Security, Disaster Prevention, and Occupational Safety Activities
Following the principle of safety first in everything, the Teijin Group aims to realize zero disasters and zero accidents.
Security and Disaster Prevention Activities
System to promote disaster prevention management
The Teijin Group is engaged in disaster-prevention management and has established Group-wide Disaster-Prevention Guidelines. For each fiscal year, we design plans based on these guidelines relating to preventative measures, such as disaster-prevention assessment, fire prevention, and earthquake countermeasures, as well as planning and implementing initiatives including the strengthening of disaster-prevention training and drills and upgrading of fire-prevention equipment.
Each Business Group / manufacturing site manages the implementation status and achievements of these disaster-prevention activities and gives guidance to improve any areas of noncompliance. The results of this are then audited by the Chief Social Responsibility Officer at the end of each fiscal year.
Implementing disaster prevention assessments
The Teijin Group has been conducting disaster prevention diagnoses since 1980 and mini disaster prevention diagnoses since 2008 in line with our own independent standards.
In Teijin's aramid business, process safety management (PSM) has been introduced at Teijin Aramid affiliated chemical plants in Japan and Asia.
Disaster-prevention diagnoses and PSM are used to assess safety every five years by experts in manufacturing, facilities, and ESH* at a total of 15 plants globally. These are Teijin Group plants where large amounts of hazardous substances are handled.
In FY2021, disaster prevention diagnoses were conducted at two plants and PSM was implement at one plant.
Mini-disaster-prevention diagnoses mainly examine fire prevention, focusing on small-scale locations with a risk of fires, such as boilers and places where hazardous materials and combustibles are stored (25 factories). We conduct an examination every 5 years. In FY2021, we carried out diagnoses at 18 risk areas in 7 factories.
Trends in the Number of Disaster-Prevention-Assessed Plants
Other activities aimed at realizing zero serious accidents
To achieve our aim of zero "serious accidents," which we have defined as including explosions, fires, and external leakage/spills of hazardous substances, we are taking various measures to reinforce disaster prevention including disaster prevention diagnoses, training, and drills at our chemical plants and power plants.
In FY2021, there were no serious accidents.
Trends in the Number of Serious Accidents and Disaster
- *A serious accident refers to explosions or fire accidents, accidents involving leakage or outflow of hazardous materials or hazardous substances, which have caused human damage (lost-time injury accidents), or have affected the local community, or have involved full-scale company-external support.
- * Figures are calculated based on calendar years
Fire prevention activities
Since 2008, November 10 has been the Teijin Group Fire-Prevention Day. On this day, each group company conducts its own fire-prevention activities, as well as common activities for the whole Teijin Group, such as periodical fire-prevention checks. These activities are shared Group-wide in order to strengthen the fire-prevention system.
Disaster-prevention training (evacuation drills)
Since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, the Teijin Group has continued to implement evacuation drills assuming the outbreak of a natural disaster. After the drills, we hold review meetings and endeavor to improve our antiearthquake manual.
Training was carried out at plants and facilities in Japan in FY2021 as well (including tabletop exercises).
Occupational Safety Activities
Occupational safety promotion system
Current status of OHSAS management system certification
To reduce risk in the workplace, the Teijin Group encourages its manufacturing and processing sites to obtain the ISO 45001 occupational health and safety management system certification.
As of the end of March 2022, a total of 32 business sites and plants, comprising 73% of the total worksites recommended to acquire certification have acquired the occupational health and safety management system certification.
