Press release on the occasion of  the World Day for Safety and Health at Work - April 28th "OSH Management System: A tool for continual improvement at Camfil Farr"

Focus on occupational safety and health (OSH) is an important driver towards sustainable and responsible business. It provides safer working conditions making Camfil Farr a better place to work for people. Camfil Farr has developed “The Green Tornado”, a program to improve production in multiple ways with a focus on safety. As a part of The Green Tornado, Camfil Farr continuously uses risk management methodologies to identify OSH risks, evaluate them and define mitigation measures to prevent them from occurring.

Internal benchmarking made amongst factories safety officers showed that all factories has, through The Green Tornado, implemented continuous improvement tools to control health and safety risks, regardless of local requirements to get OHSAS 18001 certification or not. In most of the case, OSH management system has been integrated in a pre-existing ISO 9001 and sometime ISO14001 management system as well.

For more than 10 years, Camfil Svenska has had a human resources based approach to raise awareness of safety risks through continuous dialogue between management and employees. The effect is visible on the company’s sick leave rates. In 2010, short term sick leave has been reduced by 50% and long term by 80%, compared to 2000. These results are similar to other Camfil production sites.

There has also, during the past five years, been a 76% reduction in OSHA recordable accidents for all Camfil plants in the United States.  Safety 1st is a strong policy that has been integrated systematically to improve ergonomics and behaviour. As an example, a redesign of filter assembly tables has been carried out which are much less demanding from an ergonomic standpoint. The Carpel tunnel injury which previously was the number 1 cause of injuries is now nearly non-existent.
A continuous dialogue with OSH Administration in the form of voluntary independent OSHA annual inspection as well as active hands-on involvement of Safety committee’s with support from Workers Compensation carrier’s Loss Control services strategically targeted in areas of concerns contribute as well to continuously improve workers’ safety.

In 2007, Camfil Farr in Malaysia started the project to implement and maintain an OSH Management System. The Malaysian factory has been certified in 2009 according to OHSAS 18001 standard Compared to 2009, number of accidents dropped by 62.5% and number of workdays lost dropped by 69% in 2010.

Comparable results of implementation of Occupational health and safety management systems obtained in Asia, in Europe and in Americas prove Occupational health and safety management systems apply regardless regional regulation context and cultures. At group level, people safety is a universal asset wherever Camfil Farr operates.

For many companies occupational safety and health does not include air quality even though we breathe up to 25.000 litres or more than 20 kg of air each day. The air quality has a significant impact on our health both short and long term. Particles has long term effect on people causing respiratory problems and cardiovascular deceases, while gases often cause short term issues like head aces and reduced productivity.

Camfil Farr believes that the knowledge about air pollution as part of occupational safety and health is not taken serious enough. We have therefore created a European Indoor Air Quality Road Show with the aim to educate people on the impacts on air pollution. The road show is travelling Europe and we welcome all people working with Human Resources to come and visit the road show and learn more about these issues.

About Camfil
Camfil Farr is a Swedish-owned company established in 1963. Today we are the world leader in Clean air solutions, developing and producing filters and solutions in 23 production units and 4 R&D centers in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. Camfil Farr has chosen to adopt a local approach to its markets and operations. We operate as close as possible to our customers and we are committed to maintaining and reinforcing the partnership of trust with our clients. Sustainability is at the heart of Camfil Farr’s business concept. Our vision of sustainability combines consideration for people, environmental performance and business performance. We are committed to permanently respecting and improving this balance.

For any information contact Myriam Tryjefaczka, Camfil Farr Group Corporate Sustainability Manager
Myriam.tryjefaczka@camfil.fr
www.camfilfarr.com