Echoes, not mirrors: Learning lessons from history

In reality, OSH professionals know that workplace safety is not that simple. Rarely does it follow a straight line of steady progress. Instead, it’s defined by old threats re-emerging in new guises, familiar lessons being forgotten, and preventable harms resurfacing; re-affirming that all of history is a circle.

Few examples illustrate this better than the echoes between asbestos and respirable crystalline silica (RCS). With this edition of Safety Management devoted to managing hazardous substances, the comparison feels particularly timely.

The campaign to tackle silicosis in the UK is still in its early days. Yet, echoes of the decades-long campaign to ban asbestos are clear to see. While the materials and risk profiles differ, as do the long-term effects, both share the same haunting story of lives cut short by entirely preventable workplace exposures.

Mike Robinson: What seems “new” in occupational health and safety is so frequently an echo of the past. 

But this is not really a story about asbestos, or silica, or any single workplace hazard in isolation. It is about a deeper lesson, which often gets overlooked, that what seems “new” in occupational health and safety is so frequently an echo of the past. Hazards, we know, rarely disappear forever; they resurface as a result of change, driven by innovation and evolution.

Rarely do these modern hazards mirror exactly those faced by earlier generations of workers, but the echoes are there if we choose to learn from them.

Our societal default seems to be to greet emerging risks as if we’re starting from scratch. New committees are formed, new systems designed, and new calls for legislative and regulatory change made, while the wisdom of decades past sits, all too often, forgotten on the shelf. This approach costs time, loses momentum, and fails to protect workers when they need it most.

The truth is that we already have a playbook, written and refined over decades, sometimes painfully and through trial and error. Its pages are filled with strategies that still offer real solutions to emerging and future risks: substitution, engineering controls, exposure monitoring, worker consultation, and the layering of protective measures. These tools remain as sharp today as when they were first designed.

The real danger then is not the emergence of novel risks, but the mistaken belief that every risk is novel.

Consider silica again. Its industrial uses may differ from asbestos, but the prevention model is strikingly familiar. The lessons of history tell us that success begins with early identification and continues with substitution. Further, control measures must be integrated into processes from the outset, not added later in the hopes of plastering over emerging cracks. And, just as with asbestos, vigilance is required long after the headlines fade and initial public interest wanes.

It’s sustained action and attention, not short bursts of panic, that protect workers in the long run.

As the world of work continues to change, sometimes evolutionarily and sometimes revolutionarily, we must embed the lessons of the past into every new response and marry this alongside new and developing solutions that can help to improve outcomes, speed up processes, and save lives. True innovation is knowing when to create, when to refine, and when to rely on tried and tested solutions.

In doing this, we shorten the cycle of rediscovery, reduce the human costs, and prove that prevention does not need to be dogged by perpetual reinvention.

The measure of our profession is not just in how we respond to the hazards in front of us, but in whether we have the courage and discipline to remember what came before. Every hazardous substance, be it asbestos, respirable crystalline silica, or those yet to emerge, tests our resolve to apply past lessons without hesitation. The future of workplace safety depends not only on what we create next, but on how faithfully we remember what came before.

Mike Robinson FCA is Chief executive of the British Safety Council