And ACTION: AIHA announces their Young Worker Health & Safety Policymaker Meeting Request Campaign

Every minute, a young worker is injured on the job, and every day, a young worker loses their life as a result of an incident at work. By working with policymakers we can help protect young workers. One of the first steps on the road to protecting workers is meeting with policymakers, which is also one of the most effective forms of advocacy.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has launched an action alert titled Young Worker Health and Safety Policymaker Meeting Request with a pre-written letter to your LOCAL policymakers. All you have to do in click on the link below, fill in your name and address and click on START WRITING, which opens up a letter to your policymakers (you can select the letter as is or customize it if you wish), then click SEND.

The letter requests a meeting. The AIHA Teen Workplace Health and Safety Task Force can assist you with the next steps in this advocacy process by providing preparatory materials for your meeting/visit. Contact us to learn more. If meeting with legislators is out of your comfort zone, please send the action alert anyway and pass on the lead to the AIHA Teen Workplace Health and Safety Task Force and we'll follow through with it either by identifying someone local who is willing to take the meeting or scheduling a telecon if we need to complete the meeting remotely. 

Advocate for the education of young workers so that they are able to identify and correct workplace hazards and teach them to expect a safe and healthy workplace. Take action now.

ACTION ALERT:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/young-worker-health-safety-policymaker-meeting-request-campaign?source=direct_link&

Talking safety: Why safety matters

Invited presentation on the PRES track at #ACSBoston

Talking safety: Why safety matters
by Jennifer Maclachlan, PID Analyzers, LLC

Maclachlan is the Chair of the American
Industrial Hygiene Association's Teen
Workplace Safety Task Force

Safety is a core value for many professional societies including the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). Through education, training and leading by example, members of the ACS and AIHA can create what ACS President, Peter Dorhout, has coined an "ethos of safety". 40 young workers die each year, and 60,000 more are rushed to the emergency room due to workplace injuries. Educating students about workplace hazards that include but are not limited to chemical, electrical, physical (fall, trip, slip), emotional (includes verbal abuse, bullying etc.) and more using tools like the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) Talking Safety curriculum and abbreviated materials known as Safety Matters, developed jointly by NIOSH and AIHA, member volunteers of AIHA and ACS can introduce these to teachers, students and legislators in their own communities. Communication about ACS resources such as the Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Secondary School and Academic Institutions will be addressed as well as other outreach opportunities that ACS can leverage to support safety cultures in 2018 and beyond.

Safety Matters: Teach Teens to Expect a Safe Workplace, A train the trainer course

New England Chapter – American Industrial Hygiene Association (NEAIHA)

ALL-DAY CONFERENCE

November 1, 2017  ï Four Points by Sheraton Norwood  ï  1125 Boston-Providence Turnpike, Norwood, MA 02062

Maclachlan at #AIHceEXP 2017 Seattle, WA on how to deliver Safety Matters. Photo by AIHA.

10:40am-11:30am Safety Matters: Teach Teens to Expect a Safe Workplace with Jennifer Maclachlan, PID Analyzers, LLC

This train the trainer presentation will focus on how AIHA member volunteers can introduce the joint NIOSH/AIHA Safety Matters Training Program for Young Workers at local area schools, youth groups etc.in their own communities. Proven methods for connecting with educators and other community leaders will be featured together with case studies highlighting both success and failure stories from the Safety Matters on Cape Cod pilot program. Tips on how to administer the materials contained in the Safety Matters Powerpoint™ presentation based on the age of the audience, setting, and time constraints etc. will be included in this presentation. Attendees will be provided with the NIOSH/AIHA Safety Matters Powerpoint™ on a flash drive enabling them to be Safety Matters facilitators.

Register here

See the full morning program below. Click here to see the full day program: http://www.neaiha.org/

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION DETAILS

	Early Registration (by Oct 25th)	Regular Registration (after Oct 25th)
NEAIHA Members	$140.00	$155.00
Non-Member	$165.00	$180.00
Retiree/Student/Unemployed	$75.00	$75.00

Pre-registration for NEAIHA members will be available through the Memberclicks link on the NEAIHA website. Registration link: https://anels.memberclicks.net/index.php?option=com_mc&view=mc&mcid=form_243100

ABIH CERTIFICATION MAINTENANCE

Attendance receipts for certification maintenance purposes will be available at the door.  This event contains 7.5 technical contact hours, and may be eligible for ABIH CM credit.  See ABIH web site for CM credit criteria.

