Unit 7 discussion
Risk is perceived differently by each individual. Some
workers may consider a certain level of risk to be acceptable, while other
workers would consider that level of risk to be unacceptable. To demonstrate
this point, attached is a picture of me cutting and arc welding (independently
building a barn in NM, when I was a working cowboy in the early 1980’s) at age
11.
Personally, I never worried about getting burned, cut, or
slag thrown in my eyes (though that often happened), or falling from working
from an unsecured ladder. I took the same type of approach to risk when working
with large animals (working from horses, handling cattle). Then, I joined the
Army light infantry at age 17 to fight in the Cold War jungle wars.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
evaluates residual risk during the rule-making process and uses what they
define as an “acceptable risk level” in developing a standard.
1. Discuss to what extent you think individual risk
perception should be used in establishing controls at individual workplaces.
2. Do you think OSHA’s definition of an acceptable risk is
adequate, or do you think that each location should develop its own acceptable
level of risk? Explain your answer.
