Safety in the workplace is a core concern of the European aluminium industry. Our members fully embrace a workplace safety culture and continuously look for improved ways to reduce their employees’ exposure to risk.
The European aluminium industry listens to external experts and leverages advances in information and communication technology to reduce this further. Our members have already reduced the total recordable incident rate for the industry – a measure of the total number of fatalities, lost time accidents, restricted work cases, and medical treatment cases per million hours worked – by 80% since the 1990s.
As part of our continuous commitment to improving safety, European Aluminium organises a Safety Workshop every two years. This workshop allows our members to gather and share best practices and showcase any innovations in safety. We recognise and celebrate initiatives with our ‘Safety Solutions’ competition as part of this biennial event. Our member companies present their best safety solutions at the individual plant level. This encourages all staff to take an interest in improving safety.
The aluminium industry wants to create long-term and tangible socio-economic value for the local communities in which it operates. We are working with our members to ensure that each aluminium production facility has a programme to share value with the local community.
Aluminium is one of the most common elements on earth. It is the most abundant metal found in the earth’s crust. It is used in a wide range of applications.
Some of these applications are familiar and visible. Think about aluminium pans, beverage cans, or household foil, for example. But aluminium is also in things we don’t see. It occurs naturally in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It plays an important role in medicines, vaccines and cosmetics.
Given aluminium’s widespread occurrence in both the environment and commercial applications, its safety has been thoroughly investigated. There is no evidence that aluminium poses a health risk. Despite this, a number of myths persist. Together with International Aluminium, we are committed to dispelling myths and providing accurate scientific data on occupational and consumer health related issues.