Lablogatory Highlight: The Pyramid and the Power

In 1950, the National Safety Council began describing a safety system known as the “hierarchy of controls.” This model demonstrated that design, elimination and engineering controls are more effective in reducing risk to workers than ‘lower level controls’ such as warnings, training, procedures and personal protective equipment. While this hierarchy is represented differently by multiple organizations, the basic protection levels of the pyramid remain the same: Elimination, Substitution, Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls, and PPE. The most effective part of the pyramid (Elimination) is at the sharp end, or the top, and the least effective (PPE) lies at the bottom. Unfortunately, the top two most-effective layers of the safety pyramid do not work well in the laboratory setting. Find out why in the September issue of Lablogatory. Read more.