Coloplast wins health and safety award

Coloplast was awarded a prize last week by the Danish Health and Safety Council for its efforts in reducing the causes of strenuous repetitive work within the workplace.

Strenuous repetitive work can occur when an employee makes the same movement repeatedly, for example operating a machine or using a computer keyboard.

 

Mapping system

Lone Stubberup, Director Employee Health and Safety Development in Coloplast said, "We created a mapping system, in collaboration with the consultant company Alectia, which gives an overview of the workstations in Coloplast where strenuous repetitive work could occur. It enabled us to prioritise our efforts and target the right areas for improvement. We diminished the risk of injuries caused by strenuous repetitive work by, for example, rotating employees between work stations."

 

Reducing strenuous repetitive work

In making the award, the jury at the Danish Health and Safety Council said: "For a company that has its production situated around the world, it is successfully addressing the issue of strenuous repetitive work in all its workplaces. The mapping model gives a good overview of the scale of the problem, and createsan objective baseline for prioritizing the effort related to the corporate health and safety strategy. Using the mapping model, Coloplast has succeeded in reducing strenuous repetitive work in an ongoing and systematic way."

The jury also recognised that Coloplast made sure its employees, health and safety representatives, and management understood and could use the results of the mapping system, seeing its long term preventative benefits.