Hi there,
Humasol members are required to attend several workshops. I’ve already made a blog post concerning cultural difficulties based on a cultural awareness workshop but in this post I will talk about another workshop we’ve joined, a safety workshop organised by Glenn Gysels.
Safety is for Humasol one of the most important concepts in realizing a project. All project students need to be aware that in the South different rules apply regarding taking risks due to the lack of immediate medical assistance. If some project student gets harmed seriously, this could mean the end of the organisation. But even more, it could have drastic consequences for the students or the locals, that don’t have access to the same medical assistance as we do! Therefor, Humasol expects the students to make a thorough risk analysis so that we can anticipate certain hazards.
A clear concept Glenn has thought us was to ‘take two’. With this, he suggests we take 2 minutes to think about possible dangers of the actions that we are going to perform. What impact will these actions have, and even more important, is it worth the risk? For example, if you are going to weld a structure, what can go wrong and what precautions do you need to take? Firstly, we need to wear appropriate clothing inclusive protective gloves, weld mask, long sleeves, etc. But what else can go wrong? The sparks might cause fire, so are their any flammable products in the neighbourhood? The welding will cause metal to be extremely hot, could this harm someone/cause damage to another component. You see, by just taking some time, you can predict and avoid problems.
In my next post I will post a photo of a certain safety situation where I will ask you to help analyse the hazards of the situation in accordance with a safety model called HAZOP. Main parts where I hope you will join me in the discussion will be, what can you see that might cause harm, and what risks would you take to do this operation.
We have heard tales from previous project students that the locals don’t mind safety regulations although it should be very important for them. Do you have any ideas on how we can make sure that they try to follow several rules like wearing appropriate clothes while using certain tools?
Cheers,
Alexander
Humasol hydraulic ram pump thesis 
Hi Alexander, not following safety regulations is indeed a problem that should be prevented. I think the most effective way is by showing a video, or showing images of what kind of terrible things could happen with you since this is a method they also use here in Belgium.
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Alexander, I believe this is a very difficult question. I’m doing my project in Turkey, and already here I notice people have a very different point of view on safety. They tell me I should not go to the forest, because it is dangerous that I can get lost. They are very protective over me, but at the same time, people ride bicycles between the cars at night without lights, nobody wears a seatbelt, in the laboratory nobody uses protective clothing (they even wear flammable clothes while working with fires and flammable products), they don’t work under a suction cap with chemicals, I see people handling knives carelessly, … They are protective over me but not about themselves. I feel there is a big cultural difference here and probably even more in a developing country. As Tom suggested, you could place signs with pictures of what could go wrong. It will at least make people think for a minute or two.
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