"Workplace Safety for a New Era" 2/2

"Falling over" and "tripping" will often not lead to a serious disasters, but they account for a large percentage of the causes of accidents requiring absence from work, so they cannot be ignored.

There are many workplaces which encourage the use of hand railings, especially when using stairs. On the other hand, there are no workplaces where 100% of the people use the hand railings when they go up and down the stairs. Similarly, in most workplaces, workers are required to use a safety belt when working at heights. However, as with the fact that the use of hand railings when using stairs does not equal 100%, the use of safety belts does not equal 100%, even if the workplaces are equipped with safety belts.

In Japan, both the driver and front passenger seat belt usage rates are nearly 100% when driving. However, even though there are people who always wear seat belts when sitting in the driver or front passenger seats, they might not always wear belts when sitting in the rear seats. If this happens to be when they are in the rear seats of taxis, their belt usage rate will drop even further.

Hand railings for stairs, the use of safety belts and the wearing of seat belts are different scenes respectively, but everyone should understand what to do to be safer. However, the reality is that everyone has not chosen to act as if they understand that it is safer. What is common to these three different scenes?

People who feel at some risk, whether they are on stairs, working at heights, or riding in a car, and seek an approach to reduce that risk, would attempt to take advantage of the usable resources. People who do not feel at risk, or feel some risk but believe that the risk is acceptable, would not feel the need to utilize the resources that exist around them. In other words, people who think they are OK would not use hand railings, safety belts, or seat belts even if they were there in front of their eyes.

To choose safe behavior, first you need to have "knowledge," such as, "What is safer?" and, "How to be safer?" However, knowledge at just the "having seen" level, or repeating sentences from the rule book does not have enough influence to change their behavior. It should be "knowledge" with an "understanding" as the basis for supporting "knowledge," i.e. "Why is this safer?"

The second important thing is "awareness." No matter how much "knowledge" and "understanding" people have, they do not always make the right choice. People have the ability to manage various situations because they have the flexibility and redundancy characteristics to make more efficient and reasonable choices, depending on the scene and the circumstances at the time. On the other hand, this ability sometimes leads people into "corner-cutting" and "omissions." This is not a problem with the individual's ability or aptitude, but a problem with human nature which could affect anyone. The function which senses these traps and gets back on track is "awareness," and it acts as a trigger to activate the "knowledge" and "understanding" stored in the memory and make more secure decisions.

Ultimately, "behavior" decides whether it is safe or not. No matter how well they understand and are aware of what is safe and how to be safe, safety is not realized unless it is done as an action. "Knowledge," "understanding" and "awareness" are internal activities only. In order to make safety truly practical and realistic, it must be externalized as "action."

In order to change their behavior, we must change their "awareness." In order to change "awareness," appropriate "understanding" and "knowledge" are necessary.

5. "Perspectives" and "points of view"