NSC proposes effort to reduce workplace injuries
NSC proposes effort to reduce workplace injuries
Safety agenda to stem this unacceptable tide’
Citing an "alarming" rise in deaths from preventable injuries last year, the National Safety Council (NSC) is proposing a series of actions aimed at substantially reducing the number of needless injuries and loss of life in the nation’s workplaces, homes, and public places.
The council, in releasing its safety agenda recently, estimated that unintentional injuries claimed the lives of 95,500 Americans in 1999 — the highest death toll since 1988. The council said that more than 20 million Americans were seriously injured last year, and the economic cost of unintentional injuries climbed to $500 billion.
Most of the increase occurred in homes and public places due to such causes as falls, poisoning, fires, and choking, says Jerry Scannell, the NSC’s president and chief executive officer.
"We are publishing the safety agenda for the nation to help America stem this unacceptable tide of injuries and death," he says. "We have defined the scope of a compelling private and public sector challenge: How to stop the preventable injuries and deaths that are occurring on the most massive scale."
Deaths at home, in public places increased
The council noted that while workplace deaths remained constant and highway fatalities declined slightly between 1998 and 1999, deaths from unintentional injuries at home jumped by 9%, to 30,800, and deaths in public places climbed 6%, to 21,200.
Highway fatalities in 1999 totaled 40,800, a 1% decline from 1998, while 5,100 people were killed at work, the same number as in 1998. Overall, the death toll from unintentional injuries was 4% higher in 1999 than in 1998.
"Most unintentional injuries are preventable," Scannell says. "In fact, for most of our lives, we Americans can substantially reduce our greatest risk of dying by taking simple steps to enhance our safety by buckling up when we drive, exercising care on steps and ladders and around swimming pools, following the instructions when taking drugs or medicine, and rigorously adhering to safety procedures at work."
On an average day, 14 people are killed and more than 10,400 are disabled on the job — a death toll equivalent to a major airline disaster every two weeks.
Job-related illnesses take a large toll
Less visible are the estimated 60,000 deaths caused each year by job-related illnesses. The cost to the economy of workplace injuries exceeds $127 billion a year — more than the combined profits of the 17 most profitable U.S. corporations.
The council noted that while workplace safety has improved in recent decades, the rate of job-related deaths has not declined significantly since 1992 and remains unacceptable.
To achieve its goals of accelerating the rate of decline in occupational deaths by 25% per year and reducing disabling job-related injuries to fewer than 800,000 per year by 2010, the safety agenda proposes these remedies:
1. Expanding the use of workplace safety best practices identified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Safety Council to all U.S. workplaces.
2. Encouraging senior managers of all public and private enterprises to instill a "safety culture" in their organizations by adopting a Corporate Code of Safety and Health Ethics.
Among other things, the code would make safety and health a core value of the organization, on the same level as customer service and financial performance, and it would establish a comprehensive safety audit to identify current and potential hazards and to assign accountability for ensuring that they are controlled or abated.
"Company policy and workstation practice must dictate that safety never takes a back seat to other interests," Scannell says. "No one should be asked — and no one should tolerate — a potentially disabling or life-threatening risk in the name of cost-cutting, productivity, or any other priority."
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