Is your workplace a killer?
Give unsafe workplaces the boot during NAOSH Week 2010
The John Petropoulos Memorial Fund (JPMF) is demanding answers and actions during North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week 2010, which runs from May 2-8.
The theme of this year’s NAOSH Week is Safety & Health: A Commitment for Life. How Safe Are You? The JPMF has its own list of questions to add to this theme: Is your workplace safe for everyone? Is it safe for emergency responders? Is your workplace a killer? What are you doing to make your workplace safe for everyone?
The JPMF launched the Put Yourself in Our Boots workplace safety campaign earlier this year. The purpose of the public awareness campaign – which includes a series of 30-second televised public service announcements (PSAs), reflecting the dangers faced by police, fire and EMS personnel at unsafe workplaces, as well as a 10-minute safety video (view trailer) and a website at www.OurBoots.ca – is to reduce preventable injuries & fatalities and promote workplace safety for emergency responders, because their workplace is every place.
“Emergency responders face enough dangers on the job, whether it’s dangerous criminals, hostile crowds or raging fires. If a person threatens, assaults or kills someone else, we do everything we can to put a stop to it. We lay charges and put offenders behind bars,” says JPMF Managing Director Ian Wilson.
“We should also be doing everything we can to prevent buildings and workplaces from killing people. That’s why the JPMF is imploring people to give unsafe workplaces the boot. Take the time this NAOSH Week to look around your workplace and take steps to make it safe.”
The three Put Yourself in Our Boots PSAs have aired over 100,000 times online and on TVs across Canada and the U.S. The police PSA was inspired by the death of Calgary Police Service Const. John Petropoulos, who died after falling through a false ceiling at a warehouse on Sept. 29, 2000. Another PSA shows firefighters trying to escape a blaze getting trapped by a blocked exit, and the third PSA highlights a common workplace hazard faced by emergency responders: distracted driving.
“We hope this campaign – and NAOSH Week – will make people think about their workplaces from the perspective of emergency responders. Make the change and save a life,” says Maryanne Pope, JPMF Board Chair and John’s widow, adding steps taken to improve workplace safety for emergency responders will also make work environments safe everyone else, including employees, visitors and other service workers who may have to access the work site.
View the PSAs at www.OurBoots.ca. For more information and resources to make your workplace safe, visit www.jpmf.ca.
