Protecting Criminals
The idea for this article came from a webinar announcement I received in my e-mail. The topic of the webinar was understanding the rules for pesticide use on marijuana crops. Now, instead of killing off marijuana plants, the goal is to protect both the plants and the customers for these crops. The problem is that although marijuana is now legal in several states, it is still illegal under federal law so pesticides can’t be registered for use on marijuana crops. This has resulted in illegal pesticide use with the possibility of serious health impacts to users.
Most of us break the law sometimes. The most common and widespread violation is probably speeding. Those who design and build roads know this so they often take that into account in their work. Ironically, speeding is one of the factors taken into account in setting speed limits.
The same is true in product design. Customers don’t always use products in accordance with safety instructions. This is one of the reasons why lawnmowers have handles that must be keep engaged or the lawnmower turns off. Dead man switches are a common part of many machines (e.g. tractors, chainsaws, snow-blowers, locomotives and medical imaging devices).
Protecting rule-breakers is an integral part of the job of a safety professional. This is why the use of personal protective equipment is considered the least protective method of addressing a safety hazard. Not everyone will use PPE or they may not use it correctly. In assessing risk, we need to take into account the strengths of controls – including those that rely on human behavior.
Part of being ethical is considering the safety of others even when they don’t follow the rules.
Related Resources:
The use of pesticides on marijuana crops is a complicated topic. For more information, check out this article from the Atlantic – The Wild West of Marijuana Pesticides.
According to the paper – Changing America’s culture of speed on the roads – Speed limits are set starting with the 85th percentile speed: the speed not exceeded by 85% of drivers. This means that speeding drivers can help raise speed limits, rather than speed limits helping to slow down speeding drivers.
The importance of considering human behavior and organizational culture was highlighted in the recently released report on the Fukushima nuclear plant failure. Among the reasons cited in the report as important – a belief that the plants were so safe, an accident of this magnitude was unthinkable. (Click here for more information and a link to the report.)
