ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Recordable injuries and illnesses in Textile Rental Service Association of America (TRSA) member workplaces dropped 17% from 2008 to 2009, according to the annual TRSA Textile Services Industry Safety Report just released.
TRSA members reduced their recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 employees (TRIR Rate) by 5.1, from 10.9 in 2005 to 5.8 in 2009. Also declining was the total number of injuries and illnesses per 100 employees resulting in days away from work, job restrictions and/or job transfers (DART Rate), which fell from 6.2 to 4.0, or by more than one-third. The most recent one-year DART Rate improvement was also about 17%.
The survey is compiled from forms submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by TRSA members. It was launched in 2005 in conjunction with SafeTRSA, an industrywide initiative to improve worker safety through awareness, education and training.
“Since its inception in 2005, the SafeTRSA program has helped member companies reduce recordable injuries and illness by more than 50%,” says TRSA President Joseph Ricci. “This program demonstrates the importance TRSA members place on the safety and well-being of their employees and their impressive gains reflect the success of SafeTRSA in highlighting areas of emphasis and improvement.”
The program has been particularly valuable in helping members develop more effective practices in maintaining equipment (lockout/tagout), handling soiled linen (especially bloodborne pathogens) and working in confined spaces, TRSA says.
This year’s survey is based on occupational injury and illness data submitted by 70 textile services companies operating 775 laundry-processing facilities (plants) and depots. A plant is defined as having laundry and route distribution functions on site; a depot consists only of the latter.
The TRSA Textile Services Industry Safety Report is available for purchase from TRSA’s online store at www.trsa.org (the report is distributed free to TRSA member companies that participated in the research).
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