Salt Worker Safety

The first nine months' safety statistics, just released, reflect the increased hours being recorded in U.S. salt mines and, despite the production push, an improvement in both the incidence and severity of worker injuries. Hours worked surged 8.53% while reportable incidence fell 14.88% and the severity rate by 53.99%.

Cargill had the best large-company safety record through September. Among smaller companies, Lyons Salt and Detroit Salt had unblemished records and no small company has had a single lost time injury for the entire year. In all, 23 facilities have perfect records in 2008. By category, they include:

Large processing: Morton Salt's Rittman, OH; Silver Springs, NY; and Manistee, MI evap plants and Cargill Salt's evap plants in St. Clair, MI and Hutchinson, KS.

Mining: Cargill Deicing Technology's Cayuga Mine in Lansing, NY; Lyons Salt in Lyons, KS and Detroit Salt in Detroit, MI.

Small processing: Cargill Salt's facilities in Watkins Glen, NY; Akron, OH; Port Newark, NJ; Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles; Freedom, OK and Tampa, FL; United Salt's Carlsbad, NM saltworks; Canadian Salt's Lindbergh, AB evap plant; Compass Minerals's Chicago operation and Compass/Sifto's Amherst, NS evap plant; and Morton Salt's Elston Dock facility in Chicago and its Glendale, AZ saltworks.

Morton Salt and Canadian Salt had perfect safety records in their terminals and warehouses as well.

Keep up the good work!

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 03:46 PM | Permalink

Congratulations. This Thanksgiving, let us give thanks for the diligence of our workers and their wonderful record of safe-working achievement. Most recently, these achievements:

Canadian Salt, Pugwash, NS mine, 700,000 hours without a lost-time injury
Cargill Salt, Newark, CA processing plant, 700,000 hours
Cargill Salt, Lansing, NY mine, 700,000 hours
Cargill Salt, Avery Island, LA mine, 400,000 hours

Cargill Salt, Dubuque, IA terminal, 23 years
Cargill Salt, Bonaire, N.A. solar, 3 years
Cargill Salt, Cincinnati, OH terminal, 3 years
Cargill Salt, Freedom, OK solar, 2 years
Cargill Salt, Lansing, NY mine, 2 years
Cargill Salt, Avery Island, LA mine, 1 year

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 04:43 PM | Permalink

As reported earlier with the January-June U.S. salt sales figures showing an 11.6% increase in sales, the industry’s labor force put in a lot of overtime the first half of this year. Hours worked in North American salt facilities rose 9.83%. Pushing for extra output also strained the industry’s safety record, with a 28.6% increase in lost-time injuries, according to the Salt Institute’s report on industry safety.

The percentages hide the full story, however. While the production hours were nearly 6 million, the number of lost-time injuries was nine, up from seven in the same timeframe in 2007. Any number above zero is lamentable and justifies a strong, continuing safety effort, but the industry’s remarkable safety improvements in recent years have reduced the denominator in the calculation so that a single incident is magnified greatly. Industry-wide, reportable incidents, which many safety experts consider a better indicator of safe working conditions, increased from 49 to 50, inching up only 2%, a fifth of the increase in work-hours.

All that should not diminish the continuing safety efforts by salt companies. Salt companies recorded an astounding 0.30 lost-time injury rate (up from 0.26 last year), but this is light-years better than the lost-time rate for all U.S. nonmetal mines which recorded a 4.27 rate. Before we reach euphoria for this record, 13 times better than the MSHA benchmark, we should reflect that the rate of reportable incidents is about the same. The adage declares that those who work hard enjoy good luck. That seems apropos.

With that long contextual introduction to the release of the first half safety statistics, congratulations are due to the company safety leaders. Among large companies, Cargill led the way with regard to both incidence and severity; Morton Salt tied with Cargill for the best incidence rate. Among smaller salt companies, not a single company recorded a single lost-time injury, a tremendous achievement.

