Overall, incidence of injuries fell by 22 percent and injury severity was down to 79 percent.
The industry's safest production plants were recently honored as winners of the 1999 Salt Institute Safety Contest.
The winners were selected by facility type from among 95 salt production sites, processing centers and warehouses operated by salt companies in the United States and Canada.
The best company safety records among large companies were achieved by Morton Salt, Chicago, Ill., which was recognized for the best incidence rate safety record, and Cargill Salt, Wayzata, Minn., for achieving the lowest severity rate.
Among small companies, the best overall safety records were earned by United Salt Corp., Houston, Texas, for incidence rate and Lyons Salt Co., Lyons, Kan., for best severity rate.
"In addition to substantial decreases in incidence of injuries and injury severity, salt industry safety figures for 1999 showed improvements over 1998 with days lost declining 80.33 percent and reportables down by 26.38 percent," said Salt Institute President Richard L. Hanneman. "These figures reflect the hard work by everyone and the results of our industry-wide Safety Workshop held last year. Hopefully, this trend will persist in 2000 as we continue our focus on worker safety."