1st quarter safety results: outstanding!
Last year, despite some setbacks in mine safety, the salt industry recorded its best-ever annual safety performance. This year's safety improvements track the industry's historic trend of improving protection for its workers. And the achievment was earned as the industry increased work-hours by 10%, primarily to strain capacity to produce road salt for a severe winter.
Overall, for January - March 2008, the salt industry reduced lost-time injuries by 20% (with the additional work-hours, the incidence rate declined 27.15%. The severity index, measuring days lost, improved even more, recording a 72% improvement.
The Salt Institute safety program supports member company safety efforts in 51 salt plants in the U.S., Canada and the UK. Of those 51, 48 completed the three month period -- nearly 3 million work-hours -- without a single lost-time accident. "We are working towards zero injuries and having only 21 reportable injuries and only four of those serious enough to result in lost time, is a fantastic step forward. That progress is the result of safety-prioritizing management and a safety-aware workforce working closely together.