After metal filings injure eyes in a municipal machine shop, managers first buy darker safety posters and skip removing or redesigning the grinding source. What hierarchy-of-controls mistake is this?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Posters do not stop flying metal—physics does. When filings are hitting eyes, climb the hierarchy: eliminate or change the grind before you redecorate the wall. Awareness helps; it does not replace removing the source.
Full Explanation
After metal filings injure eyes in a municipal machine shop, buying darker safety posters first while skipping removal or redesign of the grinding source misorders the hierarchy of controls by relying on administrative awareness before higher controls such as elimination, substitution, or engineering. Preferring posters first because awareness always outranks elimination reverses the hierarchy’s proven preference for controlling hazards at the source. Posters do not permanently eliminate flying filings, so claiming engineering would be redundant is false. Treating eye injuries as branding updates that belong solely to product marketing trivializes personnel harm and ignores process design. Administrative controls and PPE have roles, but they sit below elimination, substitution, isolation, and engineering when those are feasible. Exam caveat: hierarchy order is a frequent CRMC test point—recognize when organizations jump to awareness or PPE too early. Operational check: evaluate elimination or substitution of the filing-generating method, add or restore guarding and extraction, use administrative rules and eye PPE as complementary layers, update the risk assessment after changes, and stop treating poster campaigns as the primary corrective action for traumatic eye injuries.