West Michigan Chapter of the ASSE

May 2004 News

President's Message

I would like to thank all of the members for the strong participation in our meetings this year. We have had some great speakers with relevant topics. Most importantly, we have learned from all members who have attended with real world problems and solutions.

I would encourage everyone to participate and enjoy the remaining meetings before the busy summer season is upon us. We are planning on giving everyone a well-deserved break at our June meeting. Tentative plans include enjoying some fishing and friends on Lake Michigan for a morning.

On another note, I had the opportunity to attend our Regional Operating Committee meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. This group meets twice a year to share best practices within our region. Our region is planning a Professional Development Conference in Louisville this August. You should have received a flyer in the mail with details.

So if you are tying to plan your summer vacation/education schedule, this may be your solution. The conference is featuring the incoming president of ASSE, Gene Barfield. It also has breakout sessions on Construction, General Industry and Safety Management. Louisville also features many local attractions for the rest of the family to enjoy. As your president, I was encouraged to have strong participation from West Michigan, so lets do our best to represent our local chapter.

Our planning committee will also be meeting shortly to set up our schedule of meetings for later this fall and next year. If you have any interest in participating or have topics that you would like to see, feel free to contact me. Thanks again for everyone's participation this year.

-- Eric Krieger - President, West Michigan ASSE

Shirt Offer

Earlier this year we challenged you members to attend 5 meetings this year and - by doing so - earn a nifty 50 year old shirt. We have kept track but if you feel you have successfully completed - or will accomplish this - please contact Mike Rabach with your name and shirt size. His phone is (231) 773-6791 and his e-mail is mike3r[at]accidentfund.com. Remember the Jan. conference is worth two meetings!

What's Shakin??

This section provides an opportunity to brag abut promotions, certifications, announce job changes and generally keep track of what is happening in the safety community. If you, or someone you know, has reason to brag - please let us know.

Marty Lalick of DSM Pharmaceuticals was greatly relieved and pleased to be able to announce that he passed the ASP . and will be working hard on the CSP in the near future!

Northern Michigan Meeting

Still Having Difficulty Understanding the "New" OSHA 300 Log? Have questions about what needs to be recorded? Can you "influence" what goes on the log? Looking for an excuse to head north?

Our Northern Brethren are celebrating their 7 days of summer by having Doug Kimmell, MIOSHA Consultation Education and Training Division speak on Friday May 14, 2004 at 9:00 am at the MTEC center in Traverse City, MI to improve your "working knowledge" of these forms. Cost is $15. RSVP or ask questions by contacting Mike Taylor at to michaelt[at]accidentfund.com or 231-933-7072!

Nominations for Chapter Offices & Board

A nomination committee comprised of Eric Longman as Past President, Clark Neu of Alticor and Roy VanderSloot of Toering Electric reviewed nominations and the following persons have accepted the nomination for officers for the coming year:

President: Dan Grzegorski - Knape & Vogt
President - Elect: Mike Rabach - CSP Accident Fund
Secretary: Clara DeVries - Parker Hannifin
Treasurer: Brian Becker - Bosch Diesel Technology

We have some good folks who have agreed to step into several other positions - including Kevin Quigley as Program Chairperson and a couple others (which we need to firm up before we announce). It looks like we will have a great year in 2004/05! Thanks for all who nominated and accepted.

Safety Training Programs

See our current newsletter for a table of the many training programs available with CET. You can also find them on the MISOHA website.

Good Spam?

I probably hate Spam as much as the next person - but as I try to look for something positive it's nice to see that some of these scumbags who send it out have taken to sharing a joke or a quote. One that you may not have seen was:

The graveyards are full of indispensable men. - Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)

12 Hour vs 8 Hour Shifts

By Eric Longman, CSP

How does the safety record for companies working 12-hour shifts compare to those working 8-hour shifts? What seems like a simple question quickly becomes complex when you consider that even with 12-hour shifts the scheduling is probably different for each company. One article on this topic indicates that there are more than 1000 viable 12-hour shift schedules.

While our main concern is on safety or accident frequency a company thinking of changing their shift hours must consider how other factors will be impacted - including absenteeism, productivity, quality, etc.

An account that currently works 12-hour shifts asked me about the research on 12 hour versus 8-hour shifts. I have maintained a file folder of interesting articles over the years (as I.m sure most of us have) and these questions gave me reason to review these articles. This will provide an overview on the subject.

Conclusion: Like many things - if you wish to prove one side or another your selective review of studies can provide proof one way or another. To some extent it may depend more on the type of operation (stress filled vs. normal production) to determine if 12-hour shifts make sense for a company. However, the majority of studies seem to indicate that there are few, if any ill affects. My review is based on 20 articles looking at studies from 1977 to 2003. Most found far more positives than negatives, or no appreciable difference.

Discussion: Studies with positive findings included a Canadian company making synthetic yarn with the conclusion that "the introduction of 12 hour shift systems did not result in increased accidents". This study was probably one of the more reliable from a safety standpoint in that they had plant nurses working 24/7 recording data on all injuries. An interesting side note to this study was the finding that injuries were higher during two periods of the day - between 8 AM and 10 AM and again between 2 PM and 4 PM - regardless of the shift length!

