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News Release
Tuesday, August 25, 1998
Contact: Jeff Ezell (202) 219-8151

Businesses and workers have two new tools available to help identify job hazards and realize the financial impact of occupational injuries and illnesses.

The Hazard Awareness Advisor and Safety Pays are the latest additions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) line of interactive software advisors downloadable from the agency's Web site at http://www.osha-slc.gov/dts/osta/oshasoft/.

The Hazard Awareness Advisor is designed to help employers and employees, especially those from small businesses without a professional safety and health consultant, locate potential hazards in their specific work environments. After questioning users extensively about their activities, practices, policies, materials, and equipment, the program narrows the list of hazards that may be present. The software then prepares a customized report that briefly describes the likely hazards for that particular business.

The program is not a substitute for safety and health professionals. It is merely an introduction to hazard recognition. The need for this advisor was brought to OSHA's attention by the National Federation of Independent Business. Many trade associations and labor organizations suggested improvements to early versions of the software. OSHA now hopes to get more suggestions from the public for later versions.

Safety Pays software is designed to illustrate to employers the impact occupational injuries and illnesses have on the company's bottom line. Using data from the insurance industry, the program analyzes a lost workday scenario selected by the user and reports the average direct and indirect costs associated with that particular case. The software, using the company profit margin, estimates the amount of sales necessary to cover the costs of the incident.

An interactive DOS version of Safety Pays has been in use by OSHA regional and state-plan offices. The Windows version is almost identical to it, however there are some significant improvements. By using Windows technology, the creators made the information easier to read and print. They also added explanations of the costs the program used to formulate its report.

Safety Pays was downloaded more than 220 times in the first day and a half after its release. In its first 24 hours on the Web site, Hazard Awareness Advisor was downloaded 100 times.

Other software advisors available on OSHA's Web site are:

• Lead in Construction

• Fire Safety

• Confined Spaces

• Asbestos

• GOCAD (Cadmium Standard Biological Monitoring Advisor)