Guest columnist: Asking the wrong safety questions

Many years ago, I was hired to perform a safety audit for a laboratory. As I walked through one department, an employee asked what I was doing. When I remarked that I was looking for safety issues to keep her safe, she asked, “What are you keeping me safe from?” It was the right question. This employee was working in a lab where there were several safety violations and she didn’t notice any of them. Was it a lack of education? Was it a product of a poor lab safety culture? Why didn’t she see the danger she was in?

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