1300-1415 Hours, Heredia Room at Richfield City Hall

1300-1415 Hours, Heredia Room at Richfield City Hall

MSFCA SAFETY AND HEALTH COMMITTEE

Meeting NOTES

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

1300-1415 hours, Heredia Room at Richfield City Hall

  1. Members attending:

Kevin Schroeder Co-ChairMike Dobesh Co-Chair

John Babin (called in)Jay Forster

Kelly HaninkPat McCarthy (called in)

John Rhode (called in)Tristan Saito (called in)

Mark Schmidt (called in)Kip Springer

  1. Current Projects and Updates
  1. Responder Rehab Program Update – There is a small group working to update the curriculum with the hopes of having it available May 1, 2016. Babin (Savage) offered to assist Dobesh (Richfield) with the project.
  1. Training Safety Officer (TSO) program – This program was initially used in Law Enforcement by the League of MN Cities and was adapted for the Fire Service. The TSO program is currently being used in the Cloquet Area Fire District. Schroeder (Cloquet) and Springer (Eagan) offered to work on the project.
  1. Fitness and Nutrition – Dobesh (Richfield) spoke briefly about the “low carb” Richfield program and stated that the program may not work for everyone, but this is the ONE area that we should push for INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY. Rhode (St. Boni) talked about their program the “Firefighter Fitness Challenge”, the incentives, and the measurement of fat lost. McCarthy (Excelsior) briefly described the increased awareness of a few of their firefighters and the positive gains made by just simple portion control. Dobesh, Rhode, and McCarthy agreed to continue to look at Fitness and Nutrition for the committee.
  1. Protecting Ourselves – Dobesh (Richfield) has done a lot of background work about the issue of properly protecting our crews and ourselves with the increasing threats to first responders. In short, purchasing ballistic protection may not be answer to our people being better protected in the field. Forster (Bloomington) agreed to assist with this issue. The goal is to create and share some best practices or at least some questions to ask when considering an additional level of PPE.
  2. PPE Contamination/Cancer

Scene Safety and Firefighter Cancer (renamed) – Most of this discussion focused around the idea that there is a general lack of understanding about the problem throughout the State, Schroeder (Cloquet). Fire Departments that are not paying attention to the science, don’t know what they don’t know. Saito (St. Paul Park - Refinery) added to the discussion acknowledging the importance of wearing SCBA during overhaul and monitoring our environment until well after the fire is out. These additions led to the change in the title of this group. Schroeder, Saito, and Hanink (Eden Prairie) were interested in continuing work with this topic.

  1. The chairs will be asking the executive board about taking a positon related to Training with your mutual aid/response partners.
  1. Future Projects/Awareness
  2. Safe Patient Handling – Dobesh (Richfield) is part of a task force with MnOSHA, LMCIT, and Law Enforcement looking at ways to reduce the number and severity of back injuries in public safety. There will be more about this as the group moves forward.
  1. Fall Protection on Fire Trucks was discussed as related to Mendota Heights Fire – it is the understanding (Dobesh) that MnOSHA has dropped the claim.
  1. Federal OSHA has apparently put the fire service in their sights because of the number of LODDs.
  2. Potential MANDATE for a second set of gear (decon and bagging gear on scene because of the off-gassing of the gear)
  3. Annual Physicals, per NFPA 1582 (like required for HAZMAT, potentially because a house fire is a HAZMAT). Hannink (Eden Prairie) will review 1582 for the group and report out at the next meeting.
  4. Redefining “Emergency Response” (where all the activities that follow a fire “knock down” would be “non-emergent” and therefore fall into a number of standards; HAZMAT, General Duty, etc.)
  1. Springer (Eagan) asked about mental health initiatives and what departments are doing related to Mental Health and Wellness. The group will revisit this at the next meeting.
  1. Open Discussion – Good of the committee
  2. Meetings – we will meet every other month on the first Wednesday of the month. Our next meeting will be June 1, 1300. Location TBD.
  1. Message / Methods – Those who were able to attend agree that the conference call works to keep people engaged, but we should try to have two meetings “face-to-face” each year. One would be at the conference and another one TBD.
  1. Meeting was adjourned about 1415 hours. Next Meeting, June 1, 1300.Location TBD.
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