"Safe jobs" the focus of PEF Health and Safety confab

Workplace injuries take a bruising at conference

THEY'LL NEVER FORGET - PEF Division 180 Council Leader Paul Shea welcomes Judi Scanlon's sister, Aileen Tackett, and daughter, Keri Knapik, to the PEF Health and Safety Conference in June. - Photo by Jonah Triebwasser

By Kara E. Smith
More than 400 PEF health-and-safety activists, other union members and state managers from throughout the state took part in the PEF Health and Safety Conference held in Albany in June.

This year's conference theme was "Safe Jobs: 2000 and Beyond." Its main goal was to raise awareness of workplace violence and the importance of injury prevention, says PEF Health and Safety Director Jonathan Rosen.

"I found the Lyme disease and rabies workshops particularly helpful and informative," said PEF Division 169 Secretary Jonah Triebwasser, a member of the Joint Department of Environmental Conservation Health and Safety Committee.

"Since so many of my division members work in heavily wooded areas, I learned a lot of great information that I have passed on to them," he said. "Information about the new rabies treatments and the recent development of a Lyme disease vaccine were especially useful."

PEF Region 7 Coordinator Bill Crotty said he especially appreciated the comments of Keri Knapik, daughter of slain PEF nurse Judi Scanlon. "Hearing from her really put a human face on the issue of workplace violence," Crotty said.
Crotty said he also found the workshops on Workers' Compensation and on Smoking in the Workplace helpful.
"They were useful because most of the questions PEF members ask me pertain to Workers' Compensation. Also, we're trying to institute a smoking policy at my worksite," he said.

SAFE NEEDLES NEEDED - SEIU nurse Mary M. tells conferees how she caught HIV from a needle stick. - Photo by Jonah Triebwasser

Comments on needle-stick prevention given by SEIU steward Mary M. - one of the first nurses in the country to become HIV infected from a contaminated needle - were another conference highlight.

IF YOU'RE HURT - Dominick Tuminaro uses slides to explain the legal intricacies of Workers' Comp issues at PEF's June Health and Safety Conference in Albany. - Photo by Ken Dischel

Her dramatic presentation about the importance of fighting for safer needles in healthcare facilities drew attention to a hazard that more than 15,000 PEF healthcare professionals face every day.

"The ready availability of safer needles means there is no justification for exposing our healthcare members to this danger," Rosen said.

Tick Talk - Jim Kersten, PEF Health & Safety Chair at the state Department of Environmental Conservation, discusses Lyme disease prevention with lab sales rep, Scott Zaluchy. - Photo by Jonah Triebwasser

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