text:
О взаимопонимании между переводческими агентствами и фрилансерами
Andrei E. Gerasimov, Ph.D.
Working together
1. Introduction - The objectives of this article
Freelance translators and translation agencies work together to help end clients to achieve better understanding between them and target markets. To be successful in this area, first of all we need to improve understanding between us (freelancers and agencies).
The objectives of this article are 1) to identify typical misunderstandings between distant freelance translators and translation agencies and 2) to suggest ways to improve understanding between the parties. In 2011 I will celebrate the 15th anniversary of my fulltime career in freelance translation in the worldwide market. This article is based on my communications with my numerous clients - dozens of translation agencies in many countries such as USA, UK, Japan, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and more during this period.
Fortunately for end clients the majority of translation agencies now understand that they should use only translators who1) translate into their native language and 2) permanently live in the country where this target language is the main language of everyday use. These obvious facts make the use of distant freelance translators even more important. (It is a well-known fact that immigrant translators lose their native language faster than they improve their knowledge of the foreign language). At the same time this situation increases the importance of good understanding between translation managers and distant freelance translators - despite the fact that they belong to and live in different cultural environments. My experience proves that many misunderstandings are caused by cultural differences between western translation managers and freelancers from the rest of the world - whatever you choose to call them - third world, emerging democracies, or developing countries.
Fortunately for end clients the majority of translation agencies now understand that they should use only translators who1) translate into their native language and 2) permanently live in the country where this target language is the main language of everyday use. These obvious facts make the use of distant freelance translators even more important. (It is a well-known fact that immigrant translators lose their native language faster than they improve their knowledge of the foreign language). At the same time this situation increases the importance of good understanding between translation managers and distant freelance translators - despite the fact that they belong to and live in different cultural environments. My experience proves that many misunderstandings are caused by cultural differences between western translation managers and freelancers from the rest of the world - whatever you choose to call them - third world, emerging democracies, or developing countries.
2. Cultural differences
Below I will outline some cultural specifics of Russia which strongly influence all areas of local business including the translation business (why should it be an exclusion?). As far as I know these cultural specifics are applicable to many other countries of the third world, emerging democracies, or developing countries. Bribe, kickback, unethical methods of competition in business take place in the western world and are regarded as criminal there, however in Russia (and other similar countries) they are widespread norms of conducting any business. Of course the translation business is less prone to corruption than the Russian oil industry, because profits/stakes in these 2 industries are incomparable, however I would state that basic principles of survival and becoming successful are identical. Unethical methods of business competition thrive in the Russian translation industry because of very strong competition and a high percentage of unprofessional low-competence players (too many people, including secretaries with a diploma of 3 month courses in a foreign language, believe they re proficient in English and therefore can offer translation services).
Some of these principles are as follows - to be successful you should always try to:
In the 20th century millions of Russians survived by providing false, incriminating evidence to authorities, and such behaviour became a part of Russian DNA. One very interesting Russian phenomenon which is well familiar to everyone with minimal knowledge of Russian politics/corporate life - when a political leader (or corporate boss) has to promote/ / put forward someone else to a high position in the political/corporate hierarchy, very often he will choose the weakest, easily controllable person among all more or less acceptable candidates. Many examples of such strategy are available in the history of the Soviet era as well as in the latest Russian history. Besides, in many situations personal loyalty is considered to be a much more important factor than professional competence.
It is a well known fact that today Russian companies hire Russian police, tax inspection agencies and other state agencies to eliminate successful competitors in business. Such "private orders" are an important source of enrichment for officials from governmental agencies. In other words, if you can't win in business competition, you can send your competitor to jail and grab his business.
Russian translators live in this immoral environment, they read newspapers and watch TV, so why should they act in a manner very different from the one described above?
Typical situation from real life: A British translation company uses their first choice English>Russian translator. Sometimes he/she is overloaded, and the company wants to find backup translator(s). The company sends several test translations (made by candidate translators) to the first-choice translator and asks him/her to evaluate (rate) the tests. Acting in accordance with Russian ethics, culture and morals, as well as the best interests of his/her own business, he/she will assign lowest rating to the best test translation and the highest rating - to the poorest one. And the naive British translation company will act on the basis of this evaluation of the tests.
3. Malicious proofreading and unfair evaluation
It does not take an Albert Einstein to understand how the methods described in item 2 work in the Russian translation industry, especially in proofreading and evaluation of tests and regular translations. So only the most naive western translation managers (who are not familiar with Russian business ethics) take seriously the results of evaluation of tests and regular translations.
Another typical situation. A huge international corporation hires a western translation agency to translate a manual or marketing material into several languages, including Russian. After receipt of the translation the western client sends it to their Russian rep. office for evaluation/validation and receives a very negative feedback. This negative feedback may be for 2 reasons - 1) the quality of translation is really poor, or 2) the quality of translation is good, but the evaluator (usually marketing manager) hates the idea that the translation services are bought directly by western headquarters. He/she wants to have complete control over the translation process, to hire a local translation agency and receive a nice kickback! (which he loses in the situation described above). Are you aware of the fact that kickback is the main source of income for the majority of small and big managers (involved in purchasing of goods and services) working in Russian offices of western companies?
As to proofreaders and editors, in my opinion they should hold the same responsibility for their work as translators do. This is because proofreaders and editors may bring even more harm to a translation agency and end client than an incompetent translator. The most typical sin of unprofessional proofreaders is excessive, arbitrary, preferential editing. Quite often such proofreaders replace quite correct target terms by synonyms which are less appropriate in the context. They do this just for the sake of showing that they are actually necessary. Excessive unjustified editing should be regarded as unprofessional and unethical behaviour because it steals our most valuable resource - time of translators (who need to respond to such revisions) and time of translation managers who are often misled and confused by such proofreading (especially so when they do not know the target language). The existing situation is absurd - contrary to translation, unprofessional (and even malicious) proofreading may not incur any penalties for the proof-reader. Even on a subconscious level a freelance proof-reader always wants to discredit a translator, who is his more successful competitor, so a full-time in-house proof-reader is a better option, in my opinion, because he/she does not perceive the translator as a more successful rival. Note that successful translators do not offer proofreading services as a rule - they do not need additional low paid work.
4. Attempts to reserve a translator's time beforehand
Quite often agencies try to reserve/book my working time long before they get the source text from the end client. In most cases when I get the job (if I actually get it) the start date, wordcount and the text itself are very different from those specified initially. If I promise to reserve my time for a particular job, I have to turn down some other jobs that may be offered to me by other agencies or direct clients. And when I do not receive the job at the promised date, it will result in downtime and loss of work, so necessary to keep any freelancer afloat. The agencies try to impose unilateral obligations on a freelancer - they can't guarantee the exact start date and wordcount, but try to commit a freelancer to be available for the job anyway. A translator's availability changes all the time - I may have a slack day and a heavy overload on the next day.
To avoid downtime in such a situation I respond that I will do my best to make myself available when I actually receive the expected job. This response makes clear that I am not ready to accept unilateral obligation and risk to losing work by waiting for a job. If an agency can't guarantee the start date and wordcount, it should not expect any commitment from a translator.
My answer to the issue - any agency should always have at least 2-3 freelance translators for each language direction and area of specialization because the first choice translator may be overloaded, ill or on vacation, and to ensure consistency of terminology they should regularly update the translation memory using bilingual files.
Another sub-aspect of the above issue - a responsible translator will not promise to take a job before seeing the source text. I worked as an electronics engineer for 9 years, however it does not mean that I am familiar with all sub-areas of electronics and can translate ANY text from this area. First of all I need to make sure that I am comfortable with a particular source text. Only then can I accept the job.
Many years ago a UK agency put pressure on me and made me promise to do a proofreading job before they could show me the translation. After several days (of course much later than promised initially) I received the translation and found out that it was so poor that proofreading was not applicable - it was easier to translate the text from scratch. When I explained the situation and refused to carry out the proofreading, the manager from the agency protested as if I had actually let her down.
5. Misunderstandings associated with payments
Another typical misunderstanding is associated with delayed payments. Any agency may have a temporary cash flow problem. I can understand such situations and wait for the payment patiently - provided the communication between parties is honest and clear. However some agencies prefer not to respond to reminders or respond very vaguely. This may result in mistrust and unnecessary aggressive collection actions. As a result, a freelancer loses a client and the client loses its good payment practice reputation. I strongly recommend that agencies respond to reminders immediately and clearly and give only promises they are able to keep.
In December 2008 I sent 15 invoices to my long-term clients. The invoices included my new banking details and a note in red colour: "Pls use my new banking details". However 3 clients sent money to my old banking details. This is a typical situation, I had similar problems in the past. I kindly ask all my clients, old and new ones, to read invoices attentively before making a wire transfer. Translators from Eastern countries such as Russia change their banking details more often than western translators - our banking system is unstable.
6. Flexible rates are good for all parties
Most of my new clients expect that a freelancer will offer them one rate for all jobs. This is not the best approach since some jobs may be more time-consuming than others. Some clients (agencies) ask for discounts for repetitions and exact matches, other (mostly direct clients) - do not.
Therefore it is advisable to specify rates on a per project basis - depending on complexity, deadline, and Trados analysis.
Just one example illustrating the above. Last year my long-term client, a manufacturer of garden tools, asked me to translate their website into Russian. I received over 50 files containing around 200,000 words. In accordance with our agreement my rates for this client are 0.08 Euros per sourceword. The total charges for the translation, based on the above rate, amounted to 16,000.00 Euros. I was not sure that the client actually had such a big budget for this translation. Trados analysis showed 25, 000 new words (no matches) and 175, 000 repetitions and exact matches (note that most direct clients are not familiar with Trados analysis and matches and do not ask for Trados discounts). I suggested charging 0.03 Euros per s/w (instead of the usual 0.08 Euros). The budget of 6000 Euros was approved, and I completed the job in 12 days. 6000Euros for a 12 day job is not so bad even if 0.03 Euros is an unacceptably low rate for most jobs. So being flexible with rates may be quite useful for all parties.
