What's your reason?

This year, the North American Occupational Safety and Health Week is asking us all a question.“Make safety a habit — What’s your reason?” is the theme for 2016.

Running from May 1-7, events and celebrations of the week of awareness are held across Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The national launch for Canada took place in Ottawa on Monday, May 2. Sarah Mohammed and Rain Cahigas of the Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg were the winners of the national youth video contest, Focus on Safety. Their video was shown at the launch.

22 communities across Canada participated in Steps for Life, a 5 km walk to raise awareness and funds for the support of families who have lost a loved one to a workplace fatality or seen the "ripple effect" of a family member suffer a traumatic life-altering injury while on the job.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety held a fashion fitness day at their workplace to kick off NAOSH Week and also offered a free podcast, Emotional Intelligence at Work.

Other workplaces across Canada, using the hashtag #NAOSHweek and #MakeSafetyaHabit, posted pictures, videos, contests, and information on what they’re doing to raise awareness and protect workers from harm while on the job.

The goal of NAOSH Week is to focus attention of all parties — employees, employers, partners in occupational health and safety, the general public — on the issue of workplace safety and the importance of working together to prevent illness or injury, both in the workplace and in the broader community.

Supporters include the American Society of Safety Engineers, Threads of Life, the Canadian Sosciety of Safety Engineers, the government of Canada, and the CCOHS.