Help Employees Stay Safe Outside the Office

According to the 2009 edition of the National Safety Council’s Injury Facts, U.S. workers are actually safer on the job than in their homes or communities.

Take the time to remind employees that accidents do happen outside of work. And accidents can lead to injury, rising healthcare costs, and even death.

Last year, employers lost 75 million workdays resulting from workplace injuries, but lost more than 225 million days of production time due to off-the-job incidents.

Off-the-job injury is defined as an unintentional non-work-related injury to individuals employed on a full-time or part-time basis.

The National Safety Council estimates that off-the-job injuries and fatalities cost U.S. businesses almost $200 billion annually in lost productivity.

Help employees stay safe outside the office by identifying—and preventing—the five leading causes of injury death from the National Safety Council:

Motor vehicles: As the most prevalent cause of unintentional injury, 40% of all injury deaths were motor vehicle related. Tack up posters that highlight the dangers of drinking and driving, the importance of wearing a seat belt, and the dangers of road rage or reckless driving.

Falls: Injuries due to falling were the leading reason for hospital emergency room visits. Caution employees by sending out e-mails or placing reminders around work on slowing down, watching your step, and using caution during inclement weather.

Poisoning: Drugs, medicines, gases, and vapors attribute to thousands of deaths each year. Encourage employees to visit the National Institutes of Health for ways to spot hazardous leaks in the house, and consult this drug interactions checker for more information on medications.

Choking: Deaths attributable to ingestion or inhalation of food or other objects was the highest in ages 75 and older. Still, some 4,500 off-the-job choking deaths were reported in 2005. Check out these Heimlich maneuver tips from the National Institutes of Health.

Drowning: Thousands of drowning incidents happen in natural bodies of water. Check out My Family Doctor for how to save someone in a drowning situation.