Event Safety Insights Issue One | Fall 2016 | Page 48

Load-Out

By Jim Digby

Does PPE Really Matter?
Do uncomfortable shoes, un-fashionable hats,

riggers in double-lanyard full body harnesses and gnarly
bright colors really make a significant difference in safety?
From airports in Africa, show sites in Singapore, and construction sites in countries around the globe, you’ll find the workforce ALL utilizing personal protective equipment. The practice didn’t happen overnight, nor by chance and in fact many
of the standards have arrived over spilled blood. Countless
studies have proven that properly-used PPE reduces workplace injuries. Insurance companies MUST be recognizing
this concept or the mega conglomerates and their leadership
would not insist on its use.
Yet in the United States, the use of appropriate PPE on an event
site is still far from universal. The case studies bear witness that
OSHA considers the erection and dismantling of a show site
under the OSHA 29 CFR 1926 construction standard requiring
the use of PPE, so whether you are inclined to use PPE or not,
it still will be the standard by which you are judged should
something go seriously wrong.
On a recent show build in a US city that you would think would
be more motivated than most to be a shining example of
workplace safety, I found precisely none, zero, no one wearing PPE. Not even a single hardhat on the folks most likely to
get hit in the head by a shackle - the ground riggers. I find this
remarkably short-sited and testament to the fact that we in the
American entertainment workforce have a long way to go in
effecting the necessary behavioral change surrounding safety.
Why is it that many seem to operate with blatant disregard to
take care of one’s own self interest? Does it stem from the
American frontier spirit that we all share? Are we still carrying
the cowboy gene in our DNA that impedes our ability to think
logically when it comes to looking after ourselves? Is it the “I’ve
been doing it this way for twenty years why should I change
now” mentality? Are we all so well-protected by health and
accident insurance and are our savings accounts so full that

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