Agenda 11-12-13 SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING
AGENDA
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
9:00a.m.
City Hall Conference Room B
I Call to Order
II Roll Call
III. Acceptance of Minutes of 10/8/13 regular meeting
IV Safety Committee Education & Training — tbd
V Old Business
A. Fire Drills
B. Proud to be a Safe Worker Awards
C Departmental Inspections & Safety Meetings
D. Incident Review Board Referrals
E Drug Free Policy Statement (HR /RM — Mark Bobich /Pam Webb) — TABLED
10/12/2010
F Safety Manual Review
G. Other
VI New Business
A. Departmental Safety Issues
B. Pass out Safety Award Pins
C. Other
VII. Announcements
A. Other
VIII. Next Meeting Date: Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 9:00 a.m.
IX Adjournment
DISTRIBUTION
Mark Bobich, Chairperson, Safety Administrator
Rick Lee, (Michael Landress) - Fire Rescue
Catherine Cherry - Guberman, TBD
Sylvia Woods (Carisse LeJeune) — City Manager
Michael Rumpf (Chris Mitchell) — Development
Mike Dauta (Julie Alibrandi) — Finance/Warehouse
Jeremy Davis (Eric Falstad) — Golf Course
Pat Sholos (TBD) — HR /Risk
Robert Sweeney (Alan Karialainen) — ITS /GIS
Michael Naughton (Karen Abramson) — Library
Barbara Scott (LT Jeffery Katz) — Police /Code Compliance
Art Brode (Dwight Saulter) — Public Works
Wally Majors (Ginny Shea) — Recreation & Parks
Pam Webb — HR /Risk
Bevis Pigott (Gary Ezell) — Utilities
xc Lon Laverriere, City Manager
Workstation Ergonomics: Take a Break!
Creating a good ergonomic working arrangement is important to protecting your
health. Below, is more information that most Ergonomists agree is important.
Take a break! All Ergonomists agree that it's a good idea to take frequent, brief
rest breaks: Practice the following:
• Eye breaks - looking at a computer screen for a while causes some
changes in how the eyes work, causes you to blink less often, and exposes more
of the eye surface to the air. Every 15 minutes you should briefly look away from
the screen for a minute or two to a more distant scene, preferably something
more that 20 feet away. This lets the muscles inside the eye relax. Also, blink
your eyes rapidly for a few seconds. This refreshes the tear film and clears dust
from the eye surface.
• Micro -breaks - most typing is done in bursts rather than continuously.
Between these bursts of activity you should rest your hands in a relaxed, flat,
straight posture. During a micro -break (less than 2 minutes) you can briefly
stretch, stand up, move around, or do a different work task, e.g. make a phone
call). A micro -break isn't necessarily a break from work, but it's a break from the
use of a particular set of muscles that's doing most of the work (e.g. the finger
flexors if you're doing a lot of typing).
• Rest breaks - every 30 to 60 minutes you should take a brief rest break.
During this break stand up, move around and do something else. Go and get a
drink of water, soda, tea, coffee or whatever. This allows you to rest and
exercise different muscles and you'll feel less tired. Sometimes a brief rest away
from a task or problem will give you a new perspective on the solution.
• Exercise breaks - there are many stretching and gentle exercises that
you can do to help relieve muscle fatigue. You should do these every 1 -2 hours.
• Ergonomic software - working at a computer can be hypnotic, and often
you don't realize how long you've been working and how much you've been
typing and mousing. You can get excellent ergonomic software that you can
install on your computer. The best software will run in the background and it will
monitor how much you've been using the computer. It will prompt you to take a
rest break at appropriate intervals, and it will suggest simple exercises.
What about ergonomic gizmos?
These days just about everything is labeled as being "ergonomically designed"
and much of the time this isn't true and these so- called ergonomic products can
make things worse. If you're thinking about buying an "ergonomic product" as
yourself the following questions:
. Does the product design and the manufacturer's claims make sense?
What research evidence can the manufacturer provide to support their claims?
• Be suspicious of products that haven't been studied by researchers.
• Does it feel comfortable to use the product for a long period? Some
ergonomic products may feel strange or slightly uncomfortable at first because
they often produce a change in your posture that's beneficial in the Tong -term.
Think of some products as being like new shoes that initially may feel strange but
then feel comfortable after being used for a while. If a product continues to feel
uncomfortable after a reasonable trail period (say at least a week) time then stop
using it.
• What do ergonomics experts say about the product? If they don't
recommend it don't use it.
Excerpts from www.spineuniverse.com