For the fifth time in the past six years, fatal occupational injuries have increased.
New fatality data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 5,333 fatal work injuries occurred in 2019, a 2% increase from the previous year’s total of 5,250 and the most on-the-job deaths since 2007.
In response, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) is urging employers to be more active in adopting voluntary national consensus standards and implementing safety and health management systems.
“Voluntary national consensus standards can transform safety programs from compliance-based cost centers to corporate sustainability initiatives that save lives and positively impact the organization’s bottom line,” said ASSP President Deborah Roy, MPH, RN, in a press release.
ASSP is the secretariat for many standards committees in the United States and worldwide, and has formed expert groups to ensure standards are developed and revised in accordance with requirements from the American national Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
ASSP argues organizations should anchor their efforts to improve workplace safety in safety and health management systems such as ANSI/ASSP Z.10.0-2019, a blueprint for any company to create a safe operational foundation that can be customized to the individual organization.