Replying to LO29756 --
Alan Cotterell" <acotrel@cnl.com.au> wrote:
> Can someone tell me please, what are these mysterious 'administrative
> controls'?
Alan - I would not categorize myself as a safety professional, but I have
been a manager in and around the chemical industry for 20+ years and
safety continues to be a primary focus of my responsibility. That said, I
believe your colleagues use of the term administrative control in the
context of "administering water to a fire" was erroneous.
Administrative controls as I understand them are those policies,
procedures, permits, and prescribed lines of authority/responsibility put
into place to assure that the necessary questions have been asked and
provisions have been made to carry out the job free from injury or
incident. A work permit requiring a supervisors approval would be an
example of an administrative control. A process for inspecting and
checking out a welding machine might be another. A checklist or job aid
might be yet another. Perhaps the best example I can think of is an
airline pilots rpeflight checklist which directs his attention to those
things which are known to be important for a safe flight. There is nothing
in place that guarantees he will actually look at each item, and there is
nothing to prevent him from "pencil whipping" the list and taking off
without checking each item, but the control serves as a reminder every day
that safety is important and these are the things he should be looking at.
While they most certainly could be misapplied by management as a means of
CYA and control, in and of themselves I do not see administrative controls
as having any intrinsic philosophic values at all, either good or bad.
Well designed control systems are beneficial in that they help prevent
people from taking short cuts, skipping steps, making mistakes, and
hurting themselves or others. Poorly designed controls may not cause an
accident directly, but they do nothing to help the situation. Neither can
prevent a safety incident if they are not followed or enforced, if people
are not properly trained and prepared for the hazards, or if an individual
makes a poor choice on the job.
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