Employees at the Competence Center Mixing in Weinheim, Germany, regularly undergo training with the plant fire department and occupational health service on what to do in a medical emergency.
Occasionally, it is a matter of minutes, sometimes even just seconds. The very survival of an accident or stroke victim is at stake in the brief interval after the event. So is whether the individual will have to battle minor after-effects in the future or will need long-term care. To put it another way, to improve a patient’s chances of recovery after an incident, life-saving measures have to be applied as quickly as possible. If a person has to be resuscitated, for example, the odds of success are 75 percent after three minutes. After 10 minutes, they are just 5 percent.
Job safety and technical measures to protect employees are a high priority at the Competence Center Mixing in Weinheim. Employees have to wear personal protective equipment: safety shoes, safety glasses and/or hearing protection, depending on the job, along with cut-resistant sleeve guards to protect against burns at the rolling mills. The reason: The compounds have an initial temperature of more than 100 °C (212 °F) as they are being rolled.
But even the best safety measures can fall short. That’s why employees at the Competence Center Mixing are equipped as well as possible for medical emergencies. “We have worked out elaborate plans on what to do in an emergency – as well as when and how to do it. We regularly go over the plans to make sure they are up-to-date. We also rehearse right at the installations to see whether they can actually be carried out in an emergency. We regularly practice the necessary steps so everyone knows what to do at the time,” said Christian Pfeifer, Manager, Competence Centers Mixing.
Employees are supported by experts in the plant fire department and the occupational health service. “We plan and practice together,” Pfeifer said. “We hope we will never need all this in real life, but our people are well trained and equipped whatever happens.”
