As promised, the papers from the Expert Ease International Symposium are now on-line.  You can obtain them from this link:

 http://www.web-safety.com/kosha/ 

and click on "World Safety" on the left sidebar.

The paper that I presented to the IOSH symposium, "Corporate Governance, The Role of the Safety Professional" can be downloaded by clicking on "Governance Paper" on the same left sidebar.  A video of this presentaion is also available at this link, but it takes time to download it, so be patient.

Once you have read and or viewed them, feel free to comment here or on the forum o fthe IAST network,  http://my428.net/clubs/iast/ 

Philip

Well Congress is over, but what a ride it has been this week.  The Risk Management - A Failed Paradigm symposium that we ran yesterday morning was a roaring success, the room was packed with about 70 people who stayed the full session and half stayed beyond with myself and the other speakers swamped with questions, requests for papers and more discussion.  If we had another 1 or 2 hours we could have filled the time very well with discussion and debate.  This doesn't often happen  but Rakesh said that not only did it happen at another session he attended but a number of people with whom he was debating turned up for our session.

I was pleased that representatives from two of the congress' organising bodies turned up, ILO and KOSHA and more so when they approached us afterwards for more information on our papers.

Thanks to Eldeen Pozniac, President of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers who arrived at the beginning to wish us all the best.  Unfortunately she was presenting at another symposium and wasn't able to stay for the discussions, it would have been good to have her input.  But we appreciated her well wishes.

Took a trip out to the Incheon Bridge project.  This is some project, especialy when viewed from a tiny boat underneath the rising cable pylons.  Rain and choppy sea aside, it was a trip worth the discomfort and our hosts were more than generous giving a detailed overview of the technology and engineering that is going into the building of this suberb structure.  

It was good to meet up with Geoff and we'll send you the photographs after we get home.  

We're on our travels again, a bit of sightseeing this afternoon  and on to the airport.  I'll post all our session papers in a few days and invite everyone who wishes to continue the discussions to join us in the International Association for Strategic Thought network.

Thanks to all whom we met this week, and best wishes for your respective journeys home,

Philip 

Today’s symposium did not go without a hitch or two, not least that we had to re-arrange the seating at the commencement of proceedings to ensure that groups of chairs were available for the workshop that was included in the program.  Rakesh took this element of the session and assisted participants through a systems analysis exercise in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the model in building an understanding the underpinning or root problems facing an organisation and the need to resolve it in a holistic fashion.  I know that the results of this exercise will form the basis of a paper that IOSH will produce later in the year.

Joel Maline gave a presentation on transforming safety management systems into health management systems.  Health management has been one of the bigger themes of this congress with a number of bodies making presentations, (my blog yesterday refers to one particular session).    The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the Swedish TUC and the Council for Negotiation and Co-operation have produced a guide to the systematic work environment management with particular reference to work-place stress.  The book contains several sections loaded with questions for consideration on matters such as work environment, workload and work-life balance.  

Not at the high end of workplace hazards, but it was reported that 50 million people in Europe experience mental health problems annually, thus making the topic one of major concern to governments and EU OSHA.  Get further information from www.prevent.se

Corporate Governance

The Expert Ease paper on Corporate Governance was delivered today to a smaller than anticipated audience.  It will be published later this week on www.web-safety.com, when I have access to the resources to up-load it to our website.  What has surprised me about the congress was how much of the objectives of the Seoul Declaration and the debates in congress have gelled around some of the key themes of our paper.  This was not intentional, more a bit of the ripening of ideas.  None-the-less the contextualising of the OSH professional within the contradictions afflicting globalisation dropped a big chunk of meat on the laps of the participants.  I trust that the debates in the coming months on the concepts raised will prove interesting and fruitful.

If my ugly mug has been properly captured I also hope to have a video of the presentation too.  Watch this space.

