SAFETY FIRST, EVERY JOB, EVERY TIME
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 08:34:16 -0400

     Note:  Supervisors, please assure that all employees without 
     e-mail access receives a paper copy of this memorandum.
     
     
      
     
     
     
                        
                                   Memorandum
     
     To:       All Employees
     
     From:     Secretary of the Interior
     
     Subject:  SAFETY FIRST, EVERY JOB, EVERY TIME
     
     The Department of the Interior family lost seven members over the 
     course of this summer.  Each employee died while carrying out his 
     or her assigned duty.  This tragic loss compels me to address 
     every one of you, to ensure that, each day, we understand and 
     adhere to the policy of this Department regarding health and 
     safety on the job.
     
     Our policy is SAFETY FIRST, EVERY JOB, EVERY TIME.
     
     We all share the responsibility to provide a safe and healthful 
     workplace.  I take this responsibility seriously.  No mission, no 
     activity, no job is so important that we will knowingly expose 
     any Interior employee to an unacceptable
     degree of risk.
     
     Our employees can be found at work sites as diverse as mountain 
     cliffs, inside rescue helicopters, urban and rural landscapes, 
     and Washington, D.C., office cubicles - none of which can be 
     totally and absolutely safe.  That is why each of us must make a 
     commitment to ourselves and to one another to work as safely as 
     we can.
     
     Last September I endorsed, along with every Bureau Director and 
     other key personnel, the goal of zero loss to the Department s 
     human and material resources.  To achieve this goal, there are 
     several steps we each must take.
     
     First, we must observe all safety and health rules and 
     regulations.  Second, we must undertake effective project
     planning, hazard analysis and mitigation.  However, rules and 
     plans don t insure safety.  We transform them through our actions 
     and decisions.
     
     To help us achieve our goal, the Bureau Designated Agency Safety 
     and Health Officials have adopted a set of implementation 
     actions.  I have asked Bonnie Cohen, Assistant Secretary for 
     Policy, Management and Budget, to communicate these actions.  
     Every Bureau Director will carry out these actions, so that we 
     make fiscal year 1996 a year in which we reemphasize working 
     safely.
     
     Ultimately, management alone cannot hope to achieve a goal such 
     as zero loss to the Department of the Interior's human and 
     material resources.  Therefore, I ask each of you to make your 
     workday decisions with  one question in mind:  Is the action I m 
     considering safe for myself, safe for my fellow employees, safe 
     for our visitors, our contractors, our public?  If the answer in 
     any of these cases is  no,  or even  maybe,  then please, rethink 
     your decision.  Act on the policy of the Department: safety 
     first, every job, every time.