Safety Is Easy

Abstract

Health and safety are top of mind these days; in fact, one of my first columns of 2020 was titled “Health Is Hard.” But while the connections between human health and drinking water seem complex to me, safety seems pretty straightforward. The first step to not being injured is knowing that you can be injured. Accidents are usually preventable—just stay alert, and if you see something unsafe, do something about it immediately. Make sure your equipment is in good condition and safe to operate, and plan safety in advance and follow instructions. In addition to being alert to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, those in the water industry need to be careful when working in extreme temperatures and weather events, handling chemicals at the plant or in the lab, and crawling in confined spaces with power tools. Lockout/tagout, cutting, climbing, digging, driving, and for those on the front lines, the threats of workplace dangers are compounded by every public interaction. AWWA advocates that employers in the water industry fully adopt effective health, safety, and environmental programs developed according to established risk factors and regulatory compliance. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see risk and regulations change over the coming years in response to COVID-19, but to this end, AWWA provides a range of resources and is fully committed to supporting its members—and the entire water industry—as we navigate these trying times together. For example, because we all need to dress for safety on and off the job, AWWA's Let's Talk Safety comes with the timely chapter “PPE— A Workplace Fashion Statement.“ Manual M3, Safety Management for Utilities, can help when developing a health and safety program, and the committees working on the update are certainly working overtime to collect today's lessons learned for tomorrow's guidance. The Safety First videos provide how-to guidance for those who need hands-on training, and these can now be streamed online with a subscription. We all seek an injury-free work environment, but safety concerns that used to appear only during extreme tasks are now everyday occurrences. However, unlike the job we do in our professions, the job of getting through a pandemic doesn't pay anything. If fighting this virus costs us only good hygiene practices and the discomfort of wearing masks and face shields until the pandemic is behind us, it's not that expensive, and certainly cheaper than the alternative. If we work together, hopefully we can avoid expensive shutdowns and return our focus to keeping the water industry a safe place to work. This month's Journal AWWA features articles on water distribution system modeling, sizing meters and service lines, and water reuse, all topics that require having safety in mind. If you are interested in submitting an article, please contact me at journaleditor@awwa.org.