NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. –
Defense Logistics Agency Distribution played host to a meeting of the Susquehanna Valley Field Federal Safety Council at DLA Distribution Headquarters in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, July 25.
The council, hosted by Zachariah Shaner, safety and occupational health manager, DLA Distribution, consists of local federal employees and safety and health professionals who collaborate to improve safety and health in the federal government.
Participants included representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Naval Supply Systems Command, Fort Indiantown Gap’s Army Aviation Support Facility, Raven Rock Mountain Complex, Carlisle Barracks and Letterkenny Army Depot.
“The goal is to provide an avenue for federal activities to collaborate in order to advance safety and occupational health programs across federal agencies and for federal employees,” said Shaner. “By having the local regional OSHA office involved it provides an opportunity for access to the regulatory experts to discuss potential concerns, future proposed regulation, and gain insight into how compliance would be viewed during interactions with their office."
Shaner said the meetings provides an avenue for occupational safety and health training across a wide range of topics and opportunities to share ideas and solve problems during meetings and events with fellow agencies in the geographical area.
“Opportunities like this provides a prime networking opportunity with our fellow federal agencies safety partners,” he said. “Many other installations in our area perform some similar operations and the ability to reach out to these other subject matter experts to gain insight into how or what they have done to deal with a particular situation is a tremendous asset for us at Distribution as we continue to look for opportunities to enhance the safety and health program for the betterment of our most important asset, our employees.”
During the first face-to-face council meeting, discussions centered around protecting workers under OSHA’s national emphasis programs on heat.
“After these discussions today, I can tell you that I’ll be taking some heat program considerations back,” said Vernon Lowe, safety manager, Letterkenny Army Depot. “I’m excited to take some of these lessons learned back to enhance my depot’s program.”
Future council meetings will focus on various topics sourced from the group, including challenges that members might be working through at their respective sites.
“The whole idea of this group is to be able to network and share best practices, what is working, what’s not working,” said Shawn Renaldi, OSHA. “This is a forum to share what we might need help with and to try to share that knowledge across all sites.”