7. Small jobs are most time-consuming
Some managers of translation agencies seem not to understand that small jobs may be unexpectedly time-consuming. Most translation jobs consist of 2 parts - terminology research and the translation itself. Sometimes terminology research takes more time than translation. Most translations may be completed rapidly after all terminology in the target language has been found.
A small 500-words job requiring time-consuming terminology research may take as much time as a 5000-word translation with just a few unfamiliar terms. Translation managers should understand that sometimes a freelance translator can't take on a small job because he/she is busy. Putting pressure on a translator ("pls help me out, it's only 200 words, of course you can find time for such a small job") may result in low quality translation and problems for both parties.
8. Most awkward misunderstandings in my career
To conclude this article, I will tell you about the most awkward/funny misunderstandings in my translation career.
My long-standing Finnish client (translation agency owner) always helps me with very specialized terminology. Several years ago we discussed quite amicably one difficult phrase and could not understand its meaning. Then I found this phrase on a web-site of a big Finnish manufacturer and sent a message to the email address which was published on this website. I asked someone to explain this phrase. Soon I received a very good explanation. Proud of my find I forwarded the message with the explanation to my Finnish client. The reaction was unpredictably incensed: "I shall not work with you anymore… I shall not pay you for the current job… I will expose you and your unethical behaviour… How dare you contact my client?!" I responded politely - "thank you very much for disclosing your client, before your message I had no idea who it was". Later the lady apologized for her inappropriate reaction and we still cooperate with her, quite profitably for both parties.
Another confusing misunderstanding took place quite recently. My long-term US client (an agency) proofread my translation and sent me revisions in the notes inserted in the MS Word document. To read a note, you double click it and first of all you see the name of the proof-reader. In this case the proof-reader's name was "Jorge Castro". I have worked for this client since 2000 to the complete satisfaction of all parties concerned and I was really annoyed when I saw that a "Jorge Castro" (obviously a person with Latin-American or Hispanic origin) dared to revise my translation into Russian. I sent a message to this agency where I wrote some very unpleasant and politically incorrect things about this "illiterate unprofessional proof-reader of non-Russian origin who dares to teach me how to translate into Russian". Imagine my confusion when they responded that "Jorge Castro" was the name of an IT specialist who installed Windows and MS Word on the proof-reader's computer, and the actual proof-reader was a Russian lady linguist, an in-house translation manager and editor, who offered me co-operation 10 years ago, provided me with good jobs and was always very helpful and polite! I learned my lesson - think twice before being rude in any situation.


text:
Tunahaki is the extraordinary story on nine gifted orphans and their journey from Africa to America and back…
It begins in an orphanage called Tunahaki at the foot of Mt. Kilamanjaro. We meet Abdul walking down a dirt road to school, he's thankful for what he has despite lot in life.
TUNAHAKI challenges us to look into what we are expecting to get by giving – and asks, "could we be doing more harm than good?" – as we export American charity around the world.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
FreeRTOS provides a set of timer related API functions. Many of these functions
use a standard FreeRTOS queue to send commands to the timer service task. The
queue used for this purpose is called the 'timer command queue'. The 'timer
command queue' is private to the FreeRTOS timer implementation, and cannot be
accessed directly.
The diagram below demonstrates this scenario. The code on the left represents
a function that is part of a user application, and called from a task that is
created as part of the same user application. The code on the right represents
the timer service task implementation.
The timer command queue is the link between the application task and the timer service task.
In this demonstrated case, the xTimerReset() API function is called from the
application code. This results in a reset command being sent to the timer
command queue for processing by the timer service task. The application code
only calls the xTimerReset() API function – it does not (and cannot) access the
timer command queue directly.


text:
It's harvest time for a number of plants in my garden already. I think a combination of too much rain and then a dry spell are playing havoc with my garden. Is anyone else thinking that our lovely plants and flowers are fading away much too quickly…….sigh?
I just HAD to set up a couple shots of my Garden Harvest of Oregano and Dill on the potting bench. I had MONSTER size Dill this year. Those blossom heads are about 8 inches in diameter! If I DON'T harvest them, I'm going to have Dill taking over my flower bed!
I started off with this one of the Dill. I used Kim Klassen's "darkday" lightroom preset.
Then I decided to add a few more props….again using Kim's "darkday" preset.
My Oregano flowered and it was just too pretty and aromatic NOT to gather a bouquet for the kitchen. I used Kim's "burnt almond" preset on this image.
And then I decided to try a top-down shot with my painted boards as the background. I used Kim's "harvest" preset on this next image. I rather like the way the green vase is popping through the center of the bouquet. I suppose this could be considered monochromatic?
Can't wait to turn a couple of these into more greeting cards for my Etsy Shop.
That's it for today. I still have some images to post with my Astilbe harvest……am drying them for winter photos. Stay tuned!
Hugs and Have a Creative Day!


text:
There's a good chance the word "natural" doesn't mean what you think it does.
At least not when you find it on food packaging. A substantial chunk of the population has at least some misconceptions about what the term means on food labels, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports.
Out of 1,005 respondents, 63 percent believed that the "natural" label meant a packaged food was produced without pesticides, 62 percent believed it meant the product contained no artificial ingredients, and 60 percent believed it meant a product was free of genetically modified organisms (GMO).
When it comes to meat and poultry, 64 percent of survey-takers thought it meant the animals were raised without artificial growth hormones, 57 percent thought it meant they were raised without antibiotics or other drugs, and 50 percent believed it meant the animals "went outdoors."
While we didn't analyze Consumer Reports' statistical methods, it seems safe to say that a good number of people are less than clear on how natural these "natural" foods really are.
In fact, the word has no official, legal definition in the United States. The FDA website explicitly states that the agency "has not developed a definition for the use of the term."
What the FDA does have is a "longstanding policy" that they "consider" the word to mean that "nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food." The policy means that this is the criteria the FDA may use to determine whether a "natural" label is misleading or not, if it's brought to their attention. (The FDA does not pre-approve food labels.)
Note that the current definition has nothing to do with pesticides, artificial growth hormones, GMOs or animal welfare.
And as Consumer Reports points out, there are plenty of products out there with the "natural" label that don't seem to fit even the FDA's informal definition.
But the lack of regulations around the "natural" label could change. In response to demands that the word have some official, formal meaning, the FDA is soliciting feedback from the public on what they think it should designate on food labels. Find out how to submit a comment here.


text:
Today we are revealing the final girl in The Path. Scarlet joins her sisters Robin, Rose, Ginger, Ruby and Carmen as playable characters destined for the fate of Little Red Ridinghood.
Scarlet is the oldest of six. The firstborn. In a family with an invisible mother. Quite a responsibility. One that she faces with determination and a sense of duty and pride. She is 19 years of age. She should probably be enjoying what's left of her youth. But with five younger sisters, one more unruly than the other, somebody needs to maintain order and stability.
Not that Scarlet doesn't wish to share the burden. Or a moment of silence. A moment of quiet understanding with a soulmate. A moment of true togetherness. Her loneliness is a secret she will take to the grave. Sooner than she may expect.
We have just finalized this character and have added pretty pictures of her to the website of The Path. There's new portraits of Scarlet in the gallery and a beautiful desktop wallpaper in the downloads section.
Between her studies and the household, Scarlet doesn't have much time to write in her Livejournal. But feel free to peruse what's there.
And once again, we are posting pictures of the creative process that preceeded Scarlet in her current form to The Path's development journal.
That's it. Six characters for you to play with.
There's more characters in the game. But for those you'll have to wait until the game comes out.


text:
|Donation Funds
|My Donation History
Our organization is able to continue its mission because of your support and generosity. By contributing to a campaign listed below, you'll help ensure that our work continues. Online donations are quick and easy using our secure credit card transactions. We welcome donations of all sizes and payment plans – whether it's a one-time gift, a monthly contribution or part of a matching gifts program.
Death Benefit » Donate OnlineAll members in good standing receive a death benefit. In the unfortunate event of a line of duty death, the member's partner or identified beneficiary will receive $500.00 provided by Protect and Defend. This amount cannot make up for the loss of a partner or loved one, but is a way our family can give back to yours. This type of benefit isn't offered by any other gay/lesbian organization.
Scholarship Fund » Donate OnlineThe scholarship is awared yearly to someone who has a commitment to diversity in one of these professions, and is passionate about pursuing excellence in one of these professions, as demonstrated by academic excellence, professional achievement, personal achievement, overcoming adversity, and demonstrated strong drive to excel in one of these great professions. Each year a special committee awards up to $1,000 a year.
Scholarship Fund Additional Details »
Website Support » Donate OnlineProtect and Defend relies heavily on the use of a website to join all it's members into one community. Support for this website comes from the dues and from donations to pay for the service and support to keep it up and running.
Benevolent Program » Donate OnlineProtect and Defends membership is a close knit family and the organization can be faced with a LODD or a critical incident in which the organization may be tasked with assisting members in travel, accommodations and assembly at such venues such as critical incidents and LODD.
Benevolent Program Additional Details »
Heroes Memorial Fund » Donate OnlineThis fund is used to honor those LGBT officers that have paid the ultimate sacrifice every year. Protect and Defend will recognize the significant others of those officers that get turned away at other memorial services.
Heroes Memorial Fund Additional Details »
The General Fund » Donate OnlineThe General Fund is a great place to contribute to our organization.
This feature is restricted to registered members.
If you are already a member of the community,
click here to sign in.
If you have not yet registered,
click here to get connected!
The upcoming calendar is currently empty.


text:
We're glad you're here and we want to hear from you. Please use the form on this page if you'd like information about upcoming events or to simply learn more about MAI.
