Volume 2, Issue 12 | December 2022 |
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In This Issue:
Introduction • Florida's Latest Data on Safety, Health & Sustainability • Coping With Holiday Stress • OSHA Update • The Advanced Safety Certificate • Addressing the Challenges of Under-Represented Workers
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A Message from the Executive Director of the Florida Chamber Safety Council, Jason Mozo, J.D. |
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Hello!
We at the Florida Chamber Safety Council hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, spending quality time with family and loved ones! As we come to the close of the year, we want to thank you for making 2022 a successful one with your safety leadership in establishing a safe and healthy workplace for your employees. Without you, we cannot succeed in our mission of establishing Florida as the safest, healthiest, and most sustainable state in America. Let’s not only continue this trend in 2023 but let's take it to another level and achieve even greater success!
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Virtual Training Open to the Public in Dec. 2022: |
10 - 11:30 a.m. EDT. Reserve your free spot TODAY!
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The month of December is our Ladder Safety Month offering 25% discounts on the instructor-led training class. Ladders remain in OSHA’s Top 10 Violations and stayed at #3 in the most violations in 2022. There was an increase in violations from 2,018 violations in 2021 to 2,471 violations in 2022, according to OSHA, which is more than a 20% increase in violations. It is a trend that continues to rise, unfortunately.
Schedule your ladder safety training today. Training saves lives: period! Our goal is, and will always continue to be, to ensure our workers go home safely to their families and loved ones every single day. Nothing is more important! Always remember, Safety is No Accident! I wish you and your families a wonderful and safe holiday season and a Happy New Year!
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Save 25% on Ladder Safety Courses in December |
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Keep safe this December and help avoid injuries! Instructors will review the OSHA General Industry and Construction regulatory requirements and ANSI standards for both portable and fixed ladders most commonly used in industry today. The curriculum will focus on how to properly select, inspect, and use various portable and fixed workplace ladders. In addition, best practices to enhance the safe use of portable ladders will be discussed.
Ladder Safety training topics include, but are not limited to:
Proper Selection
Electrical Hazards
Portable & Extension Ladders
3-Points of Contact
Ladder Inspection
Safe Work Practices
Designed for any employee in construction or general Industry working with ladders, this course will also be of great benefit to homeowners who conduct repairs or maintenance at home. Participants will receive a certificate of course completion in the mail upon successfully completing the course and will earn .25 CEUs from the Florida Chamber Safety Council.
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Florida's Latest Data on Safety, Health & Sustainability |
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According to the Florida Chamber Safety Council's Florida Workplace Safety Report released in 2020:
Safety
To account for the states with greater economic activity in more dangerous industries, we standardized the total fatality numbers by a measure of gross state product (GSP) earned in some of the more dangerous industries. This method helps adjust for states that earn a higher amount of their GSP from statistically more dangerous industries. The mix of more dangerous industries includes agriculture, mining, utilities, construction, and manufacturing. We took the average fatality rate across five years to account for year variation. This methodology shows that when accounting for the industrial mix, Florida ranks as the 47th safest state (4th most dangerous) out of 50. For every billion dollars in GSP from more dangerous industries earned in the state, there was an average of 2.24 total workplace fatalities. This means that workplace deaths are higher than expected in Florida based on economic activity in dangerous industries.
Health
The workplace can play a role in helping fight the opioid epidemic. Employers can offer treatment as part of the health plans they provide employees. Safety officers could become versed in harm reduction strategies. Currently, many first aid kits include epinephrine to address an aggressive allergic reaction. The same approach could be taken towards opioids. Naloxone (known as Narcan) can reverse the symptoms that can lead to an overdose death. Employers should consider having this life-saving drug on hand and training employees on its administration. The National Safety Council has toolkits available for employers interested in addressing opioids at work. Insurance providers can also play a role. There are instances of workers’ compensation patients who were prescribed high levels of opioids being offered free detoxification programs and non-opioid pain management by the insurance providers. This reduction in opioid use can reduce the cost of medical insurance payments and improve the injured worker's quality of life.
Sustainability
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from infinite sources, unlike fossil fuels which are finite. Renewable energy sources include sunlight, wind, rain, tides and waves, and geothermal heat. Florida ranks 44th in the nation for renewable energy production per capita. With Florida’s abundant sunshine, increased renewable energy in the future is possible.
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Coping With Holiday Stress |
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Let’s face it – seeing family over the holidays can be stressful. Here are five quick tips to help manage your holiday stress:
Have effective coping skills ready to go
If you're getting stressed out, it's critical that you have effective, go-to ways to bring the stress level back down again. There are a number of great ways to cope with stress that have strong research support, such as diaphragmatic breathing, meditation, exercise, talking your thoughts out with friends, and even adult coloring pages. (There are great apps for this, too!). Find the techniques and activities that work for you, then practice them! The more you use your coping skills ahead of time, the more effective they'll be when you need them the most.
Keep it in perspective
Remember: whatever you're feeling in the moment will pass faster than you think. Being inside a stressful circumstance can feel all-encompassing and extremely urgent, but the truth is that a holiday party is only a very short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, and the discomfort you feel isn't going to hurt you.
Don't make it worse than it has to be
If you already know you're going into a stressful circumstance, work to reduce other stressors in your life. If you know reading the news stresses you out, maybe take a hiatus for a few weeks. If there's that one friend who is always really negative and stresses you out whenever you talk, maybe let them find support elsewhere for a little while. It's OK to prioritize your health.
