HEALTH
Medical personnel at clinic at San Martín, in Sabinas
101-2.2, 101-2.5, 103-1, 103-2, 103-3
2020 was an atypical year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted changes in epidemiological health monitoring. Public health and social security authorities developed sanitary protocols, and we in turn adapted our health monitoring system. For information about the various programs created to deal with the pandemic, see page 85.
We provide epidemiological oversight of our employees’ health through a management system that identifies and prevents workplace risks, guaranteeing the continuity of our operations. We try to protect our people from professional illnesses and encourage a culture of prevention of general illness, in order to keep them in optimum physical and mental health.
403-3, 403-6, 403-7
Our plans and programs are aimed at preventing workplace accidents and work-related illnesses, which is an important part of our sustainable development policy and strategic objectives, and thus a core component of our management systems. These plans and programs are continually being improved based on annualized targets. An occupational health program is made up of the activities and resources necessary to guarantee the individual and group health of workers and is developed in the respective business units comprehensively and on an interdisciplinary basis.
Health monitoring program
The Occupational Health Program allows each workplace to identify and control risk factors for various positions; this protects workers’ health and prevents professional and general accidents and illness. During 2020 various activities were carried out to address and control contagion from the pandemic.
In response to the public health crisis caused by the global pandemic—which began in Mexico in the month of February—and in order to guarantee our employees’ health, at the end of the first quarter we took the preventive action of temporarily suspending all medical exams, including regular checkups, gynecological exams and executive checkups. Only employee entrance checkups were conducted, and routine activities continued.
Bien Estar Siempre
In response to the public health crisis caused by the global pandemic—which began in Mexico in the month of February—and in order to guarantee our employees’ health, at the end of the first quarter we took the preventive action of temporarily suspending all medical exams, including regular checkups, gynecological exams and executive checkups. Only employee entrance checkups were conducted, and routine activities continued.
The operating actions of the Bien Estar Siempre program established in the work plan had to be put on hold, however, while we focused on the priority needs raised by the pandemic.
Tehuixtla health center, in Guerrero, near the Capela unit
Preventive health: healthy lifestyles
Nutrition
The Self-Care Health Challenge program was developed to build a culture of health awareness through proper diet and physical activity, and thus to prevent and control chronic-degenerative diseases.
In the first quarter of the year, 340 consultation visits were given (compared to 2,167 in 2019). But beginning in the second quarter these had to be suspended and were replaced by digital consultation across a variety of platforms, through e-mails and video calls. With this, employees were able to receive personalized follow-up on their nutrition plans on a biweekly basis; 1,220 sessions were given. Because anthropometric and biological measurements could not be obtained (weight, BMI, waist measurement, hips, glucose levels, uric acid, cholesterol and triglycerides) an area of opportunity was detected to establish new indicators as a result of online nutritional consultation.
A satisfaction survey regarding the quality of the online nutritional consultations showed a 100% satisfaction rate and an 83.5% continuity rate.
Dining rooms
To protect the health of people entering our employee dining rooms, we set up the measures indicated in protocols issued by the public health and labor authorities, which helped us to avoid the risk of contagion from asymptomatic personnel.
As part of the Healthy Dining Room Program, in the first quarter of the year we conducted an internal audit of all workplaces that had employee dining rooms, in keeping with NOM-251-SSA1-2009: “Hygiene practices for processing food, beverages or dietary supplements.”
Due to travel restrictions, these audits could only be conducted in the first quarter, and only at some facilities. These included a review of facilities and equipment, personnel and processes, training, and surveys of outgoing diners regarding food, facilities, service and staff. The dining room service is subcontracted by each workplace.
Psychology
For the purpose of transforming habits and behaviors that are harmful to the physical and emotional health of our personnel, in 2015 we introduced a program called Psychological Anti-Stress and Relaxation Orientation (POPAR), which helps measure stress levels, signs of depression, anxiety and suicide risk, starting with the first interview.