Click here if you want to volunteer with Muslim Alliance of Indiana.
Main Office
Indiana Interchurch Center
1100 W. 42nd St., Ste. 125
Indianapolis, IN 46208
Send Us an Email


text:
by Rob Newton of Rob Newton Associates
The start:
In 1886 two major events happened; it was the year the house in which I live was built and the year the first motor car from Mr Benz hit the roads. For 10 years things were relatively quiet and then it all started.
On the 17th August 1896, Mrs. Bridget Driscoll of Old Town, Croydon was the first person to die in a motor car accident, and the first pedestrian victim of an automobile accident in the United Kingdom. As she crossed the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London while attending a folk dancing festival, she was struck by an automobile belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Carriage (Roger-Benz) Company that was being used to give demonstration rides.
The inquest under Coroner William Percy Morrison heard that the incident took place on a terrace in the grounds of Crystal Palace in London and, while the driver was reported to be doing 4mph, witnesses stated that the vehicle was travelling at "a reckless pace", and "tremendous speed" when she was struck and she died minutes later of head injuries. At the time of the crash, the car was being driven by Arthur Edsell, an employee of the company. He had been driving for only 3 weeks. He had apparently tampered with the belt, causing the car to go at twice the intended speed and was also said to have been talking to the young lady passenger beside him.
After a six-hour inquest, the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death". No prosecution was proposed or brought against the driver or the company. The Coroner at the enquiry is reported to have remarked: "I trust that this sort of nonsense will never happen again".
Less than three years later came the first death of a driver and passenger of a motor car. On the 25th February 1899, Edwin Sewell and Major Richer were thrown from their vehicle on Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, London, and killed. Sewell's death was the first fatality of a driver recorded. The driver, Mr. E.R. Sewell had been demonstrating the vehicle, a Daimler Wagonette, to 63-year-old Major James Stanley Richer, Department Head at the Army & Navy Stores, with the view to a possible purchase for the company. As they drove down the hill at 14mph, a wheel shed its rim. Both Sewell and Richer were thrown from the car onto the road. Sewell died instantly, and when Major Richer died four days after the accident without regaining consciousness, it became a dubious double-first; the first death of a driver in Britain, followed by the first death of a passenger in a motor car.
On the corner of Grove Hill there is a plaque commemorating the first car driver ever to die in a road accident
The research years
Since then over 30million people worldwide have lost their lives in road traffic collisions as they are now called. Statistics show however that in the UK the number of people killed and seriously injured has decreased steadily since the introduction of front seatbelt legislation. For more than 25 years Loughborough University's Vehicle Safety Research Centre (VSRC) had been helping the Government and motor industry ensure the cars of today and tomorrow offer the best possible protection to occupants. Established in 1982 within the University's Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI), the VSRC was the largest dedicated real world crash investigation research group in the world. The Centre examined the causes of accidents and injuries, investigating real life crashes, and over the years has made major contributions to European road and vehicle safety, as well as important advances in the science of crash analysis. I was privileged to be part of the team involved in this vital work.
One of the VSRC's longest running projects was the Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS). The study was launched by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 1983 amidst growing concern for the safety of car drivers and passengers. The VSRC and the Birmingham Automotive Safety Centre, based at the University of Birmingham, were selected to work on the project alongside the DfT's Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).
The Co-operative Crash Injury Study, CCIS was one of the world's largest and most well respected studies of car occupant injury causation. Each year the project teams investigated more than 1,200 crashes involving cars. Accidents underwent detailed investigations, and examinations of the damaged cars were carried out to determine the performance of the vehicle during the crash. The examinations we carried out included the role of seat belts, airbags and other safety devices. Injuries sustained by the occupants were then matched to the vehicle and documented in an anonymous electronic database.
The CCIS sample criteria ensured that the data collected was relevant and comparable. We only investigated crashes which had resulted in the death or serious injury of a vehicle occupant, which involved a car that was seven years old or less and where the vehicle has had to be towed away from the scene of the incident. Where several cars had been involved in an accident we examined all the vehicles concerned as they all had an important part to play in helping us to understand how a collision occurred and how injuries were sustained. A proportion of slight injury collisions that involved cars that were five years old or less were also investigated to learn from cars that had performed well in accidents.
When examining vehicles we used a very strict methodology that had been developed over many years to ensure we collected the exact same data from each investigation we carried out. During each examination we gathered very detailed information about the exterior and interior of the vehicle to help us determine how someone was injured, and then correlate our findings with information gathered by the police at the scene of the crash and medical data collected from hospitals. When we had all the information we put together a precise picture of what happened in the accident, how injuries were sustained and how the car performed. This methodology continues to be used at Rob Newton Associates.
There were many different organisations that made use of the CCIS data. The Government, for example, wanted to know what rules or regulations relating to car safety were likely to be of benefit and should be introduced, and what had been the effect of the regulations it had already introduced. Initially the main remit of the CCIS was to establish whether the DfT's decision early in the 1980s to make the wearing of seatbelts in the front seats of vehicles mandatory was the correct one. All indications were that this would help save lives but there was no scientific research to back this up.
You can use computer simulations and laboratory tests to help assess the effectiveness of car safety devices, but you can only truly know if they are saving lives by looking at how they perform in actual accidents. A mechanical dummy in an artificial environment doesn't react like a human would in a car crash and real accidents are much more diverse than can be replicated in laboratories. However, by combining all these methods of investigation, you can make real advances in car safety. Very early on the CCIS was able to illustrate just how effective seatbelts were in saving lives and preventing serious injury.
As well as the Government, the motor industry also used the data collected through the CCIS to get guidance on what new car safety devices are needed, how current devices were performing and how they could be improved. The feedback to industry was an incredibly important part of the CCIS. The investigations we carried out enabled industry to make informed decisions and provided specific data on where and what type of protection new safety devices needed to offer. For example, in side impacts, should car manufacturers focus their efforts on trying to protect the lower part of the body or the chest and head? We were able to tell them, from our findings, where the most serious injuries occur and what area of the body needed the most protection. Feedback on where current safety devices were failing or having little impact was also vital for industry to ensure they moved forward in the right direction. Analysis of the CCIS data provided a unique view on how car structures, restraints and advanced safety systems influence car occupant injury. This real world injury and vehicle information was the foundation for many of the car safety improvements that have occurred since the study began. CCIS data directly influenced vehicle design improvements, legislation, consumer crash test programmes and test tool injury criteria. Thus the project made many positive contributions to the development of safer vehicles.
It was very rewarding to know that the work we carried out each day was ultimately saving lives. When we examined vehicles we knew that a life had been lost or someone had been seriously injured, but the CCIS enabled something positive to come from those many tragedies and helped prevent future ones from occurring.
From Research to Safety Consultancy
For many years at the VSRC, Rob Newton and his team were able to assist other clients utilising the skills and experience learnt from the research and when the government contract ceased in 2010 Rob set up a private company offering those skills to Solicitors, Insurance companies and the Police. Rob Newton Associates now offers expert forensic biomechanics and occupant kinematics expertise for litigation, insurance and prosecution. Collision reconstruction is the scientific process of investigating, analysing, and drawing conclusions about the causes and events during a vehicle collision. Rob Newton Associates are employed to conduct in-depth collision analysis and reconstruction to identify the collision causation and contributing factors in different types of collisions, including the role of the driver, vehicle, roadway and the environment. The laws of physics and engineering principles such as the conservation of linear momentum and kinematics are the basis for these analyses and collisions can be mathematically modelled or animated in 3D using various software.
Systematic examination of a vehicle interior can reveal much about what occurred during the final few milliseconds of a crash. With in-depth knowledge of what happens in most common instances the investigator is able to focus their attention on the most probable events and is able to predict injury outcomes. Thorough assessment of vehicle to occupant interaction enables assessment of seatbelt use, probable seat position for occupants and much more.
Seatbelts are now an integral part of the vehicle's safety system and systematic research has demonstrated what happens when car occupants have collisions with and without wearing them. In the majority of cases it can be determined whether an occupant was wearing their seat belt correctly or not. It can also be accurately predicted, for a given collision scenario, the expected injury pattern for belted and unbelted passengers.
All Vehicles are now fitted with an array of sophisticated equipment (not just on top-of-therange models). This can range from Predictive Assist Braking to Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control. Very soon the investigator's question will not be "Who was driving?" but "Was there a driver?" ?


text:
- Emerging Markets Daily
Mexico's Televisa & Univision Cut The Drama
- Order Reprints
- Print Article
Millenial Hispanics are no longer in love with dramatic TV novellas, and that means Mexico's Grupo Televisa (TV) needs to adapt if doesn't want a dramatic divorce from Miami-based Univision Communications.
Televisa shares are down more than 5% this year, while the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped exchange-traded fund (EWW) is down 2%. The Mexican peso, caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. election, has slumped 12% against the U.S. dollar this year.
In case you missed it, The Wall Street Journal's Shalini Ramachandran and Arian Campo-Flores recently wrote that ratings have tumbled at the Univision broadcast network as younger watchers demand "more American flair." Televisa owns a 10% stake and provides programming to Univision.
WSJ writes:
"A lot of money is at stake: Univision's pact with Televisa runs through 2030 and involves payments of more than $300 million a year -- outlays that would increase in 2018. Restructuring the deal could give Univision resources to invest in other programming but could raise significant uncertainty as it prepares to go public. Univision network's average prime-time audience has fallen from 3.7 million viewers five years ago to two million this season... average prime-time viewership this season has dropped 25% from last year.
The story provides the important profile of the American Hispanic millennial:
"Nearly 60% of the 55 million Hispanics in the U.S. are millennials or younger, with one-quarter between the ages of 18 and 33, according to Pew Research Center. The millennials, who are less likely to be immigrants, tend to prefer watching TV in English, according to some surveys, and analysts say they are drawn to edgier and more fast-paced programs.