Know your boundaries ahead of time
In those tense family moments, know what you are willing to tolerate and where you're going to draw the line. Sometimes stress comes from feeling like you are trapped and have to experience emotional discomfort or pain, even if you don't want to. The truth is that you always have a choice; there are just different consequences depending on what you choose. If you decide that you're going to gut out a holiday party because it will help preserve a relationship you care about, own that choice! Or if you decide you'll need to leave early if someone else is acting disrespectful or stepping over a line, own that choice, as well.
Put yourself in someone else's shoes
When we're in conflict with others, it's very easy to vilify them in our minds and forget that they feel just as justified in their perspective as we do in ours. We also tend to forget that there's more to them than the conflict: they have their own stressors, vulnerable areas, and weaknesses, just like we do. If you can keep a mindset of compassion and try to see the other's point of view, it can often reduce your own stress.
Good luck, stay safe, and happy holidays!
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Browse the latest OSHA updates below:
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The Advanced Safety Certificate |
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Did you know that the Florida Chamber Safety Council is the only organization in Florida to offer the Advanced Safety Certificate (ASC) to EHS and Human Resource Professionals? Watch Jason Mozo, J.D.Executive Director of the Florida Chamber Safety Council, discuss the ASC and how to earn it in this brief overview:
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CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FIRST ASC GRADUATE!
Janelle Nowicki, with ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, is our first graduate of the Advanced Safety Certificate program. Janelle completed the 12 days of training this past November for courses held all throughout 2022. Janelle said she thought the courses were very informative and that she enjoyed them. She is already connecting with other colleagues she met in class.
"You'll receive a lot of information that you may not think you will use immediately, but it will affect your career later. The final management course really clicked for me and tied it all together so that I could apply everything I learned. I highly recommend the ASC program for all human resource professionals and safety professionals," said Janelle.
The Advanced Safety Certificate is a nationally recognized program for safety professionals and human resources professionals, or anyone who is aspiring to have a career in these fields. It is a 12-day training program, which the National Safety Council allows up to five years to complete. The Florida Chamber Safety Council offers these courses so that the ASC program can be completed within one year. Numerous courses will be held throughout the year, so please continue to check the website for scheduled dates.
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Make 2023 the Year to Earn Your ASC! |
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Click the ASC image to download the ASC flyer.
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Leading Voices: Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability Advisory Board |
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Driving Into a Safer and More Innovative Future for Florida Business,
Including Florida’s Under-Represented Workers
This thought-leadership article was written by George Zamora, Managing Director of Safety with CITY Furniture and a member of the Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability Advisory Board. CITY Furniture operates over 22 showrooms from Miami through Vero Beach and in Southwest and Central Florida, as well as 14 Ashley Home Store showrooms as the brand’s Southeast and Southwest Florida licensee.
As the 15th largest global economy on its way to becoming the 10th largest by 2030, Florida has a bright and shining future ahead. With this continued economic growth comes responsibility for Florida’s business leaders to innovate and invest in our most important asset— our employees. The Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability is working to make Florida the safest, healthiest, and most sustainable state in America. Thinking beyond safety procedures is essential in reaching this goal; utilizing technology to protect and educate our workforce plays an important role.
Relocating from Costa Rica and growing up in South Florida, I know firsthand the challenges of under-represented workers. I realize that most resources can appear too far out of reach for this community. The Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability works 24/7 to provide tools and resources for small to mid-sized businesses and those less represented workforces. It is essential to empower those who may not be aware of opportunities available to do their part in raising the standard of safety, health, and sustainability in the workplace or on the road.
At CITY Furniture, selling furniture results from being an innovation-focused company that actively seeks to leverage cutting-edge technology to serve our customers and staff best. The Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability serves as a one-stop-shop for businesses of all sizes and across all industries. By facilitating business community sharing and replicating promising practices across Florida, small and mid-sized businesses and employees can look to larger companies as mentors and examples in implementing the best pathways and techniques.
For example, at CITY Furniture, we have pivoted from teaching in lengthy lecture-type methods to more dynamic content in-house, consisting of snippets of instructional material spanning two to seven minutes long. The shorter, more concentrated pieces of training have greatly increased attention and retention of important material that could prevent an accident or injury. Simple, more digestible content, such as what we practice at CITY Furniture, can easily be replicated across any business to make safety training more effective and impactful.
Another significant resource to all workers, including those underserved, can be found through leveraging local chambers of commerce. These important organizations serve as a voice for local communities, connect business leaders, and bring awareness of numerous other resources. As a professional community, we are always stronger together and can affect change and culture state-wide and nationally.
Small to mid-sized businesses cannot be afraid to connect with other business leaders and utilize available resources. If there is a larger company or brand you admire as a Florida business, don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with someone to learn what their company is doing to enforce safety. Additionally, the internet is your friend. Don’t be afraid to research tools and resources that may be free and will help you work smarter, not harder. The endless process of learning and sharing the best practices which can be replicated across our state can be seen among businesses through the work of the Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability.
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Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability Advisory Board
Thank You to These 17 Visionary Company Leaders Who Are Working Together to Create a Culture of Safety, Health and Sustainability Across Florida
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Florida Chamber Leadership Cabinet on Safety, Health and Sustainability
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