents were mentioned by just a few respondents, including the legislation, departmental instructions, safety data sheets, weekly notices, and posters. Managers were the most likely to refer to Board and local policy statements whereas most members of the workforce and safety representatives who could refer to documentary sources most frequently mentioned the rule book. Supervisors referred to five main documentary sources which in descending order of frequency were local policy documents health and safety booklets the rule book BRB policy and policy booklets . 

This group varied in their expectations five of the directors interviewed expected all staff to have some knowledge of the company s health and safety policies. In particular, they hoped that all staff would know the broad statement of responsibilities and overall philosophy of the policy statements. Three hoped for a much more detailed response from all levels of staff, for example, they expected reference to both the Board policy statement and local policy statements, the rule book, safety manuals, and the existence of safety representatives. The two other directors adopted a minimalist approach. Neither was very concerned about all staff having a detailed knowledge of the policies. One hoped that managers would know about the policies in some detail. But both were much more concerned that the staff knew what they should be doing and that they did it safely. Their emphasis was much more upon the rule book and line management... 

Departmental safety managers held fairly unanimous expectations. They hoped that staff were aware of the policies and could give a broad statement of the general principles contained in the policy documents. The documents they expected staff to refer to varied. Three expected reference to the Board s policy statement and three hoped that the local policy document would be cited. One considered the local policy document to be the most important document for all staff while another would not have been concerned if staff did not mention it at all, although he would prefer that they knew the spirit of the document. This manager regarded the rule book as the major document and hoped that this would be mentioned as a bare minimum by everyone. 

Safety managers were divided over what they expected staff to be aware of. Two thought that staff would know the policies and rules, the other two were less confident and believed it unlikely that staff would know the policies. One thought that whereas staff might know the policies and rule book when they joined the railways, they probably did not know them any longer. He stressed the importance of refresher courses which were mentioned as important in this context by three of the four safety managers. 

When the workforce were asked the more general question Have you ever ignored a health and safety regulation or the rule book higher levels of non-compliance were admitted to. Seventy-six per cent of those interviewed admitted that they had ignored a health and safety regulation or the rule book. ... 

R To do my job. Now if I make the system work, or I make a cock-up somewhere, the rule book will come back up to me, so the rule book only works in one direction, (safety representative, interviewee 22)... 

In addition to the interviews, documentary sources were also consulted. For example, corporate safety policies, rule books, and training materials were examined and where possible I was given access to statistical data such as they were. But the main source of data remained the interview transcripts which provided such a rich source of information and a testament to the time and honesty accorded to the research by BR and most importantly by its staff and also the unions. 

In this book, I talk a lot about the differences between compliance safety and continuous improvement safety. As noted, compliance safety is a requirement driven by OSHA and a company s internally written safety rules and regulations. Because of my work history, I am aware of many OSHA requirements, but I am quick to tell clients and workshop attendees that I do not... 

This aspect involves the use of rule books and/or health and safety manuals. It has been said that many company health and safety rules are written in blood, in that much safety improvement work is carried out, and health and safety rules written, as a direct result of accidents and occupational disease. On the other hand, there is a danger of health and safety rules becoming too unwieldy and onerous. Too many rules can be just as dangerous as too few and they must, therefore, be specific and appropriate to the people involved. The following steps should be observed ... 

With this in mind the safety rules contained within this book have been formulated to assist and protect you and your business. They were revised to keep up with the latest technological developments, changing conditions, and improvements in equipment and procedures as well as the requirements set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). 

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