Engineering News Record of New York Interviews William Rapetti

Tower Crane in Venice, Italy

Engineering News Record (ENR) of New York interviewed William Rapetti after his acquittal of manslaughter charges stemming from the deadly collapse of a 200-foot tower crane in Manhattan in 2008.  The interview was well done and provides the reader with a glimpse of the tenacity and perserverance it takes to defend yourself against unfair charges.  In addition, it gives you a look at the process of when you are charged with manslaughter, and what a person and his family goes through when you become the target.  An very good read and the reporting was done very fairly.

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Successful PACNY Conference Gets Even Better The Second Day - Part 2

Roundtable Participants - Mr. Alonge, Mr. Yehl, Mr. Garcia, & Mr. Hart

The exhibit hall, which was open both days and the first day reception was in, was alot of fun with over 25 vendors represented including Aramsco, DiVal, Grayling, Fiberlock, United Rentals, NY State Laborers Cooperation & Education Trust, Ashtead Tecchnology Rentals, and Cornerstone Training Institute, to name a few. One of the interesting items in the exhibit hall was the Liftpod by JLG that DiVal was displaying (Provides over a 360 degree range of motion, ability to work with both hands up to 14 feet, easily transports in common vehicles). DiVal has a PACNY show special on this product for $1,999. See photos from the conference and the exhibit hall, at our Picasa web album.
Unfortunately, due to the need to check-out of the hotel before 11 AM, we missed Paul Watson's, of ATC Associates, "A Discussion about Mercury."  That brought the conference to the main event, Christopher Alonge, PE, of New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) discussing "Code Rule 56 Update." As in previous presentations, Mr. Alonge was nice enough to provide his presentation to the attendees at this link: http://www.pacny.org/docs/2011-ICR-56-Changes.pdf.  The attached presentation includes changes made by NY Department of State regarding the Fire/Life Safety proposed changes we have seen in Mr. Alonge's previous presentations.  Examples include changing the requirement of a code compliance technician to a code compliance officer for notification/variance sign-off, requirements for required exists, emergency lighting, and portable fire extinguishers. NYSDOL will also be creating a code compliance course for code enforcement officials that will be 4-hours of in-service training. Mr. Alonge is anticipating a schedule of June 2011 for publishing and October 2011 for finalizing. Still not sure if there will be a adoption period. The biggest uproar and most questions during the Q&A period was regarding the proposed NYSDOL change that all asbestos has to be removed before any demolition, renovation, or remodel. This change brought about the most questions and concerns from the audience. After Mr Alonge's presentation an industry roundtable Q&A was moderated by Mr. Sean Hart, of AECOM Environment, and consisted of Mr. Alonge; Mr. Joe Cantone, of Colden Corporation; Mr. Peter DeLucia, of AAC Contracting; Mr. Darren Yehl, of LeChase Construction Services; and Angelo Garcia, III, of FED.
I was honored to be selected on the panel again this year.  I enjoyed meeting people that I've met year after year and unfortunately only get to meet at this conference.  It seems to me the PACNY organization seems to be getting better and better each year, and I look forward to seeing it continue its growth well into the future.

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A Record Turnout Makes For A Successful PACNY Conference - Part 1