Safety Matters/Teen Workplace Safety Beta Group Task Force

Volunteer opportunity for AIHA members:
I am currently chairing the Safety Matters/Teen Workplace Safety AIHA Beta Group Task Force. We are just getting started and I am  accepting AIHA member volunteers to serve on this task force. Like any task force, this will require a few conference calls and several emails with a specific time limit. Please contact me if you are interested in serving in this capacity.

Photo Credit: B.Chirico, AIHA

What is Safety Matters? This general awareness training program developed jointly by the National Institute of Occupational Heath and Safety (NIOSH) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is designed to teach young workers how to identify workplace hazards and know their rights as workers.

Why is this important? Here are some statistics you may not know: 

• "Approximately 1.6 million U.S. teens (aged 15–17) work.
• Every nine minutes, a U.S. teen is injured on the job.
• On average, each year:
• 59,800 workers under the age of 18 are sent to the ER for job-related injuries
• 37 workers under the age of 18 die on the job.
• Young workers are twice as likely to be injured compared to adult workers." (from https://www.aiha.org/get-involved/SafetyMattersCenter/Pages/default.aspx)

Want to help bring Safety Matters to your community and teach young workers to expect a safe workplace? Then contact me to learn how you can mobilize this effort locally.

How to Deliver a Safety Matters Presentation

Catherine Hovde, CIH, CSPPresenter
Amazon, Inc.
Seattle , WA 

Jennifer MaclachlanPresenter

PID Analyzers, LLC

Sandwich , MA 

United States of America

Mon, 6/5: 9:30 AM  - 9:55 AM AIHA Ed
Interactive Learning #AIHce

Washington State Convention Center 

Room: Hub Area 1A - AIHA Education 

Description

Learn from experienced presenters how to deliver a "Safety Matters" training session for young workers using the materials from NIOSH and AIHA. Gain insights and practical tips on where to present and what works best so you can deliver a presentation that will have a positive impact on the youth in your community.

Read Jennifer's blog post about Safety Matters on Cape Cod here

'Safety Matters': A successful launch on Cape Cod to the 7th grade at Monomoy Regional Middle School

'Safety Matters' has officially been launched on Cape Cod. I gave three back-to- back presentations to over 100 7th graders who attend the Monomoy Regional Middle School in Chatham, MA (Cape Cod) on Friday December 16, 2016. The 7th grade students had an abbreviated schedule: 30 minute blocks of curriculum today instead of the usual 50 minute blocks to accommodate an enrichment at the end of the day facilitated by the Museum of Science. I presented the 'Safety Matters' training module to each of the three groups during their science block in the auditorium. 

What exactly is 'Safety Matters'? Safety Matters is an educational module developed jointly by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) designed to be facilitated by AIHA member volunteers, like myself, grassroots-style, in their own communities to students in grades 7-12. The intention of this program is to provide general awareness of potential safety hazards on the job and teach young workers how to identify these hazards and ultimately to prevent job-related injuries by knowing their rights to a safe and healthy workplace. Ideally, once a set of students are trained, the teacher can add the training materials into their curriculum for the following year.

Why launch at Monomoy? Why not Barnstable (where I live) or Sandwich (where I work) both of which are where I usually do my science education outreach programs like the Cape Cod Science Cafe, Wicked Cool Autumn Welcome or STEM Journey? In my experience, part of being successful with this type of program launch is launching where people WANT the programming. I announced on Facebook last August that I was pitching the pilot program 'Safety Matters on Cape Cod' to the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Health and Safety Executive Committee seeking their endorsement since this type of education program is in their wheelhouse. Here's the link to Monomoy: Nancy Gifford, my friend and fellow organizing partner on the aforementioned science outreach events, commented on my Facebook post that she "can't wait for [me] to come to Monomoy". So that's how Monomoy claimed the premiere of 'Safety Matters'. The Cape Cod Chronicle was kind enough to send reporter Alan Pollock to cover the story. Read it here.

