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Gov. Charlie Crist Appoints Embry-Riddle Professor Mark Friend to Florida Public Task Force on Workplace Safety

New Legislation Spurred by Daytona Beach Government Worker Deaths

Professor Mark Friend Daytona Beach, Fla., Sept. 9, 2008 -- Dr. Mark Friend of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach has been appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist to the newly established Florida Public Task Force on Workplace Safety.

Dr. Friend, a Safety Science professor and chair of Embry-Riddle’s Applied Aviation Sciences Department, and the 14 other members of the task force will report back to the governor and the Florida State Legislature by Jan. 1, 2009, with their recommendations on ways the state can ensure that all state, county, and municipal workers have federal-level occupational safety and health protection.

The task force was mandated in June 2008, when Gov. Crist signed the Public Sector Safety and Health Coverage Task Force Bill sponsored by Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Ormond Beach) and Rep. Audrey Gibson (D-Jacksonville). The impetus for the bill was an explosion at a Daytona Beach municipal water treatment plant in 2006 that killed two city workers and severely injured another. An investigation found that Florida’s lack of required occupational safety and health coverage for its public-sector employees was a cause of the workers’ deaths.

“Nationwide, 8.5 million government employees in 26 states and the District of Columbia do not receive the same federal level of workplace safety protection that all private-sector workers are guaranteed by law,” said Dr. Friend. “In Florida that means almost one million government employees are without federal coverage and thus are at risk.”

Gov. Crist, the Florida Senate president, and the Florida House of Representatives speaker have each appointed five members to the task force, representing a variety of interests including safety, health, and environmental professionals, business organizations, state government, and academia.

Dr. Friend has more than 30 years of experience in higher education and currently teaches in the Safety Science undergraduate degree program at Embry-Riddle. He holds an Ed.D. in Safety Management, is a Certified Safety Professional, and is a professional member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, which strongly backed the Public Sector Safety and Health Coverage Task Force Bill. His text, Fundamentals of Occupational Safety and Health, is a top-selling book in the safety science field.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs, with accreditation pending for Embry-Riddle’s first doctoral programs, in Aviation and in Engineering Physics. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.