Dow Chemical pens case study on contractor safety

A case study developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and The Dow Chemical Company Alliance shows how Dow's contractors reduced their recordable injury rate by more than 90 percent at Dow's Freeport, Texas, facility.

The case study, titled "Contractor Safety Case Study: Texas Operations Contractor Alliance for Safety at Dow Facility in Freeport, Texas," describes how Dow and 15 contractor companies formed the Texas Operations Contractor Alliance for Safety (TOCAS). The organization consisted of senior managers from Dow's Texas Operations and from its on-site contractors who could authorize implementing safety and health management systems within their own companies.

"Through the Alliance Program and its other cooperative programs, OSHA has developed a growing collection of success stories and case studies that demonstrate the value of safety and health management systems,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr. “This case study effectively demonstrates how safety and health management systems can be successful if organizations take proactive steps to implement and encourage their use.”

In 1994, TOCAS had an annual recordable injury rate goal of 3.43. By 2007, the rate dropped to 0.20. Dow's recordable injury rate for contractors at Freeport improved by 95 percent from 1995 to 2007.

There also was an increase in the number of contractor companies involved in TOCAS from 15 in 1995 to 85 in 2008. Because of the success of the TOCAS contractor safety and health organization at the Freeport, Texas, location, it is now in place at three other Dow facilities in Texas and at two in Louisiana.