Another study for a chemical plant was done after one year of changing to 12-hour shifts and found that job satisfaction had increased while safety, turnover and absenteeism had remained the same.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission study in 1988 concluded that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. The advantages they found included greater job satisfaction, greater productivity and, in this case, fewer operator errors due to better communication between shifts (often passing information to the same person you relieved or at least only passing information twice as opposed to three times each day.)

The results mentioned above are interesting because a 1993 article in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics included a review of studies on this subject and noted studies involving a nuclear plant, which found that 12-hour shifts had a doubling of "human errors".

The largest outcry against 12-hour shifts involved the idea of truck drivers being allowed to work long hours. This article based their conclusions more on laboratory research as opposed to accident rates. The other study with some negatives involved nursing. (Again, both involving some need for constant attention to detail)

Several points that caught my attention included:

Several reports found slight increases in sick days with the 12-hour shift. My assumption is that while people may feel they can struggle through an 8-hour shift they find a 12-hour shift to be too daunting.
There are many issues that need to be worked out before making a change. These include, but are not limited to, training, break schedules, adjustments to sick time, vacation and holiday policies and improved planning on handling .call in.s. to assure people don.t need to work more than 12 hours.
Recognition must be given to the possible effects of noise levels or chemical exposures given the longer exposure times.
A component for making 12 hour shifts more appealing to workers seemed to be the rotation of shifts so that everyone gets the overnight shift rather than keeping people on either a day or a nighttime shift.

Any Internet search will provide a wealth of information on the subject.

GVSU Seek Internship Positions

There are about ten students looking for an Occupational Safety and Health Internship for this summer. While most are interested in manufacturing, some are interested in construction, health care, and insurance. The internships start May 1 and can last until mid-August. They do not have to be in the Grand Rapids area.

If you are looking for an intern for this summer please contact Greg Green, the OSH Internship Coordinator at 616-331-3686 or greeng@gvsu.edu

Question of the Month

Last month I asked for an example of an effective accident investigation where a real solution was accomplished. I confess my disappointment over the total lack of response! Perhaps we go through the motions with few real victories that we can feel good about - I don't think so, but the absence of anyone with bragging rights made me wonder.

And then darn it if one of our members didn't come up to me at the Michigan Safety Conference and tell me he had seen my challenge, but between being busy and not wanting to bring MIOSHA inspectors down on his plant (not that that would happen!) he hadn.t sent anything in. So - promising not to identify his company let me just say that they had a close call when a double hand trip malfunctioned. As a follow-up they checked every double hand trip in the plant and have been checking regularly to assure they continued to work as expected. They have found 6 machines since they started this where the trips have malfunctioned. This effort has prevented near miss or injury related incidents!

REGION 7 PDC (Professional Development Conference)

Region 7 - our region - will be holding a PDC on August 12-13th, 2004 in Louisville, Kentucky. There will be three tracks of topics, General Industry, Construction & Safety Management. Now is a good time to block out these days for a nice business trip possibly combined with a few days of vacation. More information will be forthcoming!

Treasurer's Report

A very quick overview of the Treasurer.s Report for our Chapter finds the following:

We made $570.31 for the Quest for Safety Seminar in January. This was intended to be a fundraiser and fortunately it ended up that way.
Our year has ended up with $4,057.49 in the treasury. It's nice to move into a new year with a healthy balance.

Safety Professional of the Year

Oh - and then there was something called the Safety Professional of the Year for the West Michigan Chapter presented at the Michigan Safety Conference Meeting. For those of you who stayed around - and if you didn't stay around you missed a great speaker in Fred Manuele (more on that later) - some fellow named Eric Longman received recognition for his work over the past few years.

In supporting this decision the following comments were offered: "Eric Longman has been a member of ASSE for something like 20 years. He has worked in the safety profession for 21 years with the last 18 years spent with Hartford Insurance. Eric has accumulated numerous designations over his career including an MBA, ARM and CSP. He continues to raise the bar for safety professionals in our association. Most recently, Eric has made enormous commitments to WMASSE. He has served on several officer positions including chapter president during the 2002-2003 year. In addition, he has found time to maintain the Chapter Newsletter and until recently our website. I personally know that he has spent many hours working to truly impact the quality of our society. The decision to award Eric Longman with the 2003-2004 SPY Award was very easy. Please join me in congratulating Eric for all that he has done for our society and the local safety community.." -- Eric Krieger - WMASSE President

And Greg Green from GVSU added: "Eric has been an enormous asset to the Occupational Safety and Health Program at Grand Valley State University. He has spoken numerous times to the student chapter of WMASSE and tried to include student members in the organization's activity so they are given the opportunity to interact with area safety professionals. Eric personifies what being an outstanding and committed safety professional means to students in the OSH program."

As newsletter editor I extend my thanks to those who took the time to make the nomination and to say that I continue to get more than I give as a result of my involvement! It has truly been my pleasure! -- Eric Longman