As emergency response and local cleanup crews work to respond to accidents, road and property damage resulting from recent flooding, they are exposed to a range of serious hazards. Every year, public employees die during emergency response work, hit by cars, tree limbs, and even via electrocution from live power lines.
Workers killed on the job during 2010 were remembered with Workers' Memorial Day, on Thursday, April 28. Thousands die across the country, and roughly 200 die each year in New York.
"This is not just a day of remembrance, but a time to reflect on the year's on-the-job deaths, ask why they happened, and to resolve to work harder to prevent future tragedies," said Dr. Giulia Earle-Richardson, Deputy Director of NYCAMH. "In 2009, 184 New Yorkers went to work, but never made it back home, leaving families and communities behind."
According to the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health, 184 people in New York died on the job in 2009. This statistic has improved slightly every year for the past decade, thanks in part to HealthWorks, NYCAMH's rural workplace safety and health program.
The HealthWorks staff work with 600 local, regional and national businesses throughout central New York to improve worker safety and health. They provide health evaluations, which give firefighters a better understanding of their health conditions and potential risks on the job. It also ensures that workers in all industries are not exposed to harmful chemicals or other jobsite hazards. Farmers and farm workers are trained in English and Spanish to make sure that everyone can understand their job and its safety precautions and, ultimately, to prevent worksite tragedies.
HealthWorks' services include wellness initiatives, such as immunizations and health screenings; cardiac risk screening; respiratory protection programs; occupational hearing testing; and drug and alcohol testing.
Last year in Otsego County, HealthWorks administered the hearing tests for the towns, villages and county highway departments and 911 dispatchers, and conducted 1,027 physicals for Otsego County firefighters and EMS workers. These efforts have contributed to reducing rural worker fatalities.
"The thing that makes these workers' deaths a matter for action rather than just sadness is that they are entirely preventable," Earle-Richardson said. Steps as simple as safety harnesses, additional training and better communication can prevent fatal injuries. The HealthWorks team implements these changes each day to make workers healthier and safer on the job.
HealthWorks offers assistance to employers and worksites in developing Worksite Wellness Programs. Call 547-6023, ext. 237, for more information.
The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health is a program of Bassett Healthcare Network.
Guest Column
HealthWorks helps keep workers safe on the job
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
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Time to get off the bus and on the computer
Seventy-five years ago, use of a new technology resulted in a dramatic transformation of education in our region and in rural areas throughout the country.
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Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
New York State has a long history of problems with money -- high income taxes, high property taxes, and a high lifestyle in Albany that seems to attract lots of politicians with high, even presidential, aspirations. For decades our politicians have sucked up enormous wealth from businesses and individuals, and redistributed it in ways that ensure their continued political employment. The Empire runs on money, and recognizing this fact, it should be simple to figure out how the fracking debate is going to play out over the next few months in Albany.
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Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
A lot of discussion and debate has occurred in our area lately over the issue of 'home rule' as it would apply to natural gas drilling. Let me offer some thoughts and my perspective on the issue and on the legislation I have sponsored (S. 5830) to enable local governments to treat natural gas drilling the way zoned communities treat any other commercial, industrial or residential use.
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Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
Sustainable Otsego has been in the news a lot lately. We have been vocal critics of hydrofracking for natural gas both locally and statewide, and we put together with the Democrats a winning slate of pro-sustainability, pro-home rule, anti-fracking candidates in the recent elections.
- Saturday, November 5, 2011
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Fracking fears are based on facts
Some recent letters in The Daily Star and other local papers have implied that supporters of candidates for town and county offices who oppose gas drilling are fear-mongering, or that we can rely on the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to protect us.
- Saturday, October 22, 2011
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Tea goes well with 'Occupy'
Otsego County supporters of the Tea Party will remember me. In 2009, we marched in outrage against the bi-partisan $800 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street.
- Monday, October 17, 2011
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City charter deserves support
Having served as mayors of the City of Oneonta, we write to urge the city’s voters to approve the proposed new city charter on Nov. 8.
- Saturday, October 1, 2011
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Don't overlook potential of workers with disabilities
American jobs are dominating the national conversation right now, and with good reason. But amid the political debates and pundit analysis, there's one segment of the labor market that's going largely ignored: Workers with disabilities.
- Sunday, September 18, 2011
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Coventry pipeline could benefit region
Last month, anti-drillers campaigned against a pipeline shipping Coventry gas to Bainbridge and Sidney customers. What's wrong with this picture?
- Monday, August 1, 2011
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'Gas Wars' entering its second act
Raise the curtain on the second act of Gas Wars. The SGEIS allows access to 85 percent of the shale gas beneath our state. The hardcore environmental lobby has lost to the science and the multi-state research of the three-year study by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. All that is left is the hoopla surrounding the 60-day comment period. The DEC then presents the final document to the governor for release. Then gas development begins in New York.
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Make affordable birth control a priority
One of the biggest barriers to effective family planning may soon come tumbling down for millions of American women.
- Saturday, July 16, 2011
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SUNY Oneonta expansion will be bad for city
Recent plans by the State University College at Oneonta to expand its reach into the community have threatened to change the character of several neighborhoods here in the city.
- Saturday, July 9, 2011
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Health: Take steps to protect your skin this summer
NetSummary
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The folly of job-training programs
America believes that the solution to every social and economic problem is job training. Outsourcing? Job training. Economically depressed neighborhoods? Job training. Impoverished single mothers? You guessed it.
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'Change' is the byword for city, region, state
Regardless of the outlook at the federal level, and separate from the glimmer of promise for New York State, we're sure to see changes in the "who" and "how" of handling our local challenges in the year ahead.
- Saturday, June 25, 2011
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Changes to city charter will be good for Oneonta
The Oneonta Charter Review Commission appreciated the opportunity to present the first full draft of the proposed Oneonta City Charter to the mayor and Common Council on June 7, as well as the questions from Council Members.
- Saturday, June 11, 2011
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Health column: Take step to prevent and treat urinary tract infections in girls
By Dr. Linda M. Lukose How common are urinary tract infections in girls?
- Saturday, June 4, 2011
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Take steps to combat illegal dog fights
Dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states. However, because of loopholes in the laws in New York state, many dog fighters go free. This has made New York a haven for these vicious criminals. People come from other states and cities to rural areas like ours to take part in the criminal activity of dog fighting. Otsego and Delaware counties are close to the Pennsylvania border and within an hour of Binghamton and Albany, making us a central location.
- Saturday, May 21, 2011
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Gas Wars: A play in three acts
Act One: The Prequel. Starts in 2008 and ends with the publication of the Supplemental Generic Impact Statement.
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
