OHS Canada July/August 2010

C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E J u l y/ Au gust 2010

C A N A D A

Hauling in

Safety

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240 PAP Reg. No. 880

Timber harvesters chop away at injuries

CELLPHONE-FREE Does no-hands mean no worries?

DANGER ZONE Protecting workers on the road

LONG-TERM DEAL Nearing a century of workers’ comp

SQUEAKY CLEAN? Drug manufacturing has its risks

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C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

FEATURES C C A A N N A A D D A A

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R OAD WOR K

Dodging Bullets

J U LY/ A U GU S T 2 0 1 0 Vo l u m e 26, Nu m b e r 5

Work on the road involves more than construction crews. The safety of all depends on protections in place and the good will of passing motorists.

BY ASTRID VAN DEN BROEK

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TI M B E R HA RV ES TIN G

Out of the Woods?

Work-related deaths among tree fallers and log haulers are on their way down. Stakeholders are trying to keep it that way, and hope to go even farther.

BY DONALEE MOULTON

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C E L L P HON ES

Safety Disconnect Governments are hanging up on hand-held cellphone use at the wheel. But does allowing hands-free units rev up protections or put road safety in park?

BY ANGELA STELMAKOWICH

DEPARTMENTS

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S AF E TY GEAR

Wash & Care Worker safety need not be doused by contact with hazardous materials.

Emergency eyewashes and showers help wash away the potential for harm.

BY EMILY LANDAU

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OC C U PATIO N AL HYGI EN E

Under the Radar Pharmaceutical plants and labs may seem sterile and safe. But like any work environment, they demand appropriate equipment and sound processes.

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BY JASON CONTANT

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AC C I D E NT P R EV EN TIO N

IN THIS ISSUE ED IT O R IA L

Here Comes the Sun 4

Numbers Game O H&S U P D AT E

Behind the Trade There is good and bad to the historic trade-off. Lawsuits may be more theory than practice, but the possibility of near-immediate benefits remains welcome.

BY EMILY LANDAU

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TI M E OUT

Surf-dumb; slimy encounter; spit spat; fox trot; revealing reaction; bottle docked; shocking showstopper; and paper chase.

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Compliance shell game; high-minded finances; victory of refusal; shock-gap measure; schooled on safety; and more.

P R O FESS IO N AL DIRECT O RY P R O D U C T S HOW CAS E AD IN D EX / R EA DER S ERV I CE I NF O

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WOR K E RS ’ CO M P EN S ATI ON

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Report skewers federal oh&s efforts; second death at Yukon mine; British Columbia board to cover drug cost; guilty plea in attack on Alberta bus driver; lifting method at Saskatchewan mine questioned; $1 million-plus fine in Ontario; employee dies at Quebec reservoir; New Brunswick worker escapes vehicle fire; Newfoundland engineering firm charged; and more.

D ISPATC HES

The great outdoors is hardly an oasis, what with the heat, ultraviolet radiation and disease-carrying pests. Take care to cool down, cover up and keep safe.

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One is not exposed to danger who, even when in safety, is always on their guard.

— PUBLILIUS SYRUS

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C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

EDITORIAL C A N A D A

Vol. 26, No. 5 JULY/AUGUST 2010 EDITOR

Numbers Game “S

uccess is no accident” — this is the kind of statement often heard in workplace safety circles. It’s also the title of an April, 2010 report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that blasts the federal Labour Program’s efforts to promote and enforce the occupational health and safety provisions of the Canada Labour Code.

There is a “growing disparity” between workers regulated by the feds and those overseen by the provinces when it comes to work-related injuries and deaths, writes report author David Macdonald, a research associate with the centre.

“Over the past five years, many provinces have worked diligently to drive down the number of workplace injuries. Their efforts at targeting high-risk workplaces and hiring more inspectors have largely been successful,” Macdonald notes.

“The result has been an average decline in the provincial disabling injury rate of 25 per cent,” he reports, compared with a five per cent hike in federally regulated workplaces.

Now, it must be said that statistics are a funny thing. Take out one number, plug in another, and the outcome can be markedly different. Consider the federal five per cent figure, which measures the change in the disabling injury rate between 2002 and 2007. Had 2003 been used as the starting point, the rate would have actually declined by 4.5 per cent. But this isn’t the point.

A broader look at the numbers supports Macdonald’s findings. Even using the more charitable 2003 to 2007 timeline, As the the federal picture is grim compared with the provincial and territorial experience. During that period, the injury frequenoh&s cy rate for all of Canada declined 17.6 per cent; in Ontario it plummeted 22.7 per cent. (All provincial statistics cited here enforcer, are from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards the Labour of Canada.) The federal injury incidence rate, which includes so-called “minor” injuries, dropped 3.9 per cent.

Program...

The overall safety performance of federally regulated workers is lagging and, as the oh&s enforcer, the Labour Program must do (contained within Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, or HRSDC) must do something about it. While the something. program isn’t the only player on the scene — hello, employers and employees! — it certainly occupies a lead role.

Macdonald prescribes a few measures to boost safety. The Labour Program, he writes, should hire more inspectors and “immediately” target high-risk workplaces. In fact, Macdonald contends the average number of federal workers per inspector has increased over the past several years.

Another recommendation is that federal oh&s inspectors get a pay hike, as they are “at the very bottom of the safety inspectors’ pay scale.”

Some of these suggestions have been heard before by the Labour Program. A late-2007 internal HRSDC audit called on the department to “increase and prioritize the coverage” of companies visited by inspectors “based on the levels of risk associated to the work sites.” The audit team found “a significant number of high-risk employers that are known to the program are not visited annually.”

To be fair, the feds have been leaders on some oh&s issues, being among the earliest jurisdictions in Canada to adopt provisions for violence prevention.

However, more can and must be done. There’s no reason why the safety performance of federal workplaces shouldn’t match or surpass that of their provincial counterparts.

Dan is assistant editor of for the next issue.

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OHS CANADA

Dan Birch and is subbing for Angela, who will return

ACTING EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

ANGELA STELMAKOWICH astelmakowich@ohscanada.com DAN BIRCH dbirch@ohscanada.com JEAN LIAN jlian@ohscanada.com EMILY LANDAU elandau@ohscanada.com

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Hazardous substances Safety gear ART DIRECTOR PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CUSTOMER SERVICE ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER PUBLISHER PRESIDENT, BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP

WILLIAM M. GLENN JASON CONTANT JAMES WARDELL PHYLLIS WRIGHT JESSICA JUBB DIMITRY EPELBAUM LORI THOMPSON-REID SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PETER BOXER pboxer@ohscanada.com BRUCE CREIGHTON

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. ALLAN JOHNSON, Director of Construction, Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Workers’ Compensation Board of B.C., Vancouver, B.C. JANE LEMKE, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont. DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask.

PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont.

OHS CANADA is the magazine for people who make decisions about health and safety in the workplace. It is designed to keep workers, managers and safety professionals informed on oh&s issues, up to date on new developments and in touch with current thinking in the oh&s community.

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Date of issue: July 2010

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OH&S UPDATE

FEDS SCRUTINIZING FLOAT PLANES FEDERAL — The deaths of a pilot and three passengers in a British Columbia float plane crash has prompted the federal transport minister to commission a review of float plane safety.

The accident occurred on May 29, when the Cessna 185 crashed near the West Coast community of Yates Point.

The plane, owned and operated by Atleo River Air Services of Tofino, British Columbia, was en route from Tofino to Ahousaht at the time. The pilot, Damon York, 33, and passengers Katrina English, 22, Edward Sam, 28, and Samantha Mattersdorfer, 24, all died, says a statement from the Tofino/Ahousaht detachment of the RCMP. The crash follows another serious float plane accident in the province on November 29, 2009 in which an aircraft operated by Seair Seaplanes Ltd. crashed off Saturna Island shortly after takeoff, killing six passengers. The pilot and one passenger survived.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) in Ottawa is investigat-

ing both accidents. Bill Yearwood, the TSB’s pacific region manager of air investigations in Richmond, British Columbia, notes that a 1994 TSB report on seaplane safety found that drowning, rather than impact, is the primary cause of death in float plane crashes. “[It is] a combination of persons who get trapped in the aircraft and those who get out and drown before they can reach shore,” Yearwood says.

Transport Canada has reacted to the fatalities, announcing on May 31 that new measures will be taken to improve float plane safety for workers and passengers, including the following: implementing an updated safety awareness campaign for passengers; strengthening enforcement related to non-compliant operators; investigating possible improvements to float plane emergency exits, pop-out windows, life vests and training; and undertaking a full review of aircraft safety with industry stakeholders.

Scott Fraser, the NDP MLA representing Alberni-Pacific Rim in British Columbia, applauds the federal department’s plans. “Small float planes… in this part of the world are a key lifeline to commu-

nities. These types of accidents cause a huge ripple,” Fraser says.

Flight safety advocate Kirsten Stevens is less optimistic. “It’s already been established that [changes are] necessary, and I don’t see any reason for investigating any further possibilities,” argues Stevens, whose husband and three other loggers, along with the pilot, were killed in a float plane crash off Quadra Island, British Columbia on February 28, 2005.

Stevens suggests float planes are more vulnerable because of their size and the general lack of attention paid to this type of aircraft. “It’s actually the small airplanes that have way more accidents… and the small airplanes tend to be the ones that workers use for commuting to and from work.”

REPORT BLASTS FEDERAL OH&S FEDERAL — The safety of federally regu-

lated workers is being jeopardized by Ottawa’s subpar enforcement of occupational health and safety requirements, suggests a report released in late April.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Al-

SECOND DEATH AT YUKON MINE ROSS RIVER — A zinc and silver mine southeast of Ross River

in the Yukon witnessed its second fatality in six months after a mine shaft collapsed on April 25, killing one worker and injuring two others.

Sergeant Don Rogers, a Yukon RCMP spokesperson, says the incident occurred at about 3:30 am “in one of the deeper portals” of the Wolverine mine, owned by Vancouver-based Yukon Zinc Corporation. At the time of the accident, three workers employed by Procon Mining & Tunnelling were in the mine. Mechanic William Fisher, 25, was killed and two colleagues, a mechanic and an operator, sustained non-lifethreatening injuries.

“There was a partial collapse of a drift or a tunnel,” explains Mark Hill, a spokesperson for the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board in Whitehorse.

Four board inspectors were dispatched to investigate the collapse, Hill notes. A Yukon Zinc statement confirms the employees “were working in a stabilized area of the mine when the ground failure occurred” and that “all construction and underground activities [were] suspended.”

When the collapse occurred, Fisher and his two co-workers were on opposite sides of a vehicle, Rogers says. Hill

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reports that Fisher was buried by falling debris and that his body was recovered approximately 12 hours later.

“We express our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of [Fisher],” Raymond Mah, Yukon Zinc’s chief operating officer, says in the statement. “Both Yukon Zinc and Procon place great emphasis on mine safety,” Mah adds.

Last October 19 at the mine, a 20-year-old Procon employee died after being run over by a mine vehicle, which he had left parked on a slope. The vehicle’s emergency brake did not hold and it struck the worker from behind, causing serious internal injuries that led to his death.

“Two deaths within the span of the year at one operation is something that you’d have to say is significant,” comments Michael Wark, executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines in Whitehorse. However, Wark adds, “I don’t think that [Yukon Zinc and Procon] are negligent in their duties, of course. Safety is something that they promote. We’ll just have to sit and wait and see” what the investigation reveals.

With a recent influx of mining in the Yukon, Wark says that the chamber has organized an independent health and safety committee to further promote good work practices.

— By Emily Landau

ternatives (CCPA) in Ottawa issued the study by research associate David Macdonald, who argues government underfunding and understaffing are putting federally employed workers at risk.

These workers make up more than eight per cent of the country’s work force.

While the rate of disabling injury in provincially regulated workplaces has dropped an average of 25 per cent over the past five years, “federally regulated workplaces are a completely different story,” the study notes, claiming the rate has climbed five per cent in that time.

The crux of the problem, Macdonald notes, is a shortage of Labour Affairs Officers (LAOs) employed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) to perform inspections.

“This has created a situation where high-risk workplaces are not being sufficiently visited by LAOs, visits which by their very nature are designed to help prevent injuries and fatalities,” Macdonald argues. “HRSDC’s poor support for LAOs and its push to have employers self-regulate are putting federal jurisdiction employees in harm’s way.”

HRSDC spokesperson Anna Kroupoderova says the department’s Labour

Program is reviewing the CCPA report and emphasizes that the government is “committed to doing its part to prevent injury and illness in the workplace.”

Macdonald singled out Canada Post for its poor safety performance, arguing that the Crown corporation stonewalls LAOs. Macdonald contends that Canada Post systematically refuses to sign assurances of voluntary compliance, which are non-legally binding agreements by an employer to take action on what an LAO has recommended.

“That type of behaviour is indicative of an industry that’s not concerned about safety,” he comments, adding that the injury rate for employees is “about three times the national average.”

Gayle Bossenberry, first national vicepresident of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in Ottawa, says that although she is not surprised by the report’s findings, she views them as troubling.

The CCPA report uses data from 2007 that does not reflect recent improved safety performance at Canada Post, argues Anick Losier, director of media relations for the postal service. The lost-time injury rate has dropped 22 per cent from 2008 to 2009, Losier states.

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FISHER DIES IN CAPSIZING FEDERAL — A 14-metre fishing vessel car-

rying four crew members capsized shortly after leaving its Cape Breton wharf on May 1, taking the life of one fisher.

