Reference for federal campus fire safety reporting

The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting  was recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. Yes, it would've been more useful for you last year when you had to prepare the report. For future reference, chapters 11-14 cover the fire safety requirements of the regulations.

Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know

Requests about the status of the Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know (RTK) trickle in from our UW System campuses. Campus-Firewatch.com has a comprehensive update that Ed Comeau does a great job with.

A podcast is also available, which goes a bit more into the public safety background of the Clery Act. It's actually two separate interviews, and I think is worth your listening time (over 30 minutes). Here are some of the things I noted:

• Campuses should be making a good faith effort now to put systems in place to collect the data, and begin collecting data.
• Expect that regulations will require formal reporting beginning October 2010.
• Suggests partnering with campus security offices that already have Clery Act reporting requirements.
• There is a lot of agreement to simply add the fire reporting regulatory compliance to the already existing Clery Act reporting system.
• Reporting requirements will only cover on-campus student housing facilities (definition to be determined). There was discussion about collecting all fire-related incidents, even though only the student housing items would be reported.
• Discussion on "popcorn in the microwave" alarms.

And those of you that want to see the progress of the draft rule drafting, the April 7 draft is available here. The first four pages incorporate the reporting into the existing public security sections already required by the Clery Act. The section that is specific to fire safety begins at the bottom of page four.


Links:
http://campus-firewatch.com/reprints/rtkreprint.html
http://www.radiofirehouse.com/broadcast/wp-content/2009/cfw_033009.mp3
http://www.campus-firewatch.com/resources/rtk/rtk%20regs%20040709.pdf

Article on undercount of workplace injuries and illnesses

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has issued an article (Monthly Labor Review, August 2008) that summarizes and critiques some studies on undercounting of workplace injuries and illnesses, and describes BLS efforts to better understand and address the undercount issue (see our June 27 post).

Higher Education Act

On August 4, 2008, the Higher Education Act passed the House of Representatives and the Senate and is expected to be signed by President Bush shortly. Among the provisions are:

• Under the Clery Act, procedures for emergency response, notification, and evacuation must be tested on an annual basis; however, these tests can be table-top tests or simulations.
• Dropped from the Act’s language is the 30-minute requirement for notification of students, faculty, and staff during emergency situations. Also dropped is the proposed creation of a National Center for Campus Public Safety.
• Colleges and universities will be required to report and track fires that cause personal or property damage.

More information is available at the URMIA website.

House committee reports on injury and illness under-reporting

A staff report by the Committee on Education and Labor (US House of Representatives) was released last week. They heard from witnesses that contend that the Department of Labor’s longstanding failure to collect accurate data on workplace injuries and illnesses calls into question the agency’s claims that workplaces are getting safer and healthier.

As much as 69 percent of all injuries and illnesses may never be reported to OSHA. An Education and Labor Committee staff report released today reviews the extent of the underreporting problem and offers explanations for it. To view the complete report, click here.

The press release with links to the statements by witnesses is at: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/edlabor_dem/rel061908.html