Statement of Top Priorities

The committee recognizes that, by current standards, these recommendations will require a significant investment in reference materials for fhe ocean sciences. While such an investmenf is warranted, and the consequent gains to the ocean sciences will fully justify such expenditures, there is a need to assign additional priority to a subset of these materials to guide future planning. 

The use of appropriate reference materials should be a key feature of the quality assurance/quality control structure in any future ocean science project involving chemical measurement. Reference materials use should be explicitly addressed in the project planning stages, proposals, and publications. 

It is essential to develop and maintain a searchable, user-friendly database that ocean scientists can access to learn about those reference materials that are of particular interest to their research. 

It is essential to encourage the presentation of short courses on the best way to use reference materials to ensure quality control of analytical measurements in conjunction with national meetings for ocean scientists. 

It is important that round-robin exercises be organized using materials and analytes relevant to the ocean sciences and that laboratories be encouraged to participate, even at an early stage in their experience with the relevant analytical techniques. 

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The various reference materials described above are listed together in Box 6.1. Each of these is considered by the committee to have the potential for significant impact on an important area of ocean science and, as such, is assigned a high priority (however, see Statement of Top Priorities below). 

On the other hand, factor 2 indicates that when the top management in the company manages to communicate safety as priority, the crew also prioritizes safety in their daily work (SE2, SE3 SE6, Table 14). If safety is to be a priority, is not enough to just have an official statement of safety it should be supported by actions, such as supporting the crew with enough manpower and other equipment as they deem necessary for safety reasons, and not only emphasize measures that are low cost. 

Safety Policies Part of a policy manual is safety policy. Usually, it starts with a statement placing safety as one of the top priorities of the company. The statement may identify safety for employees, customers, visitors, and the community. The policy may cover operations, practices, products, and services. It may state overall safety goals. 

Does the mission statement of your industry reflect an overarching concern for production and quality Is safety considered a priority (instead of a value) that gets shifted when production quotas are emphasized Is safety viewed as a top-down condition of employment rather than an employee-driven process supported by management Are safety programs handed down to employees with directives to "implement per instructions" rather than "customize for your work area" ... 

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