Document EvLB08DzGDjo0qbRaNz7wvXV

330 Twenty-second Congress--National Safely Council . . How Can Interest in Accident Prevention Be Best ' ^ Maintained? '' ' By LT.-COL. HENRY A. RENINGER . Special Representative, Lehigh Portland Cement Company, Allentown, Pa. The weaker nM m pan: While each section and each industry has its own jeculiar problems, the matter of sowing the seeds of safety in the various depart ments of a company and maintainmg that interest not only with the executive* and department Iteads hot with superintendents and foremen, is very mods the same. Ict me caH ynur attention to the Safe Practices Pamphlets published by the National Safety Courted. These pamphlets arc a compilation of experience in acci dent prevention gathered from all type* of industry and over a period of twenty year*. They are not federal, state or insurance requirements or national codes; but thry arc common practicvs and experiences of all tyypcs of industries, and, K followed out will do more to help the safety engineer, the superintendents and foremen, in their accident prevention work, than anything I know of. 1 also want to refer you particularly to pamjditet No. 67, entitled **Matntainmg Interest in Safety," which is a complete discussion of my subject and ewers it far more thoroughly than I can do here. Most of our big industries lave awakened to the fact that today they must have their presidents and vicc-prescdcuts understand that they cannot afford to operate without a safety program. Hut H is not enough to lave them merely interested-- they must irsoc a blanket order to all departments and all operations that safety is a part of the company's program and must be carried oat by all employees m the ccwnjony: and that h k jml as important to prevent accidents as it is to produce the company's products. It is important that the comptroller of a company be interested in safety from the financial standpoint, and hr should be furnished with the reports showing the cost of accidents, cost ot compensation, insurance, etc These reports should also he given to the treasurer, and when you can show them repans of several years of cxi>crience where your insurance premium is coming down and your cost of com pensation is lower, then they will oot hastate to approve any bills that may come m for safety work. Naturally, your engineering department should he vitally interested in safety, and to maintain their interest it should be the duty of the safety engineer to famish them with reports aitd charts showing accidents, din lost, man-hours, and days lost per 100.000 man-hours. Anything new in saie practices pamphlets, any new state codes affecting construction, fire prevention, good housekeeping or anything that comes under their jurisdictioa. should K. brought to their attention. To maintain the interest of the higher executives, I wish it were possible to get the president or % ice-president, genet a! manager, superintendents and any other high officers to attend this Safety Congress each-year. If they would spend three or four days at a gathering like this I am sore their eyes would be opened and they would pel a picture of accident prevention arthritic* and their importance that could be given to them in no other way. Safety committee meetings sometimes become dry and uninteresting. Many safety committees are organized merely tnr the purpose of taking care of plant inspections relative to safeguards. We believe tlat a safety committee should be the one func- jl/fm*n7 Section 331 tioning body or organization in a plant to handle any and all prublcms whether they relate to plant hazards, machinery, or construction; and we also believe that it * iheir duty to look after fire prevention and fire protection. Sanitation and health hygiene should also be a part of their work. Where you give your safety committees some real autltorlty and some real definite work to do you can maintain their interest. Safety contests properly run will maintain the interest of the organization. An outstanding example of this is tlie Portland Cement Association yearly contest for the trophy awarded by the Cement Association to those mills who go through the year without a tosMimc accident. Tim contest has been running since 1923 and there is just as much interest and enUtusasm today in the cement industry as there was in the very beginning. If a safety contest is conducted for one month daring the year, this will interest and inspire the men for a time, but we cannot expect a campaign of a month to give the men sufficient enthusiasm to carry tlu-ough the lalance of the 7<ar- ... We find that the material furnished by the National Safety Council is needed to keep the interest of the men. the foremen and the superintendents. At! of our plants receive copies of the National Safety News each month, also each plant has a com plete set of the safe practices pamphlets, the foremen and members of the fcty com mittees get a copy of The Safe Worker as issued each month, and every truck driver of the organization reedres a monthly copy of The Safe Drrrrr. and all the plants are supplied with the poster bulletin service of the National Safety Council.^ In addition to these, of course, various local poster bulletins arc made up and used. Another important item of service by the Council b tlx: safety calendar, and 1 urge all organisations to make use of this in a large way. 1 make it tnr business to go into many of the homes of workers at our plants, to sec how they arc kept with regard to sanitation, fire prevention, etc. f cannot recall any one rf these homes that did not lave a copy of the safety calendar on its wall. During tins depression we considered doing away with the safety calendar, but heforc we took that step we consulted with our safety comrahtcca m our various plums. 5orb a howl was set op by the safety committee* tint we felt we could not afford to stop the safety calendar. Any accident that happen* in the family of on employee* has an indirect effect at our company. We Mine that the safety calendar keeps safety in the minds of the mother and children and if wc can avoid one accident in the saving of one life in the family of any of our employees, we have saved many times the cost of a calendar. WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 4, 1933 The session was opened by the reading of several brief reports presented by chair men of standing committees. The chairman then called for the presentation of the Nominating Committee's Report which was given by W. H. Comms. National Lead Company. St Francois, Mo^ and officers for the ensuing year were elected as follows: General Chairmen--V. M. Arthur. American Zinc Co. of Ternu Mascot Term. Viee-Chairmav in Charge of Membership Coal Mines--F. B. Dunbar. Ptckands, Mather & Co, Mather, Pa. Vitc-Chainnon in Ckarge of Membership Metal Mines--J. W. Alt Calumet & Hcda Consolidated Copper Co* Calumet Mkk