OSHA, Safety Committees and NFPA Standards

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Health and Safety in the Work Environment


Perhaps now even more than in the past, organizations are more concerned with health and safety issues in the work environment. For organizations today, attention to health and safety in the work environment is a risk management issue. Additionally, managers are understanding the economic and functional impact of work related accidents, illnesses, and conditions. We know that problems in these areas affect not only productivity and effectiveness, but also morale and motivation. While typically it is the first line supervisor's responsibility to maintain a safe work environment, senior management and the organization are held accountable.

For our purposes, we'll define health and safety as follows. Safety involves preventing work related accidents and injuries; health refers to the absence of physical and/or emotional illnesses (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

OSHA

Employers generally have an obligation to provide a healthy and safe work environment. Let's begin the discussion by looking at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. Enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the primary focus of this act is to insure a safe and healthy work environment. It has definitely altered management's role in these areas, holding them accountable for meeting OSHA standards and recognizing the seriousness of unsafe and unhealthy environments. While OSHA has and continues to be controversial for some, OSHA has had a decidedly positive impact on working conditions and workers' health.

Edwards discusses OSHA in considerably more detail and cites the responsibilities of the employer and the employee under OSHA. He also reviews the four most relevant standards to the emergency services.

Reading Assignment: Please read Chapter 10, pages 183-191 from the Fire Service Personnel Management textbook by Steven Edwards. You are also encouraged to visit the U.S. Department of Labor website's Occupational Safety & Health Administration page at http://www.osha.gov/ and review its provisions.

Emergency Service Health and Safety Issues: Statistics

Fire Service Personnel
According to NFPA statistics, as cited on their website, there were 80,100 firefighter injuries in 2004, the majority of which occurred in association with fireground incidents. Stress appears to be the leading cause of injury and cardiac issues are the leading injury. Training issues account for 8.9% of firefighter injuries (National Fire Protection Association, 2007).

While figures for firefighter deaths have generally been declining over the years (excepting of course for 2001), there were 101 deaths in 2002. However, in 2003 there were 111; in 2004, 108; and in 2005, 115 (U.S. Fire Administration, 2007). Of course, this may be due to the broader inclusion currently used in deriving totals.

Also of concern is the fact that firefighter training deaths have increased. According to the United States Fire Administration, in 2005 there were 14 firefighter deaths associated with training. Training deaths have risen by 1 in each of the last four years (U.S. Fire Administration, 2006).

For further insight into the nature of firefighter deaths and injuries go to the National Fire Protection Agency website's page entitled "Firefighter Injuries by Type of Duty" at http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=955&itemID=23466&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%
20statistics/The%20U.S.%20fire%20service.

EMS
And, it is not just firefighters. According to BJ Maguire et al., as reported in the MMWR Weekly, EMS personnel in the United States have an estimated fatality rate of 12.7 per 100,000 workers, more than twice the national average (McGuire et al., 2002). Crashes account for a share of these. To learn more about crash related injuries go to the CDC's website and view the February 28, 2003 posting entitled "Ambulance Crash-Related Injuries Among Emergency Medical Services Workers -- United States, 1992-2002" at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5208a3.htm or view the PDF.
Ambulance Crash-Related Injuries Among Emergency Medical Services Workers --.pdf

Police
In 2006 there were at total of 97 line of duty deaths according to Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc. at http://www.odmp.org/ (Police Special, 2002). The following account for these deaths: aircraft accidents, 2; automobile accidents, 25; bombs, 1; duty related illnesses, 2; gunfire, 34; gunfire – accidental, 1; heart attacks, 7; motorcycle accidents, 5; stabbings, 1; struck by vehicle,5; vehicular assault, 11; and vehicle pursuit, 3.

For police, likewise, injury and death do not only occur "on the job" but also in training exercises. While perhaps not as prevalent as firefighter injuries and deaths associated with training, as Floyd points out, "No matter how well planned or controlled, police training still means exposing officers to the same types of risks they will face on the job" (National Law Enforcement, 2006).

