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 Home > Regional MRC Coordinators > Bruce I. Marganoff > Region II Newsletters > Region II Newsletter - Fall 2005
Upcoming EventsRegion II Training ConferenceThe first Region II Training Conference will be held in Manalapan, NJ on October 22, 2005. The focus of the conference is to provide new volunteer members with training components of the MRC program. The program will be "kicked-off" by Commander Robert J. Tosatto, U.S. Public Health Service, the Director of the national MRC program. Participants will attend several fixed topic presentations and choose from optional programs based on their preference for additional training. Attendance will be limited to 500 people, and tickets for the event will be distributed through the local site coordinators.
New Jersey Citizen Corps and New Jersey MRC MeetingOn September 16th, the members of the New Jersey Citizen Corps and the New Jersey MRC will join together for presentations on issues that face the volunteers. The program will be held at the Trenton War Memorial and has been arranged through the auspices of Howard Butts, NJ Citizen Council. For additional information about registration and attending the program at no cost, contact Howard at 609-538-6064.
Conference Steering Committee UpdateThe Conference Steering Committee is in the final stages of identifying topical presentations for the Fall Training Conference and finding presenters for those topics. The committee members have discussed the need to include topics on the health of volunteers in the program. There was a strong feeling that both emergency victims and emergency responders confront issues that can produce residual mental anguish and concern. The MRC volunteers need to be prepared to deal with these issues when called out. Hopefully the training will assist them in this area. New CD Distributed to MRC Site CoordinatorsPresident George W. Bush and Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona have been video taped for an MRC presentation, which is now being delivered to MRC Coordinators. Hopefully, this CD will assist local units in delivering the message of the MRC and provide impact to their local programs. Reminder for New MRC SitesThere is currently a Technical Assistance Series CD available. This CD will act as a guide to any developing or existing MRC unit. Coordinators can obtain copies from the Region II Coordinator, Bruce Marganoff, at the following e-mail address: bruce.marganoff@hhs.gov. The Technical Assistance Series also is available on the MRC Web site. Please see further information below. Historical Fatal Accidents Among Volunteers*The following article is an exerpt from a full report. Fatal Injuries Among Volunteer Workers—United States, 1993–2002 In the United States, an estimated 59 million persons spend a median of 52 hours each year volunteering, most often in religious, educational, youth, or community service organizations; volunteers commonly perform activities such as coaching, campaigning, fundraising, delivering goods, and serving on boards or neighborhood associations (1). Few studies have analyzed fatal injuries to volunteers, and studies have typically focused on a specific volunteer group (e.g., Peace Corps). To characterize fatal injuries among volunteers in the United States, CDC analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)* for 1993–2002. This report describes the results of that analysis, which indicated that a total of 501 persons died from injuries sustained while volunteering during this period; most often these persons were firefighters and other volunteers who were operating motor vehicles at the time of death. To reduce these fatalities, organizations that rely on volunteers need to provide adequate training (e.g., defensive driving and recognition of evacuation signals) on the basis of well-communicated and enforced safety and health policies. CFOI classifies employee status into one of seven categories: 1) active-duty armed forces, 2) self-employed, 3) work in family business, 4) work for pay or compensation, 5) volunteer, 6) off-duty police, or 7) not reported. CFOI includes fatalities to volunteer workers if they were performing the same duties or functions as paid employees and they met the CFOI work-relationship definition. † For this study, deaths were included if the decedent's employment status category was marked "volunteer." Excluded were deaths resulting from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. After numbers of deaths were obtained from CFOI, rates of death among volunteers were calculated by using estimates of median annual volunteer hours worked from the September 2002 Current Population Survey (CPS) volunteer supplemental survey§ (2) and converting those hours to full-time equivalents (FTEs) (i.e., 2,000 hours worked per person per year). CPS defines a volunteer as a person who performed unpaid activities for an organization (3). During 1993–2002, three occupations accounted for approximately half of the 501 fatal injuries to volunteers: firefighters, 185 deaths (37%); nonconstruction laborers, 35 (7%); and pilots/navigators, 24 (5%). The remaining fatalities (all <4%) were distributed across 13 occupations (Table 1). The single most common volunteer activity at the time of death was firefighting, for which 76 deaths (15%) were recorded. Driving a motor vehicle (e.g. automobile, truck, or farm vehicle) was recorded in 100 (21%) of the fatalities (Table 1). Under the system used by BLS to classify industry sectors, 240 (48%) deaths related to volunteer work occurred in public administration (including firefighting), 154 (31%) in services, and 23 (5%) in agricultural forestry and fishing. Median age of victims at the time of death was 41 years; 436 (87%) of the decedents were male. The overall rate of death among volunteers was 3.2 per 100,000 FTE population (Table 2). Among 189 volunteer workers aged <34 years, 103 (54%) were volunteer firefighters or firefighting supervisors. The fatal injury rates for volunteer workers aged >35 years were lower when compared with the overall volunteer death rate. The rates among volunteers aged 20–24 and 25–34 years were 7.4 and 6.5 per 100,000 FTE population, respectively, more than twice the overall volunteer death rate and higher than the 1993–2002 average annual fatality rate for all workers aged 20–24 and 25–34 years of 3.5 and 3.9 per 100,000 employed, respectively (2).
NY City Sponsors an Obesity Prevention ConferenceThe HHS Region II office will sponsor an Obesity Prevention Conference on September 14, 2005. The program will include a walk for participants over the Brooklyn Bridge. Members of the NYC MRC will lend a hand in case any of the walkers need medical assistance. Interested participants should contact Sandra Estepa, Office of Women’s health at 212-264-4628 or visit the Web site at http://www.4woman.gov/ for the latest information. Public Health and Disasters BroadcastOn Thursday September 29th, at 4:00–5:00 p.m., there will be a BROADCAST of Public Health and Disasters. This will be a lecture by Eric K. Noji at the University of Pittsburgh on the health consequences of disasters. Dr. Noji, a physician at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will discuss how medical personnel can improve their response to disasters. This year, we plan to offer a live Webcast of the John C. Cutler memorial lecture. The lecture also will be available on the Pitt GSPH Media Site archive BOTH LIVE and AFTER the event. View the lecture by visiting the Pitt Media Site archive starting at 4:00 p.m. on September 29. Ensure to perform the testing steps below well in advance of the lecture to ensure there are no technical difficulties. The University of Pittsburgh Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE) provides Web media services to the university community.
Technical AssistanceThe MRC Web site contains a series of files which have been organized to provide technical assistance, particularly for the new sites that are organizing their units. The following information comes from the MRC Web site and can be accessed from Technical Assistance Series page. Last Updated on 8/14/2006 |
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