The Tribune

By DIANE PHILLIPS

IT begins when we are young and invincible.

“Put on a jacket, it’s cold outside,” Mom says, her voice growing fainter as we run out, letting the screen door slam shut behind us, leaving the jacket behind.

“Hang on, STOP right there right now!” Dad yells. “You gonna fall. That branch gonna snap. If you gotta climb the guineppe tree, use one of them big branches. Why you take that scrawny little…” (We continue climbing the scrawny one, ignoring his warning, our eyes on the handful of guineppes not far out of our grasp if we just get to a certain height and reach up…)

From the time we’re old enough to think we know more than Mom and Dad and anyone else silly enough to waste our time warning us about the dangers that lie ahead, we take the whole subject of safety with a grain of salt. Or maybe more than a grain. We pay as much attention to safety as we do to an orange traffic light -- it’s something we can slide through. Not serious like a red light.

So it’s no wonder that we take chances on the job. We’ve been doing it all our lives and getting away with it. And there’s no question that Bahamians have far more luck--good luck--than just about any nation of people anywhere. Just being able to live in the place the world wants to vacation in is luck enough.

But recent headlines have called attention to the serious side of safety, after years of industrial actions that have demanded a closer look and a tighter handle. Not all the accidents have been on construction sites, though enough have to warrant an especially close inspection there. Just a few months ago, a young man who was in Nassau visiting his mother was doing his mom’s neighbour a favour, helping to repair a roof. He slipped, fell and died. Doing a favour.

The lack of safety gear is just part of the story, but it is a critical part. On job sites throughout the islands of The Bahamas, where far more roofs are A-frame than flat, or that have at least some angle for run-off, roofers are hoisting heavy 4’x8’ plywood sheets, installing ice and water shield, power nailing shingles or aluminum. How are they moving around? On foot, as if they were walking on a sidewalk with manicured grass on either side. On job after job, there is no evidence of safety gear – no harnesses, no rope, no scaffolding that goes above roof level.

One slip, one mistaken sudden move, and they could be leaving everything they worked for behind, injured, crippled for life, or dead. For what? For $35 an hour? $40? $50? When you spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair or worse, die without seeing your baby boy or girl take their first steps or graduate from school, or fall in love, or have your first child, suddenly heeding the warning about safety has meaning – for survivors.

Is it a macho thing that so many Bahamian men climb a roof without so much as a rope around their waist tied to something? “I am man. I can do this.” Yeah, you are man and you are human, and humans can slip and slide and take one misstep that costs you your life.

What kind of man does not protect his family by looking after his own life first, making sure he will be there when he is needed?

It’s a good thing that industrial safety – even if it is not a sexy subject – is in the news. It deserves to be a headline. This columnist, who descends from a family of developers and has spent much time around construction sites and busy shipyards, highly commends Sharon Moss and others, including the former Director of Labour, for taking occupational safety to a new level in The Bahamas.

Just for a point of reference and to put the subject of requirements into context, I phoned a contractor friend who has built $150 million high rises, skyscrapers, hospitals, and schools in the New England and New York area and asked him about the basic OSHA (Occupational and Safety Health Administration) regulations on a job site. Here’s one of the interesting tidbits he shared:

OSHA requires that every extension ladder must have handles that extend three feet above where the top of the ladder ends. So, even on a small single level job, a six foot ladder has to have nine-foot grab handles capacity for someone to get off at the six-foot height. Should an inspector happen by and see a violation, the first time fine could be $15,000. Whatever it is, and it can be negotiable but it will never be cheap, it initiates the start of a record against that contractor. If there is a sub, then against both. If either is caught again with a violation, the fine is automatically doubled. Third time – their license can be revoked.

On the positive side, I also checked with someone who works with BPL, who described in detail the solid safety procedures within the power station, from the check-in point at security to the system for safety and personal protective equipment checkout. Even the precise walking paths between specific locations. He cannot vouch for precautions on wires and poles outside, but those involved in the power station themselves have guardrails that he says rival any foreign utility where he has worked.

Here’s the rub and the question for those trying to move occupational safety from the back burner, orange traffic light lane to the front line. As a marketing person (I never want to use the word “expert” because it assumes you know too much when there is always more to learn), I suggest – go honest, go gruesome. The pain of a finger being sliced off, the sight of a family grieving at the grave, the child who asked why did Daddy have to die when he could have just worn a harness?

Accidents will always happen. We spend most of our waking hours working, so they are more likely to happen on the job than sitting at home, especially if our work involves construction sites and heavy equipment. But there are steps we can take to prevent unnecessary tragedies. There is no good reason to wait, and every good reason to start today.

So no child has to kneel by a father’s grave and ask why Daddy didn’t wear his harness.