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Long fuses: How the Fireworks Industry Got Safety Right
September 14, 2007
One of the interesting byproducts of attending the Sino-US Consumer Products Safety Summit was the opportunity to meet and listen to people from other industries. I was sitting in front of a group from the fireworks industry so we had a chance to talk. After listening to them, I have a better idea on how they managed the safety issue.
In the late 1980’s there was a move to ban consumers from purchasing fireworks. Too many people were getting hurt. It appears that the nearness of death, even for an entire industry, does tend to focus the mind.
According to a representative from the fireworks industry, safety compliance has risen since the programs inception from 60% to 94%. More importantly, despite a major increase in fireworks imports, the rate of injury has been reduced by 2/3 since 1994. No wonder the fireworks people seemed so relaxed.
How did they do it? For one thing, they, as an industry, went about establishing an across- the-industry safety program that last year included the sampling of 2.7 million cartons. In addition, they decided to follow a bottom up approach to teaching safety by visiting the factories and speaking with the workers who actually make the fireworks. A representative from the fireworks industry said, for example, that they felt it important to explain why a long fuse was important (I would have thought that that was self-evident, but it obviously was not).
The toy industry takes a more top down approach by offering a safety seminar each year that explains US safety standards. Last year’s event was attended by 150 factory owners.
Here are three essential lessons we can learn from the fireworks industry:
Safety is a numbers game. 2.7 million carton inspections in one year is an impressive number. Are we, as an industry, inspecting a large enough number of cartons?
A top down approach is good but a bottom up approach makes it even better. We need to be talking to the people who make the toys.
The best way to manage toy safety is from an industry approach. All stake holders in the US and China need to be involved in making sure that toys are safe.
Who would have thought that we would have something to learn from people who make a product that explodes? It appears we do.
Posted by Richard Gottlieb on September 14, 2007 | Comments (0)
