Health and safety

Safety in the workplace is a core concern of the European aluminium industry. Our members fully embrace a workplace safety culture and are continuously looking for improved ways to reduce their employees’ exposure to risk.

The European aluminium industry listens to external experts and leverages advances in information and communication technology in order to reduce this further. Our members have already reduced the total recordable incident rate for the industry - a measure of the total number of fatalities, lost time accidents, restricted work cases and medical treatment cases per million hours worked - by 80% since the 1990s.

As part of this continuous commitment to improving safety, European Aluminium organises a dedicated workshop in Brussels every two years. This workshop allows our members to gather and share best practice and showcase any new developments innovations in safety they have developed.

As part of this biennial event, we recognise and celebrate initiatives in our ‘Safety Solutions’ competition. Our member companies present their best safety innovations - large and small - within individual plants level. This encourages all staff to take an interest in improving safety.

Aluminium is one of the most common elements on earth. It is the most abundant metal found in the earth’s crust. It is used in a wide range of applications.

Some of these applications are familiar and visible. Aluminium is widely used in constructing modern, energy efficient buildings, in engineering strong, lightweight vehicles including aircraft, trains, cars - even bicycles. In electronics, it creates devices that are both strong and stylish and in packaging to keep perishable products fresh.

Aluminium is also in things we don’t see. It occurs naturally in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It plays an important role in medicines, vaccines and cosmetics.

Given aluminium’s widespread occurrence in both the environment and in commercial applications, its safety has been thoroughly investigated. There is no evidence that aluminium poses a risk to health. Despite this, a number of myths persist.