February 2012 Safety Tip

Looking out for Safety

Your Safety Attitude: A safe attitude recognizes risks. You need to tune into a potential accident and visualize them before they happen and do something about it so they don’t happen. Almost all accidents can be avoided but when you have poor safety habits and attitude accidents occurs. Serious accidents due to poor attitude or behavior can cause lost work time, painful injuries, death, productivity losses and needles expenses that can affect not only you but your family and co-workers.

Common Sense: Failure to use common sense can cause accidents. Taking safety seriously means paying attention and being alert at all times. This should be part of your daily job. Often we get careless for a number of reasons – complacency, emotions, fatigue, carelessness and a know-it-all attitude. If we let these factors be part of our daily activities, we are potentially exposing ourselves to an accident. We must take safety seriously ALL the time.

The County has invested a lot to keep you Safe: Maricopa County offers a safe place to work and provides all the tools and equipment needed to perform your job safely. Also, the County also offers all the appropriate training needed in all the different operations and activities. We, as employees, have to be actively involved and pay attention to safety training and safety talks, listen carefully for instructions, ask questions and take part in all the training offered to us. By following these simple steps, we can achieve a safe work environment for all of us.

Develop a good Safety Culture: It is always advisable to plan your day ahead of time. This strategy can help you develop a good safety culture. By looking around for anything that could go wrong or is unsafe, to eliminate the risks before you start your day, to check any chemicals, tools, vehicles, etc. before use, to use the appropriate personal protective equipment and to eliminate or remove from the workplace anything that may cause an injury or accident such as tripping hazards etc, you will eliminate many potential risks.

Some tips to develop a good safety culture:

• Don’t eat or be distracted while driving
• Respect labels on machinery or equipment
• Turn off equipment when it’s not in use
• Use the right tool for the job
• Follow safety procedures
• Have a buddy when in high risk jobs (using heavy equipment, backing, etc.)
• Keep your mind and eyes on the task - Stay focused!