There is a consequence to everything we do.

1. Job Safety is NOT Just Common Sense
We hear it all the time: If people would only use their common sense, they wouldn't get
hurt on or off the job. But just who decides what is and isn't common sense?
Good safety trainers try to make the point that common sense" won't tell you how to
avoid many lethal workplace hazards. People are not born knowing this stuff and they do
not learn it in everyday life.
"Common sense" refers to what the average person would think, know or figure out. A
great deal of workplace safety is NOT common sense.
Consider these examples:
• The liquid in that drum can eat your skin away and you won't feel a thing until the
damage is done.
• A glimpse of that light in a mirror can burn your eyes and cause terrible pain.
• Step into that underground utility vault and you will be dead in minutes.
• The liquid in that container way over there is going to explode when you start an
electric drill way over here.
• Dropping a pen from your pocket into the hatch of that tanker will set off a huge
explosion.
• Put your hand over a pinhole leak on that cylinder and you will die an agonizing
death.
• Your hearing does not get used to loud noise, it just gets permanently impaired.
What's common sense to you may be anything but common to your workers. Assuming
that people will automatically know what to do or not to do is asking for big trouble.
Take time to spell out the hazards to your workers, even if they seem obvious to you.