While safety professionals declare every month as “Safety Month,” the rest of the nation declares the month of June as “National Safety Month.” This year’s theme “Keep Each Other Safe” is a strong push to truly watch out for one another. It is no accident that National Safety Month is stuck right at the beginning of summer to push for safety excellence; actually the summer months are on record to show the highest number of workplace injuries and fatalities as per the NSC.

I am reminded of my time in the military, the terminology that was constantly utilized such as battle buddy, guardian angel, over watch, and my brother’s keeper. No matter what term you use it all emphasizes one thing, being there for the guy/girl next to you; to ensure that you are doing everything in your power to do the job right to protect the employees to your left and right. And as bad as everyone hates to do it, provide a little corrective action or constructive criticism to those around you not doing their part to ensure that you are just as protected.

Throughout the month of June, the National Safety Council will be providing materials that can aid in pushing the message to your employees. This material will be focused on reducing leading causes of injury and death at work as well as at home. Considering there were over 146,000 preventable deaths in the US in 2015, I believe it is truly time to “Keep Each Other Safe.” In addition to the NSC providing safety training materials, there are also many retailers that are coming on board to National Safety Month by offering heavy discounts on safety items for the month of June. A large name that stands out that will be providing a discount is Amazon, who will be providing a 15% discount on all Safety Items for the month. This is excellent news to see that more and more organizations are steering towards a bigger focus on safety, and when the world’s largest online retailer comes on board, what’s next?