Safety and Health Initiatives
At the Unitika Group, the Central Safety and Sanitation Committee is implementing health and safety activities aimed at eliminating accidents that require time off from work at all production sites and affiliates. We hold safety and sanitation managers meetings three times a year for those Group employees in charge of safety and sanitation. At these meetings, the participants share information such as the analysis of and measures for industrial accidents, initiatives to address companywide issues, and movements for revising laws and regulations. A series of accidents occurred one after the other in FY 2022, and so during that fiscal year once again we carried out general safety inspections throughout the entire Group. It will take time to see the results of these inspections though, and regrettably there have been five occurrences of accidents causing lost work time. As we aim for zero accidents causing lost work time, we will continue to strengthen safety measures while also focusing on making our equipment safer and removing equipment that is no longer needed.
(Note) In FY 2023, we set the reporting range up to FY 2018 to be all main domestic production sites, and the reporting range from FY 2019 onwards to be all domestic production sites.
KPIs of Priority Issues (Materiality)
Number of accidents causing lost work time
FY 2030 target: 0
FY 2022 actual results: 5
Disaster Prevention and Readiness Initiatives
Strengthening of Disaster Prevention and Readiness Measures
To prepare for major disasters like the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku in March 2011, disaster readiness measures are crucial both to fulfill the basic mission of protecting the lives of employees, as well as to uphold the responsibility to stakeholders of continuing business activities. In July 2021, we revised the Unitika disaster prevention and readiness measures outline, and prepared a disaster prevention and readiness system and disaster control measures. Also on October 14, the Central Disaster Readiness Committee held its first disaster prevention and readiness event to make the entire company aware of the importance of disaster prevention and readiness.
Additionally, as internal standards for managing safety at production facilities, Unitika has enacted a set of “pre-evaluation policies” on safety sanitation and environmental effects at new facilities. As a disaster readiness measure when creating or renovating facilities, a total of two rigorous inspections (during design and upon completion) are carried out in compliance with these standards.
Disaster Readiness Training
The Unitika Group has reflected on the fire that occurred at the Uji Plant on January 8, 2019, and we are reviewing overall the fire prevention system and working to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. We are also actively carrying out accidents and natural disaster training, as well as doing drills at production sites in the spring and autumn seasons of fire prevention activities.
Integrated fire prevention and disaster prevention drills (Okazaki Plant)
Steam Eruption at the Uji Plant
On October 10, 2023, an incident occurred at the Unitika Uji Plant, in which a steam pipe in the power generation equipment was damaged, causing steam to erupt from the pipe. We sincerely apologize for the trouble and concerns that this incident caused to all nearby residents, relevant government ministries and agencies, and relevant persons.
No person was harmed in this incident. Although some white matter was dispersed into the air due to the incident, a survey by an external research institution resulted in the view that “it is not possible to imagine any impact on health, considering the matter dispersed and circumstances of their dispersion.” The production equipment returned to normal operations on October 11, 2023.
As of October 31, 2023, we are still investigating the detailed causes of the incident and the material damage it caused. The results of the investigation will be reported on the News Release page of the Unitika website.
Preparation for Large-Scale Disasters
The Unitika Group has established the Protocols for Returning Home, which encourages employees to stay at their workplaces if trains and other public transportation stop running due to large-scale disasters. This is to prevent employees from having difficulties in returning home, and to prevent them from obstructing the operations of police officers and fire fighters. We are also making other preparations such as storing disaster equipment, supplies, drinking water and preserved food. We have also established a system that allows us to handle requests for support from local residents in surrounding neighborhoods and for cooperation from local governments.