Worker's Memorial Day

April 28th is recognized as Worker's Memorial Day. A day when those who have perished on the job are remembered. For those of us dedicated to the the prevention of death, injury and illness in the work place, it is a sobering reminder of why we do what we do.

Most of us really don't have a good idea of how many fatalities we have prevented through the implementation of safety practices. But for those of us who have had a fatal incident at our work place, the details of the incident are etched in stone in our memories.

It's why we insist you wear your seat belt. It's why we get upset when you don't lock out the machine. It's why you have to wear your hard hat, even though it's hot. It's why I don't care if the job takes a little longer because you're installing protection in the trench.

The memory of those that have passed will be best served by our re-dedication to do our very best in our chosen profession.

May Meeting

The May meeting of the Des Moines Co. Safety Exchange will be held:

5/12/06, at 7:00 am
Grayhound Room, GRMC campus

April Meeting Notes

For those who could not be in attendance on 4/21, we'll pass on some information that was discussed.

Jamie Dengler from GRMC distributed resource material for starting a wellness program in your company. This is a step-by-step road map for starting and evaluating a program at your site. The first step is a leadership survey. We all know these efforts are DOA if they are not supported by senior/executive management. The Wellness Leadership Survey is completed by senior/executive management. The survey will give you an idea of the support you can expect, and whether you should proceed with your project. This is an essential first step and is definitely "doable". The package contains several more surveys and checklists organized in a logical way for your progression down the wellness path. For those who did not receive a packet and would like one, contact Jamie at GRMC. Jamie also reported that Sean Sullivan- co-founder, President, & CEO of the Institute for Health and Productivity Management- will be working with GRMC on a pilot program for productivity improvement. The pilot program will likely include at least a couple of other companies in the area. Those who may be interested in participating should contact Jamie.

Gina Hardin discussed some resource information for companies who may (or should) be planning for a possible flu pandemic. The Iowa Dept. of Public Health has information on their website (here: http://www.idph.state.ia.us/ ) that is useful for the process. This will also be listed in our Links.

Karen Elliott reported that the Mt. Pleasant human resources group is looking for a speaker to discuss safety issues at one of their meetings. This could be an excellent opportunity for those of you out there who enjoy public speaking. Seriously, the exposure could help bring new members to our group. Contact Karen if interested.

Dan Freeman from Shaw Electric volunteered to present information to the exchange regarding Arc Flash Protection and application of NFPA 70E. Members will be surveyed via e-mail for their interested in such a presentation.

Remember, send ideas, photos, thoughts, or rants and raves to me to include on our blog.

Disability-Prevention is Better than Management

Jennifer Christian, M.D. and a host of other Occ Med physicians have just published a pretty interesting whitepaper on the non-medical causes of disability along with a number of recommendations and best-practices. You can access the paper here: http://www.webility.md/pdfs/SAW-RTW-White-Paper-2006-04-12.pdf .

If you've ever dealt with a situation involving extended time away from work, the factors discussed in the paper will probably hit close to home. The paper also reveals some startling statistics: one company reported that the odds of a person never returning to work after an absence were 50-50 after three months of absence.

It is very clear from the research that companies that do not employ transitional duty and require employees to return from their absences with no medical restrictions will incur much more "disability" time than those that do. And for every person not at work, there is a significant risk they will never return.

While the whitepaper discusses some issues that are directed more towards insurance companies, legislators, and the medical community-it is a worthwhile read for those at the plant level who deal with people losing time. You will find there are several things that are easily done at the local level to help and support the injured or ill employee that will improve the chances of a successful return to work.

Lessons Learned-Carton Stapler

A nagging injury problem seemed to defy correction. Employees used a Stanley carton stapler to staple the corners of large, flat cartons. Occasionally, employees would pull the trigger of the stapler while the hand holding the corners of the carton was in the point of operation (ouch!). This resulted in a painful puncture injury that usually required medical treatment.

The manufacturer was contacted about possible guarding enhancements, but they really weren't interested. We were assured we were using the proper stapler for the application. We were quickly approaching the "Employees need to be more aware" stage, when one of our Maintenance employees came up with the idea to reduce the size of the throat opening of the stapler be removing or reducing the size of a shim. We were thus able to close the opening of the throat to 1/4" or below (with the cardboard in the throat) (see picture above) and have not had an injury of this type since.