text:
Effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on Construction Work-Related Injury Rates- Final Report
CPWR Small Study Reports
- Mistakeproofing The Design of Construction Processes Using Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ)
- Aluminet: An Intervention for Heat-related Illness among Construction Workers
- Reducing Highway Construction Fatalities Through Improved Adoption of Safety Technologies
- Near Miss Information Visualization Application for BIM- Final Report
- Effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on Construction Work-Related Injury Rates- Final Report
- Evaluating Fall Safety Compliance among Skilled Trades in Construction
- Mortality Among Sheet Metal Workers Participating in a Respiratory Screening Program
- A Pilot Study of Nanoparticle Levels and Field Evaluation of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators on Construction Sites
- Nanotechnology: Assessing Awareness and Training Needs Among California Construction Trades
Summary Statement
This CPWR Small Study explores the effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on rates of workers' compensation injury claims and related outcomes by examining a cohort of approximately 17,000 union carpenters in Washington State over a period of 9 years (2000-2008). In line with the observed effect in this study, it is unrealistic to expect OSHA Outreach Training alone to have a large effect on union construction workers' rates of work-related injury.
August 2016
Despite the size and breadth of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Outreach Training program for the construction industry, there is limited information on its impact on rates of work-related injury. In a 9-year (2000-2008) dynamic cohort of approximately 17,000 union carpenters in Washington State, the effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on rates of workers' compensation injury claims and related outcomes was explored. OSHA Outreach Training resulted in a 13% (non-significant) reduction in rates of injury overall. The effect was more pronounced for carpenters in their apprenticeship years, drywall installers, and with increasing time since training. Hazard awareness and protection training, coupled with more efficient approaches to injury control, should be standard practice in the construction industry. In line with the observed effect in this study, it is unrealistic to expect OSHA Outreach Training alone to have a large effect on union construction workers' rates of work-related injury.
- This study demonstrates the feasibility, as well as the strengths and limitations, of using multisource longitudinal surveillance data in the appraisal of long-term evaluations of the effectiveness of workplace safety interventions such as training.
- OSHA Outreach Training resulted in a 13% non-significant reduction in rates of workers' compensation injury claims. Though modest, this finding is in line with realistic expectations of the effect of OSHA Outreach Training alone on union carpenters' rates of injury.
- The protective effect of OSHA Outreach Training was more pronounced for carpenters in their apprenticeship years and for those with a predominant type of work of drywall installation.
- An increasingly protective effect of training was observed with increasing time since training.
- A large proportion of carpenters who completed OSHA Outreach Training through the union did not meet the study cohort entry criterion of working at least three months of union hours, likely reflective of attrition during the apprenticeship period.
- In addition to overcoming methodological challenges to understanding the effect of training on work-related injury outcomes, future studies should consider specific worker sub-groups for whom training may be particularly beneficial (e.g., apprentices).
We thank Thomas Barrett and Jeff Jewell at the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Training Centers for their support and access to data on carpenters' completion of OSHA Outreach Training courses. We thank Lin Conley and Randy Parker at the Carpenters Trusts of Western Washington for their support to establish the cohort and update it with training data. Finally, we thank Darrin Adams at the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention Program in the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for prior work providing the matched workers' compensation records. This report was made possible by CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training through cooperative agreement number U60-OH009762 from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CPWR or NIOSH.
Safety training is frequently recommended and prescribed for preventing work-related injury and illness. For workers in the dangerous construction industry, safety training may lead to important increases in worker knowledge and attitudes about occupational safety (Sokas et al. 2009, Williams et al. 2010, Forst et al. 2013) as well as measures of safety behavior (Trabeau et al. 2008, Kaskutas et al. 2013, Ruttenberg 2013). Though evidence supporting safety training's prevention of adverse health outcomes (e.g., injuries, illnesses) is limited (Cohen et al. 1998, Robson et al. 2010, Robson et al. 2012, Mullan et al. 2015), encouraging examples can be found among plumbers/pipefitters (Kinn et al. 2000), laborers (Dong et al. 2004, Williams et al. 2010), carpenters/drywall tapers (Johnson and Ruppe 2002), residential construction workers (Darragh et al. 2004), and railway construction workers (Bena et al. 2009).
When the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 was established, the OSHA Training Institute (OTI) developed a series of short hazard awareness training courses, including 10-hour (for entry level workers) and 30-hour (for workers with safety responsibilities) courses for the construction industry. OTI trained federal occupational safety personnel to deliver the courses to federal employees in locations around the US. The training courses cover the "recognition, avoidance, abatement, and prevention of safety and health hazards in workplaces" and provide "information on workers' rights, employer responsibilities and how to file a complaint" (OSHA 2014). In the 1990s, OSHA began permitting authorized providers to offer this training in the private sector, and industry demand drove explosive growth in delivery of "OSHA-10" and "OSHA-30" for construction. Trainers had issued less than 20,000 OSHA-10 and OSHA-30 cards each year in the early 1990s; since 2010, more than 500,000 workers per year have earned an OSHA-10 or OSHA-30 card. Joint labor-management apprenticeship programs providing vocational training to North America's union-sector construction workers were among the earliest and largest adopters of OSHA Outreach Training. Today nearly all construction trade unions have incorporated OSHA-10/OSHA-30 training into their apprenticeship curricula. It may be required by an employer (Wilkins 2011), and some states mandate it prior to working on publicly-funded building projects (Sinyai et al. 2013, Taylor 2014).
Safety-forward gains in construction workers' knowledge and attitudes (Sanyang 2007, Sokas et al. 2009, Wilkins 2011) and behavior (Ruttenberg 2013) have been observed following OSHA- 10 training. However, evaluations of the effect of OSHA Outreach Training in preventing adverse construction work-related outcomes are few (Taylor 2014). An understanding is called for to "strengthen and extend the reach of quality training and education" (NORA Construction Sector Council 2008) with the goal of improving construction workers' safety and health.
Building on an existing, robust, longitudinal cohort of union carpenters in Washington (WA) State over the years 2000 through 2008, the goal of this study is to explore the effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on carpenters' work-related injury rates. The specific aims are:
- Link existing records of union carpenter OSHA Outreach Training to union eligibility, membership, and workers' compensation (WC) claims data for a cohort of approximately 17,000 union carpenters in WA State between 2000 and 2008.
- Describe carpenters' OSHA Outreach Training experience by calendar time, worker characteristics (i.e., gender, age, time in the union), and predominant type of work. 3
- Stratified by calendar time, worker characteristics, and predominant type of work, quantify rates, rate ratios (RR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) examining the relationship between outcomes and OSHA Outreach Training. Contrast patterns in rates observed for work-related injuries overall, by paid time loss (TL) and costs, and for specific mechanisms of injury.
As part of prior research, the researchers – with assistance from the Carpenters Trusts of Western WA (CTWW) and the WA State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) – created a cohort of union carpenters examine patterns in work-related injury rates (McCoy et al. 2013). The cohort comprises union eligibility, membership, and WC claims data files, linked at the individual level in a de-identified manner through use of a unique member number.
- Union eligibility and membership files, from the CTWW, contain for each carpenter: a unique member number (assigned by CTWW and lacking identifying details), date of birth, gender, monthly union hours worked, data of union entry, and union local. The union membership files contained information on all union members, regardless of hours worked. However, the study cohort was limited to individuals who worked ≥3 months of union hours, with observation beginning in the month eligibility criteria were met (i.e., the 3rd month of union work). As in prior research with these data (e.g., (Lipscomb et al. 2014)), carpenters were assigned a predominant type of work based on the work most commonly performed by the union local to which they belong: residential building, light/heavy/mixed commercial, drywall installation, millwrighting, and piledriving. Some carpenters were affiliated with a union local outside of WA State for which predominant type of work information was not available.
- WC claims data files, provided by the WA State Department of L&I, contain for each claim: date of event; date of claim; open/close status; ANSI/OIICS codes describing the event nature, mechanism, body part affected, and source; TL status; number of paid TL days (with TL compensation paid after the 3rd calendar day of being medically unavailable for work, not including the day of injury, in WA State); and associated costs. A TL claim is one in which there was not approved work available for the injured worker within the medical restrictions. Cost estimates are limited to payment types reported consistently between state fund and self-insured claims, improving the consistency of costs across payers, but excluding the medical portion of claims costs. All costs are adjusted using the US Consumer Price Index to 2015 dollars and assume all dollars were paid on the date of injury. Although the claim pool was extracted April 2010 for prior research (McCoy et al. 2013), the extract was updated April 2016 to reflect L&I's current methodology and estimates of paid TL and costs.
These files were linked at the individual level to union carpenter training records. The training file, provided by the CTWW, is composed of individual-level data on the dates of completed OSHA-10, -30, and -500 level courses completed through face-to-face, in-class instruction at the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters' (PNWRCC) affiliated training centers.
Some US states, employers, and unions require that workers re-take an OSHA Outreach Training course every 3 to 5 years. Thus, a carpenters' union work hours were categorized as "trained" if the carpenter completed an OSHA Outreach Training course within the prior 5 years. It is this definition on which the presented analyses are based. However, OSHA Outreach Training completion cards do not expire, and sensitivity analyses were conducted in which a cohort member was defined as "trained" for all time following course completion. Also, given the dynamic nature of the study cohort, a subset of the cohort was in the union prior to January 1, 2000. These "prevalent members" (who made up 52.9% of the cohort and contributed 76.8% of 4 the time at risk) may have completed OSHA Outreach Training prior to cohort entry. For the presented analyses, these members were categorized as "trained" when they completed an OSHA Outreach Training course during the study period, and for the 5 years following course completion. Sensitivity analyses were conducted in which prevalent members were also categorized as "trained" for the first 5 years of follow-up (January 1, 2000 - December 31, 2004).
