NEW ORLEANS – The International Carbon Black Association (ICBA) is recognizing 32 global carbon black manufacturing and research facilities for achieving a level of safety performance above the industry average.

The intent is to acknowledge outstanding safety records and to educate policymakers and the public about the carbon black industry’s concern for making employee safety a pre-condition for successful operations.  The Safety Recognition Program identifies facilities that go the distance to protect the carbon black industry’s most precious resource: its workforce. The goal is to have every person going home the same way they arrived at the worksite.

Wesley Wampler, President of ICBA, said, “I would like to congratulate the 2019 ICBA Safety Award recipients shown below. It takes significant effort, persistence and dedication to achieve these results, and we want to recognize their accomplishment. We all take safety seriously and want to promote your achievement.”

The program is voluntary, and the participating companies submitted the previous year’s safety performance data, which was certified by the company’s members on the ICBA Board of Directors.  Awards are given in three categories; sites that meet more than one award criteria will receive the highest recognition.

Bronze Awards are given to sites that achieved zero lost work day (LWD) cases for their employees during the calendar year of 2019. Birla Carbon Facilities in Brazil, India and the United States received the award.

Silver Awards recognize sites that met the requirements of the Bronze Awards or demonstrate greater than 50% improvement from the previous year; and achieve zero medical aid or OSHA recordable incidents or greater than 50% improvement from the previous year; zero fires or property damage incidents with an impact greater than $100K; and zero regulatory citations for safety-related events, audits or activities. Cabot Corp. facilities in Canada and Continental Carbon facilities in the United States are award recipients.

Gold Awards are presented to sites that meet the criteria for Silver Awards and received an external Safety or Environmental Management System Certification recognition — such as ISO 45001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, OSHA VPP, or equivalent 3rd party MGMT System certification recognition — or implemented a company-specific Safety Management System and achieved more than three years with zero LWD cases at the facility. Birla Carbon facilities in Brazil, Hungary, Italy, Egypt, China, Korea, Thailand, India and the United States were among the award recipients. Cabot Corp. facilities in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, China, Italy, Czech Republic and the United States also received the award.

The Safety Recognition Program is designed to stimulate interest in safety activities, enhance awareness, and to promote safety 24 hours a day at the plant level.

The ICBA is a scientific, non-profit corporation originally founded in 1977. The purpose of the ICBA is to sponsor, conduct, and participate in investigations, research, and analyses relating to the health, safety, and environmental aspects of the production and use of carbon black. The association is managed and administered by a Board of Directors appointed by the member companies. For more information, visit http://carbon-black.org/.