Safe As E46: The Stuff That Kills People and weaknesses in Critical Control Programs

How do Critical Control programs succeed or fault and trip? And are CC observations calibrated to the actual things that kill or permanently injure people? This episode unpacks creative sentencing reports. Article: Lefsrud, L. M., Sattari, F., Gellatly, I. R., Wasel, C., Charuvil Elizabeth, R. M., Abdolmaleki, A., … & O’Neill, T. (2025). Final Report… Continue reading Safe As E46: The Stuff That Kills People and weaknesses in Critical Control Programs

Short and long-term effects of interactivity in immersive virtual reality training for occupational safety

This tested Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) on “proactive safety behaviours and their antecedents”. They argue that the efficacy of IVR depends on the implementation quality, which depends on immersion, presence and interactivity. 22 training sessions were held with 68 participants. Extracts: ·        “Increased interactivity was shown to particularly improve the perceived control over safety issues and… Continue reading Short and long-term effects of interactivity in immersive virtual reality training for occupational safety

Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Symptoms Following Occupational Accidents

What are the psychological consequences of physical work incidents? 38 occupationally injured persons matched against 38 none injured. Background: ·      Prior work “reported that 34.7% of injured workers with chronic pain achieved full criteria for PTSD, and 18.2% had partial PTSD” ·        “victims of work-related accidents showed clinically relevant psychopathological symptoms, including post-traumatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, anger, and… Continue reading Psychological Distress and Post-Traumatic Symptoms Following Occupational Accidents

Energy-Based Safety: The misdirection of managing (minor) injuries while people die

Some extracts from Matt Hallowell’s Energy-Based Safety, exploring contradictions and logics of injury vs fatality prevention:

Safe As 45: Unpacking Officer Due Diligence based on a Maritime NZ prosecution

This episode unpacks findings from the recent Maritime NZ / Port of Auckland case, where a CEO was charged under due diligence offences. It offers an enlightening perspective on work-as-done, night shift work, critical controls and more. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5EsUw6aRLTuG1AvSxb5JHv?si=tNoxgiWRTdaYKje2K29RNw Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then… Continue reading Safe As 45: Unpacking Officer Due Diligence based on a Maritime NZ prosecution

The opacity of risk: language and the culture of safety in NASA’s space shuttle program

Really interesting book chapter about the vocabulary of safety at NASA prior to the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster. WAY too much to cover, so a few extracts. The vocabulary of safety means “the interrelated set of words used to guide organizational communications regarding known and unknown risks and danger to the mission, vehicle, and crew… Continue reading The opacity of risk: language and the culture of safety in NASA’s space shuttle program

Safe As 44: Human-centred design – some terms from Don Norman

This quickisode dives into some key human-centred design terms from the GOAT, Don Norman. The source is: Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2aOZLiHpZpX4vfFq4bVYQ4?si=d37krBKhRKivbag9yyjtag Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on… Continue reading Safe As 44: Human-centred design – some terms from Don Norman

Safety culture maturity models in occupational safety and health: An updated scoping review

Review study of the evidence underpinning ‘safety culture’ maturity models. 17 studies were included. Tl;dr: the evidence supporting that they actually do what they purport to do, is limited. Note: I’m not a fan of SC maturity models, but good to see efforts to describe the empirical landscape. Extracts: ·        “The vast majority of included studies… Continue reading Safety culture maturity models in occupational safety and health: An updated scoping review

Safe As 43: How ‘no blame’ can potentially subvert learning and improvement

Few would disagree that blame negatively impacts learning. However, can efforts to promote ‘no blame’ approaches also carry their own negative and unintended impacts on learning and improvement? Today’s article is: Sherratt, F., Thallapureddy, S., Bhandari, S., Hansen, H., Harch, D., & Hallowell, M. R. (2023). The unintended consequences of no blame ideology for incident… Continue reading Safe As 43: How ‘no blame’ can potentially subvert learning and improvement

Large Language Models in Lung Cancer: Systematic Review

This systematic review of 28 studies explored the application of LLMs for lung cancer care and management. Probably few surprises here. And it’s focused mostly on LLMs, rather than specialised AI models. Extracts: ·        The review identified 7 primary application domains of LLMs in LC: auxiliary diagnosis, information extraction, question answering, scientific research, medical education, nursing… Continue reading Large Language Models in Lung Cancer: Systematic Review