| Japan (10 companies, 15 factories) |
Teijin (Iwakuni, Matsuyama, Mishima, Ibigawa) Teijin Frontier (Matsuyama, Ibigawa) Unisel (Iwakuni) Teijin Tedy (Matsuyama) Hiroshima Plastic (Hiroshima) Teijin Eco-Science (Matsuyama) Teijin Kosan (Ehime) Toho Chemical Engineering & Construction (Mishima , Tokushima) Toho Machinery (Tokushima) Infocom West Japan (Matsuyama) |
|---|---|
| Overseas (12 companies, 16 factories) |
|
- *Standardization for Safe Production
Occupational safety promotion activities
Promoting the three pillars of safety activities
In order to prevent occupational accidents, the Teijin Group has established three pillars of safety activities: the “5S” initiative (referring to the five Japanese words seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke, which correspond to organization, tidiness, cleaning, hygiene, and discipline); the “Hiyari” or “Hatto” (meaning close call or near miss) initiative; and safety patrols. These activities from Japan are expanded as activities common to the Teijin Group including overseas group companies.
Utilizing the information obtained through these activities, we aim to enhance individual awareness of risks and communication in the workplace in order to eliminate occupational accidents within the Teijin Group.
Teijin works to ensure employees’ safety in the workplace and improve its safety activities. To this end, it holds legally stipulated meetings, such as convening of the Health and Safety Committee, and shares information and holds discussions through its own original activities, such as convening of the ESH Promotion Committee.
Initiatives aimed at preventing lost-time injuries
In FY2021 (April 2021 through March 2022), there were four lost-time injury accidents related to rotors.
Prevention of entanglement in rotors (rotor-related accidents) is addressed as a priority issue. We identify the causes by confirming in detail to conditions of occurrence and strive to more specific and concrete measures to prevent reoccurrence.
Furthermore, in training seminars on machine safety, we are reinforcing awareness of the safety standards and approaches regarding measures to prevent accidents caused by rotors and implementing measures in line with these standards. As for equipment-centric countermeasures, we regularly confirm the status of machine safety promotion within our Group, including overseas locations, and aim to have safe equipment so that disaster can be avoided even in the case of human error.
In FY2022, with the aim of minimizing the occurrence of accidents caused by work or conduct, which account for the majority of lost-time injury accidents, countermeasures utilizing VR technology to raise hazard perception and enhance sensitivity to danger will continue to be taken, along with awareness-building efforts to achieve safe behaviors based on the BBS (behavior based safety) process--with a particular focus on measures targeting inexperienced workers with limited field experience.
Moreover, the Teijin Group receives and assesses reports on lost-time accidents of subcontracting companies that occur at Group business sites and supports/promotes initiatives by subcontracting companies to secure safety.
Group-wide sharing of occupational accident information and responses at the time of an accident
Information relating to all occupational accidents resulting in lost time due to injury that occur at Teijin group companies is distributed via an Intranet to enable these experiences to be used as a reference and to help prevent the recurrence of similar accidents.
In particular, if the circumstances and cause of the accident satisfy the requirements for a special audit as described in the ESH Audit Regulations, a special audit is performed either by the Head Office or the relevant business group, depending on the details of the accident. Special audits check the status of onsite investigations to determine the cause of the accidents, the progress of recurrence-prevention measures, and whether or not there are any points for improvement.
In FY2021 (April 2021 through March 2022), there was no accident that will be subject to a special audit.
State of occurrence of occupational accidents
In 2021 (January-December), there were no occupational accidents resulting in the death of an employee or contractor employee. (There was an occupational accident resulting in the death of an employee in 2004 and an occupational accident resulting in the death of a contractor employee in 2017, but there have been none since.)
The frequency rate for all occupational accidents*1 in 2021 (January-December) was 1.23 (0.93 in Japan), meaning that we were not able to achieve our target of 1.0 or less.
- *1Frequency rate for all occupational accidents: Indicates the total number of accident victims (lost worktime and no lost worktime) per one million working hours.
Lost-Time Injury Frequency Rate and All Occupational Accident Frequency Rate
- *The frequency rate for lost-time injury frequency rate* and all occupational accidents are calculated for the January-December period
- *Lost-time injury frequency rate: Indicates the number of lost-time injured persons per one million working hours
- *Starting in FY2020, J.H. Ziegler GmbH will be included