Yvon Boudreau, 59, a lobster fisher hailing from Cheticamp, Nova Scotia, drowned in Margaree Harbour shortly before 7 am, says Sergeant Brigdit Leger, a spokesperson for the Inverness RCMP detachment. The vessel began taking on water about three kilometres from shore and quickly submerged, Leger reports.

Boudreau was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead. The other three fishers were sent to another hospital, where two were immediately released and the third was admitted in stable condition, Leger says.

The opening of lobster season — which began May 1 in the district where Boudreau’s boat was operating — is “precarious at best,” cautions Leonard Leblanc, a lobster fisher and president of the Gulf of N.S. Fishermen’s Coalition in Cheticamp. “You’ve got to look at the weather, and then you’ve got to load accordingly, and then you’ve got to have

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a properly trained crew aboard,” Leblanc says of the factors that a captain must consider when beginning the season.

Some potential hazards, he notes, include vessel instability, capsizing and motor failure.

Earlier this year, the TSB identified fishing vessel accidents as one of the leading causes for concern in the marine, rail and aviation industries. TSB chair Wendy Tadros noted that about 50 per cent of the board’s marine investigations involve fishing vessels.

WATER BOMBER CRASH FATAL FEDERAL — A 62-year-old aerial firefighter died during a training exercise in New Brunswick when his water bomber crashed shortly after take-off.

The 2:20 pm crash on April 25 near the Miramichi Airport claimed the life of Ronald Clowes, confirms Mike Cunningham, an investigator with the TSB, which is probing the incident. The veteran pilot was employed by Forest Protection Limited, based in Fredericton, which provides aerial fire management, aerial surveys and pest management for New Brunswick’s forestry industries.

“The aircraft took off, made a turn here, geared up, was on his way in a normal direction and then went into the ground at a 45-degree angle with the engine running,” says David Davies, managing director of Forest Protection.

The TBM Avenger aircraft had recently been inspected, Davies says. “Hundreds of hours of work went into that aircraft,” he notes, adding that company officials believe it was in “good mechanical shape.”

Davies explains that at the time of the crash, Forest Protection’s pilots were undergoing refresher training to prepare for the upcoming forest fire season. Clowes, he notes, was a reliable pilot who had logged 13,500-plus hours of flying time.

“We welcome their report,” he says of the TSB. “We want to know the root cause of this accident.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUG RULING OVERTURNED RICHMOND — The Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal

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in Richmond, British Columbia has determined that a worker is entitled to reimbursement for his purchase of an antidepressant drug.

The April 28 decision by tribunal vice-chair Don Sturrock overturns two previous rulings that denied payment because anxiety and depression had not been the subjects of the worker’s accepted claim. The rulings from both December, 2008 and April, 2009 stated that WorkSafeBC would not cover the costs of the Effexor prescription following a work-related vehicle accident.

In his ruling, Sturrock writes that although the worker, a manager at an agriculture research firm, had not been diagnosed with a specific anxiety condition, neither the province’s Workers Compensation Act nor WorkSafeBC policy “specifically requires there to be a diagnosable ‘condition’ before prescribed medications can be reimbursed.”

He adds that “Effexor is needed to relieve or alleviate the symptoms resulting from the worker’s cognitive disorder (which also is a condition that has been accepted under this claim).”

The worker was injured in June of 2004 during a single-

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HOUSE BLAST INJURES FIREFIGHTER EDGERTON — Six volunteer firefighters in the small Alberta community of Edgerton were injured in an explosion during a seemingly routine exercise on May 10.

At about 8 pm, members of the Edgerton volunteer fire department — located near the Saskatchewan border — were conducting a controlled burn of an abandoned house when the blast occurred, says Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) spokesperson Chris Chodan.

Five firefighters were treated and released from hospital, but one was admitted for a longer period, having suffered two broken legs and a broken arm, says Steve Douglas, chief of the Wainwright Fire and Rescue Department.

Twelve Edgerton firefighters were on scene about six to nine metres away from the house when it exploded, scattering debris as far as 300 metres. The house was free burning for about 15 minutes before the blast, Douglas reports.

vehicle accident. Among other injuries, the decision notes he sustained cervical spine fractures, a soft-tissue injury to the left shoulder, a concussion, left eye wounds, contusions, chronic pain and a “mild” cognitive disorder.

WorkSafeBC accepted the worker’s claim and paid wage-loss and health care benefits, but in April of 2005 determined the Effexor prescription was unrelated to any condition under the accepted claim. A board case manager concluded the medication was being used to assist the employee with the anxiety related to his return to work. Consequently, WorkSafeBC authorized the drug payment on a one-time-only basis.

However, evidence submitted to the tribunal by an independent health professional stated the worker would benefit from continued use of an antidepressant and his condition was “definitely related to his injuries sustained under the claim.

It is specifically a result of the worker’s cognitive disorder.”

BUS ATTACKER PLEADS GUILTY EDMONTON — A man charged with vi-

ciously assaulting an Edmonton bus driver last winter has pleaded guilty.

Gary Edwin Mattson, then 24, attacked Edmonton Transit System (ETS) driver Tom Bregg at about 7:30 am on December 3, 2009. After attacking Bregg, 58, on the bus, the apparently intoxicated Mattson dragged him outside and continued the assault, a police statement at the time noted. Bregg, who had been with the ETS for over 30 years, was

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Days after the incident, the cause of the explosion had yet to be determined.

“Soil samples and debris samples have been taken and sent off to the lab for analysis,” he says. “But with a blast that large and the debris field being that big, we ruled out… gas immediately.”

Douglas says that the Edgerton department had used the house several times before to conduct training, but on this occasion the landowner decided it was time “to get rid of this old building and requested that the fire department burn it down.” He adds some firefighters did walk-throughs and other checks of the entire house, including the basement, before starting the controlled burn.

Chodan says that Alberta Municipal Affairs is leading the investigation, but that AEI will follow up.

— By Jason Contant

taken to hospital with head injuries and had to undergo multiple surgeries.

Alberta Crown prosecutor Patricia Innes confirms that on May 6, Mattson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and assault on a police officer (for spitting at the officer), but adds that an attempted murder charge was yet to be addressed.

Innes also reports that the Crown intended to apply to have Mattson declared a dangerous offender under the Criminal Code of Canada. The designation can be applied when an “offender constitutes a threat to the life, safety or physical or mental well-being of other persons” based on repetitive behaviour and a likelihood of re-offending. Such offenders can be sentenced to jail for an indeterminate period.

Mattson is “well-known in the system for assaulting bus drivers,” says Claude Doucette, an assistant business agent for Local 569 of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Edmonton. “This is the worst he’s ever done, but there have been a number of incidents where [he has used coarse] language or he’s spat on bus drivers,” Doucette notes.

Glen Dennis, the ETS’s security operations coordinator, noted in May, “I’m not sure [Bregg] is going to be returning to work anytime soon [because of his injuries] and some of the therapy he’s going through here for the recovery process.”

The ETS has implemented measures to protect staff and public safety, Dennis says. For instance, 42 uniformed peace officers patrol the system by responding to service calls, riding buses and intervening in cases of disorderly behaviour.

Testing of a prototype protective driver

shield is also under way.

Doucette suggests that fare disputes are the most common instigators of violence. “Some people just don’t take kindly to being told what the fare structure is.”

The ETS, Dennis says, is emphasizing to drivers that fare enforcement doesn’t trump safety. “Two dollars and 75 cents is certainly not worth an injury.”

INTERVIEWEE STABS OFFICER CALGARY — Two officers who work for

Alberta’s police investigations unit were injured during a violent confrontation in an interview room.

Shortly after 10 am on June 1, a man showed up unannounced at the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team building in Calgary and asked to speak with a member of the unit, says a statement from the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

The man, who is involved in an ongoing investigation and is known to police, was escorted to an interview room by a plainclothes RCMP officer when he “turned violent and attacked the officer, stabbing him multiple times.”

Other response team members heard the commotion and rushed to intervene, resulting in a second officer suffering a minor knife wound. The critically injured officer, an Alberta RCMP sergeant, was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, which was later upgraded to stable condition. The intervening officer, a CPS sergeant, was treated at the scene.

A man, 29, faces 11 criminal charges, including attempted murder and assaulting a peace officer.

Because of the various police agencies involved in the incident, the director of Alberta’s Law Enforcement Review Board instructed the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to conduct an investigation into the attack, says EPS spokesperson Karen Carlson.

Alberta solicitor general Frank Oberle, whose department has jurisdiction over the response team, says he is “committed to ensuring this unprecedented incident is thoroughly investigated by an independent agency.”

ENFORCEMENT CONCERNS AUDITOR EDMONTON — A report by Alberta’s au-

ders that were later reopened, we saw no evidence that employers took action on the original contraventions.”

The report also offers advice on other areas for improvement: AEI should modify its planning and reporting systems for workplace health and safety to reduce chronic injuries and occupational diseases; it should strengthen its inspection program by improving its employer selection method and risk focus; and it

should enhance the COR program by obtaining confirmation of work done by COR auditors and by consistently following up on recommendations.

McGowan suggests that AEI’s current approach “of education and gentle persuasion may work with the majority of employers, but you clearly need a system in place to deal with those employers who refuse to get with the program.”

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ditor general suggests the province must drastically improve its approach to oh&s.

The April 14 report by acting auditor general Merwan Saher identifies several concerns surrounding the province’s enforcement of health and safety legislation. “A small but highrisk group of employers consistently fail to comply with [oh&s] orders, often despite numerous re-inspections” by AEI, Saher writes.

He also points out that “half of those employers that persistently fail to comply with the [OH&S Act] also continue to hold a valid certificate of recognition (COR), and continue to have elevated injury rates among their workers.” (CORholders are entitled to rebates of as much as 20 per cent on their workers’ compensation premiums.)

“It’s a landmark document,” comments Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour in Edmonton. “It confirms many of our worst fears when it comes to the Alberta government’s approach to workplace health and safety. In particular, it demonstrates clearly that the province hasn’t been aggressively enforcing its own workplace rules.”

In fact, the report notes, 63 employers — whose combined work forces account for more than 31,000 employees — failed to comply with safety orders within the span of a year. Alberta’s auditor general examined the cases of 18 employers whose orders had been suspended and found that in 14 of them, the reasons for suspension were not in line with guidelines set out by AEI. “The majority of orders were suspended simply to be reopened in the next fiscal year as new orders. This practice skews compliance statistics,” Saher writes. “For most of the suspended orCircle number 15 on Reader Service Card www.ohscanada.com

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FORD PENALTY TOPS $1 MILLION BURLINGTON — Ford Motor Company of Canada was penal-

ized more than $1 million on May 25 following the deaths of two workers in separate incidents in 2008 and 2009.

Of the $1,062,500 penalty, $850,000 was a fine under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act; the remainder was a compulsory 25 per cent victim fine surcharge.

Ford pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to take all reasonable precautions in the circumstances to protect the safety of one worker killed in January of 2008 and another a year later, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) notes in a statement.

“Fines are always larger, of course, when we’re talking about fatalities,” MOL spokesperson Bruce Skeaff says of the “significant” penalty, the largest in recent history. “We always seek and hope to have come out of these cases fines that are appropriate to the circumstances. In each of these two cases, we have people [who] died,” Skeaff adds.

On January 31, 2008, 30-year employee Sarwan Baraich died at the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario when he was struck by a forklift, notes Ford spokesperson Kerri Stoakley. The MOL’s investigation found that the forklift operator failed to keep a clear view of the vehicle’s trajec-

Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason is pushing the province to release the list of employers who have repeatedly breached oh&s orders. “We want them to lift the [CORs] of all these companies immediately,” Mason adds.

LIFTING METHOD IMPLICATED VANSCOY — The death of an Agrium Inc. miner on May 11 has prompted Saskatchewan officials to order that a particular lifting method be discontinued.

The accident occurred at Agrium’s Vanscoy, Saskatchewan potash mine, southwest of Saskatoon, claiming the life of Edward Artic, 59. “Identifying the cause, of course, is very important to us here at Agrium, and we are cooperating fully with the authorities with the internal investigation,” notes Mike Dirham, general manager of the mine.

Artic, who had worked at the mine for more than 10 years, died after being struck by a piece of falling material.

Kelly Reynolds, health and safety cochair for surface operations with Artic’s union, Local 7552 of United Steelworkers Canada, says that the accident occurred while material was being moved.

“To get the equipment up to [higher levels], we either use elevators or, typically, we use hoist wells,” Reynolds says.

These are areas where overhead cranes are stationed at the top of a site. “This

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tory while it was backing up.

The second incident took place on the morning of January 14, 2009 at a parts distribution centre in nearby Brampton.

The worker, Shara Flanigan, “was driving the lift truck down a narrow aisle [when] the pallet struck a storage rack,” the MOL reports. Flanigan was crushed between the pallet and vehicle. The MOL probe determined that material movement procedures being used were inadequate.

Kim Clout, plant chair for Flanigan’s union, Local 584 of the Canadian Auto Workers, says the accident was especially shocking because an MOL inspector had recently visited the site and lauded its safety standards. He praised “the newer area with new racking [and] a wire-guided system,” recalls Clout, explaining that the system ensures that the vehicle remains on a specific path.

Since the deaths, Stoakley says that “Ford has cascaded to our facilities in North America a training lesson with respect to material handling vehicles, stock placement and load to reinforce corporate safety requirements, including to look in the direction of the forklift path of travel.”

— By Emily Landau

time, they were doing a lift… and when they got the lift up, the lift shifted and a piece of the lift fell and struck Mr. Artic.”

Information from the Steelworkers indicates the material was a metal rigging device, and that it fell six storeys.

