As we continue to move the needle on establishing a safer, healthier and more sustainable Florida, our upcoming 2nd annual Southeastern Leadership Conference on Safety, Health & Sustainability on March 30th through April 1st will set the stage on creating a culture of safety, effecting change and leading for outcomes. It will be an event you surely do not want to miss. In addition, we are continuing to focus on making Florida safer by holding more public safety training classes on numerous safety subjects to assist companies in Florida in creating a customized corporate safety program for their employees. These safety programs are designed to assure a safe and healthy workplace not just for employees but for customers and members within the community. 

I also wanted to share some important Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) news updates including the withdrawal of the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on January 26, 2022 as well as the increase of OSHA penalties for workplace violations that was issued on January 15, 2022. The increase in these penalties, which continues to increase annually, should put employers on notice that safety and health needs to be at the forefront to ensure workplace compliance to the standards to create a safer environment for employees.

In February, the Florida Chamber Safety Council is promoting CPR/First Aid/AED awareness and offering a discounted rate of 30-40 percent to provide this important training for everybody within your company. Not only does this training make a difference in the workplace, but in your personal lives as well, as at any given time there can be an emergency and the proper training can make the difference between life or death. According to OSHA, there are over 10,000 cardiac arrests that occur yearly within the workplace in the United States.

Having you and your team trained on CPR/First Aid/AED can have the potential to save thousands of lives every year. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), there are over 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests annually and out of those numbers, only 46 percent were of attempted lifesaving techniques performed from bystanders. A survey from the AHA shows that over 55 percent of employees are not offered CPR/First Aid/AED training by their employer and when it is offered, it is only after an incident has occurred. I am encouraging business leaders to be proactive when it comes to training to avoid incidents that will then lead to training after tragedy.

Let’s work together to establish Florida as the safest, healthiest and most sustainable state in America. We look forward to a successful 2022, and seeing you at our Annual Leadership Conference coming up in a couple months. Always remember, safety is no accident!