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Hazardous jobs result in campus accidents |
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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
by LILLIAN HOGAN
News Editor
Serious accidents on college campuses rose 41 percent in the last 20 years, according to a new report by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
At Appalachian State University, of approximately 5,000 employees documented in 2006, there were 2,172 lost and restricted workdays resulting from occupational injuries.
These numbers, reported by Workers’ Compensation administrator Wanda K.
Yates, also show there were 127 workers’ compensation claims in 2006,
costing the university a total of $648,259.86 for expenditures ranging
from disability payments to medical bills.
The Chronicle of Higher Education report also found that while serious
injuries on college campuses have increased in the past decade, fewer
government occupational-safety inspectors are visiting college campuses.
Appalachian’s last inspection was in 1989 at the Physical Plant, where
three violations were issued, N.C. Department of Labor Public
Information officer Heather Crews said.
Two of the violations were labeled “serious” and included unmet
excavation requirements and lack of head protection, according to N.C.
Department of Labor records.
Major safety and health issues on Appalachian State’s campus were
discussed April 5 at the University Safety and Health Committee meeting.
The university’s Chemical Safety Policy for transporting chemicals is
one area that needs improvement, Safety Director Dr. Evan K. Rowe said.
The chemistry department requested to update the existing campus policy
regarding the handling, packaging, transport, use and storage of
chemicals at Appalachian.
The policy was last updated in 1999.
The current policy states the chemistry department does not dispense
chemicals to other departments and therefore does not transport
chemicals, chemistry department Chair Dr. Claudia P. Cartaya-Marin said.
Cartaya-Marin and other university officials are in the early stages of revising the policy.
In the 2006 employee accident report, Yates reported five absorption or
inhalation accidents and six “foreign matter in eye(s)” accidents.
The chemistry department will review chemical issues with the
university industrial hygienist and the university attorney in terms of
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, Rowe
said.
While the university is concerned about minimizing the number of
occupational injuries on campus, there were no reported occupational
deaths at Appalachian in 2006.
The N.C. Department of Labor’s first priority is “fatality inspections – if a worker is killed on the job,” Crews said.
Employee complaints, local authority complaints and a randomly generated schedule dictate the remainder of inspections.
“General schedule inspections are typically in more hazardous
industries, like construction and manufacturing companies, where more
safety hazards occur,” Crews said in response to Appalachian’s
seemingly outdated inspection.
Of the 5,038 N.C. Department of Labor inspections in 2006, 267 were part of the public sector public
emphasis program, which targets public sector entities, such as Appalachian, Crews said.
In continuous safety efforts, the Safety and Workers’ Compensation
Office will conduct special courses for employees working in
potentially dangerous environments.
Two OSHA required safety courses for Appalachian maintenance employees
will begin within the next few weeks, conducted by safety trainer
Ronnie Riddle.
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