b'WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETYGiven some of the inherent dangers of working at a pit or quarryheavy machinery to name just onedegraded response times can pose serious dangers for workers. Recognizing the importanceofsituationalawarenessandstrivingtoinstilaWHAT ISsafety culture that takes this into consideration, is critical for theSITUATIONAL AWARENESS?aggregate industry.Officially,situationalawarenessisdefinedas:the Around the world, 7,500 people lose their lives due to theirperception of the elements in the environment within occupation every day, says Zachary Kiehl, CEO and co-foundera volume of time and space, the comprehension of of Sentinel Occupational Safety Inc. While Kiehl says there are atheir meaning and the projection of their status in the lot of factors involved, there are still hundreds if not thousandsnear future. of deaths every day focused on lack of situational awareness. In laymans terms, however, it can be defined as simply just knowing and being cognizant of what is going on The human cost should always be the prime focus of efforts toaround you. Some think of it as having a helicopter improve cognitive function and workplace situational awareness,view,i.e.,havingagoodoverallpictureofones but the financial cost is staggering too. As Kiehl notes, theenvironment. International Labour Organization has estimated that four perHoweveritisdefined,itisrequiredinorderto cent of the worlds entire annual GDP, about $3 trillion, is lost tofunction optimally and to operate equipment safety, direct and indirect costs of occupational accidents and diseases.and everything from lack of sleep to excessive fatigue and overwork will impact it in a negative way.Cowart had the opportunity to work with a mining companyToday, the term is gaining ground as a critical part of in Mexico where a haul truck driver collided with a van carryingensuring health and safety in the workplace.mine employees. Seven people lost their lives. Cowart correctly targeted fatigue as the cause, but the problem still took a while to unravel. I wondered if the workers had a long commute, but it turned out they lived 20 minutes away. I asked how long the shifts wereeight hours, which is actually four hours shorter than most mines. So I was puzzled until I found out most of the employees were also farmers. The mine was their secondBUILT-IN PROTECTIONjob. AsCowartexplains,probablythekeytomaintainingoptimal JonathanFava,presidentofScan-LinkTechnologiesInc.,cognitive performance in the workplace is to let one of the bodys believes work pressures are a big factor. On the sites whereown systems do its work: the glymphatic system. You read that we work its more about weve got to get the job done. Tocorrectly:theglymphaticsystemislesswellknownthanthe speed things up, corners are cut. We work a lot in construction.lymphatic system, which helps clear waste products and cellular Companieswillputbarriersaroundtheswingradiusofdebris from the body. The glymphatic system performs the same excavators. But say an excavator has to move five feet away, justfunction, but solely for the brain. for a few minutes. The correct procedure is that you have to move that barrier too. But the operator thinks Im only goingThe glymphatic system filters out the toxins that build up in our to be there five minutes and then I come back. Its that timebrain from contaminants in the air, chemicals we get exposed to, constraint that makes people take shortcuts. Its not intentional.what we eat and drink, Cowart says. Even when we exercise, our Its hustle, its trying to get the job done. body will produce waste that can build up in our brains. The catch Fava also makes the observation that there are close calls onis that the glymphatic system only switches on when a person is in the job all the time, but they tend not to get reported. Thethe deepest stages of sleep. Any shortage of sleep will reduce the operator and groundworker arent going to go and report it. Itsnumber of toxins it can remove from the brain. A buildup results. more like, Whew, no one was hurt. Lets move on, he says.You become literally intoxicated, Cowart says.FALL 2021AVENUES 13'