Study Shows Employee Health and Safety Education Needs to Start at Home
American businesses bear a significant burden of these home-related injuries, as the same study shows that home injuries can cost employers up to $38 billion in a single year.
The Home Safety Council is working to help reduce this alarming toll by introducing new, free informational materials and resources during Home Safety Month that companies can use to educate employees and their families about how to apply injury prevention practices in and around their homes.
This year's Home Safety Month theme, which is a common thread throughout all of the free materials, is "Hands on Home Safety," which encourages families to take a hands-on approach to finding and fixing dangers within their home before an injury occurs.
"Home-related injuries not only affect the health and well-being of employees, but will impact a company's bottom line due to loss of productivity, absenteeism, as well as health care costs," said Home Safety Council President Meri-K Appy. "During Home Safety Month, we are asking companies to promote home safety education among its employee base and utilize the Home Safety Council's free home safety materials and resources within the workplace."
Hands-On Home Safety
During Home Safety Month, the Home Safety Council will concentrate on a single goal: making home safety easy for families to fit into their daily household routine. To meet this goal, the Home Safety Council is offering an online suite of safety resources specifically for corporate use.
The Home Safety Council Web site, http://www.homesafetycouncil.org, now offers one of the country's most comprehensive online centers for home safety information, tips, checklists and resources and serves as the nucleus for this year's Home Safety Month outreach efforts. A dedicated Web page, http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/homesafetymonth, provides companies direct access to free tools and home safety materials.
Through the Web site, families, businesses, classrooms and safety advocates can access tools and information that help raise awareness and promote actions to keep families safe from home injuries. The new Home Safety Council Web site continues to evolve and improve, including these upgrades:
- Copy-ready home safety articles available for corporate newsletters.
- A step-by-step guide to planning and implementing a safety fair.
- Downloadable brochures and posters companies that can be used to promote safe home practices.
- Home safety tips on topics ranging from fire safety and poison prevention to kitchen safety and home security.
- Spanish language versions of select materials.
- Content specifically designed as a resource for teachers and community educators.