Monday 28th April 2014 has been named as Steel Safety Day by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
The objective of the day is to reiterate the organisation's 'commitment to the health and safety of the people who work in the steel industry'.
Billed as a safety awareness day, Steel Safety Day is aligned with World Safety Day, which is held on the 28th April every year.
worldsteel and its members plan to carry out an industry-wide safety audit, claims the organisation. It has already carried out an analysis of health and safety practices in the steel industry over the past five years, identifying the main causes of serious safety incidents.
According to Dr.Edwin Basson, director-general of worldsteel: “worldsteel is requesting all its members as well as all related organisations within the steel industry to carry out a special audit on the five main causes of safety incidents in all plants around the world. This should engage both employees and service providers involving as many as four million people in total.”
He hopes that every steel plant in the world has carried out the recommended audit, identified and developed a plan or already eliminated the risks associated with the main five causes of incidents, putting all mitigating measures permanently into place. "At the end of this industry-wide collective effort, we can say that we have made our workplace even safer than it is today,” he said.
According to Andrew Page, chairman of worldsteel's safety and health committee, there is nothing more important than the safety and health of the people working in the steel industry. He said that management was responsible and accountable for safety and health within their organisation. "The steel industry has seen a steady and notable reduction in the rate of injuries since 2006 and the average lost time injury frequency rate has gone down by 50% in the last five years," he said, adding that the goal remains to create an injury-free, illness-free and healthy workplace with zero incidents.
