ABSTRACT
Safety deals with accidents and short-term injuries. Focus on reduction of unsafe conditions rather than unsafe acts. Five reduction approaches are: reduce equipment failure; design the proper control, display, and environment; use distance; use guards; and use time. Medical management can reduce the effect of an injury. The safety goals are to reduce errors, reduce the proportion of errors that become accidents, reduce the proportion of accidents that become injuries (i.e., injury frequency), and reduce the lost days/injury (i.e., injury severity). Because injuries are relatively rare events, it is easiest to work on the accidents. However, even accidents occur relatively rarely. Accidents can be categorized as caused by unsafe conditions (equipment failure) and by unsafe acts (human failure). Supervisors tend to blame an accident on unsafe acts rather than unsafe conditions. Deal with unsafe conditions five ways: reduce equipment failure; design the proper control, display, and environment; use distance; use guards; and use time.
