Our efforts to create and sustain a safe and healthy work environment are managed by environment, health and safety professionals around the world and are guided by our Worldwide Environment, Health and Safety Policy, which sets forth our global workplace safety standards. Safety performance is discussed with the Corporate Compliance Committee and the Public Policy Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors. A formal report of safety performance is provided annually to the full Board of Directors.
Over the years, we have implemented many preventive programs in areas such as machine safety, fleet safety, electrical safety, hazardous processes, contractor safety, warehouse safety, fall prevention and office safety. Our companies provide and track a variety of training programs to reinforce a culture of safety and accident prevention. Where local collective bargaining agreements exist, health and safety topics are typically incorporated.
Toxicology, Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health
The materials we use to research, develop and manufacture our products include certain chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. These factors can pose potential health hazards to employees if exposure is uncontrolled. Through our occupational toxicology and industrial hygiene programs, our staff regularly measures, monitors and evaluates potential chemical and physical hazards in the workplace.
The toxicology team establishes exposure standards that serve as an important step in protecting employees from potential risks. Our industrial hygienists design facilities and practices to assure that we meet these health standards. This may involve equipping employees with personal protective equipment, such as gloves, gowns and breathing devices, to shield them from exposure.
Our occupational health team monitors employees and is trained to address any health issue related to an employee's work. Frequent observation of workers ensures that potential health problems are detected and addressed as early as possible.
Fleet Safety
For many of our employees, the company vehicle is their workplace, and some spend up to 60 percent of their time driving on company business. Since 1995, our crashes per million miles driven (CPMM) rate has decreased by 32 percent, although we did experience an increase in our CPMM from 5.53 in 2010 to 5.94 in 2011. Worldwide, the total number of crashes in 2011 increased by 7 percent over 2010. Our Injuries per Million Miles (IPMM) rate was 0.11 vs. our goal of < 0.20. Regional differences in performance also exist, with our Asia Pacific region reducing their CPMM over last year, our EMEA and Latin American regions increasing their rates, and our North America region experiencing a slight drop in its rate. Going forward, we have set a Healthy Future 2015 goal to achieve a 15 percent improvement to a target rate of 4.7 CPMM in fleet safety performance worldwide. The increase in our overall crash rate concerns us, so we are working to understand and address possible causes. Following a strategic review of our goals and performance with Executive management, three imperatives were identified: demonstrating responsibility to our employees and communities, taking ownership for our SAFE Fleet results, and Awareness, as well as taking every opportunity to reinforce safety both on and off the job. A series of meetings with our SAFE Fleet Champions and leaders has led to increased communications from top management to our teams and drivers, reemphasizing the importance of safe driving. Going forward, we are enhancing our performance tracking metrics and reinforcing accountability. In the United States, we have launched a new crash prevention system. Phase 1, launched in late 2011, included a driver pledge, policy review and completion of a quiz testing the driver’s knowledge of our fleet safety standards. Phase 2 will take place in early 2012 and is comprised of a risk assessment of driver knowledge, attitudes and hazard recognition skills. Phase 3, which will be launched later in the year, will provide managers with tools to more effectively address driver risks.
Safety Auditing
Our auditing process, the Management Awareness and Action Review System (MAARS), is a global system for identifying and mitigating environment, health and safety (EHS) risks that enables the Company to proactively address issues and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and our own internal standards. The process includes both internal and independent assessments, action planning, corrective action tracking and training. Each site conducts annual regulatory compliance internal audits, which are supplemented by independent compliance and management system audits every three years.
Environmental
To ensure workplace safety is an ongoing part of our culture and our environment, Johnson & Johnson has a strong environmental audit program. We conduct internal and third-party audits at all of the ISO 14001 certified facilities, annual internal compliance audits at all facilities and periodic audits of some key suppliers.
Contractors
Johnson & Johnson maintains a comprehensive occupational safety program that includes systems to protect contractors working at Johnson & Johnson facilities. We have established a Healthy Future 2015 goal to achieve a 15 percent improvement in contractor safety performance with a LWDC rate target of ≤ 0.12. This goal will be measured at all Johnson & Johnson manufacturing and R&D facilities. In 2011, our overall contractor safety performance remained flat, with an LWDC rate of 0.14. No contractor fatalities occurred in 2011. The Total Recordable Injury rate (TRIR) for independent contractors working onsite was 0.62 in 2011.
We continue to stress the importance of the elements of the Contractor Safety Standard issued in 2009, specifically the Contractor Selection Process, the Task-Specific Analysis of Aspects/Hazards and Impacts/Risks, the Orientations and Inductions, the Practical Organization, Communication and Evaluation of Contractors’ Work and the Contractor Management Program Review. We have not had a contractor fatality since 2007, and we attribute this success to the additional rigor required by the new Contractor Safety Standard. We are beginning to leverage the Campus Model to share best practices across facilities in a common geography. This harmonization and standardization effort, which is being implemented in a number of locations worldwide, should improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the contractor safety approach. In the U.S., we are also using ISNetworld, a contractor evaluation service, to improve our contractor selection process.