Glennis Bihun, executive director of oh&s for the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour in Regina, says preliminary investigation results suggest the lifting method was unsafe.

The ministry subsequently issued a hazard alert to all oh&s committees and mine managers, ordering them to discontinue use of the lifting method.

“Where a spool or reel must be rigged for lifting, the arrangement must secure the load from slipping or falling as per Section 231(1)(c) of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 1996,” the alert notes.

Reynolds says the method’s malfunction was a shock, as it has never caused any problems in the past. “This was kind of zero to catastrophic,” he adds.

MINISTER SPEAKS OUT TORONTO — Provincial health and safety

inspections are in no danger of becoming privatized, says Peter Fonseca, Ontario’s labour minister.

Concerns surrounding the privatization of oh&s inspections have been raised by the Ontario Public Service

Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents the provincial inspectors currently housed under the MOL. An ongoing review of Ontario’s oh&s system — led by Tony Dean, a former deputy labour minister, and supported by a multi-stakeholder panel — is what captured the attention of the union, says Len Elliott, an MOL inspector and president of OPSEU Local 101 in London, Ontario. “[The review] in and of itself speaks to reviewing my job and what I do. And whether that means changing the law to give a person more power or taking enforcement away from an inspector is really up for debate,” says Elliott.

He reports that Fonseca has said “‘everything is on the table for review,’ leading us to assume the worst.”

But in a May 21 statement, Fonseca noted that “the review will not consider or recommend privatizing our enforcement system.” His comments followed an inspectors’ public protest in London.

Moving away from a system where inspectors operate directly under a government ministry “would be the death of health and safety in the province as we know it,” Elliott contends, pointing to the example of the Technical Standards & Safety Authority, a self-funded, not-forprofit organization at arm’s length from the Ontario government.

That model, Elliott says, is potentially problematic with regard to inspector objectivity and enforcement levels. “You

cannot have self-regulation. You cannot have inspectors working for the very employers they’re going to prosecute.”

Satinder Chera, director of the Ontario arm of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) in Toronto, says that while his organization does not necessarily endorse privatization, it questions Fonseca’s decision to disallow the idea from being studied. “If there’s a system out there that’s better than what we’ve got, privatized or not, we should be looking at that,” Chera urges.

yond their reach or the ability to have their feet contact the rail,” he says. “This can cause the braking mechanism to disengage and then a free-fall action can possibly occur.”

Stephen Pike, training director for Hightek Fall Protection in St. John’s, says that despite suggestions the system can still be used if double lanyards are employed as a fail-safe, employers should take these systems out of commission.

“The last thing we would recommend is that the owner of the system either continues to use the rail system, or even worse, goes out and installs a ladder cage-based safety system,” Pike says. “Those have been proven to be statistically as useless, or even more useless, as those rails for fall protection.” It is best to use a cable-based system, he argues.

Pengelly reports that new require-

ALERT TARGETS FALL SYSTEM TORONTO — A new MOL hazard alert is

cautioning workers and employers about the potential dangers of a particular fall protection system.

The Class Frontal-Fixed Rail Ladder (FRL) fall protection system, which is certified to Canadian Standards Association International (CSA) standard Z259.2.198, “Fall Arresters, Vertical Lifelines and Rails,” is a “permanently installed metal rail anchoring system used with an automatic fall-arresting device called the trolley (carriage),” notes the ministry alert.

The Class FRL “may not adequately protect workers who fall backward while connected to a vertical rail,” the MOL warns. “Leaning back pulls the trolley’s internal braking system off the rail, allowing the trolley to slide down the rail.

If a worker falls backwards (as opposed to straight down or inwards) the trolley may not lock, allowing a worker to fall.”

These systems are typically installed on communication towers, chimneys, buildings and water towers, says Kent Pengelly, a manager of corporate integrity investigations for the CSA. Certified manufacturers whose products might be affected include Mine Safety Appliances Company, North Safety Products Ltd., Sperian Fall Protection, Trylon TSF Inc., and Prestige Telecom, Pengelly reports.

Deficiencies came to light when a worker was injured in a 20-metre fall from a fixed ladder on a tower while wearing a Class FRL system, the alert states.

Pengelly cites inappropriate use of the fall arrester as a main issue of concern.

“Should the worker utilize the device incorrectly, such as using a work-in-place lanyard that is longer than the 200 millimetres connecting that is allowed, the extended length could potentially allow them to fall backwards significantly be-

ENVISAGE

Circle number 16 on Reader Service Card www.ohscanada.com

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ments have been drafted and are under review by the CSA’s technical committee on fall protection. Once approved, the vetted requirements will be announced and all affected products will be retested.

BOARD OPENS UP UNIONIZATION MONTREAL — A mid-April decision from Quebec’s labour relations board concludes all farm workers in the province are permitted to unionize, regardless of their employment tenure.

The Commission des relations du travail in Montreal certified a collective bargaining unit at a Mirabel-area farm.

In doing so, the board tossed out a 40-year-old section of the Code du travail that restricted unions to farms employing three or more workers continuously throughout the year, the Toronto-based United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW) reports.

In its 85-page ruling, the board determined that seasonal, migrant and year-round employees have the constitutional right to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining as protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Along with respecting Charter rights, the decision also respects the human rights of workers to safe and decent working and living conditions,” Louis Bolduc, executive assistant to UFCW Canada national president Wayne Hanley, notes in a statement. “Today’s farms have evolved into large-scale industrial operations. They are just like factories, and just because they shut down for a few months a year doesn’t mean the workers should be denied their right to join a union,” Bolduc says.

RESERVOIR FALL CLAIMS WORKER MONTREAL — A 57-year-old municipal worker in Montreal died after falling into an empty reservoir on April 22.

The incident occurred around 9 am at a City of Montreal water treatment plant on the west end of the island, reports Patricia Darilus, a spokesperson for the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) in Montreal.

Darilus says the veteran employee — identified by his union and the city as Pierre Leclerc — was situated between two reservoirs submerged in the ground when he fell. Two co-workers were in an empty tank in front of Leclerc, cleaning it with a hose that he had been unrolling.

Walking backwards, Leclerc stumbled on the seven-centimetre lip of the second reservoir, Darilus reports. He fell backwards into the tank and hit the bottom six metres below, dying at the scene. The reservoir covers were not on, she says.

The CSST issued a stop-work order to the City of Montreal, which was not to be lifted until inspectors completed their onsite investigation and until the city provided safe work procedures for working around the tanks.

Darilus notes that when workers can fall, measures such as guardrails or fall restraint/arrest systems must be in place.

Philippe Sabourin, a spokesperson for the city, says Leclerc was a foreman who had worked for Montreal for 34 years and was nearing retirement. Counselling services were offered to those affected by the deadly incident.

Darilus notes that in 2009 there were 744 fall incidents in Montreal alone, resulting in four deaths.

DUMP TRUCK DRIVER CALM UNDER FIRE DIEPPE — Workers at a construction site near Moncton managed to escape injury after a close call involving a dump truck that contacted overhead power lines.

The incident unfolded on the evening of May 31 when the dump truck operator, situated underneath a hydro line in Dieppe, New Brunswick, lifted the box of his vehicle. It hit and snapped the line, says Tony Nightingale, deputy chief of the Dieppe Fire Department.

The broken power line then landed on a smaller, occupied dump truck, which caught fire. Nightingale reports the trucks were being used as part of a road construction project on one of the busiest roads in the Greater Moncton Area.

Paul Bourque, manager of WorkSafeNB’s southeast region, says the workers were employed by Moncton-based Cherryfield Contracting Ltd., which had been contracted by the City of Dieppe to perform the construction work. WorkSafeNB is conducting an investigation to determine if there were any infractions under the provincial OH&S Act, Bourque says. “This project had just started, so it’s a little disconcerting.”

Although there were no injuries, it was a lengthy process to ensure all workers on the site remained safe. Firefighters could not tackle the blaze on the smaller dump truck for about an hour because the power line was still energized, Nightingale says, noting that fuel lines from the dump truck’s diesel tanks were “what kept it burning.”

Constable Chantal Farrah, a spokesperson for the Codiac Regional RCMP, says that when the fire broke out, the worker inside the dump truck was instructed to stay there because Circle number 17 on Reader Service Card

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DRIVERS SILENCING CELLPHONES ON THE ROAD HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia survey released in May suggests

drivers are, for the most part, complying with legislation prohibiting hand-held cellphone use while driving.

Two years after the provincial government brought in the ban, results from the 2009 Nova Scotia Road Safety Survey indicate that 78 per cent of respondents either no longer use their cellphones while driving or have switched to hands-free devices. “It appears that only a small percentage of drivers continue to talk” on their hand-helds, reports the survey.

Despite the positive results, Constable Tamu Bracken of the Halifax District RCMP suggests that hand-held use is still a notable problem, pointing out that in 2009 her detachment issued 612 tickets for the offence in the Halifax area.

“We’re certainly noticing that more people are using their Bluetooths, but there are still a lot of people out there [who] continue to use their cellphones,” Bracken says.

The survey is the first of what will be an annual report commissioned by the province’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in Halifax, says department communications officer Lindsay Lewis. “We’re going to use the results from the survey to help identify our road safety

power lines were lying on the truck and the ground.

The trapped worker “was in contact with N.B. Power, who was able to instruct him on how to safely exit the truck,” Farrah says. “The truck was on fire, but he didn’t panic.”

ENGINEERING FIRM FACES CHARGES ST. JOHN’S — A mechanical contracting firm in St. John’s has been charged with two workplace safety violations in connection with an incident in March, 2008.

On April 27, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Government Services announced that M&M Engineering Limited faces two counts under the provincial OH&S Act. The charges relate to the company’s alleged failure, as an employer, to provide a safe workplace and to ensure that holes in walkways or work areas are securely covered and identified, notes a department statement.

Department spokesperson Vanessa Colman-Sadd says the accident happened on March 25, 2008 at the National Research Council Canada building at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. A crew was installing a metal catwalk when one worker — who had been using an elevated work platform — fell about seven metres to the floor below, sustaining a broken femur.

Geoff Wells, president of M&M En-

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issues, and then hopefully it will help us prioritize where we want to put our resources,” Lewis notes.

While no explicit connection has been made between a reduction in vehicle accidents among mobile workers and the cellphone ban, Nova Scotia’s Workers’ Compensation Board spokesperson Julie Trites reports that the number of motor vehicle accident claims in the province dropped from 418 to 372 between 2008 (the year that the legislation came into force) and 2009.

Bill Dowe, a truck driver and chairperson of the Truckers Association of Nova Scotia in Truro, says he is not opposed to the ban, but worries it might possibly extend into two-way or CB radios, which are frequently used by truckers on the road. Though prohibiting these devices is not currently on the agenda, Dowe says the transportation department may look at this kind of legislation in the future.

Radio communication, he points out, is a vital safety “lifeline” in the trucking industry. “You can warn someone going in the other direction that ‘there is an accident up there, start slowing down, it’s down to one lane,’” Dowe adds.

— By Emily Landau

gineering, says that job safety analyses are conducted before every job, including training and instruction on work tasks to be performed. In this case, workers were in the process of installing handrails on the catwalk, Wells reports.

The worker who was later injured was wearing a full-body harness with double lanyards. Although Wells says his understanding is that the worker was initially tied off, “he disconnected [a lanyard] from one point before he connected to the other and then he stepped off” onto another surface.

Wells indicated his company intended to plead not guilty to the charges.

“We’re going to try to get the facts out there,” he says.

Many of the preceding items are based on stories from our sister publication, CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY NEWS, a weekly newsletter that provides detailed coverage of Canadian oh&s and workers’ compensation issues. For more information, please call (416) 442-2122 or toll-free (800) 668-2374.

Didn’t see it here? Why not check out www.ohscanada.com for more web-exclusive news?

So, what’s on your mind?

Ever wonder what other oh&s types are thinking about? Find out by making our website poll at www.ohscanada.com a regular stop.

Can the use of prescription painkillers adversely affect workplace safety?

Yes

69.77%

Maybe, depending on Circle number 18 on Reader Service Card

the circumstances

27.91%

No

2.33%

Total Votes

86

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DISPATCHES

Failure to comply may prove expensive

By Jason Contant

E

mployers in the Yukon who fail to notify the territory’s workers’ compensation board of their compliance with written safety orders should expect to take it on the chin financially.

Since June 1, employers who do not provide the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board in Whitehorse with a compliance update by the deadline provided have left themselves open to a financial hit. An immediate $250 penalty will be applied, notes a statement from the safety body.

“For every week the employer has not notified [the board] of compliance, the fine will double,” it adds.

For “low- to medium-severity” infractions, penalties for employers have jumped from $500 to $1,000, while remaining steady for workers and supervisors. Severe violations can now net employers a penalty of $2,500, up from $1,000; supervisors $750, not $500; and workers $150 rather than $100.

The initiative follows some lacklustre compliance results. In 2009, orders were written following 169 workplace inspections, but only 29 per cent of employers gave notice of compliance by the deadline. “This non-compliance contributes to increased workplace injuries and more claims costs,” the board points out. “It also results in increased administration costs, as safety officers are required to write additional warning letters requesting compliance and often [have] to re-inspect workplaces.”

The board also notes that “the focus of these actions is to make penalty levels sufficient to make it more cost-effective to fix the safety issue than to continue to pay penalties.”

To aid employers, the board is offering a compliance notification form on its website to allow users to submit written confirmation (including photos of corrected hazards) online.

Jason Contant is editor of SAFETY NEWS.

CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

&

Integration central to reducing absenteeism

By Emily Landau

A 18

new white paper from Toronto-based Shepell·fgi urges employers to adopt integrated attendance management strategies to reduce absenteeism.

