June is National Safety Month and the National Safety Council (NSC) will be doing weekly promotions to raise awareness on the more than 4,100 preventable workplace deaths and 4 million injuries that occurred in 2020 alone.
NSC President and CEO Lorraine Martin said safety professionals and workers are “up against some of the same safety challenges today as we were 26 years ago, in addition to new and evolving risks.” She mentioned the need to have safety in mind all year while urging employers and employees to focus on it more acutely this month.
MSD discussion kicks off weekly topics
The organization kicked off National Safety Month with a focus on one of the most common workplace injuries: musculoskeletal disorders, which cause pain and discomfort to workers and costs employers billions of dollars each year in workers’ compensation and lost productivity.
Week two’s focus is on workplace impairment, which includes not only substance abuse, but also mental distress, stress and fatigue. Impairment is a risk in every workplace and addressing it properly in all of its forms can directly support worker safety while save employers on costs.
For week three, the NSC is focusing on injury prevention. Preventing injuries at work can save lives, keep workers safe and save hundreds of billions of dollars each year, according to the NSC.
The final week’s focus is on slips, trips and falls. Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths, so there is a definite need to discuss how they can be prevented and whether technology can somehow play a role in saving lives from this hazard.
More information on National Safety Month can be found here.
