Safety culture: Classify the following activities as either strengthening or weakening process safety culture. Explain why.

a. The plant manager schedules an important safety meeting that everyone must attend. At the meeting, the plant manager introduces a person from corporate safety and then excuses himself, stating that he has a more important meeting to attend elsewhere.

b. The faculty member in charge of a research lab states that not everyone in the laboratory needs to wear safety glasses—only people who are doing hazardous operations. Visitors also do not need to wear safety glasses.

c. The faculty member in charge of a research laboratory states that “No work is ever done in a clean lab!”

d. The faculty member in charge of a research laboratory states that his students—not him—are in charge of the safety program and does little else.

e. The plant manager institutes a suggestion box for safety ideas, and these ideas are discussed and resolved at the required safety meeting.

f. A suggestion box for safety ideas is implemented, but it takes the plant management many months to respond to the suggestions.

g. A research laboratory requires safety glasses, but the workers in the lab must purchase their own safety glasses.

h. A research laboratory requires safety glasses. The safety glasses are provided but are available only in a room down the hallway.

i. The laboratory safety manual has not been reviewed or updated in many years.

j. The faculty member in charge of a teaching lab tells the students that they have primary responsibility for safety, and the faculty member provides the training, resources, management and continuous auditing to ensure that the students are successful.