Competence

Met up with Steve McRoberts tonight.  He is on the panel for the Expert ease symposium tomorrow and we had a great opportunity to discuss some of the issues that are to be raised.  If it weren’t for his cold we would probably still be arguing the point out.  Whatever else tomorrow brings, it will be an exciting discussion.  Here’s an abstract, the paper will follow later:-

Health and Well-being, A Contradiction of Global Proportions

Day two had some interesting variations and contradictions compared to yesterday.  One of the topics today was well-being and health and how corporations and governments in unison can meet their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (It’s not what you think guys at home).  On the basis that a healthy workforce is a healthy company the topic was explored from the point of view that recognising ill health stressors and implementing remedial actions before workers become unwell, then a company can maintain a healthy work force, maintain productivity and thus profitability. Workers in good health, secure in their jobs, with a wage at the end of the week and “empowered” by the act of their employers giving them access to beneficial health services would not therefore be subject to stress and the resulting illnesses and diseases.

To this end services such as free screening for unseen illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension lead to them being caught early and the worker treated with the likelihood of 80% success.  Sounds good, and in economies where access to health services is costly this would appear to be of benefit.

But other suggestions that where nutrition was a stressor leading to inability to work effectively for the requisite daily period or at the requisite daily rate of work, suggestions such as providing the worker with a daily rice allowance or a voucher of specified food shops rankled. Several thoughts sprang to mind; not least that this was an attitude that only the very well off would think was a good idea.  A starving worker may take the rice but that does not mean that he will either be thankful for it or feel empowered because of it.

Rice, in sufficient quantities to meet the basic nutritional needs of the individual has a use value (they can eat it) but has no exchange value, who would want it other than another starving individual, who has nothing to give in exchange anyway.

Payment by way of cash, albeit of a value equal to the rice allowance, has an exchange value.  A portion may be set aside for the rice, even at below the daily nutritional requirements, and the remainder set aside for accumulation to buy clothing, fuel, rent etc.

By no means do I advocate such a subsistence wage but a wage by way of cash is preferable to a wage by way of rice or voucher.   To suggest that the well being of workers in developing countries can be met by empowering them with rice allowance fails to appreciate even the basics of economics and reverts the world to the days of the charitable and religious employers where whole communities found work in family factories but were tied to the houses, shops and social facilities provided by the employer.  In the 21^st century we are not marking progress when this is the best that some of our “top” thinkers and most influential bodies can come up with. 

Yesterday we were told that the contradictions in globalised economies have led to fierce competition between global corporations, reducing rates of profit and thus unfair rules and wages, insecurity in employment and reduced working conditions.  If the global bodies such as ILO and the European commission recognise this then they should recognise too that the patrimony advanced by the above proposals serve only to lead back to a period when servitude existed, built on relations between master and servant, the latter tied to and expected to be grateful for the leavings of the former’s table.

Some interesting ideas were raised in thus discussion, unfortunately in the context of the above all ideas lost credibility and this was one workshop that is best forgotten about, but for the fact that 70 multinationals and 25 governments are already involved.  Going back to yesterdays debate that workplace conditions and safety are a fundamental human right, it would seem that the struggle for those human rights is commencing further down the ladder than one might have imagined.

We` may be smug in the UK and Ireland but let’s not forget that there are proposals being considered that social welfare may again be doled out in the way of food vouchers, education vouchers, even child care vouchers.  Replace exchange values with use values and the workforce becomes immobile, dis-empowered, and totally dependent upon a modern form of noblesse oblige.

Greetings

Let me get some greetings in here.  Brian, if you are reading this, we have met up with Eldeen and she sends her best wishes.  I understand that you have been singing our praises and to reciprocate we have told her how wonderful you are.  For that let’s exchange a couple of pints over the summer.

We have met up with Ray and he wants to pass on his thanks to the NI Branch of IOSH for the reception we gave him last month, he enjoyed the meeting and holding the elections.

Tomorrow I give a presentation at the IOSH symposium on Corporate Governance and then facilitate one of the workshops.  The paper has gained a greater relevance on the basis that the Seoul Declaration on Safety goes to the heart of human rights with employers, governments and employee bodies required to play significant parts in the attainment of those rights.  It may be the weekend before I can get the paper online but once it is there, the debate will continue.

I look forward to any comments any reader has on any aspect of our participation in and interpretation of events at the World Congress.  Add them by clicking below.

Philip 

Human Rights Tops the Agenda

The Seoul declaration on Safety was signed yesterday and this will direct the work of the ILO, ISSA governments, employers and employee organisations over the next three years. 