Carpenters' characteristics and union work hours with and without OSHA Outreach Training, and by type of OSHA Outreach Training course, were described. Time at risk (union work hours) and work-related outcomes were stratified by categories of OSHA Outreach Training (yes/no), age, gender, time in the union, predominant type of work, and calendar time. Age, time in the union, and predominant type of work varied over time with union work hours and number of events accumulating in the appropriate strata over the 9-year period. Injury rates (events per 200,000 union work hours), unadjusted and adjusted RR, and 95% CI were calculated using Poisson regression, with ln(union work hours) as the offset (Nizam 2014) and scaling to correct for overdispersion (Pearson χ2/degrees of freedom>1.5). In addition to examining the effect of training on work-related injuries overall, sub-analyses examined the effect of training on rates of "Fatal Four" injuries emphasized in OSHA Outreach Training: falls from elevation, electrocutions, struck by events, and caught in/between events. For analyses of TL days and costs - outcomes which are highly skewed - negative binomial models (Hilbe 2011) were used to examine rates, RR, and 95% CI, with generalized estimating equations (GEE) (Zeger et al. 1988) to account for within-subject correlation.
Finally, recognizing the potential for a differential OSHA Outreach Training effect by time since training, related models were constructed to examine RR before and after such training (Figure 1). In successive "lagged" models, 6-month increments of time at risk and work-related outcomes following training were removed. This approach allowed assessment of time periods in which the effect of training was most pronounced. For this training intervention, it is plausible to assume an enhanced effect immediately following the training class. It is also plausible to observe a gradually increased effect over time as trained workers spend more time in the field gaining experience applying training-based knowledge.
Figure 1. Lagging approach
The study cohort is composed of 17,106 carpenters who worked 99,411,000 union hours in WA State between 2000 and 2008. Carpenters' average age increased from 41.3 years in 2000 to 44.9 in 2005, and down to 42.0 in 2008 (McCoy et al. 2013), and nearly all are male (97.7%). A total of 9,894 WC claims were reported and accepted for the cohort, and 15.3% (n=1,514) resulted in paid TL. The rate of injuries overall and with paid TL declined 42% and 54%, respectively, over the study period. Patterns in rates across categories of worker demographic and work-related characteristics are similar to those reported previously (McCoy et al. 2013); adjusted rates of injury were higher among females, increased with increasing age, decreased with increasing time in the union, and were higher among residential carpenters and drywall installers. A total of 2,910 (29.4%) injuries were characterized as a Fatal Four mechanism: fall from elevation (5.0%), electrocutions (0.3%), struck by (21.3%), and caught in/between (2.8%).
During the study period, 1,017 cohort members took 1,089 OSHA Outreach Training courses through PNWRCC-affiliated training centers, and 7% (n=67) took more than one OSHA Outreach Training course. Most of the courses taken were "OSHA-10 Construction" (85%), followed by "OSHA-30 Construction" (10%) and "OSHA-500 (or OSHA-502) Construction" (3%). When individual-level training data were merged to the study cohort of members who contributed ≥3 months of union hours, 57.5% (n=585) of union carpenters who took OSHA Outreach Training during 2000-2008 did not link to the study cohort. Similar linkage patterns have been observed in the authors' prior work with these data and are not surprising given the literature on construction apprentice attrition and retention (Bilginsoy 2003, Byrd and Weinstein 2005, Glover and Bilginsoy 2005). Analyses related to the characteristics of workers taking OSHA Outreach Training, as well as those related to OSHA Outreach Training effectiveness, are based on training data from the 432 carpenters who linked to the study cohort. They completed 464 OSHA Outreach Training courses.
Most OSHA Outreach Training took place in carpenters' early years in the union, and particularly in the first year for carpenters completing OSHA-10 training (Table 1). As expected, the average number of years in the union was lower among union members who completed OSHA-10 training (3.4, 95% CI 2.7-4.1) compared to those who completed OSHA-30 training (7.2, 95% CI 5.1-9.4). Nearly 80% of OSHA-10 training was among carpenters likely in an apprenticeship period (i.e., <4 years in union). No difference was observed in the average age of members completing OSHA-10 compared to OSHA-30 training. Carpenters doing light/heavy commercial work had a higher proportion of trained hours compared to carpenters in other trades, and drywall installers had a lower proportion of trained hours.
|Years in the union
|1 to <2
|2 to <4
|4 to <6
|6 to <8
|8 to <10
|10 to <20
Participation in OSHA Outreach Training was associated with a 13% reduction in rates of reported and accepted WC injury claims (RRTrained vs. Non-Trained 0.87, 95% CI 0.72-1.06) (Table 2). This relative difference did not vary significantly across categories of age or calendar time, and it was similar for Fatal Four injuries (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.55-1.18). The effect was more pronounced, however, among workers during their apprenticeship years (<4 years in the union). Although findings were not statistically significant and were attenuated in adjusted analyses, they bore similarities to patterns observed by Dong et al. (2004) who evaluated the effect of safety training on rates of work-related injury among union laborers in WA State over two years in the mid-1990s. The authors observed 12% lower injury rates among trained versus untrained workers. This effect was greater among younger workers – a finding the authors attributed to less informal on-the-job training and a greater propensity of younger and less experienced workers to benefit from injury prevention training material (Dong et al. 2004). Findings from both studies suggest that workers with the least experience receive the most benefit from safety training. Appropriately, the Carpenters' construction apprenticeship program mandates OSHA-10 Outreach Training for incoming apprentices, and first-year union members accounted for a majority of the OSHA-10 students during the period under study.
A protective, significant effect of training was observed among carpenters whose predominant type of work was drywall installation (RR 0.34, 95% CI 0.15-0.75). Drywall installers have high rates of work-related injury compared to workers in other construction trades, including in this cohort of union carpenters (Lipscomb et al. 2000, Lipscomb et al. 2003, Schoenfisch et al. 2013, Schoenfisch et al. 2014, Schoenfisch et al. 2014, Lipscomb et al. 2015, Lipscomb et al. 2015), perhaps allowing more of an effect of OSHA Outreach Training to be observed. Carpenters who receive OSHA Outreach Training may also be more likely to work for safer contractors; this pattern may be particularly true for carpenters in the drywall trade.
No significant difference was observed in the proportion of injuries resulting in paid TL days (trained: 21.2%; non-trained: 18.6%), the median number of paid TL days per TL injury (trained: 105; non-trained: 92), or the rate of TL injury by training status (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.65-1.53). However, the number of paid TL days per 200,000 hours worked was lower among trained carpenters (trained: 547 per 200,000 union hours worked; non-trained: 1,752 per 200,000 union hours worked). Similar patterns were observed for cost rates (trained: $0.79 per union work hour; non-trained: $1.92 per union work hour). OSHA Outreach Training may indeed effectively reduce rates of severe work-related injury events. However, the data were not robust enough to allow exploration of this finding beyond a comparison of simple rates.
In lagged analyses, an increasingly protective effect of training was observed with increasing time since training, though results are statistically non-significant (e.g., RR36-month lag 0.66, 95% CI 0.35-1.25) (Figure 2). This protective effect was greater among carpenters with <4 years in the union, compared to their more experienced counterparts. This finding may be attributable to improved application of classroom knowledge with increased on-the-job experience, safer firms seeking out safety-trained workers (and vice versa), or some combination of these and/or other unidentified factors.
Sensitivity analyses were conducted to compare the presented findings to those obtained when removing the 5-year expiration on carpenters' training. Thus, a member who completed OSHA Outreach Training remained categorized as "trained" any time following training. With this change, no meaningful differences were observed in the effect of training, including on rates of work-related injury overall (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.78-1.10) and those with paid TL (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.60-1.44). Analyses were also conducted in which prevalent members were included and assumed to be trained at the start of study follow-up, only being categorized as "not trained" if
|OSHA Outreach Training through PNWRCC in past 5 years
|Rate ratiob
(95% Cl)
|Injuries, Overall
|17.4 (14.3-21.2)
|19.9 (19.5-20.3
|0.87 (0.72-1.06)
|By carpenter age
|<30 years
|19.3 (13.1-28.3)
|22.2 (21.2-23.2)
|0.87 (0.59-1.28)
|30 to <40 years
|15.1 (10.4-22.1)
|21.0 (20.3-21.8)
|.72 (0.49-1.05)
|40+ years
|17.8 (13.3-23.8)
|18.7 (18.2-19.2)
|0.95 (0.71-1.28)
|By time in the union
|Apprentices (<4 years)
|18.6 (13.2-26.1)
|24.5 (23.6-25.4)
|0.96 (0.54-1.07)
|Journeymen (≥4 years)
|16.9 (13.3-21.5)
|18.5 (18.0-18.9)
|0.91 (0.72-1.16)
|By predominant type of work
|20.7 (16.4-26.2)
|19.2 (18.7-19.7)
|1.08 (0.85-1.37)
|7.7 (3.5-17.2)
|22.9 (22.0-23.8)
|0.34 (0.15-0.75)
|13.3 (9.0-20.6)
|18.4 (17.6-19.1)
|0.73 (0.47-1.13)
|By calendar year
|34.7 (20.1-59.7)
|23.9 (23.2-24.7)
|1.45 (0.84-2.50)
|16.7 (11.6-24.0)
|19.7 (19.0-20.4)
|0.85 (0.59-1.22)
|15.9 (12.3-20.7)
|16.8 (16.3-17.4)
|0.95 (0.73-1.23)
|a Injuries per 200,000 work hours
b Compares rate of injury among trained versus rate of injury among non-trained. Unadjusted and adjusted analyses yielded similar findings; the unadjusted estimates are presented.
c Includes residential, piledriving, millwrighting, and work out of WA State
Figure 2. Rate ratios comparing work-related injury rates surrounding OSHA Outreach Training, lagged by increasing amounts of time post-training and stratified by years in the union
they did not complete OSHA Outreach Training within 5 years. With this categorization and adjusting for potential confounders, change was observed in the effect estimate related to rates of work-related injury overall (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.03-1.22), but not for that of rates of paid TL injuries (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.65-1.33).
