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| Why Work On Wellness? |
Every advantage counts in today’s economic climate, and this includes having healthy employees able to put in a good day’s work. Wellness programs that help workers maintain a healthy weight can cut company losses related to sick days and lowered productivity. Studies on obesity from Statistics Canada suggest that overweight young men are nearly four times more likely to be absent from work than those of healthy weight. Obese women aged 35-64 were significantly more likely to take disability days compared to their co-workers within the healthy weight range. The study highlights the personal stress and long-term health problems that can be caused from being overweight, and the “significant societal costs by reducing labor market productivity.”
In the United States, obesity is estimated to cost a company of 1,000 employees an average of $285,000 a year in obesity-related healthcare and worker sick days. Medical costs for obese employees are 77 per cent higher than for healthy weight employees. Obese employees have the highest prevalence of work limitations, with 6.9 per cent experiencing such limitations compared to three per cent among normal weight-range employees. Duke University researchers found that the heaviest workers had 13 times more lost workdays because of work-related injuries, and their medical claims for those injuries were seven times higher than their fit co-workers.
Top 10 Ways to Prevent Exercise Injury
If you’re encouraging your workers to exercise for fitness, you need to remind them to do so safely. Here are 10 rules for staying injury-free on a fitness program:
- Always do warm ups and stretching.
- Do exercises in a controlled manner.
- If lifting, start out using light weights.
- Don’t go to total muscle fatigue in your first few weeks.
- Practice and perfect your technique.
- Remember to breathe.
- Keep vertebrae properly aligned.
- Strengthen abdominal muscles; they support your lower back.
- Bend, don’t lock the knees.
- Include cooling-down time.
Use these exercise safety tips in your company newsletter, on bulletin boards, in payroll stuffers and safety meeting handouts. The Safety Smart! Wellness section has hundreds of images, puzzles, posters, audio and text resources you can use to build your corporate wellness program.
Want to Try SafetySmart Online? Request a Free Demo |
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| The ladder in this photograph comes up more than a little short. We don’t even know what this guy is supposed to be doing on the side of this building, but it sure doesn’t appear safe from any angle. (WorkSafeVictoria, Australia) |
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| First UK Company Convicted of Corporate Manslaughter |
A geotechnical company in England has become the first company in the United Kingdom to be convicted of corporate manslaughter.
Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Ltd. was fined the equivalent of $622,000 US ($612,000 CAD) in Winchester Crown Court in connection with the death of 27-year-old geologist Alexander Wright in a trench collapse incident in September 2008.
A Winchester Crown Court jury found the company guilty of failing to ensure Wright’s safety. He was working alone in a 12.6-foot (3.8-meter) deep unsupported pit when it caved in on him at a worksite in Gloucestershire.
The UK’s Corporate Manslaughter Act came into force in April 2008.
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