The records of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) show that 109 federal, state and local officers have been killed while training. Of the 109 officers who died while training, 41 suffered heart attacks or some other form of job-related illness, 25 were accidentally shot, 9 died in aircraft accidents, 9 were killed in motorcycle crashes, 7 fell to their death, 6 drowned, and 12 died from an assortment of other causes (Houser et al., 2004).

NFPA Standards of Relevance

Reading Assignment: Although Edwards discusses each of these in some detail, you may want to review the following standards: NFPA 1500 - Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program which provides the blueprint for an occupational safety and health program for the fire service and specific guidelines for those involved in rescue, fire suppression, emergency medical services, and other related fields (Edwards, 2005). NFPA 1521 - Standard for Fire Department Safety Officer, which outlines the duties and responsibilities of the health and safety officer and the incident scene safety officer NFPA 1561 - Standard on Emergency Services Incident Management System cites the minimum requirements for an incident management system to be used by departments to manage emergency incidents (Edwards, 2005). NFPA 1581 - Standard on Fire Department Infection Control Program, which addresses infection control issues and 1582, the medical requirements for firefighters (Edwards, 2005). To Review NFPA Standards Online - follow these 2 steps: Step 1: Basically, you can go to the following URL:http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=279&URL=Codes%20and%20Standards/Code%20development% 20process/Free%20online%20access Step 2: Scroll down to bottom of page and click on Visit NFPA's Document Information page, then select the document you want to review, and then scroll down to the heading "Additional information about this document" and click on the link "Preview this document." To view the Standard, you have to use the "Table of Contents" to navigate your way around. Remember, you will only be able to preview or view the Standard, you will not be able to print, save or cut/paste, or copy.

Occupational Safety and Health Committee
One of the requirements of NFPA 1500 is the establishment of a safety committee. Serving in an advisory capacity to the chief, the charge to the committee is charged to, "conduct research, develop recommendations, and study and review matters pertaining to occupational safety and health within the fire department" (National Fire Protection Association, 2007).

The reason I point this out is that this committee has the potential of having significant influence in the promotion of safety and health within the given agency. Those elected to this committee, or those who are automatically a member, should use this opportunity to be proactive in providing direction to the chief and other decision makers regarding decisions impacting safety and health.

Every department – career, combination, and volunteer—should have such a safety committee. In the case of combination agencies volunteers should be members of this committee in addition to career personnel, not only to augment the committee membership and its effectiveness, but also to foster more positive relationships between paid and volunteer personnel.

Reading Assignment: Please read Chapter 10, pages 191-198, from the Fire Service Personnel Management textbook by Steven Edwards

References

Edwards, S. Fire Service Personnel Management. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education, 2005.

Houser, A.N., Jackson, B.A., Bartis, J.T., & Peterson, D.J. (2004, March). Emergency Responder Injuries and Fatalities. http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2005/RAND_TR100.pdf, March, 2004.

McGuire, B. J., et al. Occupational Fatalities in Emergency Medical Services: A Hidden Crisis. Ann Emerg Med. 2002. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5208a3.htm

Mondy, W. & Noe, R. Human Resource Management. 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005.

National Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial Fund Website. More the 150 Law Officers Killed in the Line of Duty During 2006.http://www.nleomf.com/index.htm, 2006.

National Fire Protection Association. Find an NFPA Code or Standard.http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp, 2007.

National Fire Protection Association. Firefighter injuries by type of duty.http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=955&itemID=23466&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/
The%20U.S.%20fire%20service, 2007.

Police Special.com (2005). Officer Down Memorial Website.http://www.policespecial.com/inthelineofduty/currentyear.htm, 2005.

U.S. Fire Administration, Homeland Security. Firefighter Casualties 1996-2005. http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fatalities/statistics/casualties.shtm, January 2007.

U.S. Fire Administration, Homeland Security. Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2005.http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-306-508.pdf, July 2006.

 

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