County Safety Officers Organization of California
NEWSLETTER
February, 2002
DISABILITY CASE: SCORE
ONE FOR COMMON SENSE
Directors and Officers
President
Vernon Goad
Orange County
PO Box 327
Santa Ana, CA 92702
714-834-3075
fax 714-834-2989
Vice President
Stu Henderson
San Joaquin County
24 S. Hunter St.
Rm. 106
Stockton, CA 95202
209-468-3375
fax 209-468-0508
Secretary-Treasurer
Tom Sproal
Riverside County
PO Box 1033
Riverside, CA 92502
909-955-3520
fax 909-955-9200
John Lincoln, Editor
In a nine to zip decision handed
down January 9 widely reported by
the press, the U.S. Supreme Court
injected a large dose of common
sense into the administration of the
eleven-year-old Americans with
Disabilities Act. Risk Managers
and Safety Officers who did not
happen to read the report of this
decision should take note.
A lady named Etta Williams
worked for Toyota Motors Co. on
an auto assembly line, using power
tools. Etta developed carpal tunnel
syndrome, filed a W/C claim, and
received treatment for her injuries.
On returning to work, Etta asked
for a job that involved lifting no
more than 20 pounds. Her manager
declined, Etta quit and filed a lawsuit claiming damages under the
ADA.
Etta lost her case in the trial
court, but prevailed on appeal,
where the court ruled that her injury was akin to having "damaged or
deformed limbs" and that she
should have been accommodated
by the employer. The high court
disagreed. Justice Sandra Day
O’Conner’s opinion described a
“disabled” person as one who
struggles to do basic tasks that are
“central to daily life,” not the special tasks that go with a particular
job. A disabled employee must
have an impairment that is permanent or long term, not an injury
that is likely to heal. The opinion
concluded by stating that injured
workers should seek benefits under
the state workers compensation
laws, rather than claiming to be
disabled under ADA.
INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Here is one Safety Officer who
looks forward with enthusiasm to
the Spring CSOOC conference to
be hosted by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works. The
topics of mold, sick building syndrome, anthrax and ventilation are
right on target for many of us.
Mold in the workplace seems to
be taking on more importance at
DOSH and the California legislature. No doubt we will have a new
standard soon. Older facilities,
possessed in abundance by most
rural counties, are at risk to accumulate mold and mildew due to
age, careless housekeeping, over
crowding, or just plain neglect.
Moisture gets in. Spores come in
with outside air. Pretty soon you
have mold. It keeps growing, and
never goes away on its own. It is a
bother to search for mold, and
when you do locate it, determining
whether it is toxic or not is costly.
Laboratories willing to do mold
analyses are scarce, far away, and
always expensive. Moreover, the
announced results are sometimes
inconclusive, and often of questionable use in determining what to
do immediately, if anything, with
the work site.
Our county has just completed an
expensive rehabilitation of a building with “sick building syndrome”.
One end of the facility had gradually acquired the aroma of an old
army blanket left outside too long.
On inspection, we found the probable source of mold: a crack in the
poured concrete floor covered by
carpet in some areas and vinyl tile
in others. The crack extended from
the front of the building to the
back, and emitted a strong moldy
odor. We called in an industrial
hygienist who took away specimens and air samples. He returned
a report that was very intimidating
in terms of technicality, and left
unanswered the question of whether or not the spoor count of the one
toxic variety of mold constituted
an immediate danger to the health
and safety of the occupants. The
spoor counts were determined for
both indoor air and outdoor air. In
the case of the toxic mold , the indoor count was only slightly elevated over the outdoor count, and
neither value was in danger range.
Should the building be evacuated
or not? A Health Department deputy director calmed us with this
good advice: “When evaluating
mold and spore counts, it is important to remember that outdoor
values are standard. It is also important to remember that what is in
the air outside will be in the air
inside. To determine the possible
existence of a problem we need to
compare the indoor values
(spores/m3) with outdoor values
(spores/m3). When indoor spore
counts significantly exceed the
outdoor spore counts, remediation
needs to be implemented.”
In addition to the crack in the
floor and the mold, the building
also had poor generally sub-par
indoor air quality due to many remodels inside over the years without consideration of effects on air
circulation.
The building was renovated by
 cleaning and in some cases relocating the HVAC ducting to
arrive at better distribution and
circulation of air inside,
 repairing and resealing the
cracked floor,
 recarpeting the effected area,
 cleaning and removal of all
evidence of mold inside,
 pressure washing the exterior
walls to remove accumulated
mold.
 repainting the entire structure
inside and out.
Try also Centers For Disease Control at
www.cdc.gov/nceh/asthma/factshe
ets/molds
California Department of Health
Services at www.cal-iaq.org
Two interesting little news articles:
Mexico City
GERMS FOR SALE
A Cal/OSHA inspector, responding to an anonymous call, arrived
on the site just as the repair work
was beginning. He inspected the
building, examined our work order, took some air samples, and
told us he was not going to write a
citation for anything. Good guy.
GETTING PROACTIVE ON
MOLD ABATEMENT
Public employees are filing lawsuits over mold infested work sites.
Some of those suits are heading for
trial right here in California against
counties, cities and school districts.
