The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) offers Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s Safety Department an avenue to raise awareness and improve safety.

VPP is managed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and was designed in the early 1980s to assist general industry in reducing the number of lost work days due to injuries and occupational illnesses and fatalities.

“By using the principles of VPP we can meet our goal of 75 percent mishap reduction set by secretary of defense,” said William Higgins, Installation Safety Program director, NAS Whidbey Island. “We began our journey to VPP participation in February of 2008. We have been working to improve our safety program and reduce our injury rates to meet the requirements of VPP.”

There are three levels of participation that describe an organization’s participation level according to OSHA: Merit, Star and Star Demonstration.

“When [we become] a ‘full’ participant, we’ll be a Star site,” said Higgins. In order to be designated a Merit site, Higgens said most of the criteria for Star must be met but minor improvements are necessary, and Star Demonstration sites are those that are close to the Star level but require large reductions in their injury rates.

Naval Safety Center adopted VPP as a part of their mission to provide quality education and training for military and civilian Navy and Marine Corps personnel, both afloat and ashore.

VPP won’t be implemented until after the application is submitted to OSHA. 

For more information about Navy Safety Center programs, visit http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/index