Salt industry on course to break its historic worker safety record

Last year, despite some setbacks in mine safety, the salt industry recorded its best ever annual safety performance.  This year's safety improvements track the industry's historic trend of improving protection for its workers.  And the achievment was earned as the industry increased work-hours by 10%, primarily to strain capacity to produce road salt for a severe winter.

Overall, for January - March 2008, the salt industry reduced lost-time injuries by 20% (with the additional work-hours, the incidence rate declined 27.15%.  The severity index, measuring days lost, improved even more, recording a 72% improvement.

The Salt Institute safety program supports member company safety efforts in 51 salt plants in the U.S., Canada and the UK.  Of those 51, 48 completed the three month period  -- nearly 3 million work-hours -- without a single lost-time accident.  "We are working towards zero injuries and having only 21 reportable injuries and only four of those serious enough to result in lost time, is a fantastic step forward.  That progress is the result of safety-prioritizing management and a safety-aware workforce working closely together.