By Chris Schneider, Executive Director, SMACNA Oregon & SW Washington
SMACNA contractors are already well known for their ability to deliver complex projects with quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. Take a look at local airports, stadiums, hospitals, schools, semiconductor manufacturers, and industrial plants and you’ll see evidence of our contractors rising to difficult challenges. More importantly, our contractors deliver these results without compromising on safety.
For decades SMACNA’s contractors on a national level have achieved a trend demonstrating year-over-year improvements in Incident and EMR rates. Not only that, but our contractors also have an incident rate far below the OSHA incident rate for private industry plumbing, heating, and air conditioning contractors as reported by the “Injuries, Illness, and Fatalities” program from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
We’re not resting on a trend. Safety is a topic that requires constant vigilance and planning and must be treated like the priority that it is. This is why I’m proud of the work done by the SMACNA Oregon & SW Washington Safety Committee.
The SMACNA Oregon & SW Washington Safety Committee meets quarterly at member companies’ shops throughout the region. Safety professionals and business owners from signatory sheet metal contractors meet and exchange policies, best practices, and tool and equipment recommendations, and review safety resources and updates to OSHA rules and guidelines. The committee is chaired by Bud Affolter, the EHS director at Streimer, and it invites guests who may have important safety messages to share with these professionals.
Our Safety Committee has recently partnered with the American Heart Association. The AHA has many resources for the construction industry but of most interest was a discussion around Cardiac Emergency Response Planning. Cardiac Emergency Response Plans (CERP) are a great way to pull together the tools that many companies have in place already and make sure there is a response plan outlined and communicated, similar to how you may have a fire, earthquake, or active shooter response plan. More than 350,000 sudden cardiac arrests happen outside the hospital. However, only 40% of those who experience sudden cardiac arrest receive the immediate care they need before emergency services arrive, and only 10% survive. To mitigate this issue and improve both bystander response and sudden cardiac arrest survival rates, the American Heart Association is supporting companies, community organizations, and schools build plans detailing who responds in case of emergency, how they are responding, and the cadence in which the response team should be CPR certified. Codifying this type of response makes it simpler and quicker to respond and minimizes any panic about who to call, where to go, and where an AED is.
The American Heart Association has some free resources including a CERP implementation guide. Please reach out to me if you would like me to send you the resources or if you would like your company represented on the Safety Committee. The conversation is always valuable and engaging. ■
