ENFIELD, Conn., May 21, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Businesses that implement the voluntary ANSI Z10 standard can help minimize workplace risks, mitigate hazards, and reduce the occurrence and cost of occupational injuries, illnesses, and on the job fatalities. STR-Registrar, LLC, an STR Group company, which recently became the first ANAB Accredited Certification Body in North America to be awarded ANSI/AIHA Z10-2005 Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) Accreditation, offers accredited certification and registration services to organizations that seek to implement ANSI Z10 in their workplace.
Businesses spend $171 billion a year on costs associated with occupational injuries and illnesses according to the American Society of Safety Engineers. These costs often comprise as much as 5 percent of a company's total expenditures and directly impact company profits. Establishing safety and health management systems can help businesses reduce their injury and illness costs by 20 to 40 percent.
The ANSI Z10 standard is an effective tool for continual management and improvement of a company's occupational health and safety performance. ANSI Z10 focuses on employee protection and the identification of risks and hazards. Specifically, ANSI Z10 looks at a company's management system structure including: management leadership, active employee participation, analysis of the worksite to identify serious safety and health hazards of all types, training, evaluation, risk controls, audits, incident/accident investigations, corrective actions, and management review.
The first ANAB Accredited ANSI Z10 certification in North America was awarded by STR-Registrar, LLC to Doncasters Trucast, a Newberry, South Carolina-based investment casting manufacturer. Nucor Steel is currently working with STR-Registrar, LLC to certify one of their thin-slab sheet mills in Crawfordsville, Indiana and is expected to receive certification in June 2008.
"Implementing the ANSI Z10 standard shows a corporate commitment to safety that goes beyond the requirements of OSHA," said Bryce Carson, Sr., President and CEO of STR-Registrar, LLC. "Having a management system structure in place not only improves employee health and safety, but increases productivity, financial performance, and employee satisfaction. As a result, both the company and the employees win."
STR-Registrar, LLC, a Specialized Technology Resources (STR) company, is an ANAB accredited provider of management system certification and registration services. In addition to the ANSI/AIHA Z10 Certification, STR-Registrar, LLC maintains accreditations in ISO 9001:2000, AS9100, and AS9120. STR-Registrar, LLC also provides non-ANAB accredited certification services to the British Standard, OHSAS 18001:2007 Standard. STR is a privately held, U.S.-owned company and is strategically located throughout the world in over 70 countries. The STR Group companies provide testing, audit, inspection, and responsible sourcing services and help ensure that clients have the highest level of confidence in the quality, environmental, health and safety, and social standards of their products and systems.