It’s SUMMER and we are LIVING ON THE EDGE

Summer is upon us once again.  The kids are out of school.  Vacations will be taken.  Warm weather, lots of sun and cooling ocean waters are in the plan.  The beach vacation is upon us.  Sun, surf, rides and LIVING ON THE EDGE.  Yes that’s right we will be “living on the edge”.  Without really knowing we can put ourselves in danger in the name of having fun.  It is important to recognize the fact that vacation venues require the same type of risk assessment as you would do for yourself on the job.  The dangers are different. The risks are real. The results can be devastating.

At the hotel

OK, let’s start upon arrival at our destination.  We check-in at the hotel, it is right on the beach.  The views from the room are fantastic.  It might be the first time here and everyone has given you the stamp of approval.  Just look at that ocean view as you all crowd out on the balcony.  There are a couple of things that should have been done before the family gathered on that balcony to take in the view.  First thing to consider when entering a hotel with the family is emergency escape.  If you are in a high rise hotel it is a good idea to always request a room below the 10th floor,  the reason being that most fire ladder trucks today have extendable ladders that reach a little over 100 feet or about 9 stories high.  Having a room on lower floors allows for a good secondary means of escape should the primary exit plan be blocked.  The room now secured, the next life saving technique that must be employed is to locate the emergency exit pathways.  Once located, show the path and the signs designating where to go to all members of the family.  Remind them they must never take elevators (at least not until fire safe elevators become the norm over the next decade or so) in an emergency situation.  Designate a place to meet outside should the family be in different areas or you get separated during the emergency evacuation.

The second risk assessment to be done is an inspection of the balcony before everyone crowds onto it.  Look for cracks on the flooring that might indicate a slight separation from the main body of the building.  If you see any, declare the balcony off limits.  If not, step out and inspect the railings.  Is there corrosion on any metal parts?.  Give the railing a good stress test yourself to determine if it can withstand your pressure.  It might not be the most thorough inspection but at least it will find the most egregious conditions.  Think it doesn’t happen?  Just this month seven Irish students visiting in Berkeley,  California were killed and another student paralyzed for life when the balcony they were on collapsed.  The reason for the collapse was determined to be dry rot in the laminated wood beams that held up the balcony.

At the beach

We have all hurriedly changed into bathing suits and are headed for the beach.  The next risk we need to consider is sun burn.  During the summer in the United States, no matter what part of the country you are in, overexposure to sunlight is an issue.  It doesn’t take very long to get sunburned.  Consider these facts.  The sand on the beach reflects 85 to 90% of the sunlight that lands upon it.  Even on a cloudy day the damaging UV rays from sunlight can give you a sunburn.  Children tend to burn much more as they tend to get up to 3x the exposure of an adult.  Risk prevention here is well known.  Use a sun blocking lotion of sufficient strength and a beach umbrella to shield you from the direct sun rays.  Remember that every time you jump into the water to cool off you are also removing the sun blocking lotion, no matter what the label says, and are therefore reducing your protection and increasing you risk of harm.  Reapply frequently and liberally to avoid the chance of skin cancers in the future.  It is also important to protect your eyes from UV radiation.  Get everyone in the family to wear a good pair of UV blocking sunglasses to avoid future eye problems.

In the water we have another series of risks to content with.  First observation to make is to determine if there are lifeguards on the beach.  If there aren’t any then it is incumbent upon your family to make sure that someone is always watching.  Even good swimmers can sometimes get into trouble and need help.  If any family members are not good swimmers then set a limit as to how far out or how deep one can go.  If there are lifeguards present ask them what the conditions are.  Especially ask if there is any chance for rip tides that day.  Rip tides are one of the most dangerous hazards for beach goers because they form quickly and can affect people who are in very shallow waters.  Statistics show that every year over 100 people drown in rip currents.  A rip current is a very strong local and narrow current of water that flows away from the beach.  If you are caught in one the best thing to do is stay calm (I know easy for me to say) and ride it out until it dissipates.  That’s right rip currents will take you away from the beach and that is what scares most people as they try to break free from its grips and get back to shore.  Rip currents should be avoided so if there is a red flag on the beach, an indicator that rip currents have been experienced recently, then don’t attempt to get in the water even if looks like there is nothing going on.

There are risks that make us live on the edge and there isn’t much we can do about it.   Recently there were two people seriously injured by shark attacks as they were swimming in shallow water in North Carolina while another happened in the area the day before.  For reasons not completely understood there have been increases in the amount of shark attacks over the last few decades.  In 2014 there were 72 confirmed cases of unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide.  Now if you are one of them, it of course is devastating, but when you consider the enormous length of coastline and the vast number of bathers in the water around the world the probability of experiencing a shark attack is extremely low.  Knowing that these attacks happen, it would be prudent to check with the life guards to determine if there have been any shark sightings. If they indicate affirmatively then I might recommend to stay out of the water that day.

My last risk to consider when at the beach is one we typically just don’t think about, the rogue wave.  They happen, probably more frequently than we know, and there just isn’t much we can do to protect ourselves.  Again it is an extremely low probability of occurrence but deserves a mention only because of a recent event in Santa Barbara, California.  One Saturday morning at a restaurant  on Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara patrons got a surprise when a rogue wave, probably caused by storms out at sea, burst through the restaurants windows that were more than 40 feet above the water.  Luckily there were no injuries, just a bunch of extremely surprised people.  Mother Nature’s actions are always around us and we need to be aware of things that could happen but not so concerned that we choose not to experience the good because of the slight chance of the bad happening.

A Personal Revelation

So I guess I am saying that we all have to accept some degree of “living on the edge” or we won’t experience life at all.  There are things we can and definitely should guard against or prepare for, things such as using sun block and beach umbrellas.  We should be wise about when it is OK to swim and when maybe we don’t.  But we shouldn’t not go to the beach because of the chance that a rogue wave will sweep us away.

I am beginning to think that some of the people who have argued against the “Step Back From The EDGE” theory I use do so because they see it as an all or nothing proposition.  Plus, as I think of the way I have proposed it to workers in the past, it might sound like an all or nothing theory.  So since you can’t do it all why worry about any of this risk reduction stuff?  However, we know that there is rarely an absolute in anything we do.  There will be times, hopefully rare, when there is nothing to be done but to be “On The Edge”.  However if the majority of the time we proactively work to “step back from the edge” then we have made our lives that much safer.  Isn’t it worth it?