When I sat down to write this Editor’s Note, I tried to remember when I first became aware of the concept of serious injury and fatality prevention – or saw the acronym “SIF.” And, in truth, I couldn’t recall. So, I went to the Safety+Health website and clicked on the earliest issue available online: January 2013. Sure enough, SIFs are mentioned in a column. I then went to our file server and checked content from 2012. SIFs were written about that year, too. I stopped at that point because this current issue is due at the printer this morning and the production crew is waiting for me (sorry, team!), but what I saw was enough to confirm that SIFs have been talked about for quite some time.
But it seems like not all safety pros have been part of the conversation. For those dealing with the day-to-day challenges of getting a safety program up to speed or improving a less-than-stellar safety culture, SIF prevention may seem like a high-level concept that’s nice to read about but out of reach in terms of putting it into practice.
The National Safety Council wants to change that. This month’s NSC Thought Leadership column features the first of a five-part series on SIFs. Written by Perry Logan, senior director of NSC Networks, it’s titled, Understanding SIFs: Why they matter to everyone. It sets the tone for what you’ll be reading in upcoming columns: a straightforward, easy-to-understand explanation of what SIF prevention is, what metrics to use, how to engage both workers and leaders in your efforts, and how version 2.0 of the NSC SIF Prevention Model can help you make it all happen. I hope you’ll let us know what you think.
The opinions expressed in “Editor’s Note” do not necessarily reflect those of the National Safety Council or affiliated local Chapters.