Safe work, of course, is achieved at the level of each worker, but the work teams at each facility are a key element of encouraging adherence to approved safety procedures. The facilities with the best records for the January – June include, for incidence: Morton Salt, Rittman, OH evap plant for large processing plants; Cargill Deicing Technologies Cayuga mine in Lansing, NY among salt mines; Cargill Salt’s Watkins Glen, NY evap plant for small processing facilities and Morton Salt for terminals and warehouses. With regard to severity rate, industry leading facilities include, again, Morton Salt’s Rittman plant; Morton’s Grand Saline, TX mine; Cargill’s Watkins Glen plant, again, for small processors, and Cargill’s terminals and warehouses.

As they would say in the NFL, this is a very competitive league with very little separating the top performers from their competitors. Unlike the NFL, everyone can be a winner in this league.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 09:05 AM | Permalink

The tragic toll of highway and workplace fatalities both declined in 2007 -- good news for salt companies who contributed to both positive outcomes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 6% decline in workplace deaths in 2007; overall, occupational fatalities have declined from 5,840 to 5,488; the biggest improvement coming from at-work transportation fatalities. Traffic fatalities declined 3.9% to the lowest number in 13 years. The fatality rate of 1.37 is the lowest ever recorded, according the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Salt companies, likewise, had their safest-ever year in 2007 and sold a near-record amount of live-saving highway salt.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:15 PM | Permalink

In matters of worker safety, everyone is a winner.

Results are in for the 2008 Metal/Nonmetal and International Mine Rescue Contest. Congratulations to Cargill Deicing Technology's Whiskey Island team from the Cleveland, OH mine for its salt industry-leading overall 6th place award. Joe Desko is the team leader.

The program is sponsored by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. Ten teams from eight countries participated. Host Team U.S.A. finished fourth.

Salt mine rescue teams were well represented among the leaders in the several individual skills competitions.

In the multi-gas instrument benchman contest, Ryan Weese of Cargill's Whiskey Island team took 2nd, Steve Allanson on Cargill's second Cleveland team, Cuyahoga River, finished 4th and Don Maxfield from Morton Salt's Grand Saline, TX "Team Texas" earned 6th place.

Cody Rossbach, Cargill Deicing Technology's Cayuga mine (Lansing, NY), garnered third place in the BG-4 Benchman competition.

And Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine "Rescue Runners" first aid team of Ward Broussard, Marty Menard and Lynn Bayard placed 5th in their competition.

See our earlier post for salt inductees into the Mine Rescue Hall of Fame.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 03:15 PM | Permalink

34 Mine Rescue teams faced off July 15-17 in Reno, NV in the MSHA-sponsored 2008 Metal/Nonmetal National Mine Rescue contest. Seven salt companies participated: Morton Salt teams from Grand Saline, TX; Fairport, OH; and Weeks Island, LA; and Cargill Deicing Technology teams from Avery Island, LA; Cayuga mine in Lansing, NY; and two teams from Cargill's Cleveland, OH mine (Whiskey Island and Cuyahoga River). Still awaiting final results, but local coverage featured Cargill's Avery Island team showcasing their lifesaving skills. I'll re-post when the final results are in.

In related news, MSHA announced seven inductees into the Mine Rescue All of Fame including three from salt companies, Rod Etie and Rayward Segura of Cargill's Avery Island, LA mine, and Lee Graham who retired from then-SI member Carey Salt in 1988. Segura was a participant in the inaugural competition in 1971 when the contest was conducted in Lafayette, LA. Congratulations.

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 06:27 PM | Permalink

Morton Salt's Weeks Island, LA mine reached 4 million hours without a lost time injury. Fantastic!

Congratulations to all for the following safety milestones:

Morton Salt, Weeks Island, LA mine, 4 million hours
Morton Salt, Manistee, MI evap plant, 1 million hours
Canadian Salt, Pugwash, NS mine, 500,000 hours
Cargill Salt, Cleveland OH mine, 400,000 hours

Posted by Dick Hanneman at 05:19 PM | Permalink