In 2020, 104 employees enrolled in the program, and attended a total of 584 sessions. At the end of the year, participants took a test to measure their ending stress levels. The result was a 65% reduction in the risk factors that cause stress and an increase in protection factors. This was done primarily through increased exercise, improved diet and sleeping habits, among other changes.
Due to the public health emergency, psychological counseling was provided in various forms:
100%
satisfaction rate in online nutritional consultations.
Also, together with the external communication team, videos were prepared to share with the community over social media. These dealt with issues like anxiety, consequences and lessons of COVID-19, advice on how to teach children about care and protection against contagion, phases of grief, bad habits resulting from the pandemic, and coming out of confinement.
Certifications
Because of the pandemic, it was not possible to complete our program of activities to continue certifying all of our buildings as cardio-protected spaces and 100% smoke-free. But we were able to maintain certification for the buildings that had already obtained it, made possible, among other things, by adapting strategic sites for automated external defibrillator equipment, certified health and non-health personnel trained by official agencies in CRP administration and automated external defibrillators. These spaces provide a first response to a cardiovascular emergency, acting together with internal emergency systems, as well as external suppliers.
Health training
We switched to online training in 2020, using primarily our virtual campus and the webex platform for live sessions, some on pandemic-related issues, established as part of the government protocols for a safe return to work. 11,125 participants were registered, totaling 16,928 work-hours.
Preventive health campaigns
It was not possible to conduct our annual health campaign coinciding with the calendar of the World Health Organization. But in order to build awareness and inform employees about prevention, early detection and tracking of the most common pathologies, we distributed information through institutional e-mail and Peñoles internal communication webpage on flu, zika, chikungunya, dengue, and World Diabetes Day. For people suffering from cardiovascular and chronic-degenerative illness we included information on activation and physical exercise, healthy eating and nutrition, among others, in addition to advice on how to avoid contagion from COVID-19.
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The main professional illnesses the company has recorded among its employees are hypoacusis (hearing loss) and silicosis (respiratory illness) and, since 2019, muscular-skeletal disorders, which we track and attend to, as well as work-related accidents after-effects.
Another factor that we watch for is the biological monitoring of blood lead levels in people whose jobs expose them to this substance.
Certified personnel for cardiovascular emergencies, Sabinas unit
16,928
work-hours of online health training.
Audits
Every year we conduct internal audits on compliance with Labor and Health ministries’ regulations on health and hygiene in each workplace. We have used the results to design epidemiological monitoring programs so that we can create consistent prevention programs for employees exposed to risk agents and factors that might cause work-related illnesses or accidents. In order to avoid having auditors and support personnel travel physically to the different workplaces, occupational health audits to verify legal compliance were suspended, although we were able to follow up on work plans based on results collected by e-mail and video calls.
11,125
participants registered on our virtual campus for pandemic-related issues.
BLOOD LEAD LEVELS (BLL) IN OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED PERSONNEL
(μg/dl)
50
40
30
20
10
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Official Mexican Standard NOM-047-SSA1-2011, Environmental health workplace biological exposure indices of personnel occupationally exposed to chemical substances. Lead occupational exposure limit: 30 μg/dl.
Average blood lead levels in occupationally exposed persons (μg/dl).
* This data includes information related exclusively to Peñoles operations.
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypoacusis | 9 |
18 |
6 |
18 |
12 |
6 |
25 |
26 |
28 |
15 |
11 |
| Silicosis | 1 |
24 |
5 |
6 |
11 |
1 |
11 |
23 |
11 |
4 |
9 |
| Accidents after-effects | 9 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
4 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
| Muscular-skeletal disorders* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 |
6 |
| Total | 19 |
43 |
11 |
29 |
27 |
14 |
37 |
53 |
47 |
24 |
26 |
*Recorded starting in 2019.
Note: This data includes information related exclusively to Peñoles operations.
Área de flotación, planta Capela
In this 2020 Report we present the sustainability performance of the operations of Peñoles and the generation of shared value with the groups of interest.
