By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultant

It’s 10:00 a.m., you hear a knock on the door, you get up and see someone who looks very official standing there, you open the door and they introduce themselves. “Hi my name is Kristin, I’m with MIOSHA CET…” your heartbeat quickens, you are no longer listening to the woman at the door, you’re thinking, is the boss here? What am I going to do? Before you know it, she has passed you a business card and turned away, leaving you standing there. You take a second and realize she is not coming in, so you just pass it off as a near miss and put the card in your desk without a second thought. That might be a mistake not inviting her in for a non-enforcement hazard survey. You may already know this, but MTMIC has had an alliance with MIOSHA CET for many years and have assisted many policyholders with CET services with positive results. As you know we are a proactive insurance company and are always finding ways to reduce injuries and provide our policyholders with valuable resources to use.

I would like to introduce one of MIOSHA CET’s Industrial Hygienist and my liaison, her name is Kristin Osterkamp. Kristin was appointed to MIOSHA’s Consultation Education and Training (CET) Division in 2006. She currently provides industrial hygiene related services to Oakland, Macomb, and St Clair counties in SE Michigan. Kristin is a CIH, CSP, and has a Masters in Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Michigan and a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Elmhurst College in Illinois. Last month I asked Kristin if she would write a short exposition on the alliance that MIOSHA CET and MTM has had over the years; this is what she wrote:

MIOSHA and MTMIC Alliance

On January 19, 2006, The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) and Manufacturing Technology Mutual Insurance Company (MTMIC), formerly known as the Michigan Tooling Association Workers’ Compensation Fund, signed a 3-year formal alliance agreement to protect the safety and health of Michigan’s metalworking industry workers. Since 2006, this Alliance has been renewed three times and is eligible for a fourth renewal in October 2018.

Some of the initiatives associated with this Alliance include:

• MIOSHA providing MTMIC members and others with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help them protect the health and safety of workers, particularly by reducing and preventing exposure to workplace hazards that occur in MTMIC member industries.
• MTMIC will promote MIOSHA’s Consultation, Education and Training (CET) services to their policyholders, which include companies in high hazard industries that are included in MIOSHA’s Strategic Plan.
• MIOSHA act as a resource for all MTMIC member companies to help forge innovative solutions in the workplace or to provide input on safety and health issues.
• MTMIC and MIOSHA CET will jointly develop industry/hazard specific Fact Sheets that will be shared on MIOSHA’s website. For example, in 2014, MIOSHA, MTMIC and the Precision Metal forming Association (PMA) Alliance jointly developed two Fact Sheets for Industry – Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (CET-0190) and Machinery Manufacturing (CET-0191). These Fact Sheets and others can be found at: https:// www.michigan.gov/lara/0,4601,7-154- 11407_30453-221140–,00.html

Additional information related to the MIOSHA/ MTMIC Alliance can be found at: https:// www.michigan.gov/ lara/0,4601,7-154- 11407_64196-296579– ,00.html

To learn more about the free consultation and training services MIOSHA CET offers, see the following link: Consultation Education & Training Services (CET #0165) MTMIC clients who are interested in setting up free MIOSHA CET services at your facility (e.g. air or noise monitoring, hazard survey or training) contact Chris Demeter, MTMIC Alliance liaison, at 517.230.0937 or by email at chris.demeter@mtmic.com/blog. Chris will submit a request for consultative assistance (RCA) form on your behalf.

From the inception of our alliance with MIOSHA CET, 145 of our policyholders have used their services with great success. Policyholders that participate in a non-enforcement hazard survey have said it’s an invaluable training tool. It affords the employer and selected employees the opportunity to learn how to identify unsafe or unhealthy acts or conditions and MIOSHA violations. The hazard survey results in formulating ways to correct any noted deficiencies and best of all, it’s free.

To learn more about the free services available from MIOSHA CET, please contact me or your Loss Control consultant. I hope you enjoyed the hot summer because cooler days are just around the corner.