Business case for safety and health

Similarly, those involved in safety and health for a company must convince top management that their efforts benefit the company. This is making a business case for safety and health. There are several studies and references that offer ideas for developing a business case. A National Safety Council publication offers some guidelines for preparing and promoting a business case. The publication offers the following simplified procedure ... 

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 2014b. Business case for safety and health, https //www.osha.gov/dcsp/products/topics/businesscase/index.html, downloaded May 16, 2014. 

The task force has also recommended to ASSE the development of a Center for Safety and Health Sustainability. Main functions of the center would be to manage the metric index, partner with sustainability organizations, host an annual safety and health sustainability conference, develop a sustainability web site as a resource for EHS pros, develop workshops for professionals and the business community, and produce articles and case studies. 

Occupational illness and injury187 cost 30-40 billion dollars/yr in the United States.188 In 1994 there were 6.8 million injuries and illnesses in private industry, amounting to 8.4 cases per 100 workers. Nearly two-thirds were disorders associated with repeated trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.189 The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 set up the National Institute Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the problem and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to deal with it through inspections and regulations. Both have received so much criticism of their effectiveness that they are struggling to find more effective ways to deal with the problem.190 NIOSH is searching for practical ways to protect workers, especially those in small businesses from methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, diesel exhaust in coal mines, isocyanates, 2-methoxyethanol, and others. OSHA is about to expand a plan that worked well in Maine, a state that used to have one of the worst accident and illness records in the United States.191 The 200 firms with the worst records were asked to look for deficiencies and to correct them. They were also inspected. These measures cut injuries and illnesses over a 2-year period. 

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR BETTER HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT IN COASTAL AND MARITIME ENGINEERING... 

For further information on the business case for better health and safety management see www.hse.gov.uk. This site also contains up to date information on current legislation as well as guidelines for best practice in the construction industry. 

Find a company that has developed a business case for its safety and health programs. Determine what cases it used to show the value of the programs to the company s management team. 

The Business Results through Health and Safety Guidebook, a work of Canadian Manufacturers Exporters—Ontario Division and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board issued in 2001 demonstrates the business case for workplace health and safety and reflects the experience of Ontario businesses. The publication says The average workplace lost time injury in Ontario costs over 59,000. The average lost time workers compensation claim cost is over 11,771. Note If you round up 11,771 to 11,800, you will find that a 4-to-l multiplier was used to get to 59,000. The 4-to-l ratio is recommended in the Guidebook within a cost computation system for employers to use.)... 

Source Business Case for Effective Process Safety OECD Environment, Health and Safety Chemical Accidents Programme, June, 2012. 

These are issues to which we will return in our discussion in the final chapter of this book, but it is sufficient to note that the existence of business networks for production, supply and demand do not automatically lend themselves to a role in enhancing health and safety - indeed in some cases they owe their existence to attempts by business organisations to off-load responsibilities for health and safety. Furthermore, current research findings on risk communication in relation to chemical hazards suggest that user s understanding and use of safety information is the result of a more complex set of factors than merely the failure to supply the information in the first place. ... 

The establishment of a standard in general, and for an occupational health and safety system in particular, takes a lot of time. This is especially so because employers federations have been against the development of an occupational health and safety standard for fear of the proliferation of certification. However the new ISO 9000 (2000 version) is a formal management system, which defines the environment within a business and can also take into account requirements for an occupational health and safety system. It offers opportunities, for example through ITA s, to add health and safety requirements to the management system, even if there are no regulatory requirements or standards to date. This being the case, it is questionable whether there is a real need to have a separate standard for an occupational health and safety system, because it can be treated as part of (Total) quality. 

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