Renew your Commitment to Being Safer

It’s March. Your New-Year’s Resolutions are distant memories. But the beginning of spring can be a good time to think about renewing your commitments to being safer.

Renew your commitment to health. Lately we’ve heard a lot about a new outbreak of a type of corona virus in China. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has up-to-date information on that virus here. At the time of this writing, however, the seasonal flu is a bigger threat to most Americans. Did you know that the flu season can last until May? According to the CDC, during the 2018/2019 flu season, more than 34,000 Americans died from flu. You don’t want to get the flu, and you don’t want to pass it on to someone who is more vulnerable. The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccination for everybody over 5 years old. If you haven’t had your flu shot by March, it may be too late to get one depending on where you live, but you can still take action to avoid the flu and other illnesses:

  1. Avoid close contact with sick people. Don’t share drinks, cigarettes, or vapes.
  2. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
  3. Cover coughs and sneezes—if you don’t have a tissue to use, cover your sneeze with your arm or elbow to avoid contaminating your hands.
  4. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water.

Renew your commitment to using safer chemicals on the jobsite. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Safer Choice program to help consumers, businesses, and purchasers find products that perform and are safer for human health and the environment. You can access it here.

OSHA also has a step-by-step tool kit that gives you information, methods, and guidance to help you transition to safer chemicals. You can access it here.

Renew your commitment to safety on the jobsite. Every year in the U.S. more than 800 construction workers die and nearly 137,000 are seriously injured on the job. OSHA has created a video learning tool that shows how quickly workers can be injured or killed on the job. You can access it here.

Renew your commitment to the bottom line. Safety pays dividends. Injuries kill profits. OSHA developed a calculator that lets you know how much your business might expect to pay—in both direct and indirect costs—when someone gets hurt on the job. Access the calculator here.

Personnel Health