20/06/2026
"Where are my safety glasses?" 👓
That was my first thought while standing in front of a deep fryer at our local village festival.
The heat was radiating into my face.
Frozen French fries hit the hot oil.
The oil started bubbling violently.
Tiny droplets occasionally splashed into the air.
For a brief moment, my professional instinct took over.
In the laboratory, I would never perform a task like this without PPE. Safety glasses would be mandatory. No discussion.
Yet here, nobody even thought about them.
It made me realize something.
The hazard hasn't changed.
Only our perception has.
In industry, we are trained to identify risks before something happens. In everyday life, familiarity often replaces risk assessment.
A strong safety culture is not defined by where we are.
It is defined by how we think.
As a chemist, apparently, you never completely switch off that mindset.
