Morton Salt, Lyons Salt honored as safest salt companies
The last three years have been the safest in history, according to Salt Institute president Richard L. Hanneman. In 2006, salt workers had 31 lost time injuries and lost 1,046 days due to injury, the second-best year in salt industry history. The industry worked 11.1 million work-hours in 2006.
“The truth is: every injury is preventable, a personal loss or tragedy and a reminder that we still have a ways to go,” Hanneman noted. “But the safety investments at our salt facilities have created safety teams uniting the interests of management and production workers. Much is made of the challenges facing families today. These worker-manager ‘marriages’ are made in heaven.”
Individual facilities were recognized as well. Best incidence records were achieved by Morton Salt’s Grantsville, UT solar plant, Lyons Salt's Lyons, KS mine and Cargill Salt’s solar saltworks in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Morton Salt’s terminals and warehouses won top honors. Regarding severity, the industry standard was set once again by Morton Salt's Rittman, OH salt refinery (owner of the industry's historic best safety record: 6.6 million consecutive safe work-hours), Canadian Salt's Ojibway mine in Windsor, Ontario and Cargill Salt's Akron, OH salt refinery. Cargill Salt was honored for achieving the industry’s lowest severity rate for terminals and warehouses.
Two other Salt Institute companies’ safety achievements were recognized by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. In now-final 2005 figures for MSHA’s Sentinel of Safety Award, United Salt, Houston, TX, was named 2nd runner-up nationally in the small mine category while Detroit Salt, Detroit, MI, was 3rd runner-up in the large mine category.