The true benefits of training and strength of effectiveness are not fully apparent through use of WC claims data alone; there are important practices that cannot be explored in these data. The effect of safety training on injury prevention through improved hazard awareness and control may "spill-over" to non-trained workers (Dong et al. 2004, Williams et al. 2010, Forst et al. 2013, Ruttenberg 2013). Further, training may influence reporting practices by educating workers on their rights to a safe workplace and providing instruction on how to report a work-related injury (Dong et al. 2004, Williams et al. 2010, Forst et al. 2013, Ruttenberg 2013).
Limitations and Strengths
There are well-known limitations inherent in the cohort data of relevance to the research questions. No direct measures of job tasks or work-related exposures are available in this cohort, although predominant type of work provides a meaningful categorization for analyses. Also, the data do not include ethnicity or language spoken. In some construction trades in the Pacific Northwest, high-risk, high-priority minority populations are prevalent, and efforts are needed (NORA Construction Sector Council 2008) to deliver targeted safety training (Williams et al. 2010, Wilkins 2011, Forst et al. 2013). Additionally, we recognize that we are gathering data from union carpenters who are part of an apprenticeship program, limiting the generalizability of findings (Roelofs 2012, Amick III et al. 2015). However, focusing on the union segment of the industry, with existing union apprenticeship programs, labor-management relations, and (in this case) a longstanding collaborative partnership with an academic research team, allowed the research questions to be addressed to carry out this work with the resources available through CPWR's Small Study funding mechanism.
Our statistical analysis reflected carpenters with OSHA Outreach Training that we were able to identify. Presumably a substantial number of journeyman carpenters in this cohort received OSHA Outreach Training prior to the period under study, but records for that time were unavailable. Additionally, data on carpenters' OSHA Outreach Training through other means (e.g., online) were not available. Though training records indicated that 1,017 workers received OSHA Outreach Training during the period, fewer than half met the cohort requirement of ≥3 months of union work - likely a consequence of apprentice attrition (Bilginsoy 2003, Byrd and Weinstein 2005, Glover and Bilginsoy 2005).
Finally, measuring WC claims activity is not the same as measuring occupational injuries. It is well-documented that a large number of work-related injuries are not reported to WC (Azaroff et al. 2002, Shannon and Lowe 2002, Leigh et al. 2004, Fan et al. 2006, Rosenman et al. 2006, Friedman and Forst 2007, Welch et al. 2007, Government Accountability Office 2009, Lipscomb et al. 2013, Wuellner and Bonauto 2014, Lipscomb et al. 2015). Firms with high-quality safety and health programs may encourage reporting of all workplace injuries. OSHA Outreach Training includes instruction on injury reporting and on workers' legal protections under OSHA. Such incentives may increase the propensity of workers to report minor injuries, in which case the 13% reduction in WC claims associated with OSHA Outreach Training observed in this study would be an underestimate of the true relative difference.
This study demonstrates both the utility and importance of robust, longitudinal surveillance data in the appraisal of long-term evaluations of the effectiveness of workplace safety interventions, as well as challenges in clearly evaluating training effects in this dangerous industry. Similar exploration of construction workers' training and injury experience outside of this dynamic cohort is unrealistic, if not impossible, in the open shop environment or otherwise. Time at risk and reported injuries were well defined, allowing for the calculation of injury rates and their examination over time surrounding documented training. This study also demonstrates the complexity of occupational safety training effectiveness evaluations and the related importance of framing an analytical approach and interpreting results in context. Although statistical power was limited to address all of the planned analyses, the framework presented provides a guide for future research considerations.
Relevance and Practical Application
Recent systematic reviews point to the paucity of research demonstrating that occupational safety training can improve health outcomes, as well as a lack of well-designed controlled studies (Cohen et al. 1998, Robson et al. 2010, Robson et al. 2012). Yet training is not delivered in a randomized controlled manner, and it never happens in isolation. Even OSHA-10 training can be variable depending on the instructor's points of emphasis, delivery method, and learners' characteristics. Studies must consider the time needed for an intervention effect to be observed, the potential "spill-over" of a training intervention to non-trained workers, and the mobility of construction workers from project to project and employer to employer. In addition to working to address known methodological needs, future studies should focus on improving the accessibility, quality, and relevance of training, as well as its application in practice. Regardless of the study design, evaluations that focus on outcomes alone will be inherently limited without information on intervention fidelity; the effect of OSHA Outreach Training on rates of workrelated injury will reflect, in part, the effectiveness of teaching methods (Wilkins 2011) and trainees' ability to apply well-learned material on worksites (Williams et al. 2010).
Construction worker training in hazard awareness, injury prevention and mitigation, workers' rights, and how to report adverse work-related events should be standard practice. Yet, such training alone cannot be expected to prevent work-related injuries to a significant degree in this dangerous industry. For such reduction to be realized, more concrete and efficient injury prevention approaches that eliminate or reduce hazardous exposures must be made available to workers (Herrick and Dement 1994, Castillo et al. 2011, Lipscomb HJ and Schoenfisch AL 2014). Union construction workers often receive OSHA Outreach Training as part of a formal apprenticeship program for which training may be an essential component of broader efforts to prevent work-related injury. Thus, as expected, these data do not demonstrate the likelihood that OSHA Outreach Training alone meaningfully decreases injury rates among union construction industry workers, although noteworthy benefits may be observed within specific worker sub-groups (e.g., by trade or experience) for whom efforts to improve retention – including through improved training participation – are needed for as the demand for a skilled construction workforce increases (Bilginsoy 2003, Glover and Bilginsoy 2005).
- Sinyai, C., Schoenfisch, A., & Lipscomb, H. "Can a Union-led Occupational Health and Safety Training Program Reduce Workplace Injuries and Illnesses? (And Can We Prove It?)" United Association for Labor Education's 2015 Conference. Orlando, FL. March 2015.
- Sinyai, C., Schoenfisch, A., & Lipscomb, H. "Can a Joint Labor-Management Safety Training Program reduce Workplace Injuries?" Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) 67th Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, PA. May 2015.
- Sinyai, C., Schoenfisch, A., & Lipscomb, H. "Union-led Occupational Safety Training and Health and Safety Outcomes: Results from a Large Cohort Study in Washington State." United Association for Labor Education's 2016 Conference. Washington, DC. April 2016.
- Sinyai, C., Schoenfisch, A., Lipscomb, H. "Occupational Safety and Health: Training and Outcomes Does Hazard Awareness Training Reduce Workers' Compensation Claims?" Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) 68th Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. May 2016.
- Schoenfisch, A., Lipscomb, H., Sinyai, C, Adams, D. Effectiveness of OSHA Outreach Training on Union Carpenters' Rates of Workers' Compensation Claims, Washington State. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. In Review.
- Schoenfisch, A., Sinyai, C., Lipscomb, H. Does Construction Hazard Awareness Training Reduce Rates of Workers' Compensation Claims? Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) 68th Annual Meeting Proceedings. In Review.
- Future dissemination plans:
- (In progress) Brief report for a trade journal, discussing training effectiveness from and economic perspective.
- Select published materials and a brief 1-page summary will be provided to the PNWRCC, PNWRCC Training Centers, and CTWW.
Amick III, B. C., S. Hogg-Johnson, D. Latour-Villamil and R. Saunders (2015). "Protecting construction worker health and safety in Ontario, Canada: identifying a union safety effect." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 57(12): 1337-1342.
Azaroff, L. S., C. Levenstein and D. Wegman (2002). "Occupational injury and illness surveillance: conceptual filters explain underreporting." American Journal of Public Health 92(9): 1421-1429.
Bena, A., P. Berchialla, M. Coffano, M. Debernardi and L. Icardi (2009). "Effectiveness of the training program for workers at construction sites of the high‐speed railway line between Torino and Novara: Impact on injury rates." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 52(12): 965-972.
Bilginsoy, C. (2003). "The hazards of training: Attrition and retention in construction industry apprenticeship programs." Industrial & Labor Relations Review 57(1): 54-67.
Byrd, B. and M. Weinstein (2005). Construction apprenticeship in Oregon: An analysis of data on union and open-shop apprenticeship programs. Report prepared for the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, Portland, OR.
Castillo, D., T. Pizatella and N. Stout (2011). Injuries and Occupational Safety. Occupational and Environmental Health: Recognizing and Preventing Disease and Injury. Barry S. Levy, David H. Wegman, Sherry L. Baron, and Rosemary K. Sokas. Philadelphia, Pa., Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.
Cohen, A., M. J. Colligan, R. Sinclair, J. Newman and R. Schuler (1998). Assessing occupational safety and health training. Cincinnati, Ohio: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: 98-145.
Darragh, A. R., L. Stallones, P. L. Bigelow and T. J. Keefe (2004). "Effectiveness of the HomeSafe pilot program in reducing injury rates among residential construction workers, 1994– 1998." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 45(2): 210-217.
Dong, X., P. Entzel, Y. Men, R. Chowdhury and S. Schneider (2004). "Effects of safety and health training on work-related injury among construction laborers." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 46(12): 1222-1228.
Fan, Z. J., D. K. Bonauto, M. P. Foley and B. A. Silverstein (2006). "Underreporting of workrelated injury or illness to workers' compensation: individual and industry factors." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 48(9): 914-922.
Forst, L., E. Ahonen, J. Zanoni, A. Holloway‐Beth, M. Oschner, L. Kimmel, C. Martino, E. Rodriguez, A. Kader and E. Ringholm (2013). "More than training: Community‐based participatory research to reduce injuries among hispanic construction workers." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 56(8): 827-837.
