I/EC A
SAFETY
W O R K B O O K
F E A T U R E
by S. M. MacCutcheon, Dow Chemical Co.
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A 24-Hour-Day Safety Program Home Safety Program seeks cooperation of every member of employee's family to reduce off-the-job-injuries
NDUSTRIAL safety has seen a series of varying approaches to injury causes. T h e appropriate attack on these causes has resulted in consistently improved safety performance. A few score years back, the basic a p p r o a c h to accident prevention lay in the improvement of the worker's physical environment. The importance of guarding machinery was recognized and guards were installed. T h e necessity for safe working conditions was recognized and unsafe conditions were either greatly improved or removed entirely as the result of engineering changes. Accidents continued to occur and employee education was soon recognized as a n important corollary in a well rounded safety program. T h e physical improvements are a necessary first step; but unsafe actions, even with basically safe conditions, still account for a great majority of industrial accidents. M a n y industrial concerns are just now beginning to recognize the full significance of motivating the em-
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ployee toward 24-hour safety. Offthe-job safety programs are showing u p in an increasing n u m b e r of industrial concerns. This phase of safety is relatively new in most companies and even 5 years ago the plant or c o m p a n y engaged in a n off-the-job safety program was extremely rare. T h e need for such a program has stemmed from an awareness of the fact that people can't put on a safety " c l o a k " when they walk through the plant gate and take off the cloak when they leave. If we are truly to .motivate people to avoid accidents, they must adopt a safety state of mind with respect to both off-the-job and on-the-job hazards. Even a simple survey of off-thej o b accidents will serve to bring the problem home to m a n a g e m e n t and employees. Results of several studies m a d e in varying industries show that ratios of 5 or 7 or 10 to 1 exist between off-the-job accidents and accidents occurring at work. T h e Manufacturing Chemists' Association has collected off-the-job accident statistics from several reporting firms for the past 12 months. Accident frequency, based on 312 exposure hours per m o n t h per employee, was several times the plant accident frequency for the same firms. Approximately 3 0 % of the accidents reported were transportation (usually highway) accidents and nearly 4 5 % were home injuries. It is very a p p a r e n t that the worker injured outside the plant affects the economics of operating the plant to almost the same extent as the m a n
injured on the j o b . T h e indirect costs of training a replacement, readjusting schedules, and paying overtime are no respecter of where the accident happened. I n addition and of equal or greater importance, the pain, worry, a n d financial loss to the worker are just as m u c h a part of the total picture in off-thej o b injuries as in industrial injuries. T h e modern concept of off-thej o b safety recognizes two major benefits accruing to the plant safety program. 1. Employee interest and participation in the plant program will be increased through a recognition of the company's concern with preventing accidents in all areas. 2. Time lost as a result of off-the-job accidents will be reduced. This time loss affects both the company and the employee. Collecting statistics regarding offthe-job injuries is the suggested first step. Only by defining the problem can you truly understand the p r o b lem, and determining a solution can come only after the problem is understood. Armed with facts and figures as to the n u m b e r and type of off-thej o b injuries, any one of several a p proaches can be m a d e toward enlisting the employee's aid in reducing the toll of out-plant accidents. At our D o w M i d l a n d plant, a subcommittee of the Central Safety Committee was formed to study off-the-job injuries a n d to recommend a constructive a p p r o a c h to their reduction. Representation on this committee covered all parts of the plant, including production, union, research, VOL. 49, NO. 4
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APRIL 1957
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I/EC
SAFETY
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A Workbook Feature
application. Your participation will help make this campaign a success. Sincerely yours,
family Safety Committee CERTIFICATE William
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MEMBERSHIP
and
ai David
Elaine A.
Smith
Mark Ji^ Scot t. * . Barbara
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o preserve the fomily by encourooing the use of safety in the home and in family activities common to the pursuit of happiness CrtftfRMAN OFF-TMC-JOe SAFETY ~ οοΜΜίττεε BY AUTHORIZATION OF EXECUTIVE SAf ΕΤΫ COUNCIL THE D O * CHEMICAL COMPANY, MIDLAND OfVtSlO*
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maintenance, office, safety, a n d p u b lic relations personnel. Home Safety Program As a result of this committee's study a n d recommendations, D o w M i d l a n d 1957 off-the-job safety ac tivity will center around t h e H o m e Safety Program. I n this p r o g r a m we a r e seeking the cooperation of every m e m b e r of t h e employee's family. T h e stated purpose of t h e plan, as well as the mechanics of the family's enlisting in t h e pro gram, is outlined in t h e following letter addressed to each employee's home a n d sent o u t over t h e signa ture of t h e Central Safety Com mittee C h a i r m a n . Dear Fellow Employee: For some time we have been deeply conscious of the fact that you are much safer in the plant than at home. In fact, statistics developed over past months show that you are in more than five times 84 A
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as much danger of being injured away from your job as you are at work here in Midland. For this reason we would like to in vite you and your family to participate with us in an effort to eliminate or mini mize these dangers as much as is possible. We hope this program may provide ounces of prevention worth many pounds of cure. We are calling this effort our "Home Safety Program," and it is designed to interest the whole family in making your home a safer place in which to live. If you and your family join in the program, you will receive a monthly bulletin from our Off-the-Job Safety Committee giving you tips and informa tion concerning home safety. Occasion ally your family will be asked to make safety inspections of the home, and to complete and return to the committee reports of these inspections. Though we hope you will not have to do so, we would also want a report from you on any injury that occurs in your family. Our objective is to make our homes as safe as the plant in which we work. If you and your family decide that you wish to participate, all that is necessary is to complete and return the enclosed
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Along with each letter goes a n application blank with the following introductory phrase, " W e as a family wish to participate as a H o m e Safety Committee to help build a safer family." Following receipt of t h e family's application, a Family Safety Com mittee certificate of membership as shown in t h e photograph is pre pared, a n d mailed to the employee's home. Safety Committee buttons are included for each of t h e school age children in the family group. As outlined in t h e letter, a n im portant p a r t of the plan is t h e fam ily participation. Monthly home, highway, vacation, or other safety releases to families enrolling in t h e plan will include periodic survey sheets or check lists to be completed and returned to t h e plant Off-theJ o b Safety Committee. Each family participating over a 12-month period a n d having a dis abling injury-free period for t h e same 12 months is eligible for a family safety award. T h e exact award m a y take the form of a family portrait or some other suitable family-type gift. As indicated earlier, t h e a p p r o a c h to t h e off-the-job injury problem reviewed here is only one of m a n y approaches which have been or could be used. It is too early to evaluate results of this specific pro g r a m completely although returns of family applications have been very encouraging a n d far in excess of first estimates. T h e important point to drive home is t h a t industry has a n off-thej o b safety problem of serious pro portions. A n y effective effort to decrease off-the-job injuries will aid both t h e employees a n d t h e com panies. A planned safety program in t h e off-the-job area will bring as sociated benefits to the in-plant safety program. Industrial safety programs have shown time and again that they have the answers for reducing industrial accidents. T h e r e is a real challenge to industry to apply this same knowhow a n d t h e same organized acci dent-prevention principles to t h e larger a n d growing problem—offthe-job accidents.