Seoul Declaration link

See also Promotional Framework for OSH Convention, Geneva 2006

link

The significant element that came out in the introductory speeches by most of the key players was that the safety and health of the workforce was a human rights issue as enshrined in the UN Declaration on Human Rights.  

UN Declaration on Human Rights link

This approach changes everything about how we deal with health and safety at work; it can no longer be seen as an adjunct to the work process that can be added to or subtracted from the work process according to how well the bottom line is doing. As a human rights issue it is incumbent upon governments to have in place the appropriate mechanisms for ensuring that employers are safeguarding their workforces and that any failing on their part is rapidly picked up via robust monitoring and oversight measures.  This means that were there are frequent and recurrent incidents nationally that adversely effect the safety and health of the workforce there arises the possibility that the government can be charges with human rights abuses in as much as it has failed to ensure that employers exercise their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the Seoul and UN declarations.

This poses interesting legal considerations, the state is held liable for the failings of employers within its national territory.  Any solicitors out there who want to debate this, feel free to add your thoughts to this blog; and if you want to make a case itself, there are 2.3 million families out there who have lost loved ones through workplace failings in the past year (latest ILO estimates).

Let’s Make the Case for the Workers

The opening address by the president of KOSHA stated that the congress will be exploring four topics,

•  The future
•  The impact of prevention strategies on safety,
• New challenges and
• OSHMS.

Within this it was suggested that safety went beyond class and was a societal issue, where we all had our part to play, workers and employers, governments and members of society.   On the face of it this would seem to be a rational approach, and the parties to the Safety Summit all seemed to be in general agreement (hence their ability to sign the declaration).  But it seems to me that the safety issue is not beyond class, but is in fact very much a class issue.  Last year 2.3 million workers died as a result of workplace accidents and ill health; workers not managers, and certainly not Board members. 

There was much here that should have impelled the ITUC to at least an emotive and heartfelt appeal to the trades unions around the world to take on the issue of worker safety in a radical and dynamic way, organising and impelling their members to demand that their fundamental human rights are met.  Unfortunately not, there was little in his opening speech that could be remembered, unlike another trade union colleague at the ISSA conference in Brazil in 2006 who didn’t miss and hit the wall with his speech.  Conversely it was the International Organisation of Employers who called for collective action to improve workplace safety and health, now there’s a reversal of roles in the struggle for worker’s emancipation.

The ILO has called for all workers to be informed of their right to decent work and of the prevention strategies that are developed by congress and the various bodies that go to make up congress.  Opening congress, Assane Diop, ILO Exec Director, stated that legislation on its own, essential though it was, was not enough and that the introduction of OSHMS:2001 was critical to the process, indeed was the defining reference with regard to bringing market systems under control and protecting workers’ rights. 

In the 21^st century economic globalisation with unfair rules is reversing any gains made in the latter part of the 20^th century.  The ILO objective is Decent Work with Social Justice and in that regard the ability of all workers to participate effectively in the achievement of these objectives they need to be armed with information about their human rights, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the Decent Work Agenda in order that they can direct and control the changes necessary for the achievement of safe and healthy workplaces.

Here are some figures to contemplate

• 40 million people join the workforce every year
• Every three minutes someone dies at work
• 2.3 million people die annually as a result of workplace accidents and illness
• ILO figures in 1999 put this number at 1 million
• More workers die each year from workplace incidents than from war
• 270 million additional workers annually suffer from workplace ill-health
• 140 million additional workers annually suffer serious workplace accidents
• 80% of workers have an inadequate or no social security protection
• 50% of workplace accidents take place in the Asia/Pacific region
• 4% of the world GDP is lost through workplace accidents and ill health (i.e. $2.18 trillion USD) - IMF source
  
• Globalisation has raised productivity but at the cost of safety and quality of work conditions

And finishing up on the Opening Ceremony Han Seung-Soo, Korean Prime Minister pointed out that as far as the economy was concerned the world was borderless and that for every workers rights to be respected and protected it was incumbent upon all countries to co-operate for worker safety and world peace. 

Now there’s a connection worthy of consideration..

