The Luck of the Irish
Are the Irish luckier than most people? You might have heard the phrase “the luck of the Irish.” According to a website about Irish culture and traditions, the phrase assigning luck to the Irish originated in the gold fields of the United States in the 19th century. Many of the miners striking gold were Irish immigrants. Rather than ascribe their success in gold mining to hard work, less productive miners said the Irish were just “lucky.” (https://irishcultureandtraditions.org/2025/03/10/the-luck-of-the-irish-fact-or-fiction/)
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a day celebrated by many, and some of us that are not Irish join in the festivities. After all, it’s fun to celebrate. We might wear green in honor of Ireland’s nickname, the Emerald Isle. We might even look for a four-leaf clover or a leprechaun.
But what about the real luck of the Irish, which was and is to work for what you want? And what do we want? We might want gold, but we also want to be safe. We want to go home at the end of our shift with no injuries or work-related illnesses. We want to avoid risk, which can make our tasks unsafe.
In 2021, ANSI updated their Prevention Through Design Guidelines, which included the below graphic, the Hierarchy of Risk Treatments.
You may notice that the more effective treatments, that of avoiding or eliminating risk are in the greenest portion of the graphic. As the arrow on the right indicates, the higher on the list of risk treatment, the more risk can be reduced or made safer. Avoid is the top of the list. What can be done to avoid risk? An example would be to use a drone with a camera to inspect the inside of a tank instead of sending in a worker. Using the drone avoids the need to send someone into a confined space. Inspecting the tank cannot be avoided, but the confined space entry is avoided.
In the vegetation management industry, many businesses are switching to less hazardous products, reducing their risk of chemical exposures. The third in list of risk treatments is substitution. This is the focus of the vegetation management industry. They can’t avoid the need to get rid of weeds and bugs, but they can use less hazardous products.
Weekly Safety Challenge:
What tasks at your workplace may have an element of risk? How can you, looking at the Hierarchy of Risk Treatments, make the job safer by avoiding risk, eliminating a hazard, or substituting something else?
Let us know your thoughts. We always welcome feedback from our readers.
