Document d00eRRkdwX42eBD3wp4Mo4vQ

1--Occupational Safety Elimination of accidents is vital to the public interest Accidents produce economic and social loss, impair individual and group pro ductivity, cause inefficiency, and retard the advancement of standards of living Philosophy of Occupational Accident Prevention There is no quesbon that accidents are costly to industry and society Today, failure to try to prevent injuries to employees is in defensible. The prachcal and moral aspects of accident prevenbon are interrelated, because accidents result both in a waste of manpower and re sources, and in physical and mental anguish In Medieval days, the master craftsman tried to instruct his apprenbces and journey men to work skillfully and safely, because he could see the value of high quality and un interrupted producbon, but it took the In dustrial Revolubon to create the condibons which led to the development of accident pre venbon as a specialized field The industrial safety philosophy developed as a result of the tremendous forces of produc bon which were released Without a deter rent to counter this waste of manpower and resources, the number of accidents and in juries would have challenged the imagmabon Once enlightened industrial management had accepted the responsibility for preventing accidents, the next step was workmen's compensabon laws This "new" line of thinking held the employer responsible for a share of the economic loss suffered by the employee because of an accident It was a rather short step from this to the realizabon that a large proportion of accidents could be prevented and that the same in dustrial brain power that could produce vast quanbbes of goods could also be used for accident prevenbon Industry soon discovered that efficient produchon and safety were re lated From this beginning grew the safetv movement as it is known today The progress in reducing the number of ac cidents and injuries in this relatively short period of time has exceeded the highest expectabons of the eaily safety pioneers In less than one lifetime, safety has become a vital part of industry Fig 1-1 --Give the man a cigar or (in summer) a flv swatter1 This 1913 displav used bv the loliet Works of Illinois Steel Company, the first plant to organize a safetv committee, offers a vanety of safety incentives watch fobs, paper weights, cigars, and a calendar Expenence has shown that there is virtually no hazard or operabon which cannot be over come by pracbcal safety measures The fu ture may introduce a type of unavoidable ac cident, but history indicates that practically all barriers can and will be surmounted In summary, here are the reasons for the continuing, concerted effort to prevent acci dents 1 Needless destruction of life and health is a moral evil 2 Failure to take necessary precaubons against predictable accidents involves moral responsibility for those accidents 3 Accidents severely limit efficiency and producbvity "Excerpt from Nahonal Safety Councd policy