Todd Jerome Jenkins, MS, CSP, SMS, CHST, STSC

Safety Aficionado & Ph.D. Student

Weekly Safety Topic – Safety is Everyone’s Responsibility

Are you familiar with OSHA compliance officials? Have you ever seen one inspecting a job site? How about the health and safety professionals at your organization? OSHA inspectors and safety professionals have a wealth of experience in recognizing and evaluating hazards on the job site. Its mission is to reduce hazardous working conditions and make your workplace safe.

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by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY SA

You have a lot in common with safety inspectors. You both want to reduce the hazardous conditions on the job, and you’re both familiar with how to identify hazards. Inspectors visit job sites occasionally, but you are on the job site every day. That puts you at an advantage. Being on the job site every day, you can think and act like a safety inspector and make your job site safe.


We spend more of our waking hours at work than we do at home. Most of us leave at sunrise before and get home at sunset. We spend hours applying our trade, moving materials, walking from area to area, taking breaks, and eating our lunch, all on a construction site.


Just think of what it would be like if we all stayed alert and looked out for one another. Imagine what this work site would look like if every person on it looked out for hazardous conditions and spoke up when they saw something. It would be like having a safety inspector here all day, every day, keeping an eye out for you so you can go home at the end of the injury-free.


You are a highly trained construction professional. If you were not, you wouldn’t be here. You’ve been trained to recognize what’s safe and unsafe. You have experience and knowledge. You know when something doesn’t look right. Quite frankly, no one knows your job better than you do. Put that knowledge to work for your safety and the safety of the men and women around you.


As a construction professional, you have a responsibility to correct unsafe conditions. Fix what you can, and tell your supervisor about the things you can’t fix. Supervisors report hazardous conditions to the appropriate person on the project. Your contribution could be as simple as removing an object from a walkway to reduce the chance of someone tripping or reminding a coworker to wear their safety glasses and hardhat.


As you go about your day, look for unsafe acts or conditions. Stop and briefly chat with coworkers to help them correct unsafe conditions or acts. More experienced professionals, take a second and give an at-a-boy to less experienced people when you see them working safely. You can make a difference, and you might even save a life today.

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