Major organizations and companies have joined with the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) to increase public awareness of the importance of workplace safety and health during the April 30 – May 6, 2006 North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSH). The national kick-off will take place Monday, May 1, 2006 in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Department of Labor while other events will take place countrywide.
“We are all working together to reduce death, injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Currently more than 5,000 people die on the job each year and four million more suffer from on-the-job illnesses and injuries. The addition of these top organizations increases our reach in getting the facts out on the importance of safety and health in the workplace,” ASSE President Jack Dobson, Jr., CSP, said. ” The workplace fatality rates are not just numbers. They are people. They are coworkers and colleagues, friends and family. Every injury avoided and every fatality prevented means one more person returns home to their family at the end of the day.”
NAOSH Week is another way ASSE, CSSE, and OSHA work to increase the understanding of the benefits of investing in occupational safety and health; to raise awareness of the role and contribution of safety and health practitioners; and, to reduce workplace injuries and illness by encouraging new workplace safety and health initiatives. The NAOSH Week theme is “Prevention is the Cure.”
Organizations that will be supporting NAOSH Week with ASSE, OSHA, and CSSE include the following OSHA Alliance Program participants: the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN), the American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL), the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the Association of Occupational Health Professionals (AOHP), the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair (CCAR), the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA), the Independent Electrical Contractors, Inc. (IEC), the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA), the Integrated Waste Services Association (IWSA), the National Federation of Small Business (NFIB), the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA), the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA), the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA), the Steel Group (American Iron and Steel Institute– AISI, Specialty Steel Industry of North America –SSINA, and the Steel Manufacturers Association — SMA) and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA).
OSHA Strategic Partnership Program participants supporting NAOSH Week include Johnson & Johnson, AMEC Americas and the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA). Other organizations supporting NAOSH Week are the Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Managers (ACHMM), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Partnership, the National Safety Council (NSC), the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), and the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants’ Association (VPPPA).
The VPPPA represents 1,400 companies and worksites that are involved in or in the process of applying to OSHA’s or the Department of Energy’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and government agencies that are developing or implementing cooperative recognition programs.
These organizations will be involved in a variety of activities during the annual NAOSH Week including holding events and distributing key information to their members and in their communities worldwide as they join with ASSE, OSHA and CSSE in raising awareness of workplace safety risks and solutions.
