I was on a Tier One construction site recently and was surprised that knives are still banned on site. I had brought a puzzle as part of training and needed a sharp knife to break the puzzle that had been wedged together. Unfortunately, there were no pocket knife or Stanley knives on site.

I remember being on a site a few years ago and canned food was banned because someone cut their hand on the edge.

As Greg Smith states so eloquently in the Macondo video as part of the Risky Conversations book (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/risky-conversations/) and video series (https://vimeo.com/showcase/3938199), ‘cuts and knife injuries don’t create legal liability’.

We keep a pocket knife and Stanley knife in our kitchen because they are so handy when needed to do the right job. We trust out 3 year-old, 5 year old and 7 year old to be sensible with knives and scissors. And, if they do get a cut, we’ll deal with it. It’s not the end of the world.

Of course, Greg Smith tells the story of the Deepwater Horizon One disaster (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/05/bp-deepwater-horizon-spill-report-failures-risks) where people couldn’t cut the tethers on life boats for the burning oil rig thus contributing to more deaths. What is even more disturbing in the post disaster enquiry is that the Safety manager could testify about the danger of cut hands but didn’t know the emergency procedures! Unfortunately, this is how Safety=Zero thinks.

At the time BP were a Zero Vision company and as we know, the ideology of zero (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/) drives petty pissy risk. Zero treats adults like children and stresses out over matters that are low risk. This is the silly quest for absolute safety (Amalberti) which we know is impossible, creates greater risk and risk fragility (Taleb). All of this is promoted by the concocted nonsense of Heinrich (https://safetyrisk.net/deconstructing-the-myth-of-heinrich/) that is still adored by Safety and finds its way into most safety texts.

Anchoring safety thinking to Heinrich demonstrates a complete disconnect with reality and a lack of consciousness about History. Yet, I can bet Safety will have a celebration on his one hundredth anniversary!

If you find Heinrich and his mythical pyramid (https://safetyrisk.net/the-non-science-of-heinrich/), dominoes (https://safetyrisk.net/the-domino-myth-in-safety/) and his absurd ideas (https://safetyrisk.net/hoodwinked-by-heinrich/) anywhere in safety you know that the source knows nothing about safety.

But back to those pesky knives.

• How absurd to ban knives on site but allow a 13-inch quick cut saw.
• What nonsense to stress about cuts when the unseen injury of psychosocial harm is ignored and given token lip service.
• How silly to ban knives when on site there are thousands of interactions with mobile cranes, traffic and a host of high-risk civil works.

The worst part about this is that workers learn that Safety treats them like children. The real learning by workers is that Safety is dumb, irrelevant and petty. The real learning is that Safety is consumed by petty pissy risk (https://safetyrisk.net/petty-pissy-zero-harm/).

What keeps all this nonsense in place in organisations? Zero vision.

Once you get that stupid mantra in place it is nearly impossible to take away. This is because Safety now equals zero and if you try to get rid of it, you are deemed anti-safety. This is because Zero and its binary propaganda, infuses an industry that has no intelligence to counter its stupid logic.

There is no greater or more dangerous idea (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-harm-the-maintenance-of-a-dangerous-idea/ ) in the risk and safety world that this stupid idea.

Meanwhile, back in the real world where kids climb trees, play with scissors and knives, build cubbies, play sports, go to the toilet on their own (https://safetyrisk.net/toilet-roll-safety/) and ride bikes, we accept the necessity of risky activity and injury as a process of learning.

Back at work, Safety puts up signs on the office toaster (https://safetyrisk.net/toaster-is-hot/) because there are adults about.