Helen Roush, Executive Vice President of Paperitalo Publications

Do you want to know what makes me upset? It's companies or people that don't take safety seriously enough. A person's life is valuable/irreplaceable and should be treated as such.

Some companies and/or people try to take shortcuts to save time or money and that's always a bad idea.

Why is it that certain people value saving time and/or money over protecting a person's life?

Did you ever know a person that didn't wear a hardhat where they probably should have? Or what about forgetting the steel toed boots? Forgetting safety glasses? Never mind other precautions that should have been taken.

Sometimes companies are too concerned with the bottom line or how fast a job can be completed and it can push people into doing stupid things that they otherwise wouldn't do.

Sometimes people don't take the necessary safety protocols to make sure an area is safe, because they are too occupied with other things. Safety is everyone's responsibility and reporting potential safety hazards should be top of mind, whether you're a mill employee or a contractor.

Protecting others from undue harm should be everyone's priority.

Do the safety walks, inspect every aspect of the mill for any potential hazard.

What about you? Is safety your first priority? If it's not, well, it should be...