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Released on May 4, “Workforce Management: Achieving Business Objectives Through Absence Management” is a best practices guideline to help organizations manage employee absences by integrating various elements related to absenteeism across the occupational health and safety continuum.

“Dealing with incidents or claims reactively and separately will not effectively address absence and disability drivers proactively,” notes the guide, co-authored by Karen Seward, executive vice-president for business development and marketing at Shepell·fgi.

By combining a company’s attendance management — short- and long-term disability, mental health and casual or incidental absence — within one system, the guide states that an employer will be better able to ascertain the root causes of employee absences and provide care to the worker. In turn, that knowledge will help reduce the number of claims and associated costs while increasing productivity in the long run.

“There is an increasing number of people who are going on disability and they’re not getting access to care early enough,” Seward argues. The paper hopes to encourage “employers to rethink the design of their disability programs, as opposed to looking for a reduction in costs.” Citing the experience of employers who are using the strategy, Seward says fewer “people [are] off work for less time” and fewer “claims [are] going to disability.”

Craig Thompson, senior vice-president at Human Solutions in Vancouver, says mental health issues resulting in absences is one particular area that requires a closer look. “Upwards of 50 per cent of claims for disability these days are coming in the form of anxiety, depression or some sort of co-morbid mental nervous disorder condition,” Thompson reports.

He says qualified employee assistance program professionals can provide comprehensive diagnoses or assessments, and adds that “getting a diagnosis is really important” and can “prevent that claim from going through to disability.”

Enhancing prevention focus is “where employers can really get some value out of establishing a clear practice and clear expectations, both from a management and leadership level, as well as from a front-line employee level,” Thompson says.

The white paper also promotes an increased focus on prevention and early intervention so that employers can avoid having employees take extended leaves. In concert with that, careful monitoring of casual or patterned absences and addressing their causes could prevent incidental absenteeism from developing into a more substantial problem.

Seward further points to the importance of managing work design, advocating increased education on work-life balance, providing more job flexibility and enhancing productivity by having managers who are attuned to employees.

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

OHS CANADA.

Firm financial grasp offers a hold on productivity

By Angela Stelmakowich

A

little financial literacy may go a long way toward providing employees with peace of mind.

So suggests Donald Stewart, chair of the Canadian Financial Literacy Task Force in Edmonton. “Financial literacy is essential to all Canadians at all income levels and can enhance their quality of life,” Stewart noted last February.

So should employers care if staff members are feeling at peace financially? Jim Yih, a financial expert and author of several books on personal finance, would surely answer in the affirmative. Research is indicating that workplaces implementing some form of financial education on the job are seeing a healthy return on investment, Yih reports.

Employers are benefiting from greater productivity, reduced absenteeism, more loyalty and higher job performance, he says in a statement.

“Financially stressed people tend to be late more often, have greater absenteeism, take more stress leaves and make more avoidable mistakes,” notes information on Yih’s website. “Studies have shown that employers who implement financial education in the workplace experience many benefits, like less strain on other benefit programs, greater participation in retirement and savings programs, more loyalty from the employee, less employee turnover and higher productivity.”

As it stands, a fair chunk of Canadians lack basic financial literacy. Headway can be made by including health and financial wellness in employee programs, the website information notes. The program should be as follows: customized to the organization; mandatory for all employees; affordable; ongoing and, ideally, facilitating continued learning; provide diverse offerings via seminars, reading, books, audio, video and even face-to-face sessions; and effective, changing the lives of employees through action.

Angela Stelmakowich is editor of

OHS CANADA.

Work refusal ruling seen as substantial victory

By Dan Birch

R

epresentatives for federal correctional officers are applauding Ottawa’s decision not to appeal a ruling that the union calls a “major Canadian precedent” on the right to refuse unsafe work.

In late January, the Federal Court upheld a 2009 ruling

by Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal Canada that criticized Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC),

both in Ottawa, for their handling of work refusals dating back to the spring of 2007. On April 27, a CSC spokesperson confirmed that Ottawa would not appeal the decision.

The Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO) characterizes the tribunal ruling as “a scathing reversal” of a policy aimed at eliminating work refusals under Section 128 of the Canada Labour Code. The most recent decision is of “major importance” to all federally regulated workers, the UCCO contends.

An internal HRSDC policy on investigating work refusals is at the centre of the debate, says John Mancini, the union lawyer who handled the tribunal case.

It involved four prison guards at the Drummond Institution in Drummondville, Quebec. Tribunal appeals officer Serge Cadieux writes in his ruling that on April 11 and May 4 of 2007, the guards had refused to escort a high-profile inmate to a local health care facility because the CSC would not outfit them with firearms.

The inmate was a convicted hired killer who had committed “excessively violent crimes” and had provided information leading to other criminals being incarcerated, Cadieux writes. “There was a price on the inmate’s head and the contract was still in effect.”

The HRSDC’s Labour Program was contacted and a federal health and safety inspector was sent to the jail to follow up on the guards’ concerns. Conducting what he described as a “preliminary inquiry,” the federal inspector determined the alleged dangers were normal conditions of employment under Section 128 of the labour code.

In line with the legislation, such a finding requires that the work refusal be disallowed. Upon reaching his conclusion, the federal inspector withdrew from the refusal process.

The preliminary inquiry procedure, implemented by HRSDC in March of 2007, is meant to determine “whether the stages in the procedure for refusing to work where a danger exists had been followed,” Cadieux writes.

Mancini is of the view that the design of the procedure makes it “quite easy” for an inspector to conclude a refusal is based on normal conditions of employment.

Cadieux notes the preliminary inquiry, in the guards’ case, should be viewed as a “formal investigation.” The code allows for only one type of inquiry into a work refusal: “an investigation into the danger alleged by the employees,” he writes.

The inspector neglected to exercise that authority fully by “failing to make a determination regarding the danger.”

Cadieux adds that the guards should have been armed with guns. “In this case, a firearm is protective equipment essential to the [guards] in order to minimize the risk of injury arising from crisis situations during outside escorts, such as the execution of the contract against the inmate.”

The CSC spokesperson points out that no correctional service policy has been changed in light of either the tribunal or court decisions. For its part, HRSDC reports that its procedure to investigate work refusals conforms to the Federal Court ruling.

Dan Birch is acting editor of

OHS CANADA.

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Defibrillators a jolt to cardiac survival rates

By Dan Birch

C

anadians still have some catching up to do when it comes to having potentially life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available on the job.

While AEDs, used to administer shocks to restore heart rhythm, are making inroads in community centres, government buildings and recreation centres throughout the country, there is room for improvement, says Dr. Laurie Morrison, a spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and a scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, both in Toronto.

“Very few are in the workplace. There is a huge gap.”

Dr. Morrison’s comments are in response to recent research out of Japan. Appearing in the March 18 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study findings indicate that having publicly accessible AEDs can improve the survival rates for cardiac arrest sufferers.

“Nation-wide dissemination… resulted in earlier administration of shocks by laypersons and in an increase in the one-month rate of survival with minimal neurologic impairment,” the researchers write.

Specifically, 31 per cent of cardiac arrest sufferers who were administered shocks fell into that group. For those not aided by a public-access AED, the percentage fell to 14.

“Early defibrillation, regardless of the type of provider (bystander or emergency medical services personnel), was associated with a good neurologic outcome,” the study notes.

Not only does it reinforce earlier research in the North American context, says Dr. Morrison, the study adds evidence that AEDs bolster health and safety in public and work spaces. “Seconds count in cardiac arrest, and you want people to do the right thing as fast as they possibly can,” she says.

Dr. Morrison recommends that any large site where 200 or more people gather should have an AED. Continued public education and legislation requiring AEDs in workplaces of a certain size would promote dissemination, she offers.

Once a workplace has an AED, training becomes paramount. Familiarizing staff with the devices will help improve confidence, Dr. Morrison says. Her foundation offers an interactive kit called CPR Anytime, which helps teach the core skills of using CPR and AED in less than 30 minutes.

In a workplace far, far away

By Simon Yau

T

heresa Woo’s commute from downtown Vancouver to her office in Burnaby, British Columbia was more vexing than usual this past February — some sporting event was apparently under way.

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Fortunately, the IT program manger for Telus Corporation had a plan to beat the Olympic rush: she stayed home. “At home you’re just as efficient as when you work in the office,” argues Woo, one of 18,000 Telus workers who is equipped to telecommute. “All the equipment you need is there.”

Telework, or working from home, is gaining momentum, with a 2007 Statistics Canada report indicating that at least 1.7 million Canadians are putting their commutes in park.

Studies on telework extol its benefits — reported to have saved millions of dollars by eliminating commuting and pinched even more pennies as organizations cut real estate and maintenance costs.

In April, the City of Calgary even launched Telework Week, an initiative spearheaded to promote the practice as a viable option for workers and managers. The brainchild of WORKshift, a joint initiative of the City of Calgary and Transport Canada, the week included the signing of the Calgary Telework Charter, which has received support from employers such as Telus, ATB Financial and ENMAX. The idea is “to help people stop thinking of it as teleworking and just, simply, as working,” says Robyn Bews, program manager for WORKshift.

The organization has “packaged all the resources up and we’re taking it out to the business community, offering licences for software and services for free,” Bews adds.

But while much has been said about its organizational advantages, what is telework’s impact on employee wellness?

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah released findings in June that indicate the benefits are staggering. The study, which measured data from almost 25,000 IBM employees, found that workers who are given the opportunity to incorporate telework into their schedules are able to work an average of 57 hours per week before noticing a conflict between their work and personal lives.

Researchers contend that translates to 19 hours of additional productivity over full-time office employees, who report experiencing tension in work-life balance after an average of 38 hours.

The most beneficial arrangement, notes lead study author E. Jeffrey Hill, is a combination of office time and the option to work from home, depending on the task in question.

“Telecommuting is really only beneficial for reducing worklife conflict when it is accompanied by flex-time,” Hill says.

A white paper published in April by the Telework Research Network in San Diego estimates that teleworking results in two to three weeks of extra free time annually that can be spent with family, exercising or generally being able to maintain work-life balance — a benefit that Woo can speak to. “[Teleworking] has increased my quality of life,” she says. “Being able to have the choice of where to work is a great thing.”

But working from home does not mean that either employers or workers are off the hook for meeting their oh&s responsibilities, notes Jan Chappel, a senior technical specialist with the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario.

“Legislation is very silent on the whole telework issue,” Chappel says. “What we’ve been able to determine is if you’re teleworking and a regular employee, an employer is still responsible for your health and safety off-site,” she adds.

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“We allow an agent to work from their principle residence as long as it’s a quiet, safe working environment, they have home-owner’s insurance, it is free of distractions and meets health, safety and ergonomic requirements,” says Ian Cruickshank, manager of Telus’s At-Home-Agent program, whose membership is currently at almost 1,000-strong.

“We do a home inspection twice per year for every agent,” says Cruickshank, who adds that he has not noticed any change in the number of accident claims with the increase in employees who work from home.

“We haven’t come across many incidents in the agents program because we’re careful to excess.”

Although organizations may be lured by the benefits, they should perform due diligence before deciding to sell off all their cubicles.

For Cruickshank, telework is a no-brainer. And yes — he was working from home.

Simon Yau is a writer in Toronto.

Students expected to soon hit the safety books

By Jason Contant

C

ome September, Grade 9 students throughout Nova Scotia will get a hands-on feel for how to prevent workplace injuries, thanks to a new curriculum based on a successful pilot project.

The pilot, tested this past academic year, involved 330 students at select schools governed by the Tri County, Cape Breton-Victoria, Halifax, South Shore and Annapolis Valley regional school boards, notes a statement from Nova Scotia’s Department of Education. A few tweaks are anticipated before the net is cast wider to include all schools in the coming academic year.

The education department teamed up with the Department of Labour and Workforce Development and the Workers’ Compensation Board to develop eight hours of in-class instruction, which will be part of the compulsory “Healthy Living 9” course.

“My students now recognize a safety hazard when they see it, and they understand the consequences of saying nothing,” teacher John Helle says in the statement. It looks like the information is paying off, Helle suggests, noting his students have told him they are bringing more concerns forward in their part-time jobs. “It is my hope that they will carry these important skills through their careers,” he adds.

“By teaching young people their rights as workers, we are encouraging the open dialogue and discussions needed to create safer work environments,” notes Marilyn More, education and labour minister.

Last year alone, almost 1,000 Nova Scotia workers aged 24 and younger lost time from work because of injury, notes the statement. “The number of workplace injuries among youth is unacceptable, and I am glad to know that all Grade 9 students… will have this awareness,” More says.

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Construction blitz seeks to uncover workplace hazards

By Emily Landau

R

esults from an Ontario enforcement blitz indicate that stakeholders in the construction sector should take a more active role in promoting workplace safety.

On May 13, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto released preliminary findings from the blitz that began January 18. Ministry inspectors visited 4,455 construction projects over the course of the 90-day campaign, including window cleaning and diving operations.

Fall-related hazards proved to be the most prevalent danger. They were found at 63 per cent of the sites visited, prompting 2,637 compliance orders and 784 stop-work orders, notes a report from the MOL. “We went to places where there were high-risk, high-danger jobs — skyscrapers, tall buildings, places where heavy equipment moves around… and also places that had some past compliance records or previous injuries,” says ministry spokesperson Greg Dennis.

Dennis says the absence or inappropriate use of guardrails, scaffolding and fall protection systems were the most frequent fall-related violations. Supervisors took the spotlight, with the MOL reporting “80 per cent of the summonses issued for fall-related hazards were to supervisors, indicating a lack of adequate supervision on construction projects.”

