Green Cross Quarterly
October 2023
October 2023
Join us at Mardi Gras World – a top New Orleans attraction – for the 24th annual Green Cross Celebration. Register now to celebrate outstanding achievements in safety and support the NSC mission to save lives and prevent injuries. This special event will take place Monday, Oct. 23, from 6 to 10 p.m.
Guests will enjoy a cocktail reception, delicious New Orleans style cuisine, dessert reception, festive music and lively entertainment, all surrounded by the unique art and magic of Mardi Gras. As always, the event will culminate with the announcement of the winners of the annual Green Cross for Safety Awards. Check out the list of this year’s finalists.
This is a fantastic opportunity to network with safety professionals, entertain clients or just have an exciting night out while attending the NSC Safety Congress & Expo! Individual tickets and table sponsorships are still available.
In partnership with GM, DriveitHOME recently launched the new DriveitHOME app for parents of teen drivers. Building on years of GM’s support for this program, the DriveitHOME app bundles all of the core DriveitHOME resources in one convenient location, while also offering new features like the ability to log practice hours to keep new drivers on track. Available in both the App store and the Google Play store, this new resource will make it easier than ever for parents and caregivers to partner with DriveitHOME to get their teen drivers the experience they need to stay safe.
In partnership with Honda, DriveitHOME is offering stakeholders a free toolkit for this year’s National Teen Driver Safety Week, Oct. 15-21. To get involved in the campaign, you can download the free kit at nsc.org/NTDSW and share the educational resources within your community. The materials include posters, social media posts, videos and more on crucial topics like speeding, distracted driving and graduated driver licensing. Together, we can protect our most vulnerable road users.
The number of people dying from a drug overdose is at an all-time high, and the main driver of these deaths is opioids. This crisis reaches employees in all industries and occupations, with workplace overdose deaths increasing by 536% since 2011 and now accounting for nearly 9% of all deaths on the job.
Recent FDA approvals of naloxone nasal sprays for over-the-counter use give your workplace a new lifesaving tool to prevent these deaths. Naloxone is a drug that can temporarily stop many of the life-threatening effects of opioid overdose. Including naloxone in your workplace first aid kit or elsewhere onsite, and training employees to use it, is a critical component of emergency response to help save a life. Through Respond Ready Workplace, NSC aims to reduce overdose deaths on worksites by increasing awareness of the value of naloxone and related training in workplaces.
NSC is also proud to support the WORK to Save Lives Act. This bipartisan legislation will save lives and ensure workplaces are equipped with naloxone to respond to the tragic increases of opioid overdoses on jobsites in the United States. NSC President and CEO Lorraine Martin was honored to speak on Capitol Hill on Sept. 13 at the Bipartisan Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Task Force’s naloxone awareness and training day.
Also, the Occupational Keynote on Oct. 24 at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo will feature this important topic. In this session, you’ll hear from front line responders who will help you determine your own organization’s risk and then take part in a group training to prepare you to respond in your workplace and beyond.
Pennie Hunt, an NSC Survivor Advocate, has seen the impacts of the opioid crisis and distracted driving firsthand. In 2007, her son J.T. died of an opioid overdose at the age of 22. During the years of her son J.T.’s addiction, Pennie’s family kept everything to themselves as it was circled in shame and guilt.
When her son got his wisdom teeth out, she talked to the doctor in private and told him her son struggles with addiction and that he could not give him addictive pain medicine. The doctor pointed to a frame on his wall and said he signed an oath that he would not let his patients leave in pain. She couldn’t believe she was having a conversation with a medical professional who did not understand addictive medication.
In 2018, Pennie was hit by a distracted driver in a severe crash that gave her a concussion, impacted her balance and vision, and put her in physical therapy for a year. Within the first five days of the crash, she had three different physicians prescribe opioid medications for her. She thought it was bizarre that even when she said she wouldn’t take it, they would give it to her without any caution of the dangers.
After these two life-altering events, Pennie left an executive position and now dedicates her life to helping others and advocacy.
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