Page 9 - Work Force May 2016

CSEA launches sanitation safety initiative
LAKE PLACID — It’s not enough just to “Don’t Zone Out” when driving near roadway work zones.
Now CSEA is broadening our public awareness efforts
to remind the public that driving around sanitation vehicles can be
just as dangerous,
launching our
“Slow Down To Get
Around” campaign.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sanitation collection was the fifth deadliest job
in the country in
2014. Since 1983, CSEA has lost 11 members to fatalities associated with sanitation jobs.
Unveiled at the union’s recent Statewide Conference on
Occupational Safety and Health, the new initiative was developed by the union’s Statewide Sanitation Workgroup, formed last year by
President Danny Donohue, with a goal of raising
awareness of the hazards associated with refuse and recycling operations.
At the conference, union activists and staff distributed
new window clings featuring the “Slow Down To Get Around” logo and awareness fliers.
CSEA is also joining forces with sanitation industry
groups in lobbying to have sanitation vehicles included in New York’s amber light “Move Over Law” and is offering new Clean Up Safety trainings
The CSEA Putnam County Local’s entry in the poster contest at the Statewide Conference on Occupational Safety and Health focused on highway safety.
Heimlich hat trick saves three lives
PHILADELPHIA — For school library worker Janna Cook, it seems saving school children’s lives is becoming her specialty.
Cook, a library media specialist at the Indian River School District’s Intermediate
School and
CSEA Jefferson
County Local
member, spends
most of her day
in the school
library, but
for 30 minutes
every day she
has lunch duty
in the school
cafeteria, supervising more than 100 children while they eat.
It was a routine Thursday afternoon in the cafeteria last October when her lifesaving skills once again were put to the test, when a 9-year-old boy began choking.
“Everyone just kind of panicked and I heard someone yell ‘he’s
May 2016
choking’ and I just high-tailed it across the cafeteria. I ‘Heimliched’ him at least 10 times and I was ready to put him on the floor and do mouth to mouth, but I ended up dislodging the piece of food,” Cook said. (The
Heimlich maneuver uses abdominal compressions to dislodge food from a choking victim’s mouth.)
“I was really calm while it was happening, but after the fact I thought ‘I could
have lost this kid.’ I was thinking ... ‘this is somebody’s baby. I can’t do that (let him die)’.”
This was the third time she had saved a student, having saved another student six months earlier who was choking on a peanut butter sandwich. In 2002, she also saved an elementary school boy, who choked
on a corn chip.
Each time, she relied on her training
in CPR and first aid, through classes offered by the district. “It’s good that we are trained, because you just don’t ever know what might happen,” she said. “I really feel that anybody who’s working around children should be trained in first aid and CPR.”
“I’m just thankful that I was there and able to save those kids,” Cook said.
For her efforts, Cook was
recognized in the local media, but she modestly brushes off compliments when people refer to her actions as heroic. She admits that she enjoyed when the kids passed her in school hallways afterwards, telling her “good job.”
“That makes me feel like I know I’m appreciated,” she said, smiling.
— Mark M. Kotzin
through the union’s Occupational Safety and Health Department. Union members performing this type of work should contact your region’s CSEA occupational safety and health
specialist to request the training. To learn more, visit
cseany.org/sanitation-safety.
— Mark M. Kotzin
“I really feel that anybody who’s working around children should be trained in first aid and CPR. I’m just thankful that I was there and able to save those kids.”
The Work Force 9