[TriLUG] looking for advice for working on catwalk

Aaron Joyner aaron at joyner.ws
Wed Feb 8 15:53:23 EST 2012


The usual disclaimer, IANAL.  Heck, I'm not even a health and safety guy.

In my experience, safety is relative.  When society places a low to
modest value on human life, we tend to just throw people at problems
like the one you're describing.  Only a tiny percentage are hurt, and
that's the cost of doing business.  Look at parts of modern China, or
even recent American history, such as the building of the hover dam or
the western expansion of the railroads, for plenty of examples.

Modern Western societies tend to put a much higher value on human
life, usually with tremendous gains in safety on a percentage basis
(yet still measured well to the right of the decimal), and moderate
increases in cost (in time, equipment, and educational costs).  Where
you choose to draw the line on the way towards zero injuries or
fatalities is somewhat arbitrary.  If you ask hard enough, you'll get
referred to things like OSHA's recommendations, or OHSAS 18001
certification.  You'll learn all kinds of acronyms like PPE, CAR/PAR,
etc.  In general, as long as you were using some common sense in the
first place, and you aren't working in particularly dangerous
situations (electrical, mechanical, etc) you probably won't end up
reducing your risk of serious injury by anywhere near a percentage
point or two.  It's an interesting intellectual pursuit, but not
particularly relevant.

Since it sounds like you're on the fuzzy edge of doing actually
hazardous work, you should probably ask the people responsible for
your safety, and in general trust there advice.  If you feel like
they're actually being cavalier with your health and safety, by all
means, don't work there, or go up the usual chain of command to change
the situation, for yourself and your fellow employees.  If it's a
small enough outfit that the chain of command won't do you any good,
and you're not interested in eventually have to enlist the service of
an ambulance-chasing attorney, you should probably look elsewhere for
work.

Ever practical,
Aaron S. Joyner


On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 3:27 PM, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Feb 2012, David M. wrote:
>
>> I would hope the place where the catwalks already exist have safety
>> protocols in place that you are supposed to follow.
>
>
> I fully expect they do, but I'd like to know from someone else what is
> supposed to happen. I don't want the job site to be my only source of info
>
>
> Joe
>
> --
> Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
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