Inadequately controlled dangers were not restricted to any single type of construction, Dennis notes. “Big, small, residential, industrial, commercial, unionized, non-unionized — there are problems in all of them.”

The MOL blitz began not long after a deadly incident last December. While working from scaffolding at a high-rise site in Toronto on Christmas Eve, five workers fell 13 storeys when their swing stage separated in the middle. Four workers died on scene, while a fifth was critically injured.

The blitz results are striking a chord with construction officials.

“The fact that the ministry visited certain sites multiple times and found no change in safety practices is alarming,” says Ian Cunningham, president of the Council of Ontario Construction Associations in Toronto. Both he and Dennis insist that while most employers are safety-conscious, there are some who do not take safety seriously — a group that Cunningham labels “non-believers.”

“We have to change… their attitudes and change their behaviours,” he argues. “My advice to the ministry would be to focus their enforcement efforts on the non-believers and make it very difficult for them to stay in business if they continue to expose their workers to unsafe work.”

The MOL expects to launch a new workplace safety awareness campaign in multiple languages and a new toll-free telephone number that workers and the public can use to report unsafe practices at construction sites.

Tool measures benefits, costs of oh&s interventions

By Jason Contant

T

he Toronto-based Institute for Work & Health (IWH) has released a software tool to help workplace parties better understand the benefits and costs associated with occupational health and safety programs and interventions.

The Health & Safety Smart Planner — available for download at www.iwh.on.ca/smart-planner — helps to determine key economic calculations based on inputted data. The software features a database that stores the costs of ongoing work-related incidents, as well as the economic analyses of any interventions.

Emile Tompa, an IWH scientist and health and labour economist, reports that the planner uses an economic evaluation, taking into account “resource implications” to pinpoint the costs and consequences of an identified intervention.

Factors that might influence the scenario include equipment purchases and training time related to the anticipated outcomes, such as reduced absenteeism rates and productivity gains among employees.

Several versions of the software are now or will soon be available. One version is designed for Ontario’s manufacturing and service industries, one is being developed for the health care sector in British Columbia, and one will include “video instruction to give people a bit more guidance,” says Tompa. The last version will be developed through a grant provided by the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

About $65,000 has been made available through the WCB’s Research and Workplace Innovation Program. The board reports the video and software will be used by small and medium-sized businesses in the manufacturing and retail sectors.

Of the Ontario version, Tompa says that “it calculates the impact of improved occupational health and safety performance on workers’ compensation premiums, as well as all the other direct costs that are attributable to health and safety performance.”

Ed McCloskey, director of WorkSafeBC’s Research Secretariat in Richmond, British Columbia, says it is pumping $50,000 into developing its own version.

“Most intervention studies do not undertake an economic intervention,” says McCloskey, and those that do have underdeveloped methods.

As such, workplace parties do not get a good picture of “the resource implications of work-related injuries and illnesses or the returns from undertaking health and safety initiatives to prevent them.”

To demonstrate how the software works, consider the hypothetical predicament of an ergonomist at a large firm where workers are experiencing many musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs). Ongoing MSIs can be recorded in the “incident

cost calculator,” which tracks, among other elements, the type of incident, time off and costs related to compensation and lost productivity.

Injury rates are compared before and after adoption of a new participatory ergonomics approach, taking into account such costs as the staff time needed to analyze work stations, hold meetings or alter equipment. After six months of monitoring, a summary sheet demonstrates that these combined costs amount to $8,900.

But a comparison of costs before and after the intervention indicates a company savings of $22,000, measured in fewer days off work from MSIs and a three per cent increase in productivity.

Chemical mishap at juice plant spurs $75,000 fine

By Angela Stelmakowich

A

n apple juice maker in Ontario received a $75,000 fine in March for its failure, as an employer, to ensure a pail of sodium hydroxide solution was lifted, carried or moved in a way that protected workers.

The guilty plea under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act follows the serious injury of a worker on May 9, 2008, notes a statement from the Ministry of Labour (MOL).

That day, a worker was flushing a production line with sodium hydroxide solution. As the worker was lifting a pail of the solution to be dumped into a tank that required cleaning, his hand slipped, the MOL reports. The pail swung forward and the solution splashed into the worker’s eyes, causing permanent damage, it adds.

Care is essential in light of sodium hydroxide’s many uses in many different sectors. This long list, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario reports, includes the manufacture of chemicals, pulp and paper, soap/detergents/cleaning products, petroleum and natural gas, water treatment, mining, glass making, textile processing, rubber reclamation, metal processing, metal degreasing, adhesive preparations and food processing.

Because of its properties, sodium hydroxide causes irritation — and with greater exposures, resulting burns can lead to permanent impairment of vision or even blindness.

Exposure can cause hydrolysis of proteins, notes information from the Atlanta-based Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

But eye damage is hardly the only concern, the agency reports, adding that contact can cause severe burns and permanent damage to any tissue.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta notes exposure can produce pneumonitis and temporary hair loss. Material safety data sheet information indicates that, if inhaled, sodium hydroxide can lead to swelling of the larynx and an accumulation of fluid in the lungs, and, if ingested, it can produce bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea and a drop in blood pressure may occur, although damage may not appear until days later.

Being odourless, sodium hydroxide dust, mist or aerosol provides no warning of hazardous concentrations.

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ROAD WORK

DODGING

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

BULLETS

BY ASTRID VAN DEN BROEK

Vancouver resident Larry Styba is no stranger to close calls.

Five years ago in the nearby suburb of Surrey, Styba was driving a tractor-trailer in a residential area and had to pull over to check his load. Styba, also an experienced tow truck driver, put on his high-visibility safety vest and hopped out of the cab.

Seconds later, he was ducking for cover as a drifting car came dangerously close to the trailer.

SELECT COMPANY Styba is part of a particular category of workers: those who find themselves having to work, sometimes just for a few moments or sometimes longer, near streams of flowing traffic. Besides truckers and tow truck operators, this group includes road construction/maintenance crews and emergency responders (police, firefighters and paramedics).

It can be unnerving for workers on the road, knowing that their health and safety relies so critically on the actions of others.

However, it’s not entirely dependent. Many hazard controls are available and must be put in place. Work scheduling, physical barriers, effective signage and high-vis clothing are just a few of the available options.

Despite donning his safety vest and pulling over at what he believed to be a safe location, Styba still found himself in a pinch. Walking toward the end of his trailer, he spotted a car with an inattentive driver at the wheel, clearly drifting in his direction.

“I’m watching this in slow motion and I think, ‘Hey buddy, what are you doing?’” recalls Styba, who is now a tow truck driver trainer and a commentator on safety and education in the industry.

“So I quickly ducked into my alcove area [between the trailer and cab] with the big tires protecting me, and the guy comes so close that the mirror of his car brushed across my stomach, taking the first layer of skin off.” When the driver realized what happened, he straightened out his car and drove off down the road.

Other workers have been less fortunate, including a 50-year-old traffic control person (TCP) — commonly known as a flagger — who was killed on March 7 northwest of Edmonton. He was diverting traffic around a collision scene when he was struck by a vehicle. Another TCP, near Vancouver, suffered critical injuries last September after she was hit by an SUV. The hazards of working close to constant and speedy traffic flows are not easily managed. “We can’t control the dangers outside the cones we set up, and that is the travelling public,” says Stephen Torrence, chief executive officer of the Construction Safety Network in Burnaby, British Columbia.

“And from what I hear from my colleagues coast to coast, this is a common issue,” Torrence notes. “We have to ask: How well do we prepare the travelling

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OF RISKS FOR US BECAUSE PEOPLE DO NOT SLOW DOWN.” public in our drivers’ training, in our licensing, in our enforcement, to navigate in and around a work zone safely? I think we have a lot of work to do.”

FAST LANE While road worker safety has always been a concern, stakeholders say the issue is even more pressing now because

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of evolving traffic-related factors: volume continues to swell; impatient drivers are taking more risks; road rage is on the rise; and more and more electronic devices are competing for drivers’ attention. As well, road construction crews are working more at night, which leaves them on sites with less visibility and, potentially, less safety.

PHOTOS: ISTOCKPHOTO

“SPEED IS VERY HIGH ON THE LIST

As a snapshot, WorkSafeBC reports that 84 compensation claims were filed in 2009 among TCPs. In 2005, 77 claims were made, and a total of 418 claims put forward in the years between.

Inattentive driving is one of the most common hazards road workers of all kinds face, but speeding is another danger that often leads to struck-bys.

“When we are out there working, there’s a very, very high risk of a secondary impact and secondary collision happening [because of] other drivers not paying attention to what’s going on around them,” says Glen Gillies, a spokesperson for the Ontario Paramedic Association in Toronto. “Speed is very high on the list of risks for us because people do not slow down. Some do, but the vast majority do not.”

Indeed, speeding is widespread.

Statistics from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation indicate that more than 730,000 tickets were handed out to lead-footed drivers in 2006 alone.

Also high on that list are frustrated drivers, the type who endanger emergency responders by trying to squeeze by accident scenes at the wrong times.

Drivers have long been distracted, but new diversions are surfacing thanks to the ballooning supply of small, addictive electronic devices. “Some drivers are distracted by their cellphones, texting, grooming, eating, checking a computer, looking at a GPS screen or speeding,” says Robin Kotyk, chief operating officer of the Alberta Construction Safety Association in Edmonton.

“These are only some distractions that pull the drivers’ attention away from what they are supposed to do while operating a vehicle — focusing on the safe operation of the motor vehicle,” Kotyk adds.

One way to avoid heavy traffic flows is to shift road construction and maintenance to the overnight hours, but doing so can introduce other hazards, such as reduced visibility.

“If you’re doing night work on a

rainy night in British Columbia at 2 am, then no amount of keg lights is going to make that look like daytime,â&#x20AC;? Torrence points out.

Driver fatigue and impairment may also be an issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[With] the travelling public at night, there is a signiďŹ cant portion of them, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure, under the inďŹ&#x201A;uence of drugs or alcohol,â&#x20AC;? Torrence speculates. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a signiďŹ cant portion of them who are driving while fatigued and, therefore, their motor skills are affected.â&#x20AC;?

PROTECT YOURSELF With such dangers lurking, it is incumbent upon employers to consider how best to implement protections for their road workers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Safe work procedures must be in place regarding trafďŹ c control. Emergency response workers must be trained to follow these procedures,â&#x20AC;? notes a late2009 bulletin from Manitobaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Workplace Safety and Health Division and the provinceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s OfďŹ ce of the Fire Commissioner, both in Winnipeg.

Some important points for emergency responders to remember, the organizations note, include the following: s face oncoming trafďŹ c while working; s take care to ensure work lights do not blind approaching drivers; s look for any oncoming trafďŹ c before opening doors and stepping out of vehicles; and, s be aware of proximity to trafďŹ c.

Additional precautions include using warning signs, barriers, lane control devices, ďŹ&#x201A;ashing lights, ďŹ&#x201A;ares, trafďŹ c cones, automated trafďŹ c control systems and ďŹ&#x201A;aggers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re working very hard to mitigate those risks inside the cone by putting up better lighting, better ďŹ&#x201A;uorescent equipment and clothing and more,â&#x20AC;?

Torrence reports. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The problem, again, is the travelling public â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are they better prepared at night? If theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ill-prepared during the daytime when the sun is shining brightly, how prepared are they at night when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s raining and dark?â&#x20AC;?

As time passes, equipment is being changed to better protect workers. In British Columbia, for example, construction ďŹ rms are moving away from a simple cone system to one that uses tall, barrel-like barriers, says Torrence.

While these are sturdier and more visible, they are not without their complications. Moving this extra weight

around isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a result, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen a recent spike in lower back injuries due to this ergonomic change in the industry,â&#x20AC;? he says.

For emergency responders, vehicle positioning is a crucial hazard control.

Paramedics, police and ďŹ reďŹ ghters at an accident scene on the road will park their vehicles in such a way so as to encourage passing trafďŹ c to move over one lane. For instance, a police ofďŹ cer

who has pulled over a speeder will park behind and to the left of the vehicle, using his cruiser as a barrier.

In Toronto, the paramedic service has an agreement in place with the ďŹ re department to create a trafďŹ c cushion of sorts. This is particularly important since paramedics do not carry the types of barriers and signage used at road construction projects, Gillies says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our agreement is that when there is

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a motor vehicle collision on the side of the highway that fire services will [send] multiple apparatus to the scene, and it is basically scene protection,” says Gillies, who once attended an incident in Toronto where a paramedic had been knocked over the guardrail of a busy expressway.

“You will always see two fire trucks at a road collision. One is actually doing the work on the call, and the second one, its primary function is scene protection. It parks on an angle so it gives the driver no choice — they have to move over that one extra lane,” he says.

Torrence says similar efforts are under way in his province.

“We’ve just done a major project with the RCMP in British Columbia that will see all the RCMP officers trained to the level needed in order to attend an accident scene and set up the basic traffic control mechanisms to protect the integrity of that accident scene and also protect the public,” he says, adding that his network is also approaching fire services.

“Often we think only of work zones where they’re paving something,” Torrence points out. But many traffic control scenarios involve emergency responders and they come “up instantly or quickly as a result of a car accident or some kind of fire tragedy.”

ON THE BOOKS Legislation aimed at controlling traffic in construction zones and near emergency responders has been enacted to boost road worker safety.

Martin Dupuis, a spokesperson for Alberta’s transportation ministry in Edmonton, points to a law the province passed in 2005 regarding speeds in construction zones. “Our legislation was set up about speeding past construction workers and it was designed to increase safety, particularly through the construction season,” Dupuis reports.

