SANDWICH – With college-aged students already home and summer vacation just days away for Cape Cod high schoolers, a local woman is leading an effort to raise the awareness among the young workforce of on the job safety.
American Industrial Hygiene Association’s National Task Force on Teen Workplace Health & Safety Chair Jennifer Maclachlan, of Sandwich teamed up with OSHA, NIOSH and the National Safety Council in the My Safe Summer Job campaign.
“The idea behind the Teen Workplace Health & Safety Task Force is that we mobilize members of the American Industrial Hygiene Association to go out and teach what’s called ‘Safety Matters.’ It’s a Power Point presentation, jointly developed by AIHA and NIOSH – that’s the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. They’re really the educational division of OSHA,” Maclachlan explained.
“What we’re trying to do is get out to local schools and connect with local educators. New this year, we’re trying to connect with employers to try to help them make sure that they’re offering safety training to their employees using this training module.”
A number of other safety organizations have joined the campaign since it launched on April 15.
Famous for its vast number seasonal business, the Cape has a wide variety of summer jobs suitable for teenagers. Maclachlan says as those summer jobs begin to be filled, it’s important for local young workers to understand the need for workplace safety.
“This is something for every company. The central message here is that all workers deserve a safe and healthy workplace, specifically at this point we’re talking about young workers, we’re identifying young workers ages 14 to 18. Every employer is mandated to have safety training, so on the job training that’s required at any occupation,” Maclachlan said.
“Young workers are twice as likely to be injured on the job as adult workers, every nine minutes a teen is injured on the job, nearly 60,000 youth workers are sent to the emergency room for job related injuries, and sadly, 37 workers under age 18 die on the job. This is really important, to give them training before they’re ever at their job, to identify the workplace hazards, to get them in the habit of putting on personal protective equipment and other things that can keep them safe if the hazards can’t be removed.”
Parents and teens can find resources, videos, games and apps on the My Safe Summer Job website. Workers can also share their thoughts in response to questions using the hashtag #MySafeSummerJob on Twitter from @OSHA_DOL.
By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center
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