- OUR MISSION:
to identify telecommuting as a
means of saving lives, reducing injuries, and
improving health to enhance the quality of life for
people everywhere.
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-
WEBSITE SPONSORS:
-
 - Gil Gordon
Associates provides space to archive our
webpages at his telecommuting website .
-
 - Kare Anderson, founder of Say
it Better! and co-founder of The Compelling
Communications Group, has also provided support.
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-
-
-
BACKGROUND
-
- -About TSHBI (click
here).
-
- -Paper on Safety & Health Benefits of
Telecommuting (click
here)
-
- -Original paper that first presented Safety &
Health Benefits of telecommuting (click
here).
-
- -Draft formulation of worker and public telecommuting protection
equation (click here).
~220,000 people may be spared death or injury each
year.
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FUTURE SAFETY & HEALTH BENEFITS OF TELECOMMUTING FOR
SELECTED WORKERS
-
- -Disabled Workers
(click
here)
- -Nurses (Telenursing) (click
here)
- -Students / Teachers / Administrators
- via Telelearning / Distance Education (click
here)
-
- Other areas that could be pursued
in the future:
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- -Pioneers in Space (Telepioneering)
- -Doctors / Patients (Telemedicine)
- -Legislators and Staff (Telelegislation)
- -Hazardous Material Workers (Telerobotics)
- -Future miners (Telemining)
- -Future court system: judges, lawyers, defendants,
plaintiffs, staff (Telejustice)
- -Military Personnel (Teledefense)
- -Law Enforcement (Telepolicing)
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WAYS PEOPLE OF THE WORLD HELP SPREAD THE WORD...
-
- -Click here for things
you can do to help spread the word.
-
- -Action for future government leaders
(click here) to promote safety and health benefits
of telecommuting.
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-
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"THOUGHT
WORTHY"
-
-
- "...the true mark of a humane society must be what
it does about prevention of accident injuries, not the
cleaning up of them afterward."
-
-Ralph Nader -
ARCHIVES
-
- -Previous "Thoughts" (click
here)
-
- -Personal Accounts from real people who's safety
and health have been affected, because of commuting
(deaths, shootings, violence, roads and rages,
illnesses, diseases, family concerns, protecting homes
and kids, and other unjust events of our life due to
unnecessary commutes to be presented here... (click
here) .
-
- -Click
here for sample of articles written by Rick
Johnson and published in Telecommute
Magazine's "Safe & Sound" column as well as
other telework media.
-
|
- Highlights
-
WHAT'S HERE At this site we advocated the
safety and health benefits of telecommuting.
In 1997 Rick
Johnson, an engineer with 26 years experience in
nuclear safety, had the notion that "telecommuting
saves lives and improves health." And using the
Internet he began informing employees and employers
around the world of
his new idea. Unfortunately, Rick had to suspend his
work in 1999, after dedicating nearly two years of
full time volunteer effort to the cause, but his
website will remain active as a resource for anyone
interested in his unique safety and health perspective. (For Rick's
farewell message click
here...)
-
-
TELECOMMUTING HELPS PEOPLE As you know, your
employer really cares about people, and he/she greatly
values your safety and health. So even if they don't
already allow it, eventually your boss will let you or
your coworkers telecommute. Once they learn about the
safety and health reasons for telecommuting they'll
probably want to take steps to protect their workers
as well as the public. People everywhere are beginning
to realize that the more people telecommuting, the
more people protected.
-
- To determine the safety and health benefits of
telecommuting you simply need to think about all the
hazards associated with "unnecessary commutes".
Unnecessary commutes are those made to and from a
worksite, when the work could just as easily be
performed without leaving your own home. It doesn't
take rocket science to figure out what an unnecessary
commute is, does it? All you need to do is look around
and think about what you are trying to accomplish at
your job and determine if you could accomplish the
same work sitting at a desk in your own home.
-
- A primary effort of TSHBI was to encourage your
employer to allow you to be home, working in a
familiar place where you are better able to control
your own safety and health. Employers who allow
telecommuting are practicing safety and health, not
just preaching it. They truly care. They reduce the
health and safety risks to workers they allow to
telecommute. As a major bonus, they also reduce the
health and safety risks to all the remaining commuters
who then travel to and from work on less-congested
streets and highways. It's very easy for your employer
to encourage telecommuting today, and it's the right
and proper thing for them to do (please read our
letter to US State of Colorado Governor (click
here) for more details).
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US STATE LEADERS EXPRESSED SUPPORT. At least nineteen
US States responded (click
here) when we informed government leaders that
telecommuting represents a previously undiscovered way
to save lives, prevent injuries, and improve health.
We urged state governments to establish local "public
awareness" campaigns encouraging employers to allow
more telecommuting. See our letter to Colorado
Governor Romer
(click here) and letter to California Energy
Commission (click
here) for examples of our message. Other
governments and organizations were contacted, too,
including the CDC, DOE, DOL, DOT, NII, NHTSA, OSHA, as
well as the EU and the UN.
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FREE NEWSLETTER PROVIDED. We launched a
newsletter to provide periodic information about
newly-discovered benefits of telecommuting. This
"e-zine" was intended to provide an organized,
interesting, and upbeat way to present new
perspectives about telecommuting. We have several
thousands of people on our mailing list. This e-zine
was provided to employees, employers, parents,
students, teachers, schools, governments, health
organizations, transportation and highway safety
groups, union and labor leaders, institutes of higher
education, news media, nurses, doctors, lawyers,
human resource and occupational organizations,
public safety and health agencies, human rights
organizations, rural telecommunication advocacy
interest groups, school security organizations,
distance education and telelearning groups,
as well as people interested in telemedicine
telenursing and any other organizations
interested in telecommuting news and ideas.
(NOTE: the distribution has stopped due to lack of
funds, but you can read the first issue by clicking
here. To subscribe send a BLANK email to:
perspectives-subscribe@topica.com. We'll still add
your address to our mailing list, but it may be awhile
before a future issue is available.)
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USDOE LAB MAY ENCOURAGE TELEWORK. We asked
management at a major Department of Energy (DOE)
laboratory operated by the University of California to
consider the safety and health benefits of
telecommuting and encourage employees to telework. An
article in the Santa
Fe New Mexican newspaper (click here) finds that
Lab employees felt unsafe about commuting. We believe
this employer may someday (hopefully soon) end the
unnecessary risk of death and injury to workers and
the public, and make use of modern telecommunications
technology that now allows effective telecommuting.
Every day that goes by without an official
telecommuting work option in place at that facility
means another day an unnecessary death or disabling
injury could have been prevented. When they fully
implement telework, future managers of this laboratory
will be doing the right thing for their employees and
will once again demonstrate "Science Serving
Society."
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-
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LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES Click
here to find international resources for
telework information (compliments of Gil Gordon
Associates).
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-
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TSHBI WEB SITE
AWARDS:
 Links2Go
"Key Resource"
for Nov 1998 StudyWeb
"Academic Excellence"
Award for Mar 1998  Mining
Company
"BEST
OF THE
NET"
Feb 1998
Notice
of the telecommuting Award (click here) USA
Today
"HOT
SITE"
for Nov 23, 1997-
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