Lafarge celebrates health and safety achievements in 2010
June marked Health & Safety Month at Lafarge (www.lafarge-na.com) and for the third year in a row all employees and subcontractors, as well as their families and local communities celebrated at events throughout North America.
"Health and Safety month is a specific time where we as a company can focus our energies on finding specific ways of improving our health and safety," Serene Jweied, director of communications for Lafarge North America, said.
"Since 2002, Lafarge has seen a large reduction in the frequency and severity of work-related accidents around the world. We started Health & Safety Month in 2007 to continue this decline and will not be satisfied until we operate in a zero-accident environment."
Lafarge encourages all plants and sites to celebrate this month by holding their own activities and events that focus on health and safety. Events took place at sites throughout North America. Some of the highlights included:
*The Sugar Creek Plant in Sugar Creek, Mo., hosted a health screening for employees and their spouses that demonstrated health at home is just as important as health on site. Among the things checked were blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, BMI's, and C-reactive protein.
*The Palatka Plant in Palatka, Fla. participated in an emergency response plan drill. The Palatka City fire department was on hand for a simulated "working at heights" rescue, as well as practical fire extinguisher training.
*The St-Constant plant in Quebec celebrated Health and Safety month by eating healthy at the plant's cafeteria. No fried foods were served for a week and a plant clean-up was organized and executed that same week.
*The Ravena plant in Ravena, N.Y. had a MedEvac helicopter fly to the plant to practice an emergency evacuation scenario. The drill provided useful training and practical experience which will help plant workers respond quickly and effectively if a real emergency occurs.
*The Atlanta plant in Atlanta hosted a training drill for the Atlanta Fire Department, who practiced rescuing a 250-pound dummy from a slag silo, which gave the firefighters a challenging but useful experience.
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As a result of Lafarge's dedication and commitment to a health and safety in North America, seven out of the 18 business units have been admitted into the Lafarge Group's Health & Safety Excellence Club. This worldwide program recognizes those business units that maintain a total injury frequency rate of less than 10 and a lost time injury frequency rate of less than one for every million man-hours worked.
This year five business units from North America were inducted into the Excellence Club, including:
*Eastern Canada Aggregates
*Eastern Canada Ready Mix
*Western Canada Aggregates
*Western Canada Ready Mix
*Western United States Aggregates
These five business units join North America Gypsum and Eastern U.S. Aggregates who have been members since 2009.
Additionally the Integrated Benefits/National Business Coalition on Health presented Lafarge North America with the "Healthy Workforce Productivity Award," which recognizes an employer that has developed and implemented innovative strategies for measuring and managing the health and productivity of its workforce.