“Make a Difference” is the theme of this month’s National Safety Month celebration. The National Safety Council says that you and your employees can make a significant safety difference on the job, on the road, at home, and in the community by focusing on four key safety issues this month—emergency preparedness, distracted driving, poisoning, and falls.
Prepare workers for all kinds of emergencies. Provide plenty of information about preparedness all month in training sessions, safety meetings, newsletters, and other communications with employees. Talk about:
–Your organization’s emergency plan, evacuation routes, emergency duties, outside assembly areas, and indoor areas for sheltering in place
–Family emergency plans for home fires, weather emergencies, and other hazardous events that could occur off the job
–Community emergency plans, including emergency warning signals, evacuation routes, and other steps employees and their families will need to take in the event of a natural disaster, chemical spill, or some other catastrophic event
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Click here.
Put the spotlight on distracted driving. According to a Network of Employers for Traffic Safety Distracted Driving Survey conducted a few years ago, drivers engage in all kinds of distracting activities while driving, including:
–Talking to passengers (96% of drivers surveyed)
–Adjusting vehicle climate/radio controls (89%)
–Eating (74%)
–Using a cell phone (51%)
–Tending to children (41%)
–Reading a map, newspaper, etc. (34%)
–Grooming (19%)
–Preparing for work (11%)
There’s a very good chance that some of the distracted drivers on the road where you live and work could be your employees. Why not ask them? It might be interesting to see what kind of statistics you’d come up with if you surveyed your employees about distracted driving.
Speak up to prevent home poisonings. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, 89 percent of all poisonings occur in the home. Most of the victims are children. Talk to your employees about poison prevention this month so that they can help protect their families. Discuss these simple but effective poison prevention tips:
–Store cleaning products, furniture polishes, drain cleaners, and other toxic substances in their original containers, away from food, and out of reach of young children.
–Keep medicines in original containers with child-resistant tops, and follow dosage directions.
–Don’t leave cosmetics, nail polish, nail polish remover, or other personal care items that contain chemicals lying around where a little kid’s curiosity could lead to a tragedy.
–Check your garage or home workshop for pesticides, paint thinners, gasoline, and other poisonous substances. Make sure any toxics are safely stored out of reach of young children in labeled containers with hazard warnings.
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Fight falls on the job and at home with simple safety tips. Most falls in the workplace and off the job can be prevented if people just use a little common sense. But because accident statistics show that people are often careless, in a rush, or inattentive when it comes to taking precautions to prevent falls, the following commonsense safety pointers are worth repeating:
–Watch where you’re going, and never carry a load you can’t see over.
–Clean up spills and pick up trip hazards wherever you see them, whether you put them there or not.
–Be careful when using ladders, use both hands to climb, and keep one hand on the ladder while you work.
–Go slow on the stairs and hold on to the rail.
–Turn on a light before you enter a dark room or work area.
Why It Matters…
–Fires, natural disasters, and other emergencies can strike with destructive force and very little warning, which means employees and their families need to be ready to act at a moment’s notice.
–The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 25 percent of all crashes involve some kind of driver distraction.
–On average, poison centers handle one poison exposure every 14 seconds, and most poisonings involve everyday household items such as cleaning supplies, medicines, cosmetics, and personal care items.
–Falls are one of the major causes of workplace injuries and a leading cause of fatal home accidents.