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workplace, Highway Work Zone
Safety and Workplace Violence
Awareness. Among the day’s out-
reach trainers were CSEA Local
#840 President Jane Meunier-Gorman, County Safety Officer
John O’Connor and Highway &
Facilities' Supervisor of Road
Maintenance, David Keith. The
Putnam County Health Department
On May 9th, employees of
the Highway & Facilities De-partment gathered at Veter-
an’s Memorial Park in Car-
mel to participate in one of
the annual Safety Training
Days. The weather for the
day was unseasonably windy,
cold and rainy, but it did not
dampen the spirits of the
trainers or participants.
As part of Putnam County’s
extensive safety program,
the Highway and Facilities
personnel are mandated by
Local, State and Federal
regulations to receive spe-
cific safety training annually. Some of these topics include
Hazard Communication re-
garding chemicals in the
also sent a sizeable staff in
the morning to provide free
blood pressure screenings and information on many health
and safety related topics. Fi-nally, Pro Safety Services LLC
provided training on the Control
of Hazard Energy Awareness
and Incident Investigations.
In today’s fast paced world,
technological innovations come rather quickly, and to stay
abreast of changes in the road
maintenance and traffic man-
agement industries, the County
invited various vendors and distributors to demonstrate
new advances in relevant equipment. United Rentals gave
a trench demonstration and Brady’s Power Equipment showed off various powered
hand tools. Grainger, in part-
Highway & Facil it ies Spring Safety Day
Highlights:
Highway & Facili-ties Safety Train-ing Day
Safety: Leading by Example
Housekeeping Halts Hazards
Fire prevention thru housekeep-ing
Incident VS, Acci-dent
CPR & First Aid Courses
Putnam County Occupational
Safety Newsletter
Pictures Top Right: Brady’s Power Equipment of Stormville, NY gives a demonstration of Personal Protection Equipment for Chainsaw and String Trimming Operations, such as a logger’s helmet with face shield and hearing protection, chainsaw cut/abrasion resistant chaps, and Kevlar stitched cutting gloves Bottom Left : Westchester Tractor of Brewster, NY showing off their “leading edge” heavy equipment for mowing and construction work, such as tractors, chippers and the latest New Holland Skid Steer Front End Loader pictured in the foreground.
June 2014 Volume 1, Issue 2
Among the findings:
• In five of the 34 states for
which data was available –
Washington, California, New
York, Connecticut and New
Jersey – state and local government workers had
injury and illness rates high-er than the national rate of
5.7 cases per 100 full-time
workers.
• Violence was responsible
for almost one-quarter of
injuries involving days away from work among state and
local government employees.
• Local workers had the highest injury and illness
rate at 6.1 cases per 100 full
Washington – State and local
government workers accounted
for one fifth of injuries and
illnesses in 2011, and the inci-
dence rate was highest among
state hospital workers, accord-
ing to an analysis from the Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics.
The report, published online
in March, is part of the bureau’s
“Spotlight on Statistics” series, which examines certain areas
of the labor market. State and local government employees
made up 14.6 percent of the workers covered by the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries
and Illnesses in 2011, the report
states.
-time workers, compared with 4.6
cases for state workers and 3.5
cases for private industry.
• State hospital workers had the
highest injury and illness rate –
9.2 cases per 100 full-time work-ers. The report states that one
possible reason why injuries were more common among state hospi-
tal workers is that more of them
worked in psychiatric and sub-stance abuse hospitals than their
private and local counterparts.
Read the report at
http://1.usa.gov/1lEn57Z.
Page 2
Bureau of Labor
Statistics puts
‘spotlight’ on
state, local
government
workers
nership with Honeywell, gave a dis-
cussion and demonstration of per-sonal protective equipment such as
head, hearing and eye protection, along with safety harnesses and fall-
arrest systems for working at
heights. Lastly, Westchester Tractor
showed off the latest heavy con-
struction and forestry equipment
such as skid steer loaders, chippers
and a “brush hog” tractor mower.
Before the morning classroom
training switched over to the after-noon’s breakout sessions, County
Executive MaryEllen Odell dropped in
to give a few comments on the ne-
cessity of training and she restated
Putnam County’s commitment to
safety. This mirrored the morning’s
opening statements by both CSEA
Presidents and Commissioner of
Highway and Facilities Fred Pena , demonstrating the joint effort by
labor and management.
At the end of the day, many of the participants
had felt that the training had gone very well and
that everyone had gained some new knowledge.
Safety Officer O’Connor had this to say: “I believe
that it is great to see the County being able to get
the necessary, required training out to those that
need it and doing it through a memora-
ble, interactive experience. I think that
training given through that type of deliv-
ery goes a long way to ensuring that
people retain the information better and the message comes through clearer. In
that way, the culture of safety grows and unnecessary losses and injuries are
greatly reduced. Having a safe working environment is an admirable measure of
success, for any company or govern-
ment service!”
Facilities maintenance worker Dennis
Zasso was also very enthusiastic about
Spring Highway Safety Day. The veteran
employee said: “ I think it was the best
training that I’ve ever had in all my
years with the County!”
Above: County Executive MaryEllen Odell speaks in front of the assembled Highway and Facilities personnel with her message regarding Putnam’s commitment to safety. Below right: Supervisor of Road Maintenance David Keith lecturing on Workzone Safety.
Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors and safety con-
sultants agree that you can get a good idea about safety
and health practices at a business by walking in the
main entrance. There’s a strong correlation between a clean, orderly workplace and
a safe, successful organiza-tion. Good housekeeping mat-
ters because it:
Reduces accidents and
fire hazards;
Improves emergency
response times;
Helps maintain safe,
healthy work conditions;
Saves time, money, ma-
terials, space, and effort;
Improves productivity
and quality;
Boosts morale; and
Reflects an image of a
well-run, successful
organization.
OSHA inspectors will not hesi-
tate to cite violations of its requirement that “all places
of employment, passageways, storerooms, and service
rooms shall be kept clean and orderly and in a sanitary con-
dition.” Avoid OSHA citations by fol-
lowing a daily cleanup policy and program that includes the
following:
Keep floors, stairways,
aisles, and other pas-sageways clear of tools, equipment, trash, and
other materials.
Close drawers.
Put tools away when
they’re not in use, and
cover any sharp edges.
Stack materials carefully
so they won’t fall or
block sprinkler access.
Clean up all spills imme-
diately and properly, or
call someone who can.
Report any loose or bro-
ken flooring or any bro-
ken equipment.
Keep food and beverages
away from the work
area.
Properly dispose of all
trash.
Keep paper and other combustibles away from
lights and electrical
equipment.
Prevent dirt or grease buildup on machinery
and equipment.
Keep containers of flam-mables closed when not
in use.
Don’t place tools or equipment on the edges
of shelves or tables.
Take a regular inventory of your work areas. Look for
unnecessary tools, parts, materials, and supplies. Store
or get rid of unneeded items.
house- keeping procedures
that can help prevent work-
place fires:
Keep dust under con-
trol, particularly around
motors and hot machin-
ery. It is especially im-
portant to keep dust to a minimum around tools
such as grinders or
Housekeeping plays a criti-
cal role in fire prevention.
Keeping your work- place clean and organized not only
prevents the ignition and
spread of a fire but also
helps keep exits clear and
fire response equipment
accessible.
Here are just a few simple
welding torches.
Dispose of rags con-
taminated with oils or
solvents in appropriate metal containers. Never
allow oily rags to accu-mulate as they pose a
great fire risk.
Don’t allow combustible materials such as card-
Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 2
ON FIRE FOR HOUSEKEEPING
“There’s a strong
correlation between a
clean, orderly workplace
and a safe, successful
organization.”
Housekeeping halts hazards! Keep a neat work area.
board, paper, or wood to accu-
mulate. Remove from the area
and store or discard properly.
Keep access to emergency
exits and equipment clear.
Make it a habit to check your work area for possible fire
hazards on a daily basis.
In a recent monthly Safety Committee
meeting held at the Law Department,
members of the committee discussed
the importance of near miss reporting.
Near-miss reporting is a piece of a
strong safety culture. It is a way to get an organization talking about safety in
general. With regard to incidents and near hits and near misses, there are
some differences in the safety field.
Incident: An unplanned, undesired event that hinders completion of a task and may cause
injury, illness, or property damage or some combination of all three in varying degrees
from minor to catastrophic. Unplanned and
undesired do not mean unable to prevent. Un-
planned and undesired also do not mean una-
Putnam County
Department of Law
48 Gleneida Avenue
Carmel, New York 10512
Phone: 845-808-1150 x49402
Fax: 845-808-1903
E-mail:
County Safety Officer
John P. O’Connor, CPP,PSP
Leading by example helps improve
workplace safety: study
Fort Collins, CO – The type of
leadership used in the work-place may have an effect on
injuries and safety climate, suggests a study from Colora-
do State University.
Using a survey of 1,167 con-
struction pipe fitters and plumbers, researchers exam-
ined the connection between workplace safety and percep-
tions of leadership. The leader-ship behavior known as
“idealized influence” – when
workers admire their leader and emulate his or her behav-
ior – was found to have the
strongest link to safety.
Other leadership behaviors
associated with a safe work-place were inspirational moti-
vation, intellectual stimulation,
individualized consideration and contingent reward. Researchers
concluded that to reduce injuries, leaders need to be “holistically
good leaders,” meaning they employ
multiple leadership behaviors.
The study was published in Safety
Science (Vol. 62).
ble to prepare for. Crisis planning is how we prepare
for serious incidents that occur that require re-
sponses for mitigation.
Near Miss: A subset of incidents that could have resulted in injury, illness or property damage, if given
a different set of circumstances, but didn’t. Near
misses are also known as “close calls.” Perhaps the
better term to consider is “near hit.”
Accident: The definition is often similar to that of
incident, but supports the mindset that it could not have been prevented. An accident is the opposite of
the fundamental intentions of a safety program,
which is to find hazards, fix hazards, and prevent
incidents. When we accept that accidents have no
cause, we assume that they will happen again.
Incident vs. Accident Know the Difference!
CPR and First Aid training is available through the Bureau of Emergency Services at no cost to Putnam County Employ-ees. Courses offered in-clude American Heart Association Heartsaver CPR/AED (with first aid, if needed) and Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers, which is geared more for individuals in the healthcare field.
The BLS courses are offered on the first Friday of the month beginning at 9:00 am, with Heartsaver courses being offered on the third Friday of the month starting at 10:00 am.
Please contact Linda McGuiness at extension 41114 to register for a class or Bob Cuomo at extension 41104 if you have any questions about the training.
CPR AND FIRST AID COURSES