Safety and Health

       Last week’s talk was conducted by James Skrabak who is a Corporate Health and Safety Manager for CDM Smith. What was interesting about this talk is that he was originally a chemist but now works in a field that really does not involve the field that he desired. He told us that most people who graduate with a degree tend to do a job that does not involve that particular degree that they earned. James said that most people might start in the field that they desire, but tend to branch out into a field that they have never imagined. This is exactly what happened to Mr. Skrabak. He told us that he would have never imagined himself working as a safety manager, but he loves it, and from I have heard from him, he is really good at his job. Although he might be right that most engineers will not be engineers in the future, I like to believe that engineering will be the job for me in the future, and if it is not, than there must be a really good reason for the change in plans.

       Why safety and health? Well, Mr. Skrabak told the class that it is obvious that people do get hurt and that a program (department) should be within the business to help the person get the adequate help that they need. He then told the class that the reality of such a program is it is a business necessity because when people get hurt, it cost the company money. What I did not know is that it can cost the company a lot of money, even for an injury that is not that critical, like a sprain ankle. There are different costs that are associated with an injury; there is either a direct or an indirect cost. It is known that an indirect cost can cost up to 5 times more than a direct cost. A direct cost is the medical bills that are involved with the injury, the lost in work time, and possible replacement of damaged equipment. Indirect cost can be production/project delays and additional insurance costs. If you think about it, say that a person was a project manager and they got hurt from an accident that happened while they were working and they were out of work for 2 weeks. That means that the project needs to incorporate a new leader to make sure everything is running smoothly and on time. Well that new person will need to be trained and given information about what exactly is going on the project, which will delay the project as a whole for sure. They will also need to find a person to fill in that job and they will need to make sure additional people are on site to make sure that the new person is doing the job that he/she needs to do. This is all additional cost on new employment and also additional cost on the project due to delays. Also, another interesting thing about this talk was that CDM Smith will pay for all injuries that are up to $500,000, which will allow them to be covered by insurance if something really bad happens, like a plant catching on fire, which could cost millions of dollars. The money comes from the company’s profit, which is why the company really wants to make sure that everyone is following the company’s policies when it comes to health and safety to ensure that the workers are safe and to make sure the company is not eating up all of its profits.

       Another topic that Mr. Skrabak talked about was the EMR, which stood for experience modification ratio. This is very important in the business world because this number will allow them to either have a successful business or have a hard time to get a client. For CDM Smith, there EMR is 0.57, which means that there work compensation is less, so they have more money to save. It is also a really good number, as all companies try to push for a number that is less than 1. This means that they rarely have injuries which allow the insurance company to know that they are not too risky to insure. It is allows clients to know that their company can perform and are not known to create many accidents that can prolong a project or make a project cost a lot more than anticipated.

      All in all, this was probably my most favorite talk because he had so many interesting stories, including the one about the four different deaths that happen in the construction of the wastewater treatment plant on Deer Island. He also allowed me to understand a little bit more about the business world and how it works in the field of engineering.

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