Our Greatest Priority
The health, safety, and wellbeing of all our employees always remains our top priority. It is a core value and principle to our culture at Dentsply Sirona.
In 2021, we expanded our site level health and safety programs and launched our corporate level Employee Health & Safety standards that align with recognized management system frameworks.
In 2020, all our manufacturing sites implemented the first wave of the Employee Health & Safety standards, including Control of Hazardous Energy, Machine Safety, Safe Work Permits, Elevated Work, Knife and Cutting Tool Safety, and Regulatory Inspections & Communication. These standards help control health and safety risks, and we are planning to roll out the next wave of standards in H2 2022. These will include standards that support Product Stewardship and Sustainability in addition to further health and safety measures.
The implementation of our Knife and Cutting Tool Safety standard has supported a reduction in lacerations from 24 in 2019 to three in 2022; an 88% reduction. Our sites globally have engaged in awareness and hazard control campaigns to reduce injuries caused by slips, trips, and falls, resulting in a reduction in this type of injury from 49 in 2019 to 11 in 2022; a 78% reduction.
We have also focused on reducing incidents associated with the Line of Fire hazard via our Employee Health & Safety Frontline Leadership training. The uptake of solutions and techniques from the training has led to a reduction of injuries resulting from the Line of Fire hazard from 35 in 2019 to four in 2022; an 89% reduction.
Overall, our global annual recordable injury rate in 2021 was 0.56, remaining relatively consistent versus 0.53 during 2020. Our current injury rate in 2022 is 0.41; a 27% reduction versus 2021 and 55% reduction versus 2019. All data is characterized in accordance with US Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] criteria.
To further improve our Employee Health & Safety performance, in 2022 we worked with our sites to improve the causal analysis process to identify human factors that contribute to injuries, and we are making improvements to reduce the likelihood of future injury.