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Questions & Answers
Joseph Raab is the new director of occupational and environmental safety services (OES) in University Facilities.
What is the mission of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Safety?
The mission of Occupational and Environmental Safety (OES) is to ensure that the functions and mission of the university can be accomplished in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. We consult internally with the campus to assist departments in reducing hazards and conducting their work in compliance with safety and environmental laws, regulations and policies. When stating our mission, I also like to say that we are the friendly campus resource that helps departments to prepare safety programs, analyze hazards and stay out of trouble with the regulatory agencies.
Your office runs the fire drills across campus. What other types of drills or training do you supervise?
The drills are one important aspect of the campus emergency-preparedness effort. In addition to the fire drills, OES coordinates with, meets, trains and runs drills with several local emergency-response groups. This is all in an effort to respond efficiently and effectively to natural disasters, fires and other types of emergencies that may arise on campus. In the past few years, OES has been collaborating with departments to set up building emergency planning committees to work on building specific emergency plans, including evacuation drills. We have made a great deal of progress in this area. Training on safety and health topics is another emphasis of our consultation to campus groups. Some examples of what we provide are training on chemical handling, radioactive materials, biological hazards, laboratory safety and use of respirators and personal protective equipment. We are planning to provide our first "on-line" training course—training on chemical "right to know" will be available on the OES Web site sometime this fall.
What is the "Campus Commitment to Safety?"
The "Campus Commitment to Safety" is a document that was created in 2001 that
emphasizes UB's commitment to maintaining the safety, health and well-being
of its community—students, faculty, staff and visitors. It also establishes
that faculty and staff have the responsibility to ensure that safety and health
is maintained in their environment and operations. The document describes how
safety, health and environmental policy should be designed into university activities.
I believe that this commitment is a starting point for all the things that we
do at the university, and it is important to recognize that we all have a role.
The roles and responsibilities for safety often mean many different things to
different people, so the "Campus Commitment" helps to clarify these responsibilities
for the campus community. It is commonly OES's job to inform people of their
responsibilities for campus safety in their respective jobs and to assist them
in meeting their obligations. Copies of the "Campus Commitment to Safety" can
be obtained by calling OES at 829-2516 or by visiting our Web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/services/fac/OES/.
Tell me a little about your background.
I am a native Western New Yorker who pursued a westward expansion and then returned home. I grew up in the Rochester area and attended SUNY Geneseo to obtain a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. This technical background prepared me well for future endeavors. While working as a summer student at Eastman Kodak, I was introduced to the health-and-safety field and my interest led me to pursue a master's degree in public health, which I obtained from the University of Michigan. I went from Michigan to St. Louis, where I worked for the aerospace industry, and eventually ended up in California. While there, I was a safety and health manager for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After 12 years on the West Coast, I decided that it was time again to brave the East-Coast winters.
What's the hardest part of your job? What part do you enjoy most?
The hardest part and the most enjoyable part of my job are actually the same thing—it is encouraging people to incorporate health, safety and environmental concerns into their day-to-day activities. This is difficult because it requires me to sell people on the idea that they need to think outside of their work and analyze the ramifications. All of the faculty, students and staff have increasing demands upon them and are expected to accomplish great things. Sometimes it is difficult to have the time and ability to step back and examine what they are doing. They need to think about what kind of hazards might be present due to their work and what are the risks and impacts to people and the environment. Also, there are more than a dozen regulatory and accrediting agencies that the campus must comply with on safety, health and environmental issues. Oftentimes, people realize the importance of such matters after someone in their department becomes seriously injured, or after they pay a large regulatory fine because of environmental infractions. My hope is that we can be more proactive and prevent such things from ever happening. The enjoyable part is the opportunity that I have to interact with people and build up their safety programs. There is great reward in reducing accident rates and protecting our environment.
What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?
I wish that you had asked, "What is your favorite thing about returning to Western New York?" Of course, being near family is great, and people here are very friendly, but what I really notice is that Buffalo has the best pizza and wings on the planet!