Friedman, L. S. and L. Forst (2007). "The impact of OSHA recordkeeping regulation changes on occupational injury and illness trends in the US: a time-series analysis." Occupational and Environmental Medicine 64(7): 454-460.
Glover, R. W. and C. Bilginsoy (2005). "Registered apprenticeship training in the US construction industry." Education+ Training 47(4/5): 337-349.
Government Accountability Office (2009). "Workplace Safety and Health: Enhancing OSHA's Records Audit Process Could Improve the Accuracy of Worker Injury and Illness Data." GAO Report 10-10. Washington, DC. Available at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1010.pdf (Accessed July 2012).
Herrick, R. and J. Dement (1994). Chapter 10. Industrial Hygiene (pp 169-193) Philadelphis, PA, WB Saunders Company.
Hilbe, J. M. (2011). Negative binomial regression. New York, Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, K. A. and J. Ruppe (2002). "A job safety program for construction workers designed to reduce the potential for occupational injury using tool box training sessions and computerassisted biofeedback stress management techniques." International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics 8(3): 321-329.
Kaskutas, V., A. M. Dale, H. Lipscomb and B. Evanoff (2013). "Fall prevention and safety communication training for foremen: Report of a pilot project designed to improve residential construction safety." Journal of safety research 44(February): 111-118.
Kinn, S., S. A. Khuder, M. S. Bisesi and S. Woolley (2000). "Evaluation of safety orientation and training programs for reducing injuries in the plumbing and pipefitting industry." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 42(12): 1142-1147.
Leigh, J. P., J. P. Marcin and T. R. Miller (2004). "An estimate of the US government's undercount of nonfatal occupational injuries." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 46(1): 10-18.
Lipscomb, H., J. Dement, J. Gaal and W. Cameron (2000). "Work-related injuries in drywall installation." Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 15(10): 794-802. PMID: 11036730.
Lipscomb, H., J. Dement, L. Li, J. Nolan and D. Patterson (2003). "Work-related injuries in residential and drywall carpentry." AOEH 18(6): 479-488. PMID: 12746070.
Lipscomb, H., J. Nolan, D. Patterson, V. Sticca and D. Myers (2013). "Safety, incentives, and the reporting of work‐related injuries among union carpenters:"You're pretty much screwed if you get hurt at work"." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 56(4): 389-399.
Lipscomb, H., A. Schoenfisch and W. Cameron (2015). "Non‐reporting of work injuries and aspects of jobsite safety climate and behavioral‐based safety elements among carpenters in Washington state." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 58(4): 411-421.
Lipscomb, H., A. Schoenfisch, W. Cameron, K. Kucera, D. Adams and B. Silverstein (2014). "Twenty years of workers' compensation costs due to falls from height among union carpenters, Washington State." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 57(9): 984-991. PMID: 24771631.
Lipscomb, H., A. Schoenfisch, W. Cameron, K. Kucera, D. Adams and B. Silverstein (2015). "Contrasting patterns of care for musculoskeletal disorders and injuries of the upper extremity and knee through workers' compensation and private health care insurance among union carpenters in Washington State, 1989 to 2008." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 58(9): 955-963. PMID: 25939759.
Lipscomb, H., A. Schoenfisch, W. Cameron, K. Kucera, D. Adams and B. Silverstein (2015). "Workers' compensation claims for musculoskeletal disorders and injuries of the upper extremity and knee among union carpenters in Washington State, 1989–2008." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 58(4): 428-436. PMID: 25712704.
Lipscomb HJ and Schoenfisch AL (2014). "Reflections on Occupational Injury Control." Safety Science Monitor 18(1): 1-8.
McCoy, A., K. Kucera, A. Schoenfisch, B. Silverstein and H. Lipscomb (2013). "20 years of work-related injury and illness among union carpenters in Washington State." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 56(4): 381-388.
Mullan, B., L. Smith, K. Sainsbury, V. Allom, H. Paterson and A.-L. Lopez (2015). "Active behaviour change safety interventions in the construction industry: A systematic review." Safety science 79(November): 139-148.
Nizam, A. (2014). Poisson Regression Analysis. Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariable Methods. David G. Kleinbaum, Lawrence L. Kupper, Azhar Nizam, and Eli S. Rosenberg. Boston, MA, Cengage Learning: 743-780. NORA Construction Sector Council (2008). "National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), National construction agenda for occupational safety and health research and practice in the US construction sector."
OSHA. (2014). "OSHA Outreach Training Program." Retrieved October 15, 2014, from https://www.osha.gov/dte/outreach/.
Robson, L. S., C. M. Stephenson, P. Schulte, B. Amick, S. Chan, A. Bielecky, A. Wang, T. Heidotting, E. Irvin and D. Eggerth (2010) ""A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Training & Education for the Protection of Workers." Toronto: Institute for Work & Health, 2010; Cincinnati, OH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. This publication can also be tracked as DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2010-127."
Robson, L. S., C. M. Stephenson, P. A. Schulte, B. C. Amick III, E. L. Irvin, D. E. Eggerth, S. Chan, A. R. Bielecky, A. M. Wang and T. L.
Heidotting (2012). "A systematic review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety training." Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health 38(3): 193-208.
Roelofs, C. (2012). "Evaluation of the implementation and impact of a Massachusetts construction OHS training rule." Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), Silver Spring MD 20910.
Rosenman, K. D., A. Kalush, M. J. Reilly, J. C. Gardiner, M. Reeves and Z. Luo (2006). "How much work-related illness and injury is missed by the current national surveillance system?" Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 48(4): 357-365.
Ruttenberg, R. (2013) ""The Economic and Social Benefits of OSHA-10 Training in the Building and Construction Trades." CPWR. Accessed October 15, 2014 from: http://www.cpwr.com/sites/default/files/publications/RuttenbergEcoSocialBenefits.pdf."
Sanyang, A. (2007). "OSHA 10: Key in Construction Safety Awareness." Blueprints: A Technical Publication of American Society of Safety Engineers' Construction Practice Specialty 7(1): 12- 17.
Schoenfisch, A., H. Lipscomb, W. Cameron, D. Adams and B. Silverstein (2014). "Rates of and circumstances surrounding work-related falls from height among union drywall carpenters in Washington State, 1989–2008." Journal of safety research 51: 117-124. PMID: 25453185.
Schoenfisch, A., H. Lipscomb, S. Marshall, W. Cameron, D. Richardson and C. Casteel (2013). "Work‐related injuries among union drywall carpenters in Washington State, 1989–2008." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 56(10): 1137-1148. PMID: 23861237.
Schoenfisch, A., H. Lipscomb, S. Marshall, C. Casteel, D. Richardson, M. Brookhart and W. Cameron (2014). "Declining rates of work‐related overexertion back injuries among union drywall installers in Washington State, 1989–2008: Improved work safety or shifting of care?" American Journal of Industrial Medicine 57(2): 184-194. PMID: 24038384.
Shannon, H. S. and G. S. Lowe (2002). "How many injured workers do not file claims for workers' compensation benefits?" American Journal of Industrial Medicine 42(6): 467-473.
Sinyai, C., P. Stafford and C. Trahan (2013). "Doing it Old School: Peer-led occupational safety training in the US construction Industry." McGill Journal of Education/Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill 48(3): 605-611.
Sokas, R. K., E. Jorgensen, L. Nickels, W. Gao and J. L. Gittleman (2009). "An intervention effectiveness study of hazard awareness training in the construction building trades." Public Health Reports 124(4): 161-168.
Taylor, E. L. (2014) ""Safety Benefits of Mandatory OSHA 10 Hour Training." CPWR. Accessed January 2015 from http://www.cpwr.com/sites/default/files/publications/TaylorBenefitsOfMandatoryOSHA10_0.pdf."
Trabeau, M., R. Neitzel, H. Meischke, W. E. Daniell and N. S. Seixas (2008). "A comparison of "Train‐the‐Trainer" and expert training modalities for hearing protection use in construction." American Journal of Industrial Medicine 51(2): 130-137.
Welch, L., X. Dong, F. Carre and K. Ringen (2007). "Is the apparent decrease in injury and illness rates in construction the result of changes in reporting?" International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health 13(1): 39-45.
Wilkins, J. R. (2011). "Construction workers' perceptions of health and safety training programmes." Construction Management and Economics 29(10): 1017-1026.
Williams, Q., M. Ochsner, E. Marshall, L. Kimmel and C. Martino (2010). "The impact of a peerled participatory health and safety training program for Latino day laborers in construction." Journal of Safety Research 41(3): 253-261.
CPWR Small Study No. 15-1-PS
Final Report
Ashley Schoenfisch, PhD
Assistant Professor
Duke University School of Nursing
Durham, North Carolina
Hester Lipscomb, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Duke University School of Medicine
Department of Community and Family Medicine
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Durham, North Carolina
Clayton Sinyai, PhD
Communications Research Manager
CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training
Silver Spring, Maryland
© 2016, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training.
CPWR, the research and training arm of the Building and Construction Trades Dept., AFL-CIO, is uniquely situated to serve construction workers, contractors, practitioners, and the scientific community. This report was prepared by the authors noted. Funding for this research study was made possible by a cooperative agreement with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH (OH009762). The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH or CPWR.


text:
March 20, 2006
Katrina: still lot of work to do, locals doing their part
By Matt Kane
Fourteen Minnesotans boarded a bus at Holt Tours in Cokato on the morning of March 10.
Some were related, some simply knew of each other, and others were complete strangers.
Ten days later, the same passengers, and one additional rider, stepped off a different bus at Holt Tours knowing more about each other than they ever would have thought.
In the week and a half separating the round-trip bus rides, the members of the party shared blood, sweat and tears, as well as a few laughs and prayers, to the point where individualism melted into a bond that formed one, single group all in the name of hurricane relief. More specifically Minnesota Katrina Relief.
"The people from our communities came together," said Dave Lind, of Cokato, who admitted the experience has been uplifting for him personally.
