Sometimes certain things just come to a logical plateau. The best way of doing them or the best process for achieving a result has been found. I have this belief that the process of safety education was once at a pinnacle and is now going downhill. I am not sure why this is the case, but I think this is because safety departments find themselves chasing elusive goals – to try to have absolutely no accidents in an industry which has a lot of moving machinery, for example. They come up with new concepts that are meant to make things safer but, in fact, make them less safe.

Any argument which proceeds from the specific to the general is a poor argument. Thus, I cannot say that what I have experienced and seen specifically represents a general case. But let me at least say what I have seen and experienced in specific cases and you can decide if they made me work more safely or less so.

Tim and I went to work on a mine in northern KwaZulu-Natal. We had to go on a safety course given by the local people and the mine. It took a week. For the mine course, we had to watch a video lasting 45 minutes and then answer questions. Sample question: Are you required to wear gloves in the launder area? (a) Yes, but they must be chrome leather (b) Yes, but they must be safety gloves (c) Yes (d) Yes, but you must have cotton inner gloves.

If you got the answer wrong, you had to watch the video again. The sole thing I remember from the mine safety training is a mantra: Before you work, take five to stay alive: (a) What can go wrong? (b) What am I going to do if it goes wrong? (c) Can I stop it going wrong? (d) What will be the result if it goes wrong? (e) Should I continue working? (great mantra – I still use it).

There were other things I was compelled to do on that mine, such as wearing safety glasses all the time, which caused me to be blinded by my sweat; wearing a reinforced overall top, which caused me to sweat; wearing gloves so I could not operate my instruments correctly or write accurately; and wearing earmuffs all the time so I could not communicate with my colleague. All these made my work much less safe, since I was continually taking off my gloves, glasses and earmuffs, just to get the job done.

This is an example of ‘oversafety’ and its result is that it does not improve the safety record. It makes it worse, since workers bypass the system (just as I did ) because to obey all the rules and wear all the safety gear makes it impossible to get the job done in comfort.

Another oversafety issue involves the use of ‘permits’ to work. In the old days (say, the 1970s, when I first worked on a mine), you had to get a signed letter (‘permit’) from a foreman to allow you to, say, work on an electric motor. The electrical foreman would give you the letter and you had to get it signed by the fitter foreman and the shaft supervisor. You did the work and brought the letter back. Each of the signatories would put a line through their signature and sign again. Worked very well. Until oversafety kicked in. Then the range of people who had to sign the permit increased from three to up to 12. Many were unavailable and, inevitably, either the electrician took a risk and did the work without a permit or the work never got done, which led to more unsafe situations. The worst industrial disaster, the Piper Alpha fire, was due to a permit issue.

We have to look at this whole system. Has safety on our plants got to the point where it is becoming unsafe as a result of the safety system? Have the permit systems become so complicated that they make things unsafe? These questions should be asked.