The TRUE Cost of Safety
April 26, 2012 at 9:45 AM | Posted in Health and Safety, Health and Safety Programs, Safety | Leave a commentTags: health and safety, health and safety programs, preventing injuries, safety, safety programs
Previously this blog discussed the need for safety. Today, let’s explore the true cost of safety.
Example: XYZ Construction is a $3,000,000 operation with 17 employees. They operate in a state where a safety program and/or a safety committee is not required by law, so what is their cost of implementing and running a safety and health program?
- Instead of hiring a staff member to oversee the safety program, this could typically be handled by a supervisor or shop foreman who also has other duties at no additional cost to the company.
- Safety officer/project manager’s annual salary of $70,000 plus the cost of a competitive benefits package and payroll taxes costs roughly $100,000 annually.
- Safety committees with five line staff employees meeting six times per year with an average hourly wage of $30 costs $900 annually.
- Bi-weekly toolbox talks for the entire company must factor in the higher wages of executives. An average of $75 per hour multiplied by the total of 17 employees equals $1,275 for an annual cost of $30,600.
- Educational materials can be obtained through insurance agents and carriers for an annual cost of less than $1,000.
- The cost for new safety equipment will vary greatly depending upon the type of operation. We estimate the annual cost to a typical construction operation for fall protection gear, personal protective equipment, confined space equipment, material handling equipment, etc. to be $10,500.
The total annual cost of our safety program: $143,000, or 4.77% of total sales. (Remember, the employee we are paying $100,000 a year is not a full-time safety and health officer, he/she is also a supervisor, so we could deduct 20 or 30 percent from the $143,000.)
Now, let’s discuss the other half of the program. Assume the workers’ compensation premium totals $85,000 annually. XYZ Construction has an injury to an employee that costs $38,000 in medical and indemnity costs. He will be out of work for 33 days. The injury was a result of careless use of a piece of safety gear that proper training would easily have addressed.
Indirect costs of injuries are often overlooked, but can add up to four times the original injury cost. The indirect cost includes administrative time dealing with the injury, the increase in the workers’ compensation premium through a raised experience modification factor, and replacing the lost production time of the injured employee. Other intangibles include a decline in morale, confidence, and company reputation.
Being conservative, we will use a factor of three, which equals $114,000. Add this to the cost of the original injury and you arrive at $152,000.
The total cost of just one injury is $9,000 more than the total cost of a fully implemented safety and health program. What would the cost be if the employee did not return to work?
Hopefully these numbers show how a safety program should be perceived and implemented into the total cost of an operation.
FDA Issues Defibrillator Recall
March 12, 2012 at 3:14 PM | Posted in Safety | Leave a commentTags: defibrillator, fda, recall, safety
Washington – The Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of certain Automated External Defibrillators (AED) due to a defective component.
The defect could cause the AED to fail during a rescue attempt, and the unit’s self-test may not detect the impending failure of the component, the FDA stated.
The AEDs were made and sold between July 1, 2011, and December 20, 2011.
Affected models include:
- Powerheart 9300A, 9300E, 9300P, 9390A and 9390E
- CardioVive 92532 and 92533
- CardioLife 9200G and 9231
- GE Responder and Responder Pro
- Nihon-Kohden AEDs
The FDA is instructing customers to contact the manufacturer to return the device for repair.
Does a NEED for Safety Remain?
February 28, 2012 at 3:23 PM | Posted in OSHA, Safety | Leave a commentTags: OSHA, safety
The RMS Titanic sank on April 15th 1912 after colliding with an iceberg 375 nautical miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The event took the lives of 1,517 people. The significance of the disaster is still talked about a century later with countless television shows, and a blockbuster movie (one of the highest grossing of all time) about the incident.
However, there are roughly 37,000 deaths and an estimated 2.1 million injuries per year in the US due to automobile accidents. There are 54,000 deaths per year in the home with causes of death ranging from poisoning, falls, to choking.
Reported data involving consumer products is difficult to find, but there are approximately 20,000 to 30,000 deaths and 5 million to 6 million injuries per year.
Occupational deaths total 4,300 annually with 3.3 million injuries per year.
As a safety professional, this writer has to ask: Where is the public outcry? Where are the movies, the primetime specials?
Let’s look at some numbers: prior to the formation of OSHA in 1970-71, roughly 14,000 Americans left to work and never returned. Earlier in the century, the average annual number of fatalities was as high as 20,000. Performing some light math, in the past century a total estimated 1,180,000 workers died.
This means the number of lives lost on that fateful night in April of 1912 is a tenth of one percent that which was lost to occupational accidents in the subsequent 100 years!
So this leads us to the headline of this article: Does a NEED for safety remain? As the quality of safety and health methods (and enforcement) increases, so does the quantity of those who need it:
- Vehicles are made safer due to engineering; however thousands continue to die annually.
- OSHA has drastically reduced workplace deaths, but ask the spouses and children of the 4,300 workers who never made it home one day what an acceptable occupational death rate is?
- Consumer product legislation is at an all time high yet the number of injuries continues to climb.
Unlike those who perished that night in 1912, we as a society have the ability to control how we approach safety in order to prevent as many injuries or deaths as possible. Let’s not embark on this journey lightly. Next month we will discuss the true cost of safety, and how a good program is a profit center, not a cost center.
