What your workers do when they are not at work has a major impact on their safety when they are at work. Consequently, companies are becoming increasingly involved in their employees' health and wellness, often with great success. Here's a story about one such company.

The Context: Workplace Safety Isn't Just About the Workplace

I would like to introduce you to a pair of fictional characters, John Doe and his co-worker Don Joe. John and Don are like yin and yang. John eats properly, exercises regularly and gets plenty of sleep. Don, on the other hand, will eat anything as long as it comes on a bun or inside a taco shell. And he eats in excess. Don hates exercise. His idea of strenuous activity is to adjust the TV volume without using the remote. Don also regularly rolls into work with serious sleep deprivation, a headache and a dull, vacant buzz where brain activity should reside.

So here's a question: If you worked at John and Don's company, who would you feel safer working with?

The EHS director of John and Don's company wishes he had more Johns and fewer Dons. Like many of his colleagues in the safety profession, he understands that workplace safety isn't just about what happens in the workplace. We are gaining an increasing understanding of how lifestyle impacts long-term health and risks of accidents. Accordingly, safety directors are being called on to provide the encouragement, information and support workers need to be more like John and less like Don.

A Real Life Example: Milton CAT

Milton CAT is a company that gets it. A supplier of Caterpillar machines, power systems, parts and service in 13 locations across the northeast US, Milton CAT recently partnered with Wellness Coaches USA to promote healthier lifestyles and work in an effort to prevent injuries among Milton's nearly 1,300 employees.

Wellness Coaches USA has been using Milton's Intranet system to provide health and injury prevention information and links to all employees and their families. It also sends bimonthly newsletters to employees at all branches.

"The enthusiasm has continued throughout the first year of service and more than 65% of Milton CAT employees remain actively engaged in the wellness process," according to Wellness Coaches USA.

Milton CAT employees receive coaching in a variety of areas, including injury prevention education, health promotion education, early injury intervention and return to work strategies. For example, employees are taught about first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators.

As part of the program, employees receive consultations on a range of wellness-related topics including tobacco and alcohol use, nutrition, musculoskeletal disorders, weight control, hydration, stretching, sun safety, seatbelt use, fatigue and off-the-job safety. All employees undergo blood pressure screening and a health risk appraisal.

Program Results

The program has produced some impressive results. For example, in 2005, 42% of Milton CAT employees who completed a health risk appraisal reported exercising less than two days per week. By 2006, that number had dropped to 30%.

Large improvements were also identified in weight loss and high blood pressure. For example, 68 employees with hypertension received assistance in bringing their high blood pressure under control. Another 88 employees lost weight.

In addition, since the program began, tobacco and excessive use of alcohol among employees has significantly declined. For example, employees deemed at high risk for health problems associated with excessive drinking dropped from 19% in 2005 to 8% in 2006; in the same year, the number of heavy (pack a day or more) smokers dropped from 26% to 21%.

Nowadays, health and safety initiatives must be justified by return on investment. Among 826 Milton CAT employees who received health risk appraisal in 2006, estimated healthcare cost savings to the company totaled $82,600--$100 per employee.

Conclusion

Not surprisingly, Milton CAT is continuing its program and plans some expansions this year. In a push to increase personal consultations, Wellness Coaches will engage in "potty training" (placing informational postings in bathrooms), frequently change bulletin board materials and introduce a wider selection of ongoing wellness initiatives and events at all locations.

It also aims to reach a 100% consultation rate on all workplace injuries within 24 hours of their occurrence. Another goal is to increase the frequency of planned and spontaneous workplace observations, including workstation and vehicle ergonomic evaluations, job task evaluations, safety rule adherence and site-specific concerns.

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ARE YOU A COMPANY THAT DOES IT RIGHT?

Tell us about your company's health and safety program and we'll feature it as a case study in SafetyXChange. Send your accounts to glennd@bongarde.com.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY
October 17, 1989

By Glenn Demby

The Bay Bridge

It was a Tuesday night and I hurried home after work to watch Game 3 of the World Series. But when I turned on Channel 7, the news was on. I checked my watch: 8:45. We should be somewhere into the first or second inning by now. So where was the game?

Then I heard the word "earthquake." The World Series had been tabbed the Bay Bridge Series because it pitted the Oakland Athletics against cross-bay rival, the San Francisco Giants. But now that nickname had assumed a sinister and ironic new meaning. The Bay Bridge had collapsed!

I once lived in San Francisco and I love the area and its people. So the earthquake that struck the Bay Area on this date 18 years ago struck me right in the solar plexus. The images remain indelible:

The Nimitz Freeway

The earthquake, which started at 5:04 PM local time, about 20 minutes before the scheduled first pitch of the ballgame, was centered on the Santa Cruz range, some 60 miles south of San Francisco. At that distance, the damage done to the city was surprising. The quake measured between 6.5 and 7.5 on the Richter scale and lasted 15 seconds. Powerful aftershocks rocked the area for another 36 hours.

The Marina District

The costs:

Scientists had predicted the quake and accurately identified the areas likely to suffer the most damage. But nothing was done to prepare. The local response was also slow and largely ineffective. One of the problems was that the Office of Emergency Services/Fairmont Hospital, the nerve center for earthquake response in the area, was very near the epicenter of the quake.

As bad as it was, the 1989 San Francisco earthquake could have been much worse. Scientists suggest that if a similar quake hit the nearby Haywood fault, at least 8,000 people would die, 300,000 would be injured and over a $100 billion in property damage would ensue.

The good news is that San Francisco and surrounding cities are among the best prepared in the U.S. to face an earthquake. After 1989, the city's already stringent building codes were enhanced to provide even greater protection against quakes. The city has also invested heavily to improve its emergency response infrastructure and procedures.

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