Linda Reinstein of ADAO, Keynote Speaker

 On March 10-11, 2011, we went to the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY) 15th Annual Environmental Conference at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.  The event this year was well attended with over 220 attendees.  Future Environment Designs (FED) increased our participation this year, by deciding to become one of the Conference Sponsors and joined the other vendors in the Exhibit Hall.  We enjoyed our placement next to Ciotti Enterprises and enjoyed several discussions with Jeff Cooper the operations manager.  Ciotti Enterprises is a Central New York waste hauler handling demolition debris, municipal solid waste, and are Part 364 permitted by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), enabling them to handle asbestos and contaminated soil hauling.
The conference began with the usual introductions by this year's conference chair person Deb Johnson, of Aramsco, and the current President of PACNY Kevin Canaan, of AAC Contracting Inc.  Mr. Canaan then introduced the keynote speaker Ms. Linda Reinstein, the President/CEO/Co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO).   We first met Ms. Reinstein when she did our radio program "Keeping Your Family Safe from Asbestos".  She started her presentation announcing the Senate passage of the seventh annual resolution that establishes “National Asbestos Awareness Week".  Her presentation included these facts regarding global occupational exposure to asbestos: greater than 107,000 workers die annually; 1,523,000 years lost due to premature mortality and disability; construction workers are 11 times more likely to contract mesothelioma, and 1.3 million workers exposed to asbestos.  These are some sobering numbers regarding asbestos, in addition the fact that mesothelioma treatment can exceed $1 million without a guarantee of success, should be a rememberance of why the asbestos abatement industry is important.
Ron Williams, the Assistant Syracuse Area Director for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was the next speaker and discussed emerging safety and health issues and current remediation enforcement actions.  Regarding emerging issues he discussed falls in residential construction, crowd management, distracted driving, workplace violence, and residential construction (effective 6/16/11).  Mr. Williams also discussed 27 fatalities in OSHA Region 2 last year (10/1/09 - 9/30/10); 38% of fatalities were Hispanic/Latino (2nd highest in the country); Syracuse area conducted 527 inspections (33% were in construction) resulting 1,348 serious violations averaging $979 per serious violation.  OSHA's new penalty structure went into effect on 10/1/2010 increasing serious violation from $1,100 to $3,000 and repeat violations will now look back 5 years versus 3 years, previously.
Bob Krell of IAQ Technologies discussed "Practical Approaches to An Energy Efficient Indoor Environment" visit http://www.iaq.net/ for a copy of his presentation, Victoria Pretti of New York State Department of Health Environmental Laboratory discussed "An Overview of ELAP, PCM, and PLM Analysis", and Richard Washburn of New York State Commission on Public Integrity discussed "Ethics and the Construction Industry".  All three were excellant presenters, though I would give the award to best presenter to Mr. Washburn for keeping a topic that could be very boring and scary, very interesting, entertaining and led to alot of discussions afterwards regarding construction industry practices that probably need to change.  Ms. Pretti discussion on the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) was informative, visit their website at http://www.wadsworth.org/labcert/elap/asbestos.html regularly to ensure your laboratory is approved to analyze samples.  Delisted labs are updated on the website within 24-hours.  The 7402 method for analysis of asbestos air samples is approved by ELAP.  Other important information is ELAP is currently reworking the asbestos bulk sample methods to require labs to reduce friable asbestos samples if they have matrix interference, this will lead to an increase in costs for lab analysis for certain samples.  The reception after the last speaker, Mr. Washburn, was excellent and the pass around food was excellant and Saranac Brewing Company's Pomegranate Wheat Beer was very good and went well with the snacks and the hors d'ourves.  Day one ended with the anticipation of the next day with Mr. Chris Alonge and the roundtable discussion.

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Long Island OSHA Rep Speaks to the Association of Facilities Engineers

Image via WikipediaOn Tuesday, March 8, 2011, Mr. Anthony Ciuffo, CSP, the Long Island Area Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) gave an overview of OSHA's function in the workplace and what OSHA currently doing in the area.  His presentation was to the Long Island Chapter of the Association of Facilities Engineers (AFE) which held this meeting at the Hofstra University Club.  The event was sponsored by Hofstra University Continuing Education.
The presentation covered the typical taglines we've come to hear from other OSHA representatives - strong enforcement; partnering for a purpose; emergency preparedness; rule making in requiring an injury illness prevention program (I2P2); and safety and health management systems.  Top ten inspection targets for the Long Island area are:

1. Fall hazards in construction
2. Heavy highway and bridge construction
3. Gut rehab and demolition
4. Amputations
5. Warehousing
6. Construction
7. Landscaping & Horticultural
8. High Hazard 50
9. Isocyanate
10. Lead

For OSHA's calendar year, last year saw 343 inspections (on Long Island).  Average serious violation before October 2010 was $1,200, after October 2010 the average serious violation has increased to $2,400.
Dinner was included in the meeting and the organization several future meetings and a golf outing planed in the future.  For more information on AFE visit their website at: http://www.afechapter4.org/

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EPA's Local Coordinator for the Lead Paint Rule at Hofstra University

On Friday, April 1, 2011 (that's right on April Fool's day), Jeanette Dadusc, MS, MPA the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Region 2 Coordinator for the Lead Based Paint  - Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) rule will be the guest speaker at a free information session at Breslin Hall at Hofstra University.  To register or for more information, visit ce.hofstra.edu/EPAinfo or call 516-463-7200.