American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report

2008 Corporate Sustainability Report 23 maintained; confined spaces that increase exposure to ergonomic or other health hazards; material handling that could lead to slips, trips or falls; long-term exposure to dusty or dark conditions that affect breathing or eyesight; exposure to continued noisy equipment and conditions that could contribute to hearing loss; and conditions of physical risks related to working around electricity. As a result of training, we are seeing positive changes: employees are identifying hazards they never before considered and are eliminating them. We believe so strongly in hazard recognition as a first-line defense against injury that we shared our training with our contractor work force. We are now taking this focus to the next level to include risk assessment and ensuring the adequacy of risk controls for our employees and contractors. Climbing, loading and digging around utility poles present hazards to utility crews every day. Working with and around utility poles is a leading cause of injury: between 2004 and 2006 we had 50 pole-related incidents resulting in 2,500 lost or restricted work days. Cross-functional teams of front-line workers and contractors from our distribution and transmission divisions launched a Pole Safety initiative whose objective is to reduce the causes of pole-related injuries by 50 percent by the end of 2008 and 100 percent by the end of 2010. Teams analyzed more than 265 recommendations and developed best-practice recommendations, including more training, greater use of fall protection, the use of safety observers and improving job briefings to identify hazards. PUBLIC SAFETY & CONTRACTOR SAFETY 51 non-employees came in contact with our electrical facilities, resulting in five fatalities (compared with 66 contacts and six deaths in 2006). Some of these were related to trespassers attempting to steal copper, despite tougher state laws in our service areas to prosecute offenders. Contractor safety remains a key issue as well. We have developed a five-year public safety plan that includes education, advertising, outreach and partnerships with our contractors and others. In 2007, a new, national one-call number was created that requires anyone doing work around utility facilities to call ahead to have the utilities marked. We contacted all AEP contractors to relay this information, and developed a safety video about the requirement to have the utilities marked. Putting more focus on contractor safety paid off during last December’s ice storm in Tulsa, Okla. Dozens of contractors came to help with service restoration but they started no work at any time without first holding a safety briefing. As a result, no one was injured. With the exception of our nuclear organization, we do not have safety and health goals specific to contractors, but we intend to begin setting them in 2009. MANAGING PERFORMANCE FOR CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT Work Force Issues the new 811 one-call system and about One safety initiative at AEP is to eliminate pole-related injuries by 2010. A new Safety & Health Event Management System launched in January 2008 that will give us the ability to identify emerging trends and the capability to develop leading indicators – all of which will help us improve our health and safety outcomes. During our stakeholder meetings, an OSHA representative urged us to develop and measure leading indicators around safety and health and this system will allow us to do that. Safety and health audits also assist us in identifying Accidents occur not only to our work force but also when the general public and our commercial contractors come in contact with our electrical facilities. In 2007, a total of

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report

American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report Contents Leadership, Management & Strategy A Message from Michael G. Morris A Message from Dennis E. Welch About This Report Environmental Performance Work Force Issues Public Policy Climate Change Energy Security, Reliability & Growth Stakeholder Engagement Glossary GRI Table of Contents

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