"At D&E our employees work very hard to achieve a safe work environment,"says Jim Morozzi, President and CEO. "Safety is our way of doing businessfor one fundamental reason: we all go to work each day with the expectationthat we will return home to enjoy our lives with our families. Our employeeinvolvement, increased awareness, constant communication and continuingeducation are the reasons D&E is one of the safest companies in America."

Award recipients were chosen based upon recommendations by industryprofessionals, recognition by industry associations, participation inprograms such as OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, state and localawards, and Occupational Hazards' research into occupational health andsafety philosophy and programs of each of the nominated companies.

Occupational Hazards Managing Editor Sandy Smith said, "D&E Communicationsimpressed our judges with its commitment to safety, starting at the topwith CEO Jim Morozzi and continuing through each of the company's 540employees. Morozzi's dedication to safe production and safe work practiceshas 'infected' his employees in a good way. Despite hazards ranging fromworking at heights to excavation and confined spaces, the company'slost-time injury rate has dropped to .3 with a 75 percent reduction inworkers' compensation claims, indicating the employees walk their CEO'stalk."

Since 2002, Occupational Hazards has recognized over 100 companies asAmerica's Safest Companies. The winners have ranged from tiny operationsutilizing innovative solutions to huge corporations that are benchmarkedfor safety by dozens of other companies.

In addition to D&E, this year's recipients include: Blythe ConstructionInc., The Boldt Company, Green Mountain Communications, Inc., HermanMiller, Inc., Koch Pipeline Company, Marous Brothers Construction, Inc.,Monroe Litho Inc., The Mundy Companies, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., OMGElectronic Chemicals, Raytheon Company, Roche Diagnostics Corp., StrickCorporation, Sunbelt Rentals, Textron Inc., The Washington Division of theURS Corporation and Worthington Industries.

About D&E Communications

D&E is a leading integrated communications provider offering high-speeddata, Internet access, local and long distance telephone, businesscontinuity services, co-location facilities, data and professional ITservices, network monitoring, security solutions and video services. Basedin Lancaster County, D&E has been serving communities in central andeastern Pennsylvania for more than 100 years. For more information, visitwww.decommunications.com.

About Occupational Hazards

Occupational Hazards, in its 70th year of publication, is the proudrecipient of ASBPE, APEX and TABPI national journalism awards in 2008. Thecompanies selected to the publication's 2008 list of safest companies inAmerica share common safety values, including lost-time injury rates belowindustry standard, environmental health and safety programs that haveearned recognition from state and federal safety associations, and safetyprograms built on core safety values that include safety committees,training, continuous improvement, risk assessment and accident prevention.For more information, contact Editor Sandy Smith at 216/931-9464.

CONTACT:David Moore717-738-8174dmoore@decommunications.com