For the “Ban It All” Brigade

It is often argues, at least in the UK, that health and safety is not about banning activities, but about finding sensible solutions and allowing activities to proceed.  But when it came to cigarettes this dictum did not apply and Ban Them was the order of the day, and legislation that did that was greatly welcomed.

The idea that there could be an alternative, especially to the “problem” of environment tobacco smoke (2^nd hand or passive smoking to you and me), just didn’t seem to be worthy of consideration.  In Korea local extraction fans are provided at tables in cafes and restaurants to extract the smoke from tabletop bar-b-ques, a device that certainly generates more smoke than those nasty cigarettes.  A neat technical and adult solution to allow smokers to contaminate their own lungs in peace without the worry of polluting their neighbours.

Research taken to its limits

It’s worth noting some of the research activities carried out in the name of safety. Here’s one on the safety of working on flat surfaces after working on sloped rooves.

Objective:

“More research is desperately needed to quantify the existence of a relationship between real roof work duration of exposure to sloped surfaces and follow-on stability of flat surfaces”.

Conclusion:

“A greater postural sway and instability on flat surfaces exists after working on the steeper surface”.

And

“Give the [worker] 20 minutes recovery period before moving into heavy manual materials handling tasks or activities”.

Feel free to comment on this and any other blog entry by clicking on the comment button below.

More tomorrow, Philip.

I chaired a seminar of the Buildsafe NI Initiative this morning.  It was the fourth in a series of six scheduled throughout the north of Ireland this summer and I must say that the speakers had some very innovative ideas for the development of safety in construction sites, ideas that have been tried, tested and shown to work in practice.

Peter Dew of Laing O’Rourke, for example, talked about construction without the use of scaffold.  It sounds strange, maybe even incredible that major projects can be constructed without the use of scaffold, and maybe even his people thought so at first, but they did it, and he had the photographs to prove it.

In essence rebar work was constructed on the flat and on trestles (to keep it off the ground and minimise bending by operatives).  Once completed it was jacked into place and tying off was conducted from MEWPs.  Later sandblasting of the finished wall was conducted from cherry pickers.  A kilometre of 12m high wall constructed without the use of scaffold… it can be done.  All it took was a decision not to use scaffold and then the ideas for a suitable and appropriate solution followed.

Use of mobile phones came up for discussion too.  There was some evidence that in several serious accidents including fatalities, the mobile phone was a factor.  It distracts and people’s concentration is on the call/text message and not what is going on around them.  In some cases users of the phone are blocking out all other sounds in order to hear the caller, including warning sounds from reversing vehicles.

In the UK drivers are no longer permitted to use the phone whilst driving.  Did this mean that phones are also to be banned on site?  Not at all.  As it was pointed out, OSH is not about banning things but about assessing situations and arriving at appropriate solutions.  So the solution arrived at by several companies was to have dedicated phone-zones, especially for business related calls, and permitted phone times for social calls, all in safe places and safe times. 

Incentives for reporting were raised, again by Peter.  This often causes problems as incentives can cause under-reporting, especially when there are rewards for lowering the number of incidents reported, or over reporting if the incentive was for the act of reporting itself.  Peter’s scheme was different.  Yes, everyone who reported an unsafe act was given a free breakfast, but the following day they were asked to highlight the incident at a site briefing and to suggest how they would have handled the situation if they had been in the situation.  A good approach and one that worked well whenever everyone was encouraged from the commencement of their employment with the company to have a real say in the way safety and health was managed throughout the company.

Competence

It comes up all the time in OSH seminars and conferences, and this morning was no different.  It was emphasised strongly by all speakers that competent workers with access to on-going training is essential to the success of safety and health practices on sites.  One speaker went on to say that all his employees, from site labourer to director are safety officers with access to a group of nine in-house advisors who are called on when needed.  Another stated something similar but pointed towards the company using external specialists when they did not have that particular specialism in-house.

This was good.  There is a growing recognition that the competent worker is one who is skilled, has the resources and, as importantly, can make the necessary decisions about his/her work, and the right people are then making the decisions.

