Sports and Risk Perception

This is an astonishing example of public risk perception.  The public health advice is also shocking.

Soer, who was present when the study was done and is knowledgeable of the findings, gave some simple advice on how to avoid any danger.

"Wear earplugs to the games," she said. "Either buy them at a pharmacy or make them yourselves and take it with you to the soccer games.

make them yourself... ? And this comes from a medical doctor?
I don't know what Communication Pathology is.  I infer from their limited website it is infectious diseases.  One of study foci was transmission of disease by sharing horns, so I understand a pathologist being involved.  But she obviously isn't familiar with how ear plugs work.  Does she think a wad of cotton is going to help?  Or is there some common item South Africans use for this purpose?

With poor risk communication from professionals, it is unsurprising that individuals are not making optimum choices.

"I am not worried," said Matthew M'Crystal, a 24-year-old law student. "Anyway, it won't kill us."

The chronic excuse:  'it won't kill me'.  Well, one of these days, being a lawyer, he's going to decide to sue someone over his noise-induced hearing loss by claiming "But I didn't know it was bad for me!"


"I could have died in Mexico," said Ricardo Avila, a 56-year-old soccer fan visiting South Africa for the tournament. "So no, it does not bother me."

Here is a different problem with individual risk perception.  Even when you give a perfectly clear explanation of the risks of exposure, and the employee really does understand it ... her risk comparison may be standardized against something other than yours.

"You have a 1:100 probability of losing your hearing"
"Yes, but I live in the area of town with the highest crime rate, gang activity and there was a drive-by shooting on my block last night.  Losing my hearing isn't so bad."

There will be a few more posts about noise and the World Cup.

I think I might borrow a noise meter from the U's IH lab to see how loud it gets on Saturday during the Germany-Argentina game over at the Glockenspiel in StPl.  I'm considering playing hookey with my spouse on Friday to watch the Brazil-Netherlands game.  Maybe I can compare the two?  Get a publication?  lol
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Handwashing factors

A study in the UK indicates that shame is a greater motivating factor than previously anticipated. The rates of handwashing cited, however, are rather gross.

Uncomfortable = Unworn

So, (state) OSHA-man shows up on Tuesday for a random, unannounced inspection. My employer (for whom I'm doing an internship) handles this much, much more calmly and professionally than my last place of employment would have. I asked my boss, the Health & Safety manager for the whole plant, if I could tag along for part of the inspection. I've never been involved in one from OSHA before. Ones from CDC, USDA, DoD, state-EPA, yes; strangely enough, not state-OSHA. I'm excited when the answer is yes. So, yesterday afternoon, the boss says, hey, come along. We leave, walk across half of the plant, and meet OSHA-man and some union woman. 30 seconds after I walk into the room, union-woman looks at me and says, "you aren't wearing safety glasses." I am not exaggerating or being flip, when I say, this was the most embarrassing moment of my entire professional career. 7 years of riding people about wearing safety glasses as a safety professional, 6 years of doing it as a chemist. I wanted to crawl into a hole. So, why weren't they on? They're uncomfortable. I just got bifocals, and am getting accustomed to them. The frames got a bit twisted and lost a nose pad. They're down right annoying and are giving me headaches. So, of course, I took them off in my office & put on my regular specs. If it isn't comfortable, people simply won't wear PPE.

Too Helpful Employees

I've discovered that one must anticipate the bizarre things employees might do, presented with the opportunity. No, I don't mean the zillion truly stupid things like standing on top of 30' ladders, plugging toasters into an area where flammable vapors accumulate, using a forklift to raise another forklift ... No, I mean the things they'll do in a sincere effort to help you. Or a sincere lack of understanding about what you're trying to accomplish. While performing personal noise exposure monitoring, I have discovered the instructions to the employee when applying the dosimeter must include:

1. Don't share. The employee understood that my primary concern was Machine A. She took the meter off, and gave it to the other worker when switching jobs. She wanted to make sure I found out how loud the machine was by keeping the meter with the worker at the machine.
2. It doesn't record things. Despite the fact that the meter does indeed "record" things, it doesn't actually record what you say. My boss advised this as part of the instructions. I would never have thought of it, but apparently others have.
3. "All day" means "until you leave". A couple employees seemed to either not care or not realize what data are recorded. I down-loaded the data & reviewed the dB v. time. I immediately noticed the last hour of data is 0 (i.e., uniformly less than the threshold). I also immediately realized the employee was not accurate in reporting it had been off for "20 minutes".
4. Have a reason for explaining why you picked on her/him. This week's measurements included a worker in an area already identified as in a hearing conservation program. 3 dB exchange rate or not, there's no way it was going to be less than the previously measured 92 dB. Standing next to a bright blue punch press that is at least 10 times larger than the '53 Plymouth I once owned, and was probably built in the same year, the operator asked rather plaintively, "why did you pick me?" My answer: "because I like blue". That wasn't my real rationale. But, it could have been. The reason was actually because he was the only one operating one of the giant beastie

Refusing Unsafe Work Conditions

It's always difficult trying to explain to someone how to tactfully refuse to do something. It can be even more challenging trying to explain when they need to refuse and when they're just being a pain in the ass about it. Since it's bleeped-out, this would be good at the workplace.