The Right Dose of Prevention
- By Robert Pater
- Dec 01, 2021
“The secret of success is less knowing what to do, and more remembering to do what you already know.” As my colleague, Ron Bowles, reminded me: “In life, we’re all asked to repeat many tasks, over and again. Given that, how do we continue to grow and innovate?” This struck me. By my count, this is my 174th article appearing just in Occupational Health & Safety magazine. I frequently get asked where my topics or inspiration spring from, although I assume what they really want to know is: “Where do you get all of your weird ideas from?”
I don’t know about you, but what stimulates my ideas comes from myriad places—from my own experiences, the actions I took that worked to a degree and those I wished I could “do over.” I sometimes get inspiration from what I observe others do well and every now and then ideas are spured from films I watch, emails I receive, music I hear, things I read, discussions I’m part of and more.
What does this have to do with safety? I was strongly taken by this thoughtful LinkedIn post from Daniel Winburne, First Lead HSE Specialist with chemical manufacturer AdvanSix, “Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: ‘All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.’ This is often condensed to: ‘The dose makes the poison.’ It means that a substance that contains toxic properties can cause harm only if it occurs in a high enough concentration.
In other words, any chemical—even water and oxygen—can be toxic if too much is ingested or absorbed into the body. The toxicity of a specific substance depends on a variety of factors, including how much of the substance a person is exposed to, how they are exposed, and for how long.”
I resonated strongly to this insightful posting. It’s so true and applicable to all leadership, clearly much in safety.
The art and science of immunology harnesses attenuated (weakened, measured small amount) pathogens (disease-causing organisms) to stimulate/strengthen a desired protective immune response. It’s immune system ju-jitsu, turning a potentially destructive force into an agent of healing. Such as the Sabine vaccine that employs weakened live polio virus to awaken the body to protect itself from getting full-on, debilitating polio.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.