For more information on BuildSafe NI and its corollary BuildHealth NI go to:-

http://www.cpdni.gov.uk/index/guidance-for-suppliers/buildsafe.htm

http://www.buildhealthni.com/

It is only a week to go before I board the plane for the World Congress of OSH in Korea.  It doesn't seem three years since I picked up the information about the congress in Florida, but there you go, time flies when you are having fun.  This will be the third congress that I have attended but the first in which I am an active participant in not one but two symposia.

Expert Ease International has been invited to organise a symposium and we have a put together a panel of international speakers to discuss the relevancy of Risk Management in the current and future developement of OSH management systems.  There are several papers being presented that draw on experiences of workers and managers from as far afield as Australia and Brazil, South Africa and Europe.  The papers will be published immediately after Congress, but you can get a flavour of what will be discussed at

http://www.safety2008korea.org/eng/program/pro_symposia01_03.jsp

Look up Symposium 38 on Wednesday Morning, Risk Management - A Failed Paradigm?

The second symposium that I will participate in is on the Tuesday afternoon, symposium 31, IOSH.  I will be presenting a paper on Corporate Governance and the Role of the Safety Professional; again this will be published after the congress.

There are a number of contradictions that pervade the notion of effective governance and the safety professional exposes some of them, particulary when, as a function of management, their role conflicts with the notion that a competent company is composed of proficient decision making employees.  I will explore these issues in the paper and hopefully generate some keen debate on the matter.

The key aspect of the congress is the Safety and Health Summit which will take plac eon Sunday 29th June and at which 50 leaders and decision makers will reflect of workplace safety and health and a basic human right and thereby gain some measure of political committment  to raising OSH higher on national political and economic agendas.

It is important that it does achieve an elevated position in government thinking and action.  With 2.2 million workers dying each year as a result of workplace accidents and illnesses and a further 270,000,000 experiencing non-fatal 3-Days + accidents and 160,000,000 new cases of workplace related illnesses occuring each year, it is something that should be at the top of the agenda, not just near it.

If you want to look at it in purely monetary terms, these accidents and illnesses cost the world US$ 2.6 trillion, i.e. 4% of the world GDP.  And that should put OSH at the top of the economic agenda.

None of this talks about the direct effect accidents and illnesses have on the immediate families and friends of those killed, injured or made sick.  By some estimates, half the population of the world knows someone who has suffered as a result of workplace accidents and illnesses, and that makes it all our business.

As the congress opens and progresses I'll feedback information on the sessions that I attend and whatever information that I can get my hands on regarding other sessions.  Meanwhile have a look at the congress web-site: 

http://www.safety2008korea.org/eng/invitation/inv_kos.jsp

Philip

Well we have set up our stand at the NSC expo in Chicago and are all set to go tomorrow morning.  I will post details of the event and exhibits as we see them this week, all things new and innovative.

To kick off, for those in road worker safety, saw a sign on the way into the city yesterday warning drivers that if the hit a worker (presumably with their car) they stand to lose $10,000 in fines AND up to 14 years jail time.  Try that warning on the Westlink.

Anyway, off for a drink and check that the IT is ready for tomorrow,

Philip

Part 2:  Monday 15th Day 1 of the Congress and Expo.

 Oh My poor feet ;-) After a day standing it's good to have a sit down and a cool one.  Mind you if I had planned it properly I would have visited one of the many vendors who sell floor mats for machine operators, or better still one of those guys who sell overshoes that look like deep shag carpet and keep your poor feet comfy all day.  But too late, I'll just have to sit here supping until the feet are better or too numb for me to notice.

Over the years of attending he show I have been impressed by the number of vendors selling PPE and have often asked the question, is PPE as the third level of protection being elevated above such controls as elimination and then hazard control (mechanical, procedures and competence)?  The question hasn't been answered, and the Expo is probably not the place for it to be answered.  Anyody out there with any thoughts on this vexing matter?

I suspect that the answer will not be that PPE is relegating other controls but that when PPE is required, the quality of what you use is paramount, as well as the suitability, and certainly there is some high quality stuff here.

And some mighty unusual stuff too.  The big ugly shoe was on display again.  Anyone who wants to walk around with a great big spring for a heel can get it here, and to all intents and purpose it is a very comfortable shoe, if not the prettiest.  And if you have big feet, how about a boot that is two stories tall (a bit like this story).  Old Mother Hubbard, eat your heart out.

