New DVD on Workplace Violence Offers Resources, Recommendations for Safety Measures on the Job

Contact: Fred Blosser (202) 401-3749

A new training and educational DVD from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides employers, employees, safety professionals, and others with recommendations and resources for preventing work-related homicides and assaults.

Violence on the Job discusses practical measures for identifying risk factors for violence at work, and taking strategic action to keep employees safe. It is based on extensive NIOSH research, supplemented with information from other authoritative sources.

Homicide in the workplace is the third leading cause of job-related fatalities, and the second leading cause of job-related fatalities for women. Each week in the U.S., 17 employees on average are murdered at work, and 33,000 on average are assaulted. Factors that place workers at risk for violence in the workplace include interacting with the public, exchanging money, delivering services or goods, working late at night or during early morning hours, working alone, guarding valuables or property, and dealing with violent people or volatile situations.

“The DVD format offers exciting new capabilities as an engaging, interactive, and effective tool for safety and health education in the workplace,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “We are confident that this new DVD will help meet an ongoing demand by businesses and employees for information they can use to keep their workplaces safe from acts of violence.”

Included in the new DVD are:

• A 21-minute training and education program designed to engage a wide variety of workplace audiences.
• A bonus video on a program in New York State for preventing workplace violence in state drug treatment facilities. The case study includes discussions by a labor representative and a management representative who were instrumental in developing and implementing the program.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) guidelines for preventing workplace violence in health care workplaces, late-night retail settings, and taxicab services.
• Access to additional materials and resources on preventing workplace violence.

Violence on the Job, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2004-100d, can be downloaded or viewed as streaming video on the NIOSH Web site at www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/video/violence.html. Copies can be ordered at no charge from the toll-free NIOSH information number, 1-800-35-NIOSH. For additional information about NIOSH recommendations for preventing workplace violence, visit the NIOSH web page at www.cdc.gov/niosh/injury/traumaviolence.html