Those people included Ralph and Peggy Lundeen, and daughter Patti Olson.
Three students, three retirees, two homemakers, a truck salesman, postman, business owner, journalist and one job seeker, all from the Dassel-Cokato area, made up the third tour of duty for the effort, out of Cokato.
With different careers and backgrounds, the members didn't have a whole lot in common, but what they did share was a deep Christian faith and the desire to help the Hurricane Katrina-stricken Gulf Coast. Two vital ingredients in overcoming the fear of the unknown most were feeling as they rode the 24 hours from Cokato to Waveland, Miss.
"I feel there will be a lot of hopelessness and people feeling forgotten. I think people might feel that we are a nation of giving to other countries in need but (one that) forgets about its own," Pat Schoephoerster, a retired medical technician from Howard Lake, wrote on the bus ride south. "I think I am going to see destruction of an area that was once productive and filled with joy, and (an area) looking forward to the future, and how there doesn't seem to be a future or an end to this never ending cleanup."
Schoephoerster, and the other Minnesotans who shared the same speculation, found out she was only half correct.
Indeed, she did see massive destruction in the neighboring towns of Waveland and Bay St. Louis, which were flattened by Katrina, a category-4 hurricane when it hit land, on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005. And, from the surface, or 1,280.98 miles away in Howard Lake, the local news doesn't mention these two beach towns nestled between Biloxi and New Orleans.
But, as Schoephoerster found out in seven days of picking up debris and tearing down soggy mobile home, the people of South Mississippi are not forgotten by the nation at least by its people.
Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre estimates the population of his town to be down from 8,200 people before Katrina to between 5,500 and 6,000 today. But he noted the population would hover around 9,000 people in Bay St. Louis if volunteers were counted.
Spend a full day at Camp Katrina, a former NAPA auto parts store and current reservation for volunteer groups like Minnesota Katrina Relief, and one will see the relief effort is far from forgotten. Groups, couples and individuals, most with a Christian tie, from Chicago, New Jersey, Florida, California, Ohio, Iowa and other states, close to 90 people in all, have descended to south Mississippi and Camp Katrina for the same purpose as the Minnesotans, to help.And they have.
In the first five days, the Minnesota crew and a few helpers from other states had completely torn down and disposed of a large machine shed, four inhabitable mobile homes, in addition to hauling countless loads of debris most of which was once someone's personal belongings curbside for disposal.
A feat that has greatly sped up the recovery process, as opposed to if the locals had to do it all themselves.
"Without the groups that have come in, most people in the city would not have been able to even think about working on their houses," said Favre, who lost all he had, including his home and dog. "I can't emphasize how important (the volunteers) have been. We would be nowhere near rebuilding Bay St. Louis city-wise or individual-wise."
The mayor said 45 to 50 percent of the estimated two-and-a-half million pounds of debris left by Katrina has been picked up in the seven months since the storm.
A portion of the remaining debris was cleared away by each Camp Katrina group with the completion of each demolition. However small the percentage, compared to the big picture, the Minnesotans saw the enormous impact their help had on the individual homeowners they were helping.
"They seem happy to have the help. Most of them seem overjoyed," Lind said.
"Some are overjoyed and some are sad," Calvin Anderson, of Cokato, quickly added to Lind's testimony.
As Schoephoerster and Lind began their first week in Waveland, Anderson was starting his second. A fortnight in Mississippi wasn't the original itinerary.
"There wasn't supposed to be a Bobcat driver coming down, so they asked me to stay and run the Bobcat," Anderson, a heavy equipment operator at Nordberg Excavation in Dassel, explained. "There is joy in coming down and helping people down here seeing the smiles on their faces."
Anderson, who was scheduled to return home with Schoephoerster, Lind and the rest of the Wright County gang, will especially miss attending Sunday service at First Missionary Baptist church, an African American Church that praises with energetic, emotion, and "all these hugs I'm getting down here," he said.
Hugs are plentiful around Waveland and Bay St. Louis, but they are not taken for granted. Embraces between residents and volunteers are often prefixed with stories from homeowners explaining their actions taken before, during and after Katrina. Some fled and others stayed. And, while some people spoke about their losses, most were grateful for what they didn't lose.
"We lost our house, but we still have our home," Favre remembered telling his wife. "And we lost everything, but we still have each other."
Amy Ramond, a single mother of two girls, expressed a similar attitude.
"I'm very fortunate in having my two girls, and I have my family," she said, standing on her property in the town of Ansley.
Ramond clutched a fifth-grade photo of herself and her dog "Sam" stood by her side as she conversed with members of the Minnesota crew, not batting an eye as other crewmen tore apart the mobile home she lived in for 14 years in.
"It was 14 years of hard work and 14 years of memories," she said.
Still, Ramond was ready to see the house destroyed.
"I'm ready to get over this seeing it everyday makes it worse," said Ramond, who works with weather buoys at NASA. "It would have taken months for me to start on my house, but now, hopefully, in the coming weeks I can start building my new house."
Ramond has already put in an application at Camp Katrina to get assistance in the erection of her new house.
For Lori DeRosier, a wife and mother of two young boys in Cokato, listening to testimonies from the people she is helping puts what she is doing into perspective.
"When I go to a job site, I look at it as a job I need to get the place cleaned up and I have a job to do," she explained of the emotional shift.
"When the owners show up, I realize I am doing it for them. That's why my heart breaks." Tears welled up in DeRosier's eyes as she finished the last line. Like those aforementioned hugs, also not uncommon.
And there is sure to be more tears shed in South Mississippi by the fourth Minnesota group in the next week, and in the months and years it will take to rebuild and recover from Katrina.
No rest for mayor
For Favre, serving as the mayor of Bay St. Louis has turned into a seven day job since the storm hit.
"Pretty much every minute we are working on something related to the storm," he said from his makeshift office on the second floor of the town's train depot.
In the seven months, Favre has met with President George W. Bush on three separate occasions, as well as city, state and federal officials wearing shorts and flip-flops for each encounter.
Favre jokingly explained being a topic of conversation, even taking some kind-hearted ribbing from the President for wearing shorts, but his face turned serious when he explained the shorts.
"Where was I going to get a three piece suit?" the mayor questioned, referencing the loss of his own belongings. "As long as there is a need here in the bay, I will wear shorts.
When you start dressing up, that is a sign everything is OK. Everything is not OK."
And it took awhile for Favre to convince officials outside of south Mississippi of this.
"The message we've been trying to tell everyone, including the President, is, 'until they see (the destruction) first hand, they can't comprehend the magnitude of what happened.'"
But pity is not what Favre, who took office for a fifth term as mayor last July 1, is looking for. What he needs is help, and he is getting it from volunteers like the ones at Camp Katrina.
"The most support we've gotten has not come from government organizations, but from faith groups and other organizations," he said.
"The great thing is it's from all over the country.
"The part that gets me is our college kids. This is when they should be enjoying life at spring break. The fact that they are here is amazing. It says a lot about the young folks," he said with a slight southern draw.
Favre only wishes he could give these youngsters and the rest of the volunteers a true Bay St. Louis welcome.
"Normally, we roll out the red carpet for visitors, but, unfortunately, we haven't been able to do that. We will work to get everybody back here for a second visit, not a work visit," he said.
Official readings indicate Hurricane Katrina, which lasted close to 10 hours, had sustained winds of 125 miles-per-hour and ocean surges of 27 feet. Enough to claimed 18 lives in Bay St. Louis and 55 in Hancock County, where the town is located. The county had a population of 45,000 people. Many of which have not returned since Katrina's departure, which worries the mayor.
"Bay St. Louis was a special place in part because of the small town charm, and historical houses and businesses. But the most special thing we have is the people," he said.
"If the people don't come back to make it a city what is the point of having a city?
"In some ways, we've come a long way, but we've got so far to go."
Back to Current Stories Menu | Back to Archives List
Herald Journal


text:
Unfortunately this Club is now Closed.
If you are interested in becoming a
Laughter Yoga Facilitator,
please call Sophia on 9305-6582. Thanks.
You have all heard the saying that "Laughter Is The Best Medicine".
You have probably experienced a good hearty laugh at some time in your life!
Laughter Clubs are about creating laughter rather than waiting for a good joke to tickle your funny bone!
Where Can I Join In?
Sundays 10am
Waterside Cafe/Stockland Decking
2 North Shore Drive, Craigieburn
Where the 3 Water Fountains spurt
Join us for a laugh at 10am on the decking. Over the Christmas/New year period the Cafe will be closed but I will still make my way down there in case you turn up!
Or call me to confirm details
9305-6582 - leave a message if
the machine gets there first.
I will not be far away!
Come and join the fun on a
Sunday morning/afternoon
and laugh with like-hearted people!
It is FREE & FUN!


text:
Here's a few pictures of Styx (Brylach Over the Broomstick with Cusidh) learning to swim recently. A skill she's pretty much got the hang of now. First up here she is drying off.
And here she is in various rivers (Ouze and Ouzel) and Milton Keynes floods getting a bit of help from Banrigh and Elise. As Styx is now 6 months old we think her new found water skills will hold her in good sted for any under water show rings!
Finally, here's Banrigh (Ch Drawing Down the Moon to Cusidh) supervising Styx from the river banks.


text:
Kilkenny Dunnes Stores case in court today
DUNNES Stores is in the Commercial Court today over an application to wind up the retailer because of a €21.6m debt owed for building work on a Kilkenny shopping centre.
The insolvent construction company Holtglen has brought the winding-up petition to court under the Companies Act. Holtglen, whose loans are with NAMA, say that Dunnes failed to pay and 'gave no reason or excuse'.
The debt is the subject of a High Court order made last March, ruling that Dunnes should pay the €21.6m. But the retailer has expressed serious concerns over the viability of the Ferrybank Shopping Centre.