Congratulations to Terry and all the guys at Conspace on your recent acquisition.  It's good to hear that you are going from strength to strength.  These guys know their stuff when it comes to communications systems, especially in high hazard environments and confined spaces.

Its not all safety here.  Turned a corner in the Expo hall and foud a booth selling gold jewellry.  Who says you can't look good wearing PPE?  Nor indeed with cell phone earpieces.  Whatever it may do to your brain, you can now get them looking like a piece of jewellry too, and that's cool.  Too many cyborgs around with high-tech in their ears

On the issue of design.  I'm really miffed.  Not least because we spent all summer designing a new display stand, and then a small fortune getting it printed, but when you watch a guy use a marker on a flip chart sheet produce a sign that he sellotaped to his stand and then spend all day snowed under with customers, you begin to wonder.  I wonder too what the marketing guys at the DMA expo and conference  further down would make of that.  Anyway, best of luck to him.  If it works, great.

Well, we're in Chicago so we're not staying all night in the bar blogging.  Buddy Guy's place is around the corner, what more need I say ...

Until tomorrow,

 Philip and Tony

Tuesday 16th

Just finished a great day at the Expo.  It was very busy compared to yesterday, especially this morning.  We guys on the booths are pleased with the NSC’s policy of setting a dedicated session for Expo only, it works great and visitors have plenty of time to come and see us.

OSHA top ten was announced, those violations that were most common in the past year.  We had many familiar areas, electrical control, powered industrial vehicles, machine guarding, Lock out, respiratory protection, fall protection, Hazcom and top of the pops scaffolding.

What is surprising is that the show is full of products, services, training and compliance programs to ensure that these violations are a thing of the past; so what is the problem?  Certainly there is the intellectual and technological capability to ensure that these failures should not have happened, so does it mean that the issue of compliance falls to employee and management competence?  It would be wrong to suggest that workers, managers and companies are not competent to do their business/jobs, and not everyone is just plain greedy and uncaring about their workforce.  Safety properly exercised will not cost a company, but will reap plenty of benefits.  So what prevents the exercise of competence? 

At the moment I’m plumping for the option that the person carrying out the job does not always hold the decision-making authority.  There is a dichotomy between those who do the work and those who decide what is to be done and how it is to be done.  In those circumstances there arises confusion at best and a direct conflict at worst between doers and deciders that results in failure and that in turn leads to injury and fatality.

So what am I doing out here selling safety products if the problem is not in the absence product but in something else?  Well I’m not going to dig that hole for myself.  There’s always room for newer and better products and services; what is important is that those of us who produce them should know also where the problem lies and provide guidance to buyers on these issues.

We came across another issue around globalisation.  Global companies, with operations in many countries on all continents have problems with establishing fully integrated systems under central control when their businesses are crossing cultural, judicial, language and even script boundaries.  The simple solution would be to run parallel systems but that fails when the systems must interface because the workforces interface, as in immigrant labour working alongside people from the host country.  Dual language systems are probably least problematic, certainly in countries with along history of multilingual populations.  But this is problematic for countries where this is a new issue and much can be learned from neighbours who have already worked out solutions.

On the other hand, countries working for the first time in multilingual situations have the opportunity to begin to develop innovative alternative solutions unhampered by older, possibly inappropriate solutions.  I won’t say that Expert Ease has the solutions, yet, but we are working on it…

And talking of innovative solutions, I saw one today that is great for fire extinguisher training that negates the need to light fires and allow inexperienced trainees to wallop them with real fire extinguishers.  Electronic fire with microwave extinguishers.  Dale, William, if you are reading this I’ll give you more info when I catch up with you next month. 

That’s it for another day folks.  There’s party going on all around me and it’s a bit nerdish writing this with that happening, so see you all soon,

Philip and Tony

Day 3: - Final day

Always the quiet day at this show when exhibitors get the chance to go and visit each other and chat over various projects they are doing.  Often interesting and a great chance to exchange ideas.  It also gives me the opportunity to go and hear some of the technical sessions and presentations that other do.

