Document kmwEp72pKpEgvorkEBbY4jqzD

544 Twentieth Congress--National Safety Council American industries. However, we cannot overlook the better records of the cement, steel, and machinery manufacturing industries, whose operations involve many haz ards as great as our own. Our showing from the standpoint of severity of lost-time injuries was not quite as good as for frequency. Lost-time averaged 1.94 days per thousand hours worked; our severity rate, consequently, was slightly lower than the rate of 1.97 for all indus tries and our standing among the 28 industries was fourteenth. Even this rate, how ever. was considerably less than for steel, cement, and machinery manufacturing. Injury rates in different brandies of our section van* widely. Plants manufactur ing carixjn products had the lowest frequency rate. 5.05. whereas coal tar distillers had the highest, 44.72. Paint and varnish manufacturing establishments, pharmaceu tical and tine chemical manufacturing plants, and soap factories were other branches of the Section to have higher tlvan average frequency rates. Serious injuries, how ever. occur more frequently in other divisions. Dye manufacturing and acid plants, with better lluui average frequency rates, have permanent partial disability rates exceeded only by soap manufacturing. Explosives plants, also with very low frequen cy rates, Itavv the highest severity rate, due. of course, to the unusual hazards of their operations. The experience of >ur own as well as other industries shows that small plants usually haw higher frequency and severity rates titan larger ones. In general, as plants increase in sue. their injury rates decrease. The average frequency rate of 78 chemical plants employing less than 100 ]>enpli* was 26.94, in comparison to 13.04 for 17 plants with over 1000 employees. The difference hi their severity rates was equally striking; these rates being 3.72 and 1.63 respectively. Some g*d records have been made, however, by small plants in all branches of the industry. A tar refining plant with 3b employees wem through 1930 without a lost-time injury; this plant had a frequency rate of 33.05 and a severity rate of 0.58 for 1929. A record of two-years without a lost-time injury was made by a plant producing carl km products and employing <V4 itcoplc. Also, our smaller establishments Itave made, in many instances, much better records than larger ones in their divis ion.. Fur example, a small plant employing 39 people led the explosives division with a no-accident record during 1930. These arc only a icw of the illustrations that can be cited to prove that safety can I* achieved in small plants. In discussing our injury experience during 1930, 1 have indicated where nr should look for itufirovcment in x\u ivtutre. Many oi u.s arc jiarticulariv interested in comparing our 3930 records with those of previous years Itccause of the business depressant. We have 106 phots in our industry with at) exposure of approximatelv 145.1100.000 man-hours that Itave reported in each of the last three years; the records oi these identical establishment* most accurately measure our improvement during thij: jK.*riod. Thr 1930 frequency rate of tin's group was 20 jcr cent below their rate ior 1928--a reduction which was..however, somewhat less that the decrease of 28 per cent for over 1?U0 identical establishments in all industries. This reduction in fre quency included a decrease of 54 per cent in out fatality rate during 1929 and 1930 ii csenjurison with 1928. hut. unfortunately, the frequency of permanent partial disabilities lias risen steadily in the past two years. The decrease in our general frequency rate is largely due to the decline in the frequency of temporary disabil ities. While the decline in the fatality rate of our identical plants is much larger in many other industries, our experience with other types oi injuries is much the same. Tlic rise in the frequency of jtermanem partial disabilities during 1929 and 1930 was largely resjKmsiMv tor holding down our decrease in severity to only 6 per cent. The reduction in this rate was less than the 8 jk.t cent decrease made bv all industries. The iwrmanem partial disability rate doubled during 1930 in comparison with 1928 and 192*1. The large drop in the frequency of temporary disabilities, on the other hand, rc-uhed in a decrease of 25 per cent in the severity of these injuries. Chemical Section 545 Several explanations have been advanced in the Council's Annual publication on "Industrial Accidents'' to account for the large difference in the reductions of tem porary disabilities and the more serious injuries. It is thought that an undue pro portion of effort may have been devoted to minor hazards with the result that the more serious ones may have been neglected. Also, the increasing use of machinery may have eliminated some minor accidents but Introduced new hazards with more serious consequences. It is also possible that more accurate reporting tended to increase rates, particular ly tor permanent partial disabilities with their arbitrary scale of time charges. More liberal compensation awards in recent years may have had the effect of increasing time charges for a permanent partial disability; and furthermore, an injury which may have been a temporary disability several years ago might now be considered a permanent partial. We need, therefore, to give special thought to the reduction of our serious in juries. The importance of knowing the frequency and severity of accidents which are happening in our industry each year is apparent to anyone seriously interested in safety. The fact that we have never been able to ascertain these figures from all the members of our Section is regrettable. We have yet to get the most cut of the use of statistics in the work of preventing accidents. The more they are untler' stood and studied the better are wc able to apply protective and collective treatment. Statistics to s safety man arc just as indispensable as the compass is to the mariner. They give him the range and scope of the hazard. They eliminate the guess work and a great amount of time ascertaining for himself that which statistics can give him at a glance. Several industries follow the practice of exchanging full details on fatalities and other serious injuries. Many such cases result from accidents whose causes are unusual and difficult to control. With this plan, however, there is no good reason for a similar accident occuring from the same cause in other plants. In conclusion, I desire to empltasizc the value of reporting your annual accident records to headquarters. In spite of the steady growth of plants reporting from year to year, and our particularly good showing this year, wc are getting accident re ports from only slightly over one-halt of our members. Every manlier should take advantage of this opportunity to check up on his accident experience from year lo vear and then compare it with other plants m his industry. A good record is always gratifying and stimulating to the officials and employees of a plant. An organiza tion whose record makes a poor comparison with others in its division should cer tainly learn the reason ior it and take necessary steps ior improvement. Furthermore, every safety man should feel it his personal responsibility to con tribute his accident experience for the benefit of the Section. Our non-reporting members are certainly not supporting the efforts of our Sectional Officers to advance the development of full information on the problems and progress of our Section in accident prevention work. Our Section is exactly what we make it. and wc pet out of it in proportion to what we give, and the growth of the Chemical Section statistics depends on the support from its members.. In closing I wish to take this opportunity to thank the National Safely Council Staff, the Sectional officers, members of the Chemical Section Statistics Committee, and all members reporting, for the help they have given me hi making this report possible. Chairman Roach : That was a very excellent report, and I certainty hope tliat during the next year the other half oi out membership that has not contributed acci dent experience will do so. I know of nothing more stimulating to the interest of the safety committee and men interested in accident prevention than a correct listing of accident experiences. 1 know of nothing that causes more enthusiasm on the part of all of us who are interested in this human conservation work than to lcam