Developing the Art of Listening: Studying Occupational Cultures

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cullen, Elaine T.
• Description:
  Workers in high-risk industries like mining, commercial fishing, construction, or oil and gas extraction experience injury and fatality rates far higher than workers in other industries. While it is true that the nature of those industries includes exposure to more risk, it is also true that these types of industries put a much higher emphasis on hazard recognition and safety and health training than do other industries, and that many of them employ safety directors or trainers to help mitigate the problem. Why, then, are the accident/injury rates still so high? Federal and state laws require that workers in most high-risk industries receive some sort of basic safety and health training in addition to the skills training they need to do the work, yet miners and loggers, roughnecks and fishermen, iron workers and construction workers are still getting hurt and killed on the job. Companies involved in high-risk work often have well-designed safety programs, spending valuable resources on protecting their employees. Yet we still cannot seem to approach the elusive goal of zero occupational fatalities or injuries. Is the problem that workers in these industries are just risk-takers and therefore injured more often? (This is a common belief among those not employed in high-risk industries.) Are regulations not strong enough? Do safety training materials miss the mark? Are the work environments and the equipment used in drilling oil wells, mining coal, harvesting timber, catching salmon, or erecting skyscrapers inherently dangerous and in need of more engineered controls to keep workers safe? Do we need more and better personal protective equipment? All of these "solutions" will have their proponents, and all may be true to some degree. There is reason to believe, however, that none of them can solve the problem alone, and that protecting workers without involving workers is simply not going to work. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Behavior Construction Industry Environmental Exposure Hunting Mining Mortality Occupational Health Oil And Gas Industry Preventive Medicine Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Staff Development

  More +
• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Construction Industry Exposure Levels Fatalities Fishing Industry Gas Industry Hazards Health-protection Health Effects Injuries Occupational-safety-programs Oil Industry Preventive Medicine Protective Measures Risk Factors Safety-practices Safety-programs Safety Education Safety Measures Training Traumatic Injuries Work-practices Workers

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  American Society of Safety Engineers
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  SRL - Spokane Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054161
• Citation:
  Safety 2009: Proceedings of the 2009 ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition, June 28-July 1, 2009, San Antonio, Texas. Des Plaines, IL: American Society of Safety Engineers, 2009 Jun; :551
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Safety 2009: Proceedings of the 2009 ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition, June 28-July 1, 2009, San Antonio, Texas
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8df6f3e487adfcb63d6945063c0ae337adcd04608fce762a096724f35fcaeb1730213cf246b7347f8853c3c1e6c732c2749b608d6071c80bb93619d190897201
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227786/cdc_227786_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 251.52 KB ]