Safety in laboratory work 2024/25 English
Introduction
Occupational safety is an extremely important topic - for you personally. We all want to go home safe and healthy at the end of the working day. But unfortunately, the reality is often different.
Worldwide, around 6,400 workers are killed in accidents every day, that's over 2.3 million people per year and almost twice as many deaths as in road traffic accidents. This means that one person dies every 13 seconds as a result of an accident at work, i.e. around 4 per minute or 276 per hour. While you have been reading this paragraph, two people have died somewhere in the world as a result of (almost always unnecessary) accidents at work.
Within the EU, and therefore also in Austria, much stricter rules apply to occupational safety than in other countries. This pays off: In the EU, "only" around 10 people die every day as a result of accidents at work. Nevertheless, every accident at work is one accident too many - because almost all accidents at work could be avoided by working safely.
But how do you avoid accidents at work, how do you avoid serious injuries or even fatalities?
Put simply: by working safely and adhering to the specified safety rules. These rules, including the basic rules of the UASI taught in this training course, are for your safety and that of your colleagues.
Safety and safe working are a question of attitude, of mindset.
The following figure shows the statistical correlations between accident severity and accident frequency. Put simply, there is one fatal accident at work for every 30,000 near misses.
Pyramid of statistical frequencies of accidents with different severity of consequences.
It would be nice and easy if you only needed safety regulations for the top of the pyramid - then you could just get on with it the rest of the time, undisturbed by any safety rules. But practical experience (and many scientific studies) show that we always have to start at the bottom when it comes to accident prevention. If you always and consistently work safely, avoid risks and eliminate all near-accidents wherever possible, then the number of accidents resulting in injuries, serious injuries and fatalities will also fall.
So please get into the mindset of always thinking about your safety first. So that you can all go home safe and sound in the evening!
I would like to address another topic here: The vast majority of you will be in positions of responsibility at some point in your careers, perhaps in management, perhaps in production management, perhaps in development or in sales. If you manage people, you are also responsible for their health and safety - not only morally, but also legally. In the event of an accident, you will then have to speak to the labour inspectorate and perhaps also the public prosecutor's office. If it then emerges that you did not take sufficient care of safety because you wanted to save time or costs, you could in the worst case be personally liable to prosecution. This also applies to managers:
Safety first!
I wish you and all of us an always accident-free work at the FHV!
Joachim Vedder
Head of the Technical Department (and certified safety specialist)
Joachim Vedder
Head of the Technical Department (and certified safety specialist)
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