This year, SMACNA's 2010 Safety Excellence Award Program (SSEAP) has already broken records including for the most participants and the largest number of man-hours reported since the program's inception more than a decade ago. The SSEAP provides members and the national association several benefits it allows SMACNA to collect significant safety and health data, to track key safety and health history issues for the industry, to recognize members for their outstanding safety performance, and to provide members with important feedback on best practices.

The large participation in this year's safety program indicates that safety continues to be a top priority for SMACNA members during the slow economy.

The results for the 2010 safety award program broke records for participation as they represent more than 87 million man-hours worked in the 2009 calendar year the highest number of man-hours ever reported, surpassing last year's record of approximately 80 million man hours. The 377 participants for this year's survey broke the 2002 record of 322 participants. The electronic submittal process continues to be popular as 110 companies responded online through the SMACNA website.

Of particular note, 113 member companies reported "zero injury incidents," compared to 91 companies last year. As a group, these 113 companies worked more than 4.4 million man-hours without an OSHA recordable injury or illness an exceptional accomplishment that reflects the high level of safety culture and awareness within these organizations.

Due to the overwhelming response and the need to verify data, the list of winners along with additional details on the survey results will be available in a future Membership Update electronic mailing, the August issue of SMACNews, and the Convention Daily news magazine. The detailed safety statistics from the SSEAP survey ("Safety Statistics Profile 2010") will also be posted on the members-only section of the Safety web page on the SMACNA website.

For questions about SMACNA's Safety Excellence Awards Program, please contact Mike McCullion, director of safety and health, at (703) 995-4027 or at mmccullion@smacna.org.