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When the alarms went off to indicate too much accumulated radiation in the ventilation system, Rocky Flats workers punched holes in the air filters. When their steel-toed boots set off the metal detectors in the security system, Flats workers turned down the detectors' sensitivity. Thus boots passed an annoying alarm, but investigators found that a chunk of plutonium could also pass through.
Some people may see something sinister here, but the truth is much simpler: the Blue-Collar Macho Ethic.
The ethic is that you've got a job to do, and you do it. Safety regulations are just more stupid things that the boss lays on you, and if you're a real man, you find a way around the regulations.
I used to work in commercial laundries. We thought it was an absurd waste of time to install insulation on the 500-degree steam pipes in the washroom, because a good washman could still work a full shift after getting a six-inch blister on his arm after accidentally brushing against a steam line.
We never replaced the protective guards over the chains and belts that drove the washing machines. The shields just got in the way when you had to fix a machine, and the ever-present risk of losing a finger or hand added some excitement to an otherwise tedious job.
My contractor friend Kirby Perschbacher says the
Blue-Collar Macho Ethic drives him crazy. Every time I
show up at a job, I see guys working without hard hats.
You've got to stand there and make them wear safety goggles
when they're drilling concrete, and you know they'll take
off the goggles as soon as you leave. You find guys working
on steep roofs without toe cleats, and working off ladders
instead of scaffolds, because they're in a hurry. I sure
can't afford the down-time and increased insurance from
accidents, so I'm always telling them to take their time
and do things the safe way. But they don't want to; it's
always an uphill fight. How can you get people to start
caring about themselves?
Back when Climax Molybdenum had 3,000 miners working
around the clock, I asked a manager about safety. We're
nuts about it. The union is too. But the working miners --
I don't know how you get through to them. I guess they
figure they're heroes if they get hit on the head by a
falling rock because they were in too big a hurry to bar
down all the lose stuff overhead before they advance a
drift.
The Blue-Collar Macho Ethic says that safety is for sissies; real guys take appalling risks and cleverly evade safety regulations. Its roots probably lie deep in the male psyche, but team sports must aggravate it -- you admire the guy that plays hurt and risks crippling injury for the glory of the team.
Will men ever quit thinking that safety is for sissies? Probably not. Men are brave enough to crawl under a car supported only by a tottering bumper jack, brave enough to carry primers and dynamite in the same wheelbarrow, brave enough to push wood through table saws with their bare hands. But men aren't brave enough to withstand being called sissies, and until that changes, Rocky Flats certainly won't be the only dangerous place in America.
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