June 12, 2002

Staff present: Terry Hathaway, Lynne Lamstein, & John Rioux.

Members Present: Peter Crockett (MLGH), Peter Doran (MIOHE), Brenda Joly (Maine Center for Public Health), Ruth Lawson-Stopps (Occupational Health Associates), Jonathan Lepoff, Steve Minkowsky (Maine Workers Compensation Board), Ivan Most (Strategic Occupational Health), Jonathan Torres (Workmed), & David Kern (Health Connections),

Members Absent: Brad Brown (Bureau of Insurance), Dan Cote (MEMIC), Denise Dumont (U.S. HealthWorks), Ron Dyer (DEP), Kim Lim (Maine Bureau of Labor Standards), & Andy Smith (Bureau of Health) & Leslie Walleigh (Workplace Health).

Dr. Doran opened the meeting at 9:15 A.M.

July 10^th meeting @ Westbrook. Dr. Doran suggested that the MORA Steering Committee not meet during the months of July and August; however, he suggested that the Conference 2003 Planning Committee meet at the University of New England, Westbrook Campus, on Wednesday, July 10^th at 9:00 A.M. The meeting is open to Steering Committee members. Ivan Most will contact Leslie Ingraham (University of New England) to set this up and will let members know via e-mail.

The next regular meeting of the MORA Steering Committee will be held on Wednesday, September 11^th, at 9:00 A.M. at the Bureau of Labor Standards, third floor conference room.

Conference 2003 Planning Update. Ivan reported he has spoken with Leslie Ingraham, Conference Planner at the University of New England, regarding a change of date for the Conference. It would be later in May 2003.

Lynne reported that our request for funding for the Conference from the Commission on Safety and Health in the Maine Workplace has been affected by the freeze on State spending, so the request is on hold. She suggested that Peter Doran send a letter to Hugh Flynn, Chairman of the Commission, (along with a copy to William Peabody, Deputy Director of the Bureau), acknowledging that this has been put on hold and that MORA would still like our request to be considered once the hold is lifted.

Lynne has a draft of the "Save the date" postcard for the Conference, but will wait until the July planning meeting.

MORA-MIOHE Merger. Peter Doran and Lynne Lamstein will be meeting with Carol Eckert, M.D., President of MIOHE, at 1:00 P.M. today, to see if MIOHE would like to help sponsor our 2003 Conference and explore the possibility of merging so MORA would have a nonprofit and impartial home for work in the future. MORA would continue in the same manner as now, but we would have a fiscal agent. Peter will also see if the two groups have a similar mission.

Ivan mentioned that the MIAQ (Maine Indoor Air Quality) Council has submitted a grant to NIOSH, CDC.

Research Agenda Priorities - Action Plans - Ruth. Ruth presented the "Procedure of Setting the Maine Occupational Research Agenda", prepared by Drs. Torres and Parsons (copies were distributed). The MORA Steering Committee is in accordance with the timeline.

Ruth continued to facilitate the process of refinement and action plans for priorities.

Occupational Asthma - Peter Doran and Dr. Jonathan Torres. Dr. Torres presented a summary. There are some additions, which are attached. Ivan suggested a CD Rom, Synergy from CDC, which shows how to go about research. In summary, the major priority would be to identify occupational asthma cases better than we are doing now, finding the clusters, and intervention.

The Bureau of Health is to be doing this along with ALAM.

Peter suggested contacting Norm Anderson and Ed Miller to enhance what is already out there. Dr. Torres and Peter will meet with Mr. Anderson and report back at our September 11^th meeting. Also, at the September 11^th meeting, will be the prioritizing of occupational asthma items.

Cost Drivers - Jonathan Lepoff and Steve Minkowsky. Steve will meet with the Workers’ Compensation statistical programming person to get costs for lost time only cases and Jonathan will meet with the Employee Health Office for State employees. They will be looking for the characteristics of injuries and illnesses and then intervention strategies

The purpose will be to identify interventions for biggest bang for the buck.

At the September 11^th meeting, they will present what they have found from the data from Workers’ Compensation Board and Maine Employee Health Commission. There could be intervention for Safety and Legislative sessions. This priority could overlap other priorities. Jonathan Lepoff volunteered to join the MSD’s priority research.

Fatalities - John Rioux and Kim Lim. John summarized by saying that they could match up life lost statistics with the cost of severity. What components do we need in place to identify how to get those cases regarding illnesses? The Bureau of Labor Standards could team up with Workers’ Compensation. At the September 11 ^th meeting, John will define what we can do and define what the Bureau of Labor Standards (BLS) will need help with in clarifying outcomes.

Aging - Ruth Lawson-Stopps and Lynne Lamstein. At the September 11^th meeting, Ruth and Lynne will have their issue better defined.

MSD’s - Ivan Most and Denise Dumont. As Ivan has not been able to contact Denise, there was no report at this time. Will be scheduled for the September 11^th meeting.

Toxic Exposures - Andy Smith, Leslie Walleigh, and Ron Dyer. No report as no one was present from this group. Ruth will contact the focus group; will report at September 11^th meeting.

E-mail will be sent to MORA Steering Committee members listing the research priorities and the contact information (names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses) for each priority.

Lynne will update the website with a list of priorities and a page for each topic.

Other Business. Dr. David G. Kern (Health Connections) has joined the MORA Steering Committee at our invitation. He has agreed to join the Occupational Asthma research priority as well as Toxic Exposure.

Peter Doran will contact the Bureau of Health (Department of Human Services) to check on representation to the Steering Committee.

Also, Peter will reconnect with a couple of Steering Committee members.

The meeting ended at 11:50 A.M.

Next Meeting. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 11 ^th, at 9:00 A.M. in the Third Floor Conference Room, Bureau of Labor Standards, Hallowell Annex.

Respectfully Submitted,

Terry M. Hathaway

Secretary

Subject to clustering (need to look at the number of incidents as well as number of fatalities)