Air Force recognizes Safe and Sound Week

  • Published
  • By Susan Merhege
  • Air Force Safety Center

For the third year in a row, the United States Air Force is partnering with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promote Safe and Sound Week. Taking place Aug. 10-16, this annual event raises awareness for workplace safety and serves as a reminder to find and fix workplace hazards before they become an issue.

“The Department of the Air Force is proud to be one of more than 3,300 organizations and businesses who participated in Safe and Sound Week last year,” said Mike Ballard, Air Force chief of occupational safety. “We expect that number will be just as high for 2020, in light of the fact that workplace safety and health has been pushed to the forefront even more so with COVID-19.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 5,000 workers are killed on the job (a rate of 14 per day), and more than 3.6 million suffer a serious job-related injury or illness every year. The Air Force lost seven Airmen to occupational (ground) mishaps in 2019. This is more than twice the average for the last five years (an average of three per year since 2015).

The Safe and Sound ideology is built around worker participation, management leadership and effective strategies for finding and fixing hazards.

During the week of Aug. 10-16, Airmen and Space Professionals are encouraged to take some simple actions to advance the safety or health culture of their workplaces. Examples include walking the jobsite to identify hazards, displaying job safety posters, conducting a short safety meeting or recognizing workers who meet or exceed safety or health goals.

Air and Space Force members can share their participation in Safe and Sound Week on social media by using the following hashtags: #SafeAndSoundAtWork and #AFSafeAndSound.

For more information on how to participate, visit: https://www.safety.af.mil/Divisions/Occupational-Safety-Division/Safe-Sound/. OSHA’s Safe + Sound site: https://www.osha.gov/safeandsound/.