OSHA 300A Form Must be Posted by February 1
January 25, 2012 at 12:49 PM | Posted in Deadlines, OSHA, Safety | Leave a commentTags: deadlines, OSHA, safety
Posting season is here for all employers that are required to maintain OSHA 300 logs. According to the code 1904.32(b)(6), you must post the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses Form 300A no later than February 1 of the year following the year covered by the records, and keep the posting in place until April 30. The posting must be placed in a “conspicuous” area, typically the place where all employee correspondence is posted.
OSHA 300 logs are required to be maintained by companies with 11 or more employees. OSHA uses the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code to determine which establishments must keep records. Typical industries that are required to maintain a log include construction, manufacturing, and mining, among others. You can perform a search by SIC Code at the following link: http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html.
In some circumstances exempt employers may be asked in writing to complete a log by OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), or a state agency operating under the authority of OSHA or the BLS.
Remember, it is the Summary Form 300A that is actually posted for viewing.
To fill out the summary, add the number of recordable cases entered in Column G (deaths) + Column H of the 300 form (cases with days away from work) + Column I (cases with job transfer or restriction) + Column J (other recordable cases). Enter the total number of days away from work (Column K); and the total number of days with on the job transfer or restriction (Column L). The final number (Column M) is the total number of injury and illness types.
The Establishment Information is then added along with a signature from a company executive stating that entries are “true, accurate, and complete.”
Once completed, an incidence rate of injuries and illnesses may be computed using the following formula:
(Number of injuries and illnesses X 200,000) / Total number of employee hours worked
This will provide your firm with an incidence rate that can be compared to similar firms nationwide. This rate can be computed for the total recordable case of injuries or for just DART (Injury and Illness cases with days away from work, restriction, or job transfer).
As stated on the OSHA website, “Incidence rates can be used to show the relative level of injuries and illnesses among different industries, firms, or operations within a single firm. Because a common base and a specific period of time are involved, these rates can help determine both problem areas and progress in preventing work-related injuries and illnesses.”
Forms and instructions can be found at the following link:
http://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/RKforms.html
New Rule for Mobile Phone Use in Commercial Vehicles
January 12, 2012 at 4:05 PM | Posted in Commercial Drivers, Commercial Motor Vehicles, Driving Tips, Mobile Phones, Safety | Leave a commentTags: CMV, Commercial Drivers, Commercial Motor Vehicles, driving tips, Mobile Phones
As you recall, Massachusetts passed the safe driving law on September 30, 2010 banning texting while operating a vehicle. Massachusetts will also enforce the U.S. Department of Transportation’s rule regarding the use of hand-held mobile phones by drivers of commercial motor vehicles.
The regulation defines a “commercial motor vehicle” as any vehicle used on public highways in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property with:
- A gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more
- A vehicle designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers (including the driver) for compensation
- A vehicle designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers not for compensation
- A vehicle transporting hazardous materials that requires placarding under the Federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. App.1801-1813)
This rule prohibits the following:
- Holding a mobile phone (including push to talk phones) to conduct voice communication
- Dialing a mobile phone by pressing more than a single button
- Reaching for a mobile phone in an unacceptable or unsafe manner
Please note this rule does not prohibit a driver from using a mounted mobile phone which can be easily accessed from the driver’s seat and activated with a single button. Also, the term mobile phone does not include two-way or Citizens Band Radio services.
Penalties will be issued to both the driver AND their employer, so Risk Managers and Safety Supervisors should review and implement the following recommendations.
- Educate Your Drivers – Prepare a training program that explains the reasons for this new rule and provide examples. We recommend that you document this training and attendance for compliance purposes.
- Update Your Cell Phone Policy – Review your current cell phone policy and be sure it meets these new standards.
- Re-evaluate Driver to Dispatch Communication Expectations – Review this to find ways to minimize the need to communicate with those drivers while they are on the road.
The full text of this rule can be found at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/rulemakings/final/Mobile_phone_NFRM.pdf.
Safe Driving During Inclement Weather
December 14, 2011 at 2:29 PM | Posted in Driving Tips, Safety, Snow, Winter Driving | Leave a commentTags: driving tips, safety, snow, winter driving
Despite the unseasonably warm weather, the calendar shows that winter is a couple of weeks away. As we New Englanders know all too well, that means snow will fall soon, most likely during a morning or evening commute. Many articles have been written about safe winter driving tips. Here we offer a consolidated, practical guide to driving during snowfall.
Visibility
- Make sure your windshield is clean both inside and out.
- Replace worn wipers and fill the windshield washer fluid reservoir.
- Remove all accumulated snow from the front, back and top of your vehicle. Snow located on top of a car will slide down and cover the back windshield once the vehicle warms.
Slow Down
- Regardless of the weather, according to the National Safety Council, speeding is the contributing factor in fatal crashes causing 13,500 deaths annually.
- Additionally, the higher the speed, the longer it takes to STOP.
- Factor slick roads into the equation and the stopping distance of a typical four door sedan can go from 346 feet at 55MPH (factoring in perception distance, reaction distance and braking distance) to 519 feet.
Three Second Rule
- While following another vehicle, watch it pass a fixed object such as a sign, bridge or billboard.
- Once the vehicle has passed this object begin counting “one thousand one, one thousand two and one thousand three.”
- Your vehicle should not pass the fixed object until after you have finished counting, if it does, you are driving too close. However during inclement weather, it is best to add one or two seconds for each poor condition (i.e. – snow, low visibility).
Winter driving requires a unique skill set. Being aware of visibility, speed, and following distance will increase the chance that your winter driving experience will be a safe and pleasant one.
Protector Group will continue to provide recommendations on how to keep your loss control costs down.
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