But why do you not mention the plant by name??

Before people could read, town criers brought the news to the people, and served as spokesmen for the King. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog for the past three years has informed about incidents in our industry with the intention to place blame on neither company nor worker(s), but the hope that awareness of these accidents brings education and prevention of recurrence. Recently we had a question after a post that needed to be answered with its own post:

The comment left after a recent post was: “Terrible story and a lesson to all
But why do you not mention the plant by name??”

The APSB appreciates every comment, (even the comments that are really company advertisements, which are not posted). The reader wrote “Terrible story”. True, each and every incident that involves an injury or fatality is a terrible story. A story that affects the injured or killed worker, their family, friends, and coworkers. When the APSB visits plants the question is asked;

What is safety?

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog views safety as either personal or impersonal.

Personal meaning that you know someone who was injured or killed, and that is why you are safe. That is why you watch out for others.

Impersonal meaning that you are safe because your boss tells you have to. If you are not safe, you can be fired from your job.

The reader continued with “and a lesson to all”. Which is true and in some ways the basis of the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog. One incident that happens in one plant can be reproduced in another plant. It is the hope of the APSB that by bringing awareness to these incidents will result in the prevention of recurrence.

The reader then asked the question: “But why do you not mention the plant by name??”

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog chooses not to name the plant nor the victim under the notion (that in this forum) it would assign blame to the company nor the worker(s).

The APSB knows the stories of the injured and dead. We know the names of the fiancés, wives, children.. We can only imagine the pain that the worker (injured) and the family, friends, and coworkers deal with on a daily basis. One family member of worker said the pain of associated of losing a loved one in a workplace never ends. It’s a never ending ache.

We choose not to include the workers name out of respect for the injured worker and worker who died in the workplace. We chose not to include their names out of respect for their families. We understand some might disagree with our decision. In our opinion, for this forum to succeed it is imperative that we do not assign blame to the company nor the worker. This forum has to be a place where incidents are listed, and associated safety information is available. Which we hope will bring dialogue within plants and hopefully result in less incidents.

Please comment.