UNIVERSITY SAFETY COMMITTEE

Meeting Minutes

Date

October 30, 2008

 UNIVERSITY SAFETY COMMITTEE

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Katrina Doolittle, David Shearer, Jose Gamon, Greg Block, Stephen Lopez, Jeanne Curry, Jessie representing the Art Dept for Spencer Fidler, Albert Parra for Lori McKee, Christine Pennise, and Linda Perez

 Guests:  John Balog & Dave Schoep, EH&S and Stella Altamirano, Parking

 The regular Safety Committee Meeting held in Academic Research Center, Bldg C was called to order at 3:40 pm.  Minutes were unanimously approved with the following corrections; to correct the misspelling of the word Guest. And Katrina Doolittle noted that the injury/illness report for January was corrected from “..the numbers have decreased significantly” to “… the number of claims decreased by 52% and number of lost work days have decreased by 72%.

 Old Business:

1.      Vehicle Inspection Check List

a.          David Shearer stated that Doug Parten forwarded a check list of vehicle inspections that Corbet Center, Special Events uses.  David said that this will not be used but the outline helps to create something that everyone could use. 

b.         Linda Perez stated that Biology already has procedures in place.  She said that the Business Procedures manual states that departments should be tracking mileage on NMSU vehicles.  Katrina Doolittle asked if this was something new because she was not aware of any new regulations.  Linda said that she did not know if it was new, but this was what she was told. 

c.          Discussions by the committee on vehicle inspection lead to the decision of setting vehicle standards and having departments use these standards for annual inspections of their vehicles throughout the NMSU campuses.

d.         A motion was made and seconded for standards be put in place for routine annual vehicle inspection throughout NMSU campuses. 

 2.      Controlled Access

a.          David Shearer asked Stella Altamirano from Parking if HSS & Chemistry service areas were marked.  She apologized if it had not been completed because she was under the impression that it had been done, but would check on it and get back to EH&S.

b.         Stella was asked if more green zones could be applied throughout campus and she stated that they have regulations to follow and that she has been looking into this area of concern.

c.          Stephen Lopez was asked if they have been called for violators of the controlled access and he stated that they have had very limited calls.  He states that they cannot site because it has to be clearly stated that access is prohibited in these areas and that historically vehicles conducting business have had access.  Stephen stated that no one has told violators they are not allowed in these areas.  It was said that signs are posted.  Katrina asked who is supposed to inform UPS and others of their violation.  Stephen Lopez stated that a letter to violators from Bruce Kite, Legal Counsel, will discontinue the use of these areas.

d.         A motion was made and seconded to send a memorandum to Bruce Kite, Legal Counsel, asking him to write a letter to be forwarded to vendors, mail carriers and others asking them to keep off controlled access areas. 

3.      New Members

a.          David Shearer opened the floor for nominations of new members.  David nominated Spencer Fidler, not present, because of the safety concerns associated with Art Department. 

b.         A motion was made and seconded to appoint Spencer Fidler from Art as a Safety Committee member. 

c.          No other nominations were made.   

New Business:

1.      Injury/Illness Report for July - September 2008

a.       David distributed the Third Quarter Worker Injury Report for July 1 through September 30, 2008.    It shows

i)         A 55 percent decrease in the number of recordable claims from January through September of 2007 compared with the same time period in 2008. 

ii)        The number of claims with lost time decreased 75 percent and the number of claims with restricted time decreased 50 percent during the same time period.

iii)      OSHA recordable claims decreased approximately 50 percent compared with 2007,

iv)      OSHA claims with lost time or work restrictions have decreased approximately 51 percent, and OSHA total days of lost time or work restriction decreased 69 percent. 

b.      Several reasons for the improvement were discuss.  These include:

i)         Establishing a coordinator position dedicated to processing the injury reports.   A dedicated position was created rather than shared processing between HR, EH&S and Employee Health.  Locating the worker compensation coordinator in the Employee Health office with immediate access to the medical personnel has greatly improved reporting accuracy.  

ii)        Providing additional safety training and short shop safety reminders.  Over the last three years the amount of formal training and number of (specialized) directed training provided by EH&S to employees has increased, e.g. 2 new classes for agricultural workers plus addition of quick 15 minute shop safety talks

iii)      Improving supervisor awareness. Whether this is due to additional shop training or emphasis by management is uncertain, but supervisor are clearly more aware of the need for safer work operations.

2.      Campus building inspections

a.     David Shearer noted that so far this year EH&S have completed approximately 1,400 inspections, IAQ checks, and work investigations of various buildings and public areas, including farm facilities and other NMSU campuses.   David Shearer stated that EH&S safety managers, Jose Gamon and Chuck Ryder as well as the hazardous material coordinator, Henry Saenz, and the student employees were largely responsible for these inspections, safety equipment certification and area investigations.

b.     He noted that in addition the EH&S specialists, John Balog, Dave Schoep, Sue Terebenetz, Greg Vogel, and student safety inspectors have respectively helped provide approximately 300 detailed biological safety, radiation, hazardous waste, and chemical lab inspections. 

3.      Environmental Health & Safety Revisions

a.       Katrina distributed pages of the Environmental Health & Safety Policy from the Business Procedures Manual and went over the deletions/revisions she had made to update the policy with new names and the new role of the WC Coordinator.

4.      Additional Information

a.     Greg Block from housing asked what is to be done about bicyclist when they are not following the roadway rules.  It was stated that this is an ongoing dilemma.  Greg was informed of a meeting scheduled for November 11^th to discuss bicycles on campus. 

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 4:50. 

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