The law stipulates that when emergency vehicles are present or when in a construction zone, drivers must slow down to 60 kilometres per hour or adhere to the posted speed limit. Fines for speeding are doubled.

“We had seen an increase in collisions and the road construction industry let us know that it needed to be addressed,” he says.

That same year, the Transportation Statute Law Amendment Act was passed in Ontario, doubling speeding fines in

construction zones when workers are present. The new law took effect in March of 2006.

Last December, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation in Winnipeg introduced regulatory amendments that would expand existing provisions of the Highway Traffic Act requiring motorists to approach stopped tow trucks and other vehicles with caution when their beacons are flashing, extending coverage that is already in place for emergency response workers.

The amendments require motorists to slow down when passing tow trucks and roadside assistance vehicles, and to pass only when it is safe to do so, says a statement from the transportation department. On multi-lane highways, motorists would also be required to move a lane farther from vehicles that are stopped or working at the side of the road.

“The message of these amendments is that when you see signals flashing, when you see people working at the side of the road, slow down,” transportation minister Steve Ashton says in the statement. “Workers have the right to do their job in safety, and our job as motorists is to proceed with caution when we are driving past people who are working.”

The amendments require similar procedures for motorists passing vehicles used by government enforcement officers, such as conservation officers, when beacons are activated.

Breaking the law will land an offender a $278 ticket.

Just what are the requirements to be a “good” traffic control person? The former Construction Safety Association of Ontario, now part of the Infrastructure Health & Safety Association in Toronto, points to the following attributes: UÊ sound health and good vision, hearing and mental/physical alertness; UÊ mature judgement and a pleasant manner; UÊ a good eye for speed and distance to gauge oncoming traffic; and, UÊ the ability to give motorists simple directions, explain hazards and answer questions.

The association also offers advice to flaggers on how to ensure their safety and that of others who are working in construction or maintenance zones: UÊ don’t be distracted by talking to co-workers or pedestrians. If a road worker is required to talk to motorists, he should stay at his post and keep the conversation brief; UÊ when using two-way radios to communicate with another flagger, establish clear voice signals for each situation and test the units before starting the shift; and, UÊ if working with another flagger, a worker should ensure he can see the person at all times to co-ordinate stop-slow signs.

When the worker cannot see the other traffic control person, a third should be assigned to keep both parties in view.

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PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

Stay Safe

MANY PROVINCES HAVE CAMPAIGNS

ENFORCEMENT IN FORCE? While road workers and employers are pleased that such laws have gained traction across Canada, enforcement remains an issue.

“We have rigorous and aggressive enforcement laws in British Columbia in terms of travelling at a reduced speed through a work zone,” Torrence says. “We have little in the way of enforcement. So it’s like having a rule, but nobody ever enforces it so you don’t really have to pay attention to it.”

Raising public awareness, of course, is an important component. Many provinces have campaigns reminding the driving public that construction zones are people’s workplaces.

Every May sees the roll-out of the Partners in Road Construction Safety campaign, created collectively by the Alberta Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association in Edmonton and others. It highlights the message to slow down when passing through construction zones in Alberta, and the fact that fines double when speeding through these areas.

British Columbia has its Slow Down campaign, which features large signs with pictures of road construction workers and their family members, imploring drivers to reduce speeds and to be attentive.

Changing public attitudes takes time. Perhaps it is similar to other car safety issues, such as combating impaired driving, using car seats for children or even buckling up. All of these were initiatives that took years to finally be accepted and become entrenched, thanks to a combination of legislation, education and, finally, a shift in the public’s behaviour.

And while public education campaigns are critical and much needed, Gillies and Torrence both advocate getting even closer to the source: the driver.

Gillies says he and others are working on “a better educa-

REMINDING THE DRIVING PUBLIC THAT CONSTRUCTION ZONES ARE

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PEOPLE’S WORKPLACES. tional program where we — all emergency services — participate in driving school education programs.”

The idea is to have emergency responders “come in and talk to the new drivers, telling them about the move-over law, telling them about the following distances, and just how to handle yourself around emergency vehicles. And stressing the fact that an emergency vehicle is just that — it needs to get somewhere in a particular time period.”

Torrence, whose own children recently completed their drivers’ education, got a glimpse of the situation.

“Every province needs to look at its driver education and licensing system and ask itself: ‘Do we properly prepare our drivers?’” Torrence suggests. “Can they honestly say we do everything possible to prepare that driver for these common, everyday occurrences [such as] encountering a work zone?”

He adds, “When my children wrote their drivers’ tests, they were never asked any questions about travelling through a work zone.”

Changing that, coupled with boosting enforcement and continuing to ensure that road workers get the protections and training they require, can only serve to improve safety down the road.

Astrid Van Den Broek is a writer in Toronto.

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TIMBER HARVESTING

OUT OF THE WOODS?

BY DONALEE MOULTON

After years of bad news on the workplace safety front, timber harvesting in British Columbia, which includes perilous jobs like manual tree falling and log hauling, is ďŹ nally receiving some encouraging results.

Fatalities

were

noticeably

down in 2009. In fact, the B.C. Forest Safety Council reported

workers who failed to make it home was at its lowest level in a quarter-century. There were four direct harvesting deaths, a big drop from 16 in 2008, and a far cry from the 39 in 2005.

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in February, the number of

Though registered workers’ GREAT DANGER compensation claims in the sector fell steadily over the 2005 to 2008 period (from 4,141 to 2,760), headline-generating fatalities remained stubbornly high — in particular, the deaths of eight fallers in 2008 alarmed those both inside and outside the industry.

“We

approached

2009

armed with a sobering reminder that we must be vigilant, determined and aggressive if we hope to achieve our goal of eliminating serious injuries

If logging is generally hazardous, manually falling trees is really dangerous. In many cases, it has proven deadly.

“Fallers traditionally have the highest accident rate in forestry. It is work that puts people in the ground,” Steve Mueller, director of forest worker development at the B.C. Forest Safety Council in Nanaimo, British Columbia, says bluntly. “Historically,” Mueller reports, “we had up to 25 fallers a year killed.

That was [viewed as] just the cost of doing business.”

A report prepared by WorkSafeBC, “Occupational Health and Safety Faller Serious Injury and Fatal Review 2009,” suggests those numbers are on the decline. From 2000 to 2008, there were 32 serious injury and fatal incidents among tree fallers, but no deaths among certified fallers for a 24-month period between 2006 and 2007. This compares with 26 deaths and more than 1,400 injury claims between 1998 and 2002.

Similar situations are playing out across the country, although extracting the data from general forestry claims can be tricky. In New Brunswick last year, there were two injuries and one

and fatalities,” B.C. forest safety ombudsman Roger Harris, noted in his annual report.

Despite the drop in accidents, some important questions about British Columbia’s timber harvesting sector linger. Can the numbers be sustained, and even improved?

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How are harvesters faring in the rest of Canada? And can lessons learned elsewhere in the country be shared?

fatality related to chain saw use. Saskatchewan had 18 injuries associated with harvesting logs, including tree falling, down from 40 in 2008.

In Alberta, 485 claims for harvesting- and hauling-related injuries were filed with the provincial Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) between 2005 and 2009. “Of these claims, 46 per cent were considered lost-time claims,” says Alberta WCB media relations special-

ist Jennifer Dagsvik in Edmonton, who adds that there were 16 fatalities.

Despite improvements in injury stats, tree falling is still inherently dicey.

“In B.C., trees can be up to [3.7 metres] in diameter. Trees can also be unstable,” Mueller points out.

The primary causes of injuries and fatalities among fallers include being struck by the tree or part of the tree being cut, and being hit by a dead limb or dead tree from a nearby work area. “[Fallers] have been struck by falling trees and branches or succumbed to chain saw lacerations,” reports Angela Acott-Smith, assistant director of WorkSafeNB’s northwest region.

“Common hazards that lead to these injury types include less stable trees, more chicots [standing dead trees] and dead branches, and thick re-growth,” Acott-Smith says.

CERTIFIED RESULTS Across the country, the toll that these hazards has taken has prompted focused responses.

Recommendations from a Forest Safety Task Force in British Columbia in early 2004 suggested the creation of a uniform training and certification standard for fallers, which led to the B.C. Faller Training Standard, developed by WorkSafeBC and administered by the forest safety council.

Now, two paths to certification are available. Experienced fallers new to the province can register with the council to be evaluated for certification, which includes a written/oral review of falling and bucking practices and a field demonstration of the worker’s skills.

Rookie fallers, on the other hand, must take a 30-day training program that incorporates classroom training, interactive exercises, evaluations and closely supervised field training involving all aspects of chain saw operation, falling and bucking. After these steps are done, the faller must complete as many as 180 days of on-the-job training before being eligible for certification.

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Communal Resource British Columbia forest safety ombudsman Roger Harris released a wide-ranging report on the state of the province’s 400,000-kilometre resource road network in February of 2008. Among his 17 recommendations were the following: UÊ the province should establish a new public highway designation for resource roads that serve as the primary or secondary access roads for communities, having clearly defined standards for construction, maintenance and enforcement, and be funded similar to the public highway system; UÊ the province should help create road safety management groups (RSMGs) with the responsibility of managing all activities on resource roads, and these RSMGs, along with other stakeholders, should implement province-wide signage, radio frequencies and radio protocols; UÊ the B.C. Forest Safety Council should develop an industrial driver endorsement program for operators of light/service industrial vehicles operating on resource roads; and, UÊ the province should take the lead in advocating for electronic stability control systems for all new industrial, commercial and private vehicles.

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ing needs and styles of adult learners, some of whom have not been in a classroom for decades.” Also, each course has a worker curriculum and a supervisory model, and the program includes regular refresher training.

Another important feature is a “central registry of qualified workers, whose certification can be suspended if critical

safety rules are not respected or if the holder does not adhere to safe practices contained in the curriculum,” reports the association.

However, even as the NBFSA ramps up its roster of training and safety programming, the logging sector remains somewhat removed from the process.

“[It] is not yet a member of this provincial industry safety association,” says Barbara McFarlane, the association’s executive director.

FRONTIER CULTURE Part of the resistance may be linked to the logging culture, traditionally characterized by a ruggedness and a selfreliance that may not always serve safety. Perhaps nowhere is this image more ingrained than among tree fallers. “Typically, falling attracts the hardiest individuals,” says Mueller. “There is a macho culture, an acceptance of the hazard.”

There should be no pride in that reality, McFarlane argues. “[There is] the general mindset that it is a hazardous environment and that accidents are inevitable and not entirely avoidable. To improve our industry’s health and safety, we need to foster and encourage a positive safety culture wherein everyone believes that all accidents are preventable,” she emphasizes.

That message comes through loud and clear from provincial inquiries into recent faller fatalities. A report released last fall by a death review panel convened to examine the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three fallers in British Columbia’s coastal logging operations in early 2008 concluded, quite simply, that they had not been working safely. “[I]n all three cases, the work practices utilized immediately prior to, and at the time of the incidents, were not consistent with the industry’s best

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“We’ve got about 3,700 fallers who have been certified,” says Mueller, adding that the number continues to climb.

On the other side of the country, last year the New Brunswick Forest Safety Association (NBFSA) in Miramichi launched the Forest Industry Safety Education Curriculum, an eight-course program that establishes makeshift classrooms right in the woods.

Training is progressive, leading off with basic safety training, followed by issue-specific training in faller qualification, mechanical logging, thinning and supervision of forestry operations.

“Properly trained and experienced workers are the key to preventing these injuries,” AcottSmith emphasizes. “These individuals are skilled in recognizing hazards before entering an unsafe work zone, and they put control measures in place to minimize the associated risks. They also wear appropriate personal protective equipment, ensure their chain saws are in good working condition and use safe [falling] techniques,” she adds.

The New Brunswick program arose out of concerns surrounding the relationship between workplace training and the number and severity of forestry accidents.

An industry-led committee was formed to create a uniform educational standard that would be applied throughout the province, the NBFSA notes in a statement.

“The program has a number of important features to ensure the training’s long-term success,” the statement adds.

“One is that it reflects the unique learn-

“Working with large timber, danger trees or in steep terrain

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requires risk practices,” the panel stated in its 11page report, which was delivered to the province’s chief coroner.

“This occurred despite the fact that all fallers involved in these incidents had numerous years of falling experience and were certified to the current B.C. Faller Training Standard,” the panel added.

“In addition, in all three cases, the fallers carried out their activities under the general direction of falling supervisors, although the degree of supervision and its effectiveness varied from case to case. Further, the deaths occurred in spite of the regulatory framework intended to ensure worker safety through adherence to standards.”

The panel made 15 recommendations. Among them, the forest safety council should develop an endorsement system for planners, fallers and supervisors, linking individual skill, experience and knowledge levels to the diverse work conditions and levels of risk that may be encountered by fallers across the province.

“There exists a high degree of variability in the level of risk present in the different workplaces where manual tree falling takes place,” the panel chair noted in the report.

“Working with large timber, danger trees or in steep terrain requires risk assessment skills which exceed the demands placed on fallers in less challenging terrain or smaller timber types.

Similarly, supervision and planning of operations in challenging work conditions requires expanded skill sets for planners and falling supervisors.”

The panel also recommended that the forest safety council partner with WorkSafeBC to “develop an Industry Recommended Practice for all aspects of tree falling, incorporating some of

assessment skills which exceed the demands placed on fallers in less challenging terrain.”

the progressive concepts and strategies already in existence in the industry.”

