Time to take safety inventory
Published 6:00 pm Saturday, June 20, 2020
June is National Safety Month and a perfect time to take inventory of safety in all aspects of life. The National Safety Council has a website — www.nsc.org — that can help you take that inventory.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still in progress, it has all the latest updates on that very important issue. But it also has information on work safety, road safety and home safety.
With regards to work safety, the NSC’s training program includes NSC experts who are up to date on the latest research to incorporate OSHA’s (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) compliance regulations into courses they design.
In addition to the OSHA requirements, the NSC courses also include global best practices to prevent injuries and deaths.
The NSC has a “Journey to Safety Excellence” program that incorporates leadership and employee engagement, risk management, safety management, safety management systems and measurement to keep employees safe.
Driving can also be dangerous without sensible safety regulations. There were more than 40,000 fatalities in motor vehicle crashes in 2017 with the biggest causes being alcohol related, speeding and distracted driving.
To help prevent motor vehicle accidents, the NSC recommends defensive driving courses; programs for employees with alcohol or prescription or illegal drug problems; enact a corporate cell phone policy to prevent all cell phone use behind the wheel; enact a policy that requires employees to wear seat belts; and ask the NSC experts to assess your organization’s road safety systems, and help design and execute a program.
For at-home safety, NSC notes 169,936 people died from unintentional injury related deaths in 2017, mostly not job related.
The No. 1 cause of off-the-job deaths is poisoning, then motor vehicle crashes, falls, choking and suffocation, drowning, fires and burns, natural and environmental and incidents.
You can get tips on accident prevention and many more safety topics at the NSC website.
