Today’s guest blogger is Gerald A. Edgar It’s pretty hard to discourage unsafe behaviours and promote good ones when our workers don’t pay us any attention. I don’t know about you folks, but the workers at my plant seem much more interested in distractions like computer games, sports and Hollywood. Hmmm. . . Hollywood. . . Watching movies and TV doesn’t have to be a safety negative, does it? What if we could somehow join forces with Hollywood and get them to produce movies and shows that reinforce our safety message? Geez, we’d have one powerful ally! Well, it’s a nice idea. Unfortunately, though, it seems like Hollywood is much more interested in undermining our message than in promoting it. Hollywood Is Sending the Wrong Safety Message Most people respond better to pictures than words or plant walk-throughs. At a plant where I used to work, workers who wouldn’t recognize an obvious safety hazard if it was 6 inches from their nose showed amazing skill and enthusiasm for finding those same hazards hidden in the photograph we used for our weekly Spot the Safety Hazard contest. If a still picture is worth 1,000 words, imagine what a TV episode or feature length movie is worth. So it irks me to consistently spot so many obvious safety violations in TV shows like Undercover Boss. The worst culprits are the dramas that try so hard for reality such as the various CSI‘s, NCIS, Law & Order, Trauma, etc. But you can find problems even in the comedies—witness Susan’s antics on Desperate Housewives. For example, I spotted 3 violations in a scene from a recent NCIS episode showing a large forklift on a dock:

• The operator wasn’t wearing his seatbelt;

• He raised the load while driving across the dock; and

• He unnecessarily obscured his vision.

Who’s Minding the Actors? I assume that the SAG (Screen Actors’ Guild) is at least as concerned about the safety of its members as the other trade unions I’ve worked with are of theirs. So I’m at a loss to understand how all of these actors continue to be put unnecessarily at risk. I’m not taking about stuntmen, but routine activities perhaps even being done by work-a-day real life industrial employees. I’m also one of those people that read the credits after the movies end. And I’ve noticed that movies typically credit “consultants” for the realism they seek. But I’ve never seen a credit for a “safety consultant.” Where is SAG? Where are the OHS authorities? Where are the insurers? Why can’t production companies employ safety consultants? Why can’t they depict workers following safety rules, wearing proper PPE, using fall protection, etc.? Turning Hollywood’s Safety Negative into a Positive If Hollywood insists on serving as the world’s largest producer of Spot-the-Safety-Hazard images, we might as well take advantage. Let’s challenge our workes to spot all the safety violations in their favorite dramas and reality shows. I’ll bet you can get the real couch potatoes in your workforce to spot at least 100 hazards in any given week! I invite each of you OHS Insider members to write in and submit the hazards you and your workers spot. Maybe OHS Insider should give an award to the member that submits the most or the most creative hazards. So go to those movies and tune in those TV sets and let’s all give out a shout of Hooray for Hollywood! _______________________ For a related blog post on safety in the movies, see http://www.ohsinsider.com/do-diligence/workplace-safety-in-the-movies.