Government Sometimes Helps – Gear Up with MSHA
21st November 2009
I’ve done a fair amount of applied persuasion work in the area of mining safety. While with NIOSH, I also worked with MSHA, the Mining Safety and Health Administration, on a national campaign after death rates spiked up sharply. Yet, while the rate increased, the absolute number was still relatively small, under 50 if I recall correctly. Within a few months of the new campaign, mortality rates dropped sharply again to approximately one or two fatalities a month nationwide.
Compare that now to what is happening in China. In the latest of a long string of mining disasters over 40 people have been killed in an underground explosion. China’s government and industry are operating the way we did about 50 years ago and individual workers and their families are paying the price. Thousands of miners are killed every year in China in rates that are eerily similar to the US back in day.
Thus, in one day and one incident, more miners will die in China than will American miners in a year in the US. And, even if you adjust for base rates (more people work in the mines of China than the US), the mortality rates are wildly different.
Why?
While it is always smart to be suspicious and wary of the government, every now and then we do get it right. Workplace safety in the US has improved dramatically in the past 50 years, largely due to a cooperative relationship between government, industry, and labor. There are, of course, large disagreements and Things Could Be Better. But, let’s not lose sight of the Main Point: we can work together to improve our common lot.
In the MSHA campaign, we designed a Standard Model intervention, aimed at specific behaviors for PPE, personal protective equipment, like hard hats, seat belts, and harnesses. We defined the TACTs, looked at a variety of research to determine the Easy, Fun, and Popular for each TACT under TpB, then designed short, bright, and memorable Arguments which were distributed through a wide variety of interpersonal channels (lunchbox safety talks, stickers, handouts). MSHA coordinated everything through its inspector network, and boom, within a few weeks, every mine had the campaign. And, it worked.
Here are examples with the stickers we used. They were created by Kim Clough who led the Message Engineering Team within the Health Communication Research Branch (HCRB). Kim created a base sticker that contained all the main elements from the campaign messages – the specific PPE TACTs, the logo, slogan, contact information, etc.
From this base sticker, individual stickers for each PPE TACT were then added. As here.
Like I said in the title of this post, Government Sometimes Helps. And, it can actually use applied persuasion principles to make it work.