About The Denali Safety Council
DSC Purpose
Our purpose is to improve safety in the workplace, in the community, and at home by providing education and promoting safety awareness, thus encouraging focus on safe behaviors and a culture of personal responsibility. This will be accomplished through sharing expertise among Council members, community outreach programs, professional training, and safety program development.
Background
The Council was formed in 1994 by safety professionals of companies, agencies, and unions working in oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska, specifically the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Our original purpose was to develop uniform training, practices, procedures, and safety manuals among pipeline workers. This effort achieved a 53% reduction in recordable incidents and a 71% reduction in lost-time incidents over a period of three years (1994-1996).
Other businesses, organizations, and individuals began to attend Council meetings in 1995. Focus expanded from safety in oil-field operations to safety in general business, then to safety in the community, where we have since become involved in many home and recreational safety projects.
Our goal is prevention. Better safety performance not only reduces injuries but also results in higher quality and productivity, greater cost-effectiveness, and improved morale. But prevention is more than just day-to-day job task safety. Workers who are safe on the job must have safe homes and families as well. Thus, concern about safety and health moves beyond the workplace to our homes and communities. Prevention, a simple but far-reaching objective, challenges everyone to develop full-time safety and health awareness and to be conscious of best practices every moment of the day.
Awards
Denali Safety Council has gained recognition from the National Fire Protection Association, the Alaska State Fair, and received the Alaska Governor’s Community Service Award in 1995, 1996, and 1998. We received the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company President’s Safety and Health Award in 2001, and the Govenor's Special Achievement Award in 2008.
Individual members have also received numerous awards for their accomplishments including the Governor's Award of Excellence in 1996, Safety Professional of the Year in 1995, 1998, and 1999, two Governor’s First Lady Volunteer Awards in 1998, and the National Safety Council’s Distinguished Service to Safety Award in 2001.
Safety Advocacy in Alaska
Every day we are reminded about our personal health and safety. The American Red Cross tells us how to prepare for emergencies. Health Fair organizations sponsor events offering health information and routine tests. Safe Kids provides bicycle helmets to children. The Coast Guard Auxiliary teaches us water and boating safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) document worker safety and advocate improved conditions. And, fifty years after the appearance of seat belts in automobiles, any number of groups still tell us to buckle up.
Their work has been effective. It's now common to see children wearing helmets to bicycle and skate. Industries have made worker protection a priority and implemented meaningful safety programs. Automobile seat belt use is up to 79% nationwide, the highest in the nation’s history.
Safety advocacy brings results. Denali Safety Council is pleased to add its efforts to those of many other organizations statewide that have raised individual safety awareness and helped produce this positive change.