Having just dodged a bullet here in
my county, I am taking this as a
big heads-up. We are urging all of
our departments – and everyone
involved in the safety program – to
pay attention to complaints about
indoor air quality, particularly
when mold may be a factor. Knowing about mold and doing nothing
about it may be a lot more costly
than remediation. I have seen the
light, and I’m a believer.
Here are some good web sites for
current information on mold
abatement and education.
www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/incentiv.
html
www.epa.gov/iaq/molds/intro.html
Two germ banks tucked away in the
smog and sprawl of the hemisphere’s
largest city stock dozens of petri dishes
filled with anthrax, the bacteria that have
sparked a worldwide panic.
But there are no armed guards, no security cameras and no health officials totering about in germ-proof space suits. In
fact, these labs in Mexico City sell, swap
or even give away the potentially deadly
bacteria to those with scientific credentials.
Scientists estimate that 1500 germ
banks Bangkok to Buenos Aires. Paris to
Perth, keep dozens of strains of Bacillus
anthracis, the germ that causes anthrax,
and millions of other potentially deadly
bacteria on hand for research purposes.
Prices vary between countries.
Visits to several germ centers around
the world found that hazardous spores are
often shipped out in hard plastic travel
vials to researchers or hospitals looking to
check a diagnosis.
More on anthrax
Ames Anthrax Misnomer
Tracing the origin of the strain of anthrax that killed five people last fall has
been a difficult task. And now it turns out
that scientists and investigators have been
on the wrong trail all along.
Federal investigators have found in recent weeks that the so-called Ames strain
was first identified not in Ames, Iowa, its
reputed home, but in Texas. The strain of
the bacteria was found on a dead cow near
the Mexican border in 1981, and the geographic gaffe was the result of a clerical
error by a scientific researcher.
Investigators spent considerable effort
trying to find the genesis of the strain in
Iowa, issuing a subpoena to Iowa State
University, which was known to have a
sizable library of anthrax samples.
(The article went on discuss speculation
about where the strain came from, with no
final answer. As of now, their search is at
a dead end.)
ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER
In our freewheeling round-table discussion in Redding at the conclusion of the Fall Conference business meeting, the subject of the newsletter came up.
It was evident that the majority of members present
felt that a member-produced newsletter was more
likely to cover those subjects in which we had the
most interest – currently. I shared that view, and intemperately volunteered to edit a newsletter. The offer was taken up before I could come to my senses
and rescind it. There was one important matter that I
neglected to share with you – I did not have a good
publishing program, nor the skills to master one
quickly without some tutoring.
But don’t lose heart. I now have not one but two
publishing programs installed on my computers both
in the office and at home, and I am dedicated to mastering one or the other. Meanwhile, I will struggle
with Microsoft Word and a jar of paste while I lurch
on through the publisher learning process. Thank you
all for your patience.
One more point: I believe in the practice of inserting into one’s work a few typos, misspells and lies in
order to give satisfaction to those who enjoy the
search for those little nuggets. I want everyone to be
happy. Good hunting!
MORE BUSINESS
While searching through some old files in my office left there by a former Lake County employee
who worked for the Risk Manager, I came across the
October 1997 issue of the CSOOC Newsletter, published by Angela Cantrell, then with CSAC. Most of
the articles in it were submitted by CSOOC members.
They were well written and dealt with subjects that
would be germane any time in any Safety Office.
Therefore, I invite all of you to resume this practice.
It provides an excellent means of assuring that no
important and current safety matter escapes our collective attention. Overloaded as we all are with county business, getting a newsletter together for monthly
publication just about has to be a collective effort. So
please do send me newsletter articles, or materials.
As of now, I plan to publish on the 15th of every
month, or he nearest work day to it.
I also encouraging you to submit for publication
any announcements of safety and risk management
positions open in your county, with enough contact
information to enable interested parties to respond.
Jeff Deal, Butte County, submitted the following
timely article for publication during this winter
month:
Safe Driving – Tire Pressure
Your tires support the weight of your vehicle,
right? Well, they don’t! It’s the air pressure inside
them that that actually supports the weight Maintaining sufficient air pressure is required if your tires are
to provide all of the handling, traction and durability
of which they are capable. However, you can’t just
set tire pressure….and then forget about it! Tire pressure has to be checked periodically to assure that the
influences of time, changes in ambient temperatures
or that a small tread puncture has not caused it to
change.
The rule of thumb is that for every 10 degree Fahrenheit change in air temperature, your tire’s inflation
pressure will change by about 1 psi (up with higher
temperatures and down with lower).
The tire pressure recommended in your vehicle’s
owner’s manual or tire information placard is the vehicle’s recommended “cold” tire inflation pressure.
This means that it should be checked in the morning
before you drive more than a few miles, or before
rising ambient temperatures or the sun’s radiant heat
affects it.
Since air is a gas, it expands when heated and contracts when cooled. In most parts of North America,
this makes fall and early winter months the most critical times to check inflation pressures…days are getting shorter…ambient temperatures are getting colder…and your tires’ inflation pressure is going down!
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has
urged drivers to check their tire pressure before making long trips. “Driving with substantially underinflated tires can lead to crashes and tragedy, in addition to reducing fuel efficiency and shortening tire
life,” Mineta said.
(By Jeff Deel)