NIOSH and AIHA did a spectacular job preparing the Safety Matters materials for volunteers to use. Notably, in each of the three groups I had students share about someone that they knew who had been injured on the job. These were common injuries that included slips, trips, falls, and one student mentioned that his father hurt his back while taking a lobster trap out of the ocean. Having these discussions throughout the presentation really engaged the students, the embedded videos in the presentation (particularly 'Mallory's Story) evoke emotion, although there is a tendency for the students to 'blame the worker' in these scenarios and I kept stressing that the worker has a right to a safe workplace. I passed my laser pointer around to the students during the segments where there are illustrated drawings of some 'very unsafe' workplaces. This was a huge hit and really made the students part of the presentation.

My goal for 2017 is to bring 'Safety Matters' to all of the Cape and Islands school districts. Call it a bit of the 'go big or go home' sentiment but having the ability to achieve something so impactful across the region like helping shape the safety culture for young workers is pretty amazing. And I'm lucky to have the support of my company, PID Analyzers, LLC (allowing me the time this project will take) and the publicity my professional societies  AIHA and ACS will give me,  so I can share my 'Safety Matters on Cape Cod' story.

 I'm scheduled to go back to Monomoy in January to present to those that missed the presentation today. 

Read my first blog post about 'Safety Matters':http://analyzersource.blogspot.com/2016/12/safety-matters-on-cape-cod.html .

Contact me if you are interested in conducting Safety Matters in your community.

'Safety Matters' on Cape Cod

On Friday December 16, 2016, I'll be rolling out the education module 'Safety Matters' to the 7th grade at the Monomoy Regional Middle School in Chatham, Cape Cod. 

This general awareness training program developed jointly by the National Institute of Occupational Heath and Safety (NIOSH) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is designed to teach young workers how to identify workplace hazards and know their rights as workers.

Why is this important? Here are some statistics you may not know: 

• "Approximately 1.6 million U.S. teens (aged 15–17) work.
• Every nine minutes, a U.S. teen is injured on the job.
• On average, each year:
• 59,800 workers under the age of 18 are sent to the ER for job-related injuries
• 37 workers under the age of 18 die on the job.
• Young workers are twice as likely to be injured compared to adult workers." (from https://www.aiha.org/get-involved/SafetyMattersCenter/Pages/default.aspx)

As you may know, if you follow any of my social media, I'm an avid volunteer for the American Chemical Society (ACS) and serve in various public relations leadership roles. Notably, American Chemical Society CEO, Tom Connelly described an interest in partnering with other professional societies on chemical and lab safety issues in his June 27, 2016 comment titled ACS's Role in Safety in Chemical and Engineering News. This got me thinking about potential partnerships between the ACS and AIHA. It seemed logical to me to get the ACS involved in this particular education outreach effort because of its central workplace safety message; especially the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Health & Safety (DCHAS). So I pitched the idea to the DCHAS Executive Committee at the recent Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society of having DCHAS 'endorse' my efforts to bring 'Safety Matters' to Cape Cod students, as well as my own local ACS section: Northeastern Local Section and NEAIHA, my AIHA Local section. The overall goal in partnering with so many groups is for me to report back with a 'best practices on how to implement 'Safety Matters' in a way that will inspire and guide members of the various groups/subgroups I have engaged, to encourage their members to bring this program to their own communities. Eventually, once I've completed this pilot program on the Cape & Islands, I'd like to tap into the ACS Local Section networks, there are 187 of them, who have outreach activities in place for National Chemical Week in the Fall and Chemists Celebrate Earth Day in the Spring and have their interested members use their community connections to bring 'Safety Matters' to those grade 7-12 educators. Ultimately, once the teachers are introduced to 'Safety Matters' by a volunteer, they can access more in-depth workplace safety programs for young workers that can be added to their curriculum. 

I am grateful to have the support of the ACS Office of Public Affairs, Tom Connelly, DCHAS and NESACS as well as the AIHA Board of Directors, AIHA CEO Larry Sloan and the NEAIHA Executive Committee as I launch 'Safety Matters' Cape-wide.