In a letter written last November, Roberta Ellis, vice-president of the policy, investigations and review divisions at WorkSafeBC, noted the board had already taken or was taking action to address the recommendations.

For example, WorkSafeBC is increasing its number of forest safety alerts and posters and is considering the development of an Internet video system based on real-life situations to focus on “spotting the hazard.”

The system, Ellis notes, would use a webcam attached to the safety helmet of a faller to focus on pre-job planning, site preparation, safety considerations during falling and post-falling assessment.

BEST PRACTICES WorkSafeBC has also made its own recommendations. In its 2009 internal review of faller injuries and fatalities, the board’s conclusions mirrored those of the death review panel.

WorkSafeBC concluded “the fallers killed in 2008 were well-experienced but were not using industry best practices when they were killed. The investigations of these incidents, in every case but one, showed that inadequate procedures were being used instead of the [B.C. Faller Training Standard] best practices, and those deficiencies led directly to the fatal results.”

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in Charlottetown. “The forestry sector is not a career of choice. The hours are long. It’s dangerous. It’s hot and muggy, and there are bugs. It’s a transient work force,” Stewart says.

“One thing is certain,” says McFarlane. “We can no longer allow the perpetuation of the notion that ‘anyone can use a chain saw; anyone can work in the woods.’”

She adds that “promoting professionalism, pride and self-worth among workers and giving them the tools to do their jobs well and the support and encouragement they need to continue doing it well are what is needed to be successful in the long term.”

New Brunswick’s industry is looking to the future. “We [foresee] the provincial forestry sector setting long-term strategic health and safety goals in a ‘road to zero’ format,” says McFarlane.

“By setting long-term, reasonably attainable goals, we can more effectively measure our collective successes and inadequacies while offering support in the process through understanding that we are all intrinsically linked. A successful industry is a safe industry.”

ON THE ROAD Fallers, of course, are not the only timber harvesters facing hazards. Another high-risk group is the log hauling sector. In British Columbia, Mueller points out, “when you think about where they are hauling logs from, it is deep mountainous roads.”

A disturbing trend is emerging, he adds. “An increasing number of truck drivers, when they are killed, are killed outside the truck. Several drivers have been rolled over by their own trucks.”

In New Brunswick, Acott-Smith points out, “log haulers have experienced some injuries as a result of motor vehicle accidents on the logging roads. Most recently, we have seen drivers jumping from their moving trucks once they have lost control. Serious leg fractures have resulted.”

Last year in the province, there were six accidents reported involving log haulers, she adds. “Fractures resulted when drivers slipped, fell or jumped from their trucks. Two of these were from stationary loads, however. There was also a fractured nose when a chain binder slipped and hit the driver in the face. Cold weather and icy roads do contribute to these incidents.”

While log haulers in British Colum-

“An increasing number of truck drivers, when they are killed, are killed outside the truck.”

bia must track their hours in a log book, corners are often cut. “Truckers have to do more and more work,” Mueller reports. “They must keep a log book, but abuse of those books is rampant.”

The 15-hour work limit is also often ignored, he says. “Fatigue is an issue.

Impairment is a factor in almost all of these [hauling] accidents.”

Harris, the British Columbia forest safety ombudsman, has in the past set his sights on the province’s vast logging road network, the scene of almost half of all forestry sector deaths in 2007 (see Communal Resource on page 32).

Substance abuse, emergency response and driver certification were among the issues he tackled in his 31-page report, “No Longer the Road Less Travelled,” released in February of 2008.

For many years, the safety of the 400,000-kilometre network has been a

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WorkSafeBC’s internal faller serious injury and fatalities task team, which prepared the 16-page report, made seven recommendations to enhance the safety landscape for tree fallers.

These included developing a clear definition of what constitutes a qualified faller supervisor; ensuring employers use a quality control process for confirming that fallers demonstrate competency and compliance with training standards; and conducting a faller compliance strategy audit.

In New Brunswick, a late-2009 coroner’s inquest into the death of 46-year-old logger Stanley English made two recommendations. English died in September, 2008 as a result of a severe head injury sustained when he was hit by a tree.

The first jury recommendation was that the provincial government should assign more health and safety officers where they are needed most: in the field. The second suggestion focused on training. Specifically, it said that New Brunswick should provide funding for small, independent logging operations to facilitate safety education.

That’s a recommendation that may resonate out West as well. “Fallers used to be employees. Now the industry has moved almost without exception to a contractor model. This has further fragmented the industry,” Mueller explains.

“There has been a loss of focus on safety as a result,” he adds. “It is every man for himself.”

Some fallers taking shortcuts are new to the job — and not necessarily committed to a lifetime of chopping trees, suggests George Stewart, director of the Occupational Health and Safety Division of Prince Edward Island’s Workers Compensation Board

The Long Haul With the onset of summer comes a heavy increase in logging road traffic. “Logging crews, log haul truckers, silviculture workers, anglers and cottagers share routes that vary from well-maintained primary haul roads to ones that are rough, narrow, winding, sparsely signed and minimally patrolled, if at all,” notes information from the former Ontario Forestry Safe Workplace Association, now part of Workplace Safety North in North Bay, Ontario.

“The danger of colliding with large animals such as a moose, bear or deer is constant and other obstacles such as washouts, large rocks or logs can crop up without warning,” the safety group adds.

It offers a number of tips for safe travel on resource roads, including the following: UÊ always wear a seat belt, and obey designated speed limits, other rules of the road and communications procedures; UÊ do not pass vehicles unless it is absolutely necessary. Road conditions, particularly shoulders, may be unsafe for passing, and dust and stones kicked up by a vehicle can endanger other drivers; UÊ drive slowly to be able to respond quickly enough to sudden hazards, especially when roads are wet; UÊ pull off the road and wait for road dust to settle if visibility is a problem; and, UÊ keep headlights on at all times and use additional warning lights and horns when necessary.

burning issue, inflamed by the deaths of various system users.

“Although owned by the public, many of the roads were located in isolated, fairly inaccessible regions where the predominant users in the past were forest sector employees, contractors and local communities with close ties to logging,” Harris wrote in the report. “That has now changed and the result is an increasing demand on the forestry sector

to maintain these roads for many different purposes than forestry activity.”

It was within this context that Harris made 17 recommendations to improve road safety.

He urged the creation of road safety management groups, which would include representatives from industry, government and the public. The groups would “jointly make decisions and implement all actions concerning road safety issues including design, construction, maintenance, safe driving practices, signage, driver education and allocation of resources,” he noted.

Substance abuse of illegal and legal drugs, the latter including over-thecounter prescription drugs and stimulants, was another issue identified by the ombudsman. “The factors that compel individuals to misuse these substances also need to be addressed… Proper checks and measures need to be in place at the management level to ensure that employees and contractors have adequate time between shifts to rest, and to allow for more regular and predictable work schedules,” Harris writes.

British Columbia’s forest safety council, through its Forestry TruckSafe initiative, has been making some headway. For instance, the development of

five regional road user groups is now under way.

Meanwhile, effectively reducing timber harvesting accident rates in New Brunswick will take time, cautions McFarlane. “Initializing a culture shift requires a planned, systematic approach involving the entire supply chain of the industry, and it includes the training and education for workers, supervisors and managers,” she suggests.

“But creating a positive culture will not happen overnight. We sense that the time is right, but for it to be successful it needs to be driven by the loggers themselves,” says McFarlane.

“While we’ve done wonders to improve our administrative controls, the culture change will be what eventually eliminates logging-related accidents,” she maintains.

That culture shift is happening, albeit slowly. “I’ve seen a big difference since I started in the woods,” reports Michael Berube, a health and safety consultant with McFarlane’s association and the developer of its new training curriculum.

“Ten years ago,” Berube notes, “safety was taboo.”

Donalee Moulton is a writer in Halifax.

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CELLPHONES

It’s busy — busy at home, busy at work, busy on the road.

But the days of trying to do it all, at least while behind the wheel, look to be going the way of the dodo. A wave of discontent is building over the use of cellphones and other hand-held electronic devices while driving. And governments here at home are taking note.

t ec

The rules are clear: violators should expect a fine and, perhaps, some demerit points. But should provincial obligations also serve as a

n n o c s i D

cue for employers to adopt company-specific policies to help demonstrate their commitment to occupational health and safety?

Sa

y t fe

BY

G AN

ELA

L STE

MA

K

I OW

CH

GEARED UP Most provincial or territorial jurisdictions in this country have banned or are working toward prohibiting the use of hand-held devices while driving. The changes have ramifications not only for motorists going about their daily lives, but also for those who drive on company time.

Newfoundland and Labrador was well ahead of the curve, adopting a ban on hand-held cellphones way back in 2003. Walter Noel, government services and lands minister at the time, said that “most people are responsible most of the time, but we have to deal with those who are not responsible, and we have to realize that even the most responsible have lapses. One mistake could prove very costly.”

Other jurisdictions followed suit, although in not-so-quick succession, with restrictions achieving more blanket-like coverage only very recently (see No Answer on page 39).

Absent provincial rules, many organizations, municipalities and businesses opted to go it alone. For example, Edmonton-based Finning (Canada), a division of Finning International Inc., launched its own company policy at the beginning of 2007. It is very straightforward: no hand-held, no hands-free, no calls, no texts, no BlackBerrys or two-way radios while driving, says Crystal Chokshi, team lead, corporate communications at Finning, which sells, rents and provides customer support services for Caterpillar equipment. “It’s pretty much everything,” Chokshi says of the blacklisted devices.

“We’ve read in the research out there that [driver distraction] can increase collisions up to four to six times,” she reports. “That’s not a risk that we’re willing to [expose] our employees to.”

ILLUSTRATION: JAMES WARDELL

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Employee safety was also at the heart of a move by the City of Moncton to adopt a ban for municipal staff, says Kathryn Barnes, a city councillor and chair of the Legal and Administrative Affairs Committee. Since March 31, the policy has applied to all municipal vehicles and motorized equipment, which includes such things as snowploughs and lawnmowers. The only exception is the use of two-way radios for business and safety purposes.

Dr. Louis Francescutti, founder of the Coalition for Cellphone-Free Driving at the University of Alberta School of Public Health in Edmonton, suggests there still is a long way to go. Pointing to a survey of 500 Alberta organizations undertaken by graduate students last year, Dr. Francescutti reports that more than 90 per cent of the organizations had no e-device policies in place. “We were flabbergasted.”

LEGAL REALM Employers need to understand that what happens on the road may not stay on the road. “The potential for injury to employees or bystanders, and property damage to company or other vehicles, should be a concern for employers,” notes information from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario.

“Addressing the Problem of Distracted Driving and its Impact to Road Safety,” a report released by the British Columbia government last year, cautions that in the United States employers are increasingly being taken to court for allowing employees to talk on cellphones while driving on company business. In several high-profile cases involving deaths and serious injuries, the report notes employers were successfully sued for amounts in the $1-million to $2-million range.

On the oh&s law front, Alf Kempf, a lawyer with Pushor Mitchell LLP in Kelowna, British Columbia, says charges could be pursued if a cellphone-talking employee was involved in an accident on company time. Kempf recommends employers view provincial motor vehicle requirements as a minimum standard. “Their own policies should likely be even more stringent,” he advises.

“The mere existence of a policy would not protect an employer, but it would certainly assist,” Kempf points out.

However, “a policy must be properly administered and consistently enforced for the employer to limit liability.”

Dr. Francescutti suggests provincial and territorial laws offer some benefit in that they may provide a not-so-gentle push to organizations that have not yet adopted policies. “If organizations know that it’s against the law, they’ll have policies in place that prohibit their employees from doing it.”

But Dr. Francescutti is hardly a fan of the provincial laws now on the books. By permitting hands-free devices, he ar-

gues “every province that has introduced legislation has done it wrong.” A complete ban is what is needed, he contends.

Kempf counters that a ban of all types of cellphones is impractical. “They have become an integral part of our lives and, ironically, an important tool in protecting the safety of employees when used properly.”

So what do regulators think? Could provincial cellphone obligations overlap with the general duty clause within health and safety legislation?

Donna Freeman, director of media relations for WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia, responds that a board inspector would consider the employer’s responsibilities to ensure workers receive appropriate training and orientation. If driving is a job requirement, Freeman notes this would necessarily cover driving safety and laws, of which the recently enacted provincial ban would be part.

“There would be an employer obligation regarding training under Section 115” of British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act, she says. “Repeated non-compliance with this requirement could lead to penalty action.”

Bruce Skeaff, media relations coordinator for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour in Toronto, says employers have various duties under the provincial OH&S Act and related regulations. As elsewhere in the country, this includes the duty to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of workers.

If an inspector “determines, based on the facts of a specific incident, that an employer has failed to comply with these duties, the inspector may decide to take enforcement action,” Skeaff notes.

Kempf recommends employers view provincial

motor vehicle

requirements as a

minimum standard.

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SEE-SAW As visible as they are, cellphones play an attractive villain, one with the potential to unify opposition. But the real enemy is distraction created by an array of sources. Consider this list courtesy of the CCOHS: eating, drinking and smoking; reading; applying make-up or shaving; adjusting a radio, cassette, CD, MP3 or DVD; talking with passengers; and watching something outside the vehicle.

Driving may seem a simple task, but safely doing so demands visual, auditory, biomechanical and cognitive skills.

“Driving is one of the most demanding tasks we do, yet a lot of drivers treat it as a secondary activity,” notes information from the Canada Safety Council in Ottawa.

Determining if an incident is directly related to use of hand-held (or hands-free, for that matter) devices can be a sketchy proposition. As it stands, enforcement personnel consider whether or not distraction may have been at play.

