| Safety is no joke
by Paul V. Arnold
I always considered myself a pretty safe guy.
I have never had a major accident and, outside of a few
fingers, have never broken a bone. I don’t parachute, bungee jump, cliff dive, taunt wild
animals or participate in ultimate fighting contests. I believe in safety belts, air bags and anti-lock
brakes. And, if I have to stick a fork in my toaster to retrieve a
wedged bagel, I always make sure to unplug the cord.
It wasn’t until I visited Intel that I
realized how unsafe I was.
My assignment for this issue of MRO Today was
to visit the high-tech company’s manufacturing operations in
Chandler, Ariz., and chronicle its best practices in the area of
workplace safety. Upon meeting my Intel contact, site media relations manager
Jeanne Forbis, we descended a stairwell to eyeball potential setups
for the day’s photo shoot.
“Hold the handrail,” Forbis said in a
lilting tone, which I took as a sort of playful,
welcome-the-visiting-writer joke.
I thought, “I get it. I’m doing a cover story on safety — at a manufacturing
company, with sophisticated machinery, with plenty of workplace
hazards, with employees who walk the plant floor in full-body
protection suits — and she is tisking me about the stairs.”
That is pretty funny, or so I thought.
“Really, Paul. You have to use the handrail,” Forbis said firmly.
She wasn’t kidding. I received a quick overview on the dangers of stairwells. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 13,000 lost-worktime
accidents occur in manufacturing each year as the result of “falls
to a lower level.” An
additional 10,000 cases stem from “slips, trips and loss of
balance.”
Humbled, I tried to remember the stairwell
safety thing for the remainder of my stay at Intel. I occasionally caught myself in violation, but before I could
reach for the railing, an Intel employee would blurt, “Please hold
the handrail.”
“Damn it!” I muttered, scolding myself. Old habits are hard to
break. But I began to concentrate on this simple task. Intel’s focus on safety started to grow on me, and I felt
kind of flattered by this concern for my well-being. At the conclusion of my visit, I actually believed that I was a
safer person.
I returned to my rental car and cracked a
smile as I replayed the stair incidents. I unlocked the doors, got a suitcase out of the trunk and
prepared to move it to the back seat.
“Lift with your knees, sir,” said a
voice behind me. It was a
parking lot security guard. “You
don’t want to hurt your back.”
This article appeared in the Aug./Sept. 2002 issue of
MRO
Today magazine. Copyright 2002.
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