Death within the workplace is not a pleasant topic to discuss, however the topic of how to better prevent occupational fatalities is something that is extremely important to talk about. An article by Tracey Cekada, Christopher Janicak, and Lon Ferguson entitled “Preventing Occupational Fatalities” in the March 2009 issue of Professional Safety reviews the findings from a forum that focused on fatalities within the workplace and how they can be prevented.  I thought this was a very informative and interesting article on a topic I did not know much about.

• The forum focused on the four major industries in which fatalities happened: (pg 29)
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (30 fatalities per 100,000 workers)
• Mining (28.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers)
• Transportation and warehouse (16.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers)
• Construction (10.9 fatalities per 100,000 workers)

Within these industries it reported these events as the four most frequently identified fatal events: (pg.29)

• Highway incidents
• Homicides
• Falls
• Struck by accidents

The event that caught my attention was ‘falls’.  The article said that since 1992 the number of deaths by fall has steadily increased.  40% of these were due to falls off roofs and ladders.  It also stated that falls make up for almost 1/3 of all deaths within the construction industry (pg 29).  It looks like construction companies should really look into making their ladders slip resistant, or better equipping workers with the knowledge and precautions to keep them safe.

The first place that the forum focused on as a weakness that contributed to safety issues and fatalities was the management and organization of the company itself (pg 31):

• Risk taking behavior is often encouraged to meet all service levels, and employees are not properly informed on the impact of these risk taking behaviors
• Lack of knowledge of the connection between an effective safety program and its benefits
• Organizations may not hold safety as a core value nor do they always recognize their effect on the safety culture
• Lack of skills (training) at not only the operator level but in all levels of management
• Focus on production instead of safety
• There was inconsistent accountability for unsafe behavior

If I owned or ran a company, this would be something I would seriously look into.  Management may not be the first place you think of causing workplace safety issues.  Especially workplace safety issues as serious as those that cause fatalities!

On site problems were also identified as causing workplace fatalities.  The resounding theme throughout the findings was that workers did not have the hazard recognizing skills needed in order to avoid workplace accidents.  They also found that lack of training, high employee turn-over rate, and aging and technically inadequate equipment contributed on site to fatalities (pg 32).  I think that not only inadequate equipment should be looked at, but inadequate working environments.  Safety measures such as slip resistant flooring can help prevent falls and possibly fatalities.

In order to prevent workplace fatalities, the forum came up with a list of best safety practices (page 32):

• Leadership training on the root causes of fatalities in the workplace
• Collecting and reviewing safety and fatality data to better understand dangerous workplace events
• Safety accountability at all levels
• The importance of designing safety into all parts of the job from engineering to task planning stages
• Conduct risk assessments
• Determine the root cause of all safety problems in the workplace

Safety needs to be addressed at all levels in order to avoid workplace accidents and fatalities. From upper management pushing safety instead of production numbers to workers remaining on their feet due to slip resistant flooring, safety as a whole can be a lifesaver.

Cekada, Tracey, Christopher Janicak, Lon Ferguson. “Preventing Occupational Fatalities.” Professional Safety March 2009: 29-32

Filed under: Workplace Safety by Beth Faraci