HUGHESVILLE -- One by one, the gruesome photos flash upon the screen: The bloody leg on the railroad track. The pale hand with severed fingers. The charred body of a young electrical apprentice.
Welcome to one of the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health seminars, where workers and employers receive a shocking dose of gore along with multicolored handouts on state and federal safety regulations.
"I've got to warn you, some of the pictures aren't pretty," Craig Lowry, chief of enforcement, tells the 30 people assembled at the session in Charles County. And he's right. The audience groans at the slide of the electrocuted construction worker.
The philosophy behind the presentation is similar to that used to impress teen-agers in driver education classes -- that a riveting depiction of accident victims will make the viewers much more concerned about safety.
The seminars, conducted each month throughout Maryland, are part of the state's effort to urge companies to improve safety training.
If every employer had a good safety and health program, 90 percent of Maryland's workplace fatalities could be prevented, Lowry says. Referring to the 40 workers killed last year, he estimates that all but four might still be alive if they had been properly trained and alert to the safety hazards on their jobs.
Under Maryland law, workplace safety is the responsibility of both the employer and the employee, although only an employer can be cited for violating the law. Every employer is required to have a written safety program, and for some industries, there are specific regulations on what the programs must include.
But a having a program isn't enough. "No safety and health effort will work unless there is shared responsibility of management putting a program together and workers taking advantage of it," Lowry says.
A key to preventing workplace accidents is to train employees to work safely. According to state law, workers must be trained about hazardous and toxic substances on the job, emergency procedures and operation of certain equipment. "Generally MOSH expects training to result in the employees' being able to explain how to perform their assignments safely and able to identify the hazards associated with the job," according to a MOSH document.
This year, MOSH is emphasizing safety in the construction industry because it has a disproportionate share of the state's workplace fatalities. Three hazards at construction sites are especially perilous: falls, electrocutions and trench cave-ins.
MOSH gives seminars, provides on-site consultations and conducts workplace training classes. Employers also can turn to professional organizations and the National Safety Council and the Maryland Safety Council for help.
Any safety program is only as good as the company's upper management makes it, says Greg Mehallick, human resources manager and former safety director at Flippo Construction Co. Inc. in Forestville. Each year, the company rewards workers with good safety records by paying cash bonuses ranging from $25 to $2,500.
In the mid-1980s, the company president, Mike Holupka, saw his insurance rates skyrocketing and decided to adopt a safety program. A foreman was brought in from the field to oversee it. At first the effort consisted of little more than getting workers to wear hard hats, Mehallick says. But in the next few years, it became more sophisticated. A full-fledged training program was put in place last October.
Now every new worker is given a four-hour orientation with films to illustrate safety techniques, gruesome pictures of dead and injured workers to shock the employees into awareness and lectures by human resources people on the proper equipment.
Every worker must wear a hard hat, protective goggles, safety vests and steel-toed shoes.
In addition to the orientation sessions, "tool box" talks are given by the foreman each Monday morning. These talks contain reminders of safety precautions.
Mehallick and safety director John Stelma also give twice-weekly talks on the two-way radios, again stressing safety.
As a constant reminder, the company maintains a museum of horrors, with evidence from workplace accidents, such as crushed steel-toed boots or saw chains that cut workers' fingers.
The results have been noticeable. Worker injury rates have dropped and insurance claims have gone down $600,000 in the last two years, Mehallick says.
Another construction company, the Hardaway Co. in Odenton, awards supervisors cash bonuses if they maintain a safe work site throughout the year.
Employees at a third company, Hunt Valley Masonry, wear T-shirts and sweat shirts that remind them of a worker who died on the job.
One morning in November 1989, John Ludnick, 34, attended one of his company's regular safety programs. The next day, the masonry foreman fell from a scaffold and was killed.
Company president Wayne Ruth still does not know why Ludnick fell, but he has made sure his employees never forget his death. A black "L" for Ludnick is now imprinted on the sleeves of company T-shirts and sweat shirts.
"We had grown very close," Ruth says. "It really sent us reeling."
The shirts, he hopes, are continual reminders. "Things like that tend to fade from the consciousness," he says. "I didn't want it to fade."
Ruth says he thinks employees must share in the responsibility of a safe work environment. They must look after themselves and should report unsafe workers or work sites to their supervisors.
"We preach safety constantly," he says. New workers go through a safety introduction, and experienced employees are required to attend classes to review safety procedures.
The company's safety program has a supervisor talking with new employees, explaining work-site rules and making workers aware chemical hazards. Foremen also give safety talks on the job site weekly or every other week.
"The number one foe of safety is complacency," Ruth says.
In addition to the obvious need to protect workers' lives, there are financial reasons to develop good safety programs, say MOSH officials. Lower injury rates mean reduced costs for workers' compensation insurance and less time lost by hurt employees.
A company can also lower the related costs of work time lost attending to the victim, completing paper work, hiring or retraining other workers and coping with other employees' morale problems. Equipment damaged in accidents may be expensive to repair.
While each employee needs to develop a safety program that meets the specific needs of his job site, MOSH offers the following general guidelines:
1. Start by getting employees involved in the development of the safety plan in order to gain their cooperation and commitment.
2. Designate a person to be responsible for the safety and health program, letting workers know the person has the backing of management.
3. Conduct a work-site analysis to identify existing and potential hazards. Pinpoint areas and procedures that historically have caused significant injury and or illness. There are several ways to conduct the analysis. One is to assess the work site based upon the floor plan. Another is to assess the hazards following the process of the work. Large organizations might use safety committees.
4. Become familiar with the safety and health laws applicable to your workplace.
5. Assemble equipment manuals and read recommended safety controls.
6. Conduct an inventory of chemicals used in the workplace, potential hazards and safety controls.
7. Make the necessary changes to reduce or eliminate hazards. Financial resources might be required to correct some hazards. Costs can be reduced by planning and research, but economic feasibility is not an excuse for violating safety codes.
8. Train workers during a series of short training sessions, using audio-visual materials and allowing time for questions, drills, demonstrations and hands-on practice.
9. Let workers know the safety program is to be taken seriously. Management must be willing to back up policies by disciplining workers who violate the safety guidelines.
10. Don't let the program deteriorate. Perform periodic inspections, keep up with the training requirements, and review the safety program from time to time to see if it needs improvement.
Training tips
Employers who want to know more about implementing workplace safety programs may contact:
* MOSH Training and Education Unit, 501 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, Md. 21202-2272, (301) 333-4164.
* National Safety Council, 425 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611, (312) 547-4800.
* Safety Council of Maryland, 17 Governors Court, Woodlawn, Md. 20782 (301) 298-4770.
* Washington Building & Construction Trades Council, 3601 Hamilton St., Hyattsville, Md. 20782. (301) 277-0870
* OSHA Publication Office, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20210 (202) 523-9667.