Occupational Safety and Health Data Collection

And Injury Prevention Work Group

 

Minutes

 

Bureau of Labor Standards

First Floor Training Room

July 21, 2004

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

 

 

Present: Bill Peabody, Chair (Maine Department of Labor), Gary Baxter (Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company), Brian Doe (Hannaford), Carol Grenier (sitting in for Stefanie LaRose, Cannon Cochran Management Services, Inc.), Kim Lim (Maine Department of Labor), Pat Philbrook (Maine State Nurses Association), Kurtis Petersons (Summer Intern, Bureau of Labor Standards), John Rioux (Maine Department of Labor), Dave Wacker (Maine Department of Labor), and Leslie Walleigh (Workplace Health). 

 

Absent: Brad Brown (Maine Bureau of Insurance), Peter Doran (Maine Occupational Research Agenda), Denise Dumont (US HealthWorks), Vanessa Santarelli (Maine Department of Labor), Saskia Janes (Maine Public Health Association), Kim Lim Stefanie LaRose (Canon Cochran Management Services, Inc.), Jeff Levesque (Workers’ Compensation Board),Steve Minkowsky (Workers’ Compensation Board), Louise Morang (Maine Association of Occupational Nurses), and Ralph Tucker (McTeague-Higbee).

 

Guests: Ann Beaulieu, Ted Bradstreet, and Barbara Chenoweth (all from Bureau of Labor Standards).

 

Chair Bill Peabody opened the eighth meeting of the Occupational Safety and Health Data Collection and Injury Prevention Work Group at 9: 38 A.M.

 

Introduction of Members.  Members and guests introduced themselves.

 

Approval of Minutes of June 16, 2004. Before approval of the minutes, Leslie Walleigh noted a typo on page 6, line 19; it should be “carriers”. Minutes were approved with the correction.

 

Occupational Disease Reporting – Leslie Walleigh. Leslie Walleigh presented an overview of Occupational Disease Reporting at the Bureau of Health. She provided the following handouts: Criteria Guide to be Used for Reporting Occupational Diseases, Occupational Disease Reporting Rules and Regulations, Reportable Occupational Diseases, and Maine Occupational Disease Surveillance Form. She explained that the law requires physicians to report occupational illnesses to the Maine Bureau of Health; however, there has not been an active program at the Bureau of Health due to financial issues. There is a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bureau of Health and Maine Department of Labor, under the ABLES program, regarding lead-level monitoring prevention activities. Further discussion followed.

 

Leslie would like a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bureau of Health and the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board so the Bureau of Health can have access to define cases. Current funding of Occupational Disease Reporting is from a tracking grant and ABLES. Currently, the Bureau of Health is trying to get a NIOSH grant.

 

Self-Employed’s Study Update – Kurtis Petersons. Kurtis is working on the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. He is developing a  data base using Unemployment Insurance tax audit results. Mr. Peabody added that under the Unemployment Tax, there is a targeting method such that random selection is limited to one percent. However, as Maine hasn’t had the ability to do that, the selections are 100 percent random. So the fact that the Federal guidelines weren’t being followed means we can have better data for our study. This project is being done just in time as the new data systems will be able to do this. This should give the work group some better indication of who is misclassified and how often do they find folks who are actually independent contractors. Currently, there is no hard data on independent contractors.

 

Discussion of Injury Prevention – Bill Peabody. Mr. Peabody explained that there is still no Deputy Director of the Bureau, so he is still doing two jobs; however, the position has been advertised and several applications have been submitted. Once someone has been selected, he will have more time to pull together what the work group has discussed in the first eight meetings and come up with a report to the Legislature.

 

Mr. Peabody asked if anyone had any ideas for presentations on a data collection or injury  prevention. John Rioux suggested the Kim Lim do a presentation on the indicators he has found as they relate to Occupational Disease Reporting beyond workers’ compensation.

 

Currently, the Bureau of Health and the Department of Labor are working on a joint grant to NIOSH/CDC to improve and expand the surveillance system.

 

Adjournment. Mr. Peabody adjourned the meeting at 10:55 AM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

Terry M. Hathaway

Recording Secretary