United States
Safety Story from Govan Brown’s Director of Health & Safety:
During a visit to one of our projects, I observed a worker cutting stone on a sidewalk with a quick-cut saw while his coworker stood beside him, splashing water from a bucket onto the blade to help minimize dust. I noticed the worker’s hand was only inches away from the cutting blade when he was flicking water towards the saw.
I didn’t want to startle them, so I let them finish cutting the stone and then directed them to stop work. When asked why they were using this procedure, the workers replied there was no other water supply available to them and the bucket was their only option. I pointed down the street to a hardware store and said, “How about we buy a pump sprayer with a long wand so you can keep all your fingers?”
The worker looked up at me and said, “That’s why you’re the safety guy!” The next day, I returned to observe them cutting again, this time using the pump sprayer to wet the stone from two to three feet away—there were smiles all around.