UL, ACOEM Launch Integrated Health & Safety Institute
"The Integrated Health & Safety Institute will be the first organization of its kind with the research and educational offerings to meet this need of integration of health and safety in the workplace," said Todd Hohn, CSP, who is UL's global director of Workplace Health and Safety.
One month after proposing a new framework for integrating health and safety strategies in the workplace, including the use of a standardized index for measuring their business value, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine announced they have joined to create the UL Integrated Health & Safety Institute. They called it "the first private sector not-for-profit institute dedicated to advancing the integration of health and safety programs within corporations around the world."
UL and ACOEM published a paper in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine last month explaining the framework and the new Integrated Health and Safety Index, which is based on the methodology of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Their paper said use of the framework and model would significantly improve the overall well-being of American workers.
The institute launched at Safety 2015, the American Society of Safety Engineers' Professional Development Conference & Exposition in Dallas.
"Companies around the world are interested in building a health and safety framework and are looking to the industry for guidance on effective implementation and best practices," said Todd Hohn, CSP, who is UL's global director of Workplace Health and Safety. "The Integrated Health & Safety Institute will be the first organization of its kind with the research and educational offerings to meet this need of integration of health and safety in the workplace."
"Countless studies have shown that health and safety in the workplace are directly related—promoting better health impacts safety, and promoting greater safety impacts health," said ACOEM President Dr. Mark Roberts, M.D. "We're incredibly proud and excited to partner with UL to create an institute that will serve as the guiding force for truly integrating employer health and safety programs."
For more information, visit http://www.UL.com.