When a safety or health event occurs, we analyze it, learn from it and make changes throughout the company to prevent similar occurrences. In October 2007, a coal equipment operator at the Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia got caught between a manlift step and the lower platform, severely injuring both legs. We examined this event and the risks posed by manlifts and decided to replace all manlifts with elevators by 2013 at a cost of approximately $17 million. Until all manlifts are removed from service, we require annual user education in addition to regular equipment maintenance.
Safety and health performance accounts for up to 25 percent of employees' incentive compensation each year. We also have incorporated safety and health performance into our employee performance evaluation process to ensure all employees understand and accept their responsibility. We set a "Path to Excellence" to achieve top quartile performance of Edison Electric Institute peer companies for safety and health, based on recordable and severity rates. It is a measurable goal, and compensation is tied to our performance toward this goal.
We also try to learn from events that occur externally. Following a series of crane accidents last year in New York City and elsewhere, we drafted a new company policy and procedure for lifting and rigging that will be implemented this year. We participated in a national crane safety summit with other industries to discuss and share corrective actions for construction sites. Most summit participants want mandatory certification of crane operators, riggers and signal persons. Following the summit, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a draft crane safety regulation about which AEP provided comments through our industry association. We are waiting for this regulation to be finalized and believe it will improve safety at construction sites.
Pole-related injuries are a leading cause of lost time, restricted work days and injury severity. We made significant improvements in 2008 to address the problem. A safety process improvement team that included employees who do this work conducted a study in 2007 and determined we could reduce these injuries by 50 percent by the end of 2008 and eliminate them completely by the end of 2010. We began the mandatory use of fall restraint equipment in June 2008 and exceeded our first goal by reducing the number of incidents by 56 percent.
Another safety process team addressed hazards related to meter reading such as slips, trips, falls and dog bites.
We mandated training and proper footwear and now provide footwear reimbursement for employees to ensure they have the proper protection. Injuries caused by slips, trips and falls decreased by 56 percent from 2007 to 2008. Dog bites increased slightly from 2007 to 2008 despite a new policy that requires meter readers to carry dog bite prevention devices. We will conduct additional training and look for other ways to reduce animal hazards.
AEP spent $1 million to place 850 automated external defibrillators in all facilities to respond to potentially life-threatening heart problems that may occur on the job. According to OSHA, 13 percent of all workplace fatalities result from sudden cardiac arrest.
AEP received two citations in 2008 from OSHA — the result of 19 inspections performed at our plants and construction sites. The Cardinal Plant in Ohio received a serious citation and a $2,125 fine for inadequate railing and fall protection on a barge unloader. We installed additional hand rails and fall protection systems at the Cardinal Plant and at four other plants with the same design. The penalty was later reduced to $1,487.
We also received a $1,750 fine for an asbestos insulation spill that occurred when a turbine failed at our Cook Nuclear Plant in September 2008. We took quick and thorough action to clean up the asbestos, and after discussions with OSHA the penalty was reduced to $875.
Our Dolet Hills lignite mine in Louisiana received 32 citations from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in December 2008 for violations that included electrical and housekeeping issues. We developed an action plan and educated our employees about the findings to reinforce employee responsibility for safety and health, training, periodic inspections and accountability. In all, AEP received 43 citations from MSHA in 2008, which is a forceful warning that we need to strengthen our prevention programs. The recent employee fatality at this work site underscores the urgency of action on our part.
We work to be transparent, open and cooperative with our regulators
to better meet their expectations and continuously improve our practices.
We are working closely with OSHA in Ohio and West Virginia to develop a model program to reduce and control
the dust found in coal plants so it will
not harm people. We made this commitment at a stakeholder meeting last year.
We have a multi-year study under way to learn more about the health hazards of welding. OSHA does not have a welding exposure standard, partly because of the difficulty in predicting exposure levels. Our initial results show that additional controls may be needed for exposure to potential carcinogens, and the study is attempting to characterize the risk and hazard of more than 400 welding processes and metals. We expect to complete the study in 2009.
AEP is now in the fourth year of implementing MESH (Managing Environment, Safety and Health) — an environment, safety and health management system that protects people and the environment through the implementation of two international standards, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Through MESH, 36 of our power plants have identified their top safety and health issues and created objectives, targets and actions to address them. We have developed more than 83 objectives and 434 actions in the safety and health area of the system. These plants will now begin identifying roles, responsibilities and training needs for plant personnel and develop and document operational controls. Four plants will be added to the MESH system this year.
MESH teams see the safety progress being made as a result of formal goal-setting and documentation. They meet regularly to manage and improve the environment, safety and health issues that are most pressing at their facilities. These include evaluating ways to reduce risk, improving employee competency through training, developing procedures for the safe management of hydrogen, reducing worker exposure to fugitive dust and asbestos and improving housekeeping and job safety analysis.
Our Safety and Health Event Management System, launched in January 2008, helps us make better decisions based upon accurate performance data. Through it, we are able to identify trends, develop leading indicators, reduce errors and put more emphasis on hazard recognition and risk mitigation.
Our safety and health audits enhance compliance and work to minimize harm to our employees and the public through the observation of work practices, work site inspections and records review. In 2008, we conducted audits at seven operations centers and five power plants. We share best practices across the company as part of the audit program.
We made significant adverse findings in the asbestos and respiratory protection programs and in our operation and maintenance programs for cranes, resulting in procedural changes and corrective actions in both areas. In 2009, we will
include audit reviews during plant outages so that work practices and procedures may be observed during these periods of high activity.
Everyone makes mistakes, so the focus of our Human Performance initiative is to reduce them and create controls so that mistakes don’t cause injuries.
AEP is working with renowned safety systems expert Dr. Chong Chiu, chairman of Performance Improvement International (PII), to help reduce the frequency and severity of human errors through the use of seven tools and techniques that teach employees to take deliberate actions to prevent injuries from occurring.
PII assessed our safety culture, performed a common cause analysis and conducted field evaluations at 14 district offices to observe our work. They identified 15 distribution work processes that need additional barriers to help prevent errors from becoming injuries. High-risk jobs require a minimum of three barriers to reduce the likelihood of a significant event occurring.
The Human Performance initiative already is helping us to improve in some of our business units, including the Cook Nuclear Plant and in transmission. We are adapting the same principles to our energy distribution operation, and during the next several years we hope to integrate the initiative throughout the company.
All of these programs — MESH, risk assessment and hazard analysis, a safety and health event management system, Human Performance Initiative and audits — are the tools we use to strengthen our safety culture, prevent accidents, reduce their impacts and work toward zero harm.
