MORA Meeting Minutes

September 12, 2007:

Minutes:

MINUTES MORA September 12, 2007

Attending: Carol Eckert, Kathy Schulz, Mike Rowland, Ruth Lawson-Stopps, Kim Lim, Leslie Walleigh, Leslie Manning, Jonathan Lepoff, Desi-Rae Severson, Ivan Most (via phone), and Terry Hathaway

Call to Order. Carol Eckert called the meeting to order at 10:07 a.m. in the Frances Perkins Conference Room A, Central Maine Commerce Center.

Approval of June 16, 2007 Minutes. Jonathan Lepoff made a motion to accept the minutes of June 16, 2007 minutes as written. Ivan Most seconded the motion. Vote, unanimous.

Introductions. Introductions around the table as Ivan Most joined us by phone. Leslie Manning stated that the Maine Department of Labor is reinstituting the fatality assessment program.

PDAG Update – Leslie Walleigh. Leslie summarized the August 15th PDAG meeting. The Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) is a part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which is on a continuous basis and is a random sample. There will be core questions regarding workers’ compensation, including if the person works, got injured at work, reported the injury, etc. John Rioux has been working on the Small Business Needs Assessment. Leslie Manning will address how Workers’ Compensation moves through the Bureau of Labor Standards. Regarding Occupational Disease Reporting, Bill Peabody met with Andy Smith regarding possible funding for that program. Leslie Walleigh summarized the work regarding the Maine Health Data Organization data for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Leslie Manning added that John Rioux is in the process of preparing a report on the value stream mapping of how Workers’ Compensation moves through the Bureau of labor Standards. Kim Lim and staff have worked on this to get quality control of data. John will be doing a presentation at the next PDAG meeting to determine how to present data so it is user-friendly and easily understood. PDAG can decide if John should present to MORA. Discussion followed.

Blueberry Raker Study Presentation – Mike Rowland. Mike did a power point presentation entitled “Community Collaboration for Farmworker Health and Safety”. The Maine Migrant Health Program (MMHP) and the Northeast Center for Agricultural Health collaborated on the rake handle study funded by a NIOSH grant. This was a four-year project (2003-2007). The basic goal is to reduce occupational injuries through community-based research. The results are being disseminated at University of Maine Extension grower meetings, onsite handle workshops (in tandem with mobile clinics), and an instructional video and printed materials for the 2008 season on the Hubbard Rake web site. Discussion followed the presentation.

Other & Announcments. Ivan will be attending the NORA meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday in Cincinnati. The focus will be on drafting a strategic plan for the manufacturing sector. Ivan will present the final plan to MORA at our next meeting.

Ivan and Sylvia Most did a paper on Workers’ Compensation Lump Sum Payments and the paper is being presented to the IAIABC this month. They will be presenting the paper at the Workers’ Compensation Institute in Hopkinton, Massachusetts at the end of October. There is a proposal for a third phase of the project to get more accurate statistics.

Ruth talked about the Jackson Lab Genetics conference for the Fall 2008. Ivan provided a draft of the “Meeting Matrix for Occupational Health, Safety and Risk Assessment Meeting”. MORA provided input for Ruth. One of the concerns is to step back and think about MORA’s mission and the intended audience for this Conference. An update will be provided at our November meeting. Also, Ruth will be inviting John McCauley, Jackson Lab, to attend this meeting.

Carol announced a conference on green chemistry to be held on October 26th at the University of Southern Maine, Portland Campus.

Leslie Manning announced that the Maine Department of Labor’s SafetyWorks! Class Schedule is on Labor’s web site. There is a SafetyWorks! Institute in Fairfield at the Maine Department of Transportation building where a lot of the classes are being held. Some of the classes being offered are Safety 101 for State Agencies in the Public Sector, Training for the Adult Learner, and 10-Hour General Industry Class.

Carol asked members to think of presentations for MORA. MORA members can either let Terry or Carol know of their ideas.

The October agenda will include update on the 2008 conference and NORA update.

Next Meeting – Wednesday, October 10, 2007. The next MORA meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, 10:00 a.m. to Noon, Frances Perkins Conference Room A, Central Maine Commerce Center.

Adjournment. Carol Eckert adjourned the meeting at 11:55 a.m.

/tmh