Art you can fall off of will be familiar to anyone in the San Francisco independent arts scene (yes, I’m trying not to say “Burning Man” here), but it fascinates me to see how a very public institution in notoriously uptight country handles safety for an installation in a gallery which draws 100,000 people in a weekend.

The BBC report above focuses on splinters. Have we really become that lame?

Then again, I wonder if this piece could be shown at all in the US, a country with strong tort law and poor health insurance.

Apparently this was distributed to all J&J employees, perhaps in the hope that no one would sue for slipping on the immaculately maintained non-slip flooring. Let’s peruse, shall we? (click on any image for a bigger version)

Step 1: Watch your step! Humans are not naturally adept at level changes, because we evolved in the savanna, where it’s flat. Also, there are no stray power cords there.

Step 2: Height can hurt. As any mountain biker, knows, “going down is more dangerous than going up.” This is why there are non-slip treads on mountains.

Step 3: Health Helps! This man is exercising his arms so that he may walk safer. Also, you should not walk when you are stressed — after a bad day at work, it’s best to call a friend to come pick you up in a wheelchair.

Step 4: Don’t Do It! This one is really very reasonable, I think. There really could be a crocodile hiding in the grass. You know, in the savanna.

Step 4 again: Yes, there really are multiple pages on each one of these topics. Likewise, the authors felt it was important to discuss jumping down versus across. Sesame Street couldn’t have said it better.

Step 5: Wear the right shoes. In particular, wearing shoes at all is recommended. But I disagree — here’s to all our barefoot heroes!

Step 6: Hold on. Don’t ever carry something with more than one hand. That’s why we evolved with two: one to drag the zebra carcass, the other for the handrail.

Step 7: Fix it. It has long been known that the restroom needs to be closed with a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign until evaporation has made it safe to enter. Further, OSHA has now taken an interest in hazards in other phases, and is recommending labels on all objects in the workplace, with the standardized wording of “Caution: Solid Matter.”

The booklet concludes with the discussion “How Likely Are You To Fall?” on pages 38 and 39. Yes, that was 40 pages on how to walk. Whenever I’m feeling that the fall of Communism has the left the world with a shortage of absurdity, I like to imagine the production meetings for this book.

As an antidote, I present to you here a typical Southeast-Asian sidewalk, this one from Penang, Malaysia:

Note the many objects in the way of the sidewalk, which is bordered by huge gaping open sewers. Huge gaping open unsigned sewers! Nary a strip of caution tape in sight! Further, I assure you that just offscreen there are cars and pedestrians dancing senselessly, and a lack of good footwear. How do these people survive?

Actually, I find walking down the street in developing countries somewhat difficult, so don’t think I’m advocating for the open sewers approach. It’s just that– well, there’s got to be a balance here somewhere.

]]> http://jonathanstray.com/too-safe-too-funny/feed 3 http://jonathanstray.com/is-safer-always-better http://jonathanstray.com/is-safer-always-better#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:17:23 +0000 Jonathan Stray http://jonathanstray.com/?p=25

On January 2, 2008, an American soldier stationed in Iraq was electrocuted in his shower due to an improperly grounded water pump.

I’ve been shocked by showers in Bolivia, India, Thailand, and Ethiopia. Fortunately not seriously, but it did make bathing more exciting. You learn not to touch the taps. Actually, I once read of an entire apartment building in Mumbai which was improperly grounded. The tenants had taken to coating their faucets with silicone caulk to prevent electrocution.

Why does this happen, how could this happen? Do such places have poor codes or poor enforcement or is it just the mere sloppiness of heathens? Any way you slice it, the developing world is a more dangerous place. This isn’t always by choice: clean water and emergency services are mostly unavailable to the very poor. But those are risks that make sense, risks as old as humans that require infrastructure and advanced civilization to mitigate. What I wonder about are the billions who ride motorbikes without helmets.

And yet. And yet. There are freedoms lost in safety. All of the trains in my Toronto childhood had stickers on the window saying “keep head and arms inside.” A pity, because I loved to feel the wind in my face. Likewise, subway platforms in developed countries around the world tell us to stay back from the edge. Do we really need to be told not to fall off the edge?

So that same Thailand, India, Ethiopia — what a childhood missed! Riding not only with my head out the window but actually on the roof of a train! Drinking a lassi from a vendor without a permit. Walking around shin-breaking holes in the sidewalk without the aid of caution tape. Jumping off well before coming to a full and complete stop!

Organizers of the charity group Food Not Bombs have repeatedly been arrested for giving away food without proper health permits. Art projects like Dance Dance Immolation are almost impossible to run in a legal fashion, because no insurer understands them. Even baloons are no longer considered safe (choking hazard.)

People do get injured. People do die. Manufacturers do need to be responsible, and complex risks (especially those involving information asymmetry) probably cannot be managed without regulation. But every new rule prohibiting something useful or fun is a tiny death for a culture. We are constrained invisibly, without ever knowing it. It is only when we go somewhere we can actually be exposed to real risks that we can understand the tradeoffs made, the risks that others have evaluated in our name.

How many people would actually be poisoned by contaminated free food? Does anyone even know any more? Was the elimination of this risk worth the gains we eliminated along with it?

Perhaps it is only by being allowed to make mistakes that a civilization can learn what risk is. I am generally a fan of safety. But not always. I don’t like being shocked in the shower, but I still do dream of sticking my head and arms out the streetcar window.