BREAKING NEWS

Foulke Argues Business Case For Worker Safety

Former Assistance Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Edwin Foulke, now a partner with Fisher and Phillips LLP in Atlanta, has created a business case containing the message that worker safety is an investment, rather than a hindrance on business. He stresses that this is very important for business to understand, especially now that there is an economic downturn.

"For those employers who haven't looked at safety and health as a tool to be more profitable, more than likely they're going to say, 'We have to cut people across the board.' Unfortunately, if you lay off your safety people, that sends a message to employees that safety doesn't matter anymore ... you'll have more people injured, so your workers' compensation costs are going to go up. That's the exact opposite result that you want to have."

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), agreeing with Foulke, points to a recent Goldman Sachs report to emphasize this point, which indicated that "companies who did not adequately manage workplace health and safety issues underperformed those who did."

President of ASSE Warren Brown stated, "If companies believe they will save money by reducing or ignoring safety for their workers, customers and communities they do business in, they are mistaken."

Welcome to SafetyNet

SafetyNet is the one-stop safety and health information source for the Department of the Interior (DOI). SafetyNet promotes safety awareness within the DOI community, and acquaints managers, employees, volunteers and safety and health professionals with the DOI Safety and Occupational Health Program’s (SOHP) objectives and how to achieve them.

Protecting life and property through the incorporation of safety into the Department’s and bureaus’ core management systems is the fundamental tenet of the DOI SOHP. SafetyNet is one tool, and DOI safety managers are one asset available to managers to help reduce the risks their employees face every day on the job.

IN FOCUS

Safety Week 2009 will focus managers attention on the primary causes of accidents and incidents in their bureau or office. The DOI Safety and Health Council agreed on April 8, 2009 as the launch date for the safety celebration. Each bureau and office will be holding similar events, contact your bureau/office safety and health manager for details.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

OSHA Published Proposed Rule To Revise Respirator Test

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing to add two PortaCount® quantitative fit-testing protocols to the Respiratory Protection Standard (29 CFR 1910.134). This proposal would apply to employers in general industry, shipyard employment and the construction industry. The first of two protocols would call for the same eight fit-testing exercises, but have each exercise last 60 seconds each rather than 30 seconds. The second protocol would eliminate two of the eight fit-testing exercises and each of the remaining six exercises would last 40 seconds. This protocol would also increase the current minimum pass-fail fit-testing requirements. The fit factor would change from 100 to 200 half masks and from 500 to 1,000 for full face pieces.

OSHA is accepting comments to this proposal, including comments to the information collection (paperwork) determination described under the preamble title "Supplementary Information," as well as other information, by March 23, 2009. All submission must bear a postmark or provide other evidence of the submission date.

2008 Traffic Deaths Hit Record Low, Says National Safety Council

The National Safety Council announced today that motor vehicle deaths in 2008 achieved the lowest rate since the NSC began publishing its annual Injury Facts statistical report in the 1920s. The estimated annual death rate from motor vehicle-related crashes in 2008 was 13 deaths per 100,000 people, a 9 percent decrease from 2007, according to NSC data. The estimated annual mileage death rate for 2008 was 1.38 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, a 4 percent decrease from 2007.

"This is outstanding news for our nation and the people whose lives have been saved by changes in our nation's driving culture over the past several years," said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the NSC. "While a number of factors have helped lower the rate, it is our experience that public education coupled with visible enforcement of safety laws can be one of the most effective ways to change behaviors and save lives."

Also contributing to the lower rate are improved vehicle safety features and greater visibility and enforcement of important traffic safety laws, including laws related to seat belt use, child passengers, impaired driving and teen driving.

The estimated cost of crash-related deaths, injuries and property damage also decreased. The 2008 total, $237.2 billion, is 8 percent lower than the total cost in 2007. Expenses include wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses, employer costs, and property damage.

NSC recorded 39,800 motor vehicle-related deaths in 2008, down 8 percent from 2007. NSC's data-gathering method differs slightly from that of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NSC researchers also clarified that while higher gas prices and other factors contributed to fewer miles driven in 2008, and to the decrease in the number of people killed, the lower motor vehicle death rate demonstrates real reductions attributable to factors other than fewer miles driven.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Study Sheds Light on Children's Safety

A new, landmark traffic safety report sheds important light on the numbers of people, particularly children, who are injured and killed in motor vehicle incidents that occur off public roads. In its new Not-in-Traffic Surveillance study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates 1,747 people were killed and 841,000 injured in these incidents in 2007.

In 2007, 221 people were killed by backing-up vehicles, 99 of which were children age 14 and under. Fourteen thousand people were injured, 2,000 of which were kids.

The new NHTSA report was spurred by the Federal Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, which required establishment of a noncrash incident database and development of education programs to warn the public about these incidents' dangers to young children. Previously the government had not gathered such data.

The National Safety Council (NSC) is working with the National Child Passenger Safety Board, through a NHTSA grant, to develop public education campaigns that help parents understand the risks of backovers and of children left in vehicles in warm weather. Several other children's safety and traffic safety organizations are also addressing these incidents.

2010 DOI Safety Seminar

The 2010 DOI Safety Conference is moving ahead. The Council is working in partnership with the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) to hold the DOI Conference in conjunction with the ASSE Conference in June 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland. DOI participants will be able to attend the technical sessions at the ASSE conference, and participate in a one-day post conference DOI meeting consisting.