No Answer Jurisdiction

In Effect

Restrictions While Driving

Exceptions

Fines/Demerits

Newfoundland & Labrador

April, 1, 2003

Hand-held (HH) cellphones

$45 to $180; four demerit points

Quebec

April 1, 2008

HH electronic devices

$115 to $154, three demerits

Commercial CB radios and walkie-talkies

Nova Scotia

April 1, 2008

HH cellphones

$50 for first offence, $100 for second, and $200 for third and subsequent

HH cellphones in emergencies

Ontario

October 26, 2009 (fines issued as of February 1, 2010)

HH e-devices (as well as viewing DVD, laptop and other display screens)

$155 to a maximum of $500

9-1-1 calls; three-year phasing out of commercial two-way radio use

British Columbia

January 1, 2010 (fines issued as of February 1)

HH e-devices; HH music or portable gaming devices; manually adjusting GPS

$167; three demerits if texting or e-mailing; fine and demerits for graduated licence drivers for any breach

9-1-1 calls; two-way radios for industry (trucking, logging, oil and gas)

Saskatchewan

January 1, 2010

HH e-devices; no HH or hands-free for those in graduated licensing program

$280, four demerits

9-1-1 calls

Prince Edward Island

January 23, 2010

HH e-devices, including GPS, laptops

$250 to $400, three demerits

9-1-1 calls

Alberta

Legislative debate expected this fall

$172 HH e-devices, including HH music players, laptops

Manitoba

Royal Assent June 11, 2009 (awaiting enforcement date)

HH e-devices

Northwest Territories

No law in place

Yukon

Under review

New Brunswick

No law in place

$190

9-1-1 calls; commercial search and rescue use of radio communications

9-1-1 calls

HH e-devices

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Attention Intention A 2003 study out of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City looked at the failure to process visual information, a concept called “inattention blindness,” during simulated driving. Researchers found that when a driver is conversing on a handsfree cellphone, his gaze may be at an object, but he fails to see the object because his attention is directed elsewhere.

A March, 2010 report from the National Safety Council in Itasca, Illinois explains inattention blindness this way: “Drivers are looking out the windshield, but they do not process everything in the roadway environment that they must know to effectively monitor their surroundings, seek and identify potential hazards and respond to unexpected situations.”

Dr. Louis Francescutti, founder of the Coalition for Cellphone-Free Driving at the University of Alberta School of Public Health in Edmonton, notes that “you’ll run over [a] child, and the officer will ask you, ‘Well, didn’t you see the child?’ And you’re actually going to answer, ‘Yes, I saw [him], but it didn’t register that I was supposed to do something about it.’”

A research team south of the border recently decided to put the theory of inattention blindness to the test. So distracted by cellphone use were walkers that they failed to see the bizarre occurrence of a unicycling clown passing them on the street, note the findings, which appeared in an online edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology last October.

Compared with individuals walking alone, in pairs or listening to iPods, cellphone users were most prone to oblivious behaviour, the study found. Only 24 per cent of the group noticed the clown.

The British Columbia report and the National Safety Council (NSC) in Itasca, Illinois both peg driver distraction of all types as being at the root of about 25 per cent of crashes.

The NSC’s white paper, “Understanding the Distracted Brain,” released in March, notes that “most people can recognize when they are visually or mechanically distracted and seek to disengage from these activities as quickly as possible.”

However, the NSC adds, “people typically do not realize when they are cognitively distracted, such as taking part in a phone conversation. Therefore, the risk lasts much, much longer.”

So how quickly can distraction turn to crash? The “100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study,” results of which were detailed in a 2006 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, D.C., found eyes-off-the-road durations of more than two seconds significantly increased risk of crashes and near-crashes.

Secondary task distraction (use of hand-helds being most common) was found to contribute to more than 22 per cent of crashes and nearcrashes. Specifically, dialling a cellphone was associated with an odds ratio of 2.8 for crash/ near-crash risk, and talking or listening to a hand-held for 1.3.

Consider the bizarre and dangerous incident from November of 2004, when a motor coach driver talking on a hands-free cellphone lost the top of his bus to an overpass.

The driver left a Maryland airport at 9:30 am to make a 95-kilometre trip to Mount Vernon, Virginia — not his first time doing so, notes a report from the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington. At 10:40 am, the driver seemed not to notice warning signs indicating the right-lane clearance of an upcoming bridge. Remaining where he was, he drove the bus under the bridge and collided with the overpass.

The higher left lane had been available. “The probable cause of this accident was the bus driver’s failure to notice and respond to posted low-clearance warning signs and to the bridge itself, due to cognitive distraction resulting from conversing on a hands-free cellular telephone while driving.”

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A more recent, but unfortunately fatal, incident involved an Alberta landscape labourer who was struck and killed at 10:25 am on July 24, 2009. The foreign worker was a seasonal employee for a company that had been hired by the City of Edmonton to complete landscape construction and maintenance on a centre boulevard, notes an investigation report from Alberta Employment and Immigration in Edmonton.

The street was busy, but visibility was clear.

The worker was collecting traffic cones as a company truck slowly backed up. The truck was hit from behind by a passenger vehicle, pinning the labourer between the two vehicles. He died at the scene.

The witness behind the crashed passenger car said that when the motorist exited her vehicle, she appeared to be texting on her cellphone, apparently unaware that she had crushed the worker. There were no visible skid marks.

The witness reported she had seen the truck and responded by moving to an adjacent lane.

EASY DOES IT The potential for mistakes forewarned by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Noel seven years ago is even more pronounced today, what with the increased use and enhanced capabilities of both hand-held and hands-free devices. Where once vehicles served as a means of getting from A to B, they have been transformed for some employees into mobile extensions of offices — places where phone calls are gladly taken, e-mails quickly sent and reports easily received.

For workers, having a hand-held available — but deciding not to use it — demands a change in behaviour and attitude.

For employers, it requires a new view of how quickly a worker at the wheel is expected to respond.

If an organization is aware that one of its employees will be driving at a certain time, “just don’t phone them,” Dr. Francescutti says. “Don’t force them to be put in a situation where they have to decide to answer or not answer the phone.”

Pointing to voicemail retrieval, Dr. Francescutti says there is “no reason that people can’t get back to each other within the hour. The reason is, if they’re driving they shouldn’t be driving more than an hour without a break anyway.”

Using time behind the wheel to safely drive — and noth-

ing else — strikes at the heart of today’s love affair with multi-tasking. “Multi-tasking is a myth,” notes the NSC report. “Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time. Instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and another.”

Finning’s Chokshi says that “in the old world, employees did answer phones and it was seen by some employees as a perfect time to do business.” She adds, however, that officials are now “encouraging people to single task and get away from this idea that multi-tasking on the road is possible.”

Raymond Klein, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Halifax’s Dalhousie University, says the mind must process vast amounts of information while driving to make appropriate decisions about speed and navigation. “When we use our minds to carry on a conversation, we will have less information-processing capacity for driving,” Klein notes.

Constable Hugh Smith, a member of the traffic services unit at the Toronto Police Service, too, is unconvinced by multi-tasking. “If you’re having a conversation, there’s no way you can positively say, ‘I’ve got 100 per cent on my driving priority,’” Smith suggests.

HABITUAL HARM But habits die hard. A survey by the Burnaby-based British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) revealed that despite stated support for prohibitions, 46 per cent of respondents reported talking on their phones — 73 per cent on hand-helds and 27 per cent on hands-free — at least a few times weekly while driving. With regard to texting, six per cent fessed up to doing so, this despite 97 per cent saying such behaviour should be prohibited.

Dr. Francescutti points to a British study in which participants who lost cellphone signal or battery power actually went into withdrawal, like a drug addict. “The younger you are, the more addicted you are to the technology because it links you with your world,” he suggests.

Smith notes that “you have a generation of teenagers and young people who have got their licences saying, ‘Well, this has been totally acceptable since I can remember… and now, with my generation, you’re saying it’s illegal.’ This culture really is going to take some time to change.”

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia recommends that texting be banned for all drivers, reporting that it has the longest eyes-off-the-road duration. “This cellphone task has the potential to create a true epidemic if texting-type tasks continue to grow in popularity and the generation of frequent text message-senders reach driving age in large numbers,” the institute cautions.

By restricting hand-held use, the hope is that fewer crashes will occur — but is that a realistic expectation? Research from Transport Canada notes the risk while talking on a cellphone “largely comes from the distraction of thinking about a conversation — not just from handling a phone.”

A study co-authored by Dalhousie’s Klein and published last year in the Journal of Safety Research notes that “performance while using a hands-free phone was rarely found to be better than when using a hand-held phone.” Researchers report “some studies found that drivers compensate for the deleterious effects of cellphone use when using a hand-held

phone, but neglect to do so when using a hands-free phone.”

Back in 2003, Newfoundland’s Noel touched on enforcement challenges. “Banning hands-free would have much less public support and would be difficult to enforce.”

That view seems to be reflected today. “Enforcement of a ban of hands-free wireless communication devices would be difficult,” says Bob Nichols, senior media liaison officer for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in Toronto. “A police officer would have to decide whether a driver was talking on a hands-free device, conversing with a passenger or singing along to the radio,” Nichols says.

But what is the ultimate value of a hand-held ban? The Virginia-based Highway Loss Data Institute compared insurance claims for crashes in four jurisdictions before and after bans had been instituted. “The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use,” institute president Adrian Lund says in a release. “If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it’s illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes.”

... participants who lost cellphone signal or battery power WRITE IT DOWN Adopting a companyspecific policy may be one way to deal with the uncertainty. The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation offers a sample safe driving policy that employers can adapt to suit their individual needs: s Establish a policy framework — Sample language may include the following: the intent of this policy is to increase the safety of employees, contractors and volunteers while driving on behalf of the organization; this policy is mandatory and governs the practices required by all employees, contractors and volunteers while driving on business for the organization; and this policy governs the use of both company and personal cellphone and electronic devices when driving on business for the organization. s Outline driver responsibilities — Sample language should note that, while driving on business, all employees, contractors and volunteers must have a valid provincial driver’s licence; follow all rules of the road; and not use a cellphone or other portable electronic device, read or send e-mails or text messages while controlling the vehicle. s Describe commitment to employees — The policy should note the organization will provide a copy of the policy and promote its adoption to all employees, contractors and volunteers (and will expect compliance at all times);

actually went into withdrawal.

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Get Your Tickets Ontario is one jurisdiction to recently move forward with banning hand-held cellphones and other electronic devices while driving. The new restrictions were passed last October, but enforcement through ticketing did not begin until February.

In the first three months of enforcement, 10,864 charges were laid under the cellphone ban provisions of the Highway Traffic Act, says Bob Nichols, senior media liaison officer for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in Toronto.

Looking at specific cities, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) issued 4,397 tickets between February 1 and April 30. Constable Hugh Smith, a member of the traffic services unit at the TPS, says the lion’s share of tickets — 4,101 — related to cellphones, 105 to having a display screen visible to the driver, and 191 to hand-held entertainment devices.

As of mid-May, Constable Cory Rowsell says the London Police Service issued 181 tickets. The numbers “might be encouraging, but you have to temper that with the fact that it’s only as good as the amount of enforcement time put into it.”

The hope is that statistics — in Ontario and elsewhere — tell the story of a culture change, not temporary support.

Consider a review of four communities in New York State (which had a ban) and two in adjacent Connecticut (which did not have a ban). Connecticut’s hand-held use did not change, while use in New York declined from 2.3 per cent to 1.1 per cent shortly after the ban. One year later, however, use was not significantly different from pre-law.

“Vigorous enforcement campaigns accompanied by publicity appear necessary to achieve longer-term compliance with bans on drivers’ cellphone use,” the study abstract says.

Nova Scotia’s experience seems more promising. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal in Halifax released a provincial road safety survey in May. Department spokesperson Lindsay Lewis says 78 per cent of respondents who used hand-held cells while driving before the provincial ban in 2008 had either switched to hands-free or put away their cellphones entirely. “To us, that sounds like people are taking the law seriously and they’re changing their behaviours,” Lewis says.

British Columbia also has reason for optimism. A University of Victoria study from late April notes that drivers are putting away their hand-helds.

Researchers staked out 40 locations in Victoria in February, 2009 and re-visited the sites this past April, observing 8,000 drivers each time. During the first outing (prior to a provincial ban), they witnessed 350 drivers using hand-helds, but more recently they only discovered 75 motorists using the devices.

vehicles provided will be maintained in safe operating condition and will be serviced according to the manufacturer’s recommendations; and employees, contractors or volunteers will not be required to drive in conditions considered unsafe and/or likely to create an unsafe environment, physical distress or fatigue. s Define the consequences of non-compliance — The policy must clearly address non-compliance through a range of disciplinary measures, up to and including termination of either employment or contract.

SMARTEN UP Discipline is essential to ensure a policy is followed. Findings from an NSC member survey, released last fall, show that although most policies are enforced through an honour system, 43 per cent of the companies polled conduct parking lot observations, 40 per cent check driver records and traffic citations, and 10 per cent use in-vehicle monitoring.

Dr. Francescutti suggests the response to non-compliance should be as simple as one, two, three — with the third strike declaring the worker out of the company.

Finning has its own three tiers. Says Chokshi, “First violation, it’s a written discipline; second violation of the policy, you’re suspended one day without pay; and the third, you’re terminated from the company.”

Debate over discipline recently surfaced in Vancouver, where more than a dozen transit bus operators faced internal investigations for allegedly using hand-held cellphones behind the wheel.

Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC), which operates the city’s transit buses, has had a policy restricting use of

