With the holidays approaching, many employees participate in workplace festivities, travel to see relatives and enjoy decorating. Make sure your organization enjoys a safe holiday season. The National Safety Council (NSC) has created a holiday safety toolkit to help keep you and your employees safe during the hectic season. Starting with the
12 Days of Safety
, here are some of NSC’s tips to keep all of us injury-free:
Workplace Potlucks
While food brings people together, it also can make them sick. One in six Americans get food poisoning from harmful bacteria annually.
Before your workplace implements a holiday potluck, review the following safety tips from the Food and Drug Administration:
- Wash your hands before and after handling food
- Use paper towels rather than cloths to clean surfaces and to avoid germs
- Separate raw meats from your other food
- Use a food thermometer to make sure foods are cooked to the right temperature
- Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold and never let food sit out for more than two hours
By following the tips above, you can help make sure everyone can spend the holidays safely with friends and loved ones.
Parking Lots
During the holiday season, people are out and about shopping. What this means for your employees is an added risk when driving with the increase of foot traffic. More than 50,000 crashes occur annually in parking lots and garage structures.
One of the most common culprits of these parking lot crashes is distracted driving. A National Safety Council survey found that 66% of survey respondents felt comfortable making calls while driving in a parking lot. While this is problematic, you can be part of the solution and help your organization implement an organization-wide cell phone policy.
Finally, please share this
Tip Sheet
with co-workers to help them minimize risk and avoid injury in parking lots and while walking this winter season.
Workplace Decorations
During the holiday season, employees begin to feel festive and some might even start decorating their work spaces. To prevent injuries while on the job, please remind your employees to celebrate safely.
To avoid falling, make sure employees are not standing on chairs when hanging decorations. Instead, encourage them to use a small stepladder. Stepladder instructions and labels should be read before an employee operates one.
Hanging decorations on fire sprinklers should be avoided. Decorations have the potential to cause sprinklers to malfunction and not operate when needed. In the case of a tree, make sure it is at least 18 inches away from fire sprinklers.
Your office space can still look festive, but make sure it is decorated the safe way.
Snow Removal
Snow shoveling is responsible for thousands of injuries and as many as 100 deaths each year.
Pushing a heavy snow blower can also cause injury. There is also the cold factor to consider. Cold weather can increase heart rate and blood pressure. It can make blood clot more easily and constrict arteries, which decreases blood supply. This is true even in healthy people. Individuals over the age of 40 or who are relatively inactive should be particularly careful.
Please share this
tip sheet with your employees