One thing that I did notice today was that the same presentations are being given in the US as would be given in Ireland and UK, especially on matters like the cost of accidents.  Same story different accent, shows that the issues are uiversal and that there is room for universal co-operation in developing solutions.

BUT, whatever the issue, the starting point on exploring the issues  determines where the end point is and if you start at the wrong point, the solutions you develop take you  in the wrong direction.

Take accident investigation and the development of remedies and solutions to accidents.  If the starting point is that accidents cost the company and that the remedies are subject to cost benefit analysis, logic states that some accidents will be considered cheaper than the prevention and the tools that are developed to carry out this type of analysis may wel be telling the company that it is not worth dealing with.

Wrong starting point - wrong solution.

Accidents hurt people, that is the starting point, and this will lead to a solution that is designed to eliminate harm, not keep down costs (which may well follow as a consequence).  Those who are leaders in the field need to think broader and differently about compliance failures.  Worker first, business afterwards.

Off the soapbox now, and onto the social side of these events. "Gumbo Billy's" was a great night out and I would recommend it to anyone going to Chicago (ask me first what it is).  Anyway we're are off there again tonight with  the guys from Conspace, and those guys know how to party.  There goes my Thursday,

But we're off now to see some of the sights before the tornado comes in. (I survived Ivan in 2004 so this will be wee buns said he glibly). I'll maybe get another entry before we leave this city, but if not,  it was good talking,

bye for now,

Philip / Tony

It’s all over now:

Well Congress and Expo are over for another year and everyone has gone back home and to work and for a day or two I have time to contemplate some of the issues and have a look around a city where the construction of buildings of over 100 floors takes about three and a half years.  Now that’s some serious construction.  In the four years since I was last in Chicago the skyline has changed by the addition of a number of extremely high high-rise structures.  Buildings whose foundations has just been laid when I last saw them are now occupied and thriving residential and office environments.

I took a jaunt up to the top of one of these magnificent buildings, the Sears Tower, whose tourist lift had three stops, lower level 2, first floor and 103^rd floor and wondered briefly what would happen if we got stuck halfway up.  There was no-one around to answer that one and I didn’t let it concern me for a moment, remaining satisfied that those who manage the tourist (and there are over 1,000,000 per year), would have a workable plan to put into effect immediately.

A guide video showed the construction phase, and a statistic somewhere told me how many millions of pieces were required to build the tower, but I cannot remember it.  However in a neat contrast, a sculpture in Millennium Park consisted of a massive I beam bent into a u-shape and perched in perfect balance on top of a slender steel pole, to sway gently in the breeze.  Such a contrast, a fixed steel and glass structure over 1,700 feet tall that must sway slightly to avoid breaking, and a small 15 foot structure that remains unfixed for our amusement and pleasure.

In the park, engineering and construction projects are referred to as arts projects, appropriate for a city made famous for its commitment to art and architecture.  It struck me that this is a good approach.  There is not nor should there be a dichotomy between what is functions in life and what gives us pleasure.  A bridge is no longer a mere engineering solution to crossing a 7-lane road, but a thing of beauty in itself that winds gracefully three times as far as is necessary to cross that road and which entices you to undertake the walk irrespective of whether you want to cross the road or not.

I began this blog with a reference to the penalties for hitting a road construction worker, a serious act with a serious consequence.  I didn’t see so much of the “conkers-bonkers” stuff that seems to obsess the media and the safety profession in the UK.  Good, I though, safety is dealt with as a serious matter; then the city introduced a ban on smoking on the beaches on Thursday to protect the public from the effects of, amongst other things, second-hand smoke…

Well, as I have said this show is over for another year.  There will be others between now and then, some of which I will be attending.  The World Safety Congress is taking place in Korea next June/July and I will be involved in organising a symposium for that around the theme of “Risk Management – A Failed Paradigm”.  Your thoughts on that will be most welcome, and watch the events section of my428 for further information.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, and best wishes to all who spent time with us at the show, shared ideas and swapped stories; and to Patric who is really not as “old” as she would have you believe, and with whom it was a pleasure to meet.  And finally to Alan, thanks for dinner, I take it that that means we treat you guys next year ;-)

Philip and Tony