Welcome!
Front row (left to right): Renee Eshcoff, Kristin Eby, Sara Cupp. Back Row (left to right): T.J. Unger, Mike Boone, Ron Caccamo.
The Anthony Wayne Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) serves safety professionals in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area.
Founded in 1911, ASSE is the oldest and largest professional safety organization. Its more than 32,000 members manage, supervise and consult on safety, health, and environmental issues in industry, insurance, government and education. ASSE is guided by a 16-member Board of Directors, which consists of 8 regional vice presidents; three council vice presidents; Society president, president-elect, senior vice president, vice president of finance and executive director. ASSE has 14 practice specialties, 151 chapters, 28 sections and 58 student sections.
Fort Wayne Safety Village Letter
Thank you letter (pdf)
Effective October 1, 2010: New DOT Drug Testing Regulations
On August 16, 2010, the Department of Transportation (DOT) published a final rule intended to create consistency with many, but not all, of the requirements of the Department of Health and Human Services; and on September 27, 2010, DOT published an interim final rule about use of the new Federal Drug Testing Custody and Control Form (CCF) and about how laboratories are to report confirmed positive drug/drug metabolite quantitations to the Medical Review Officer.
NOTE: Both rules are already in effect, since October 1, 2010.
We are pleased to announce that the USDOT website and a variety of DOT documents have been updated to reflect these changes. You can find the one(s) you want by selecting [clicking] the item(s) below:
- 49 CFR Part 40 [in its entirety and with all changes included]
- Employer Handbook
- Employee Handbook
- Urine Specimen Collection Guidelines
- August 16, 2010 Final Rule
- September 27, 2010 Interim Final Rule
You may need to “refresh” your internet browser to view the new documents
(CTRL + F5).
Donation to Safety Village
Sara Cupp, Chapter Vice President, and Kristin Eby, Chapter President, presented a donation of $500 on behalf of the Anthony Wayne ASSE Chapter to Joyce VanPelt, Safety Village Representative.
On August 30th, our Anthony Wayne ASSE Chapter donated $500 to Safety Village, operated by the Fort Wayne Fire and Police Departments to teach pedestrian safety, stranger awareness and fire safety to elementary students. Safety Village has been in operation for 17 years, contains 49 miniature models of local buildings and businesses and has provided safety education for about 10,000 Kindergarteners and third-graders. This was a great opportunity to promote safety in our community!
US Department of Labor’s OSHA Takes Action to Protect America’s Workers with Severe Violator Program and Increased Penalties
WASHINGTON — Every day, about 14 Americans fail to come home from work to their families. Tens of thousands die from workplace disease and more than 4.6 million workers are seriously injured on the job annually. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in an effort to address urgent safety and health problems facing Americans in the workplace, is implementing a new Severe Violator Enforcement Program and increasing civil penalty amounts.
“For many employers, investing in job safety happens only when they have adequate incentives to comply with OSHA’s requirements,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Dr. Michaels. “Higher penalties and more aggressive, targeted enforcement will provide a greater deterrent and further encourage these employers to furnish safe and healthy workplaces for their employees.”
The new Severe Violator Enforcement Program is intended to focus OSHA enforcement resources on recalcitrant employers who endanger workers by demonstrating indifference to their responsibilities under the law. This supplemental enforcement tool includes increased OSHA inspections in these worksites, including mandatory OSHA follow-up inspections, and inspections of other worksites of the same employer where similar hazards and deficiencies may be present. SVEP will become effective within the next 45 days. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov/dep/svep-directive.pdf.
“SVEP will help OSHA concentrate its efforts on those repeatedly recalcitrant employers who fail to meet their obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It will include a more intense examination of an employer’s practices for systemic problems that would trigger additional mandatory inspections,” said Michaels.
Last year, OSHA assembled a work group to evaluate its penalty policies and found currently assessed penalties are too low to have an adequate deterrent effect. Based on the group’s findings and recommendations, several administrative changes to the penalty calculation system, outlined in the agency’s Field Operations Manual, are being made. These administrative enhancements will become effective in the next several months. The penalty changes will increase the overall dollar amount of all penalties while maintaining OSHA’s policy of reducing penalties for small employers and those acting in good faith.
The current maximum penalty for a serious violation, one capable of causing death or serious physical harm, is only $7,000 and the maximum penalty for a willful violation is $70,000. The average penalty for a serious violation will increase from about $1,000 to an average $3,000 to $4,000. Monetary penalties for violations of the OSH Act have been increased only once in 40 years despite inflation. The Protecting America’s Workers Act would raise these penalties, for the first time since 1990, to 12,000 and $250,000, respectively. Future penalty increases would also be tied to inflation. In the meantime, OSHA will focus on outreach in preparation of implementing this new penalty policy. For more information on the penalty policy, visit http://www.osha.gov/dep/penalty-change-memo.pdf.
“Although we are making significant adjustments in our penalty policy within the tight constraints of our law, this administrative effort is no substitute for the meaningful and substantial penalty changes included in PAWA,” said Dr. Michaels. “OSHA enforcement and penalties are not just a reaction to workplace tragedies. They serve an important preventive function. OSHA inspections and penalties must be large enough to discourage employers from cutting corners or underfunding safety programs to save a few dollars.”
Safety and Health News
Safety Bulletins
- New ANSI Z87 (doc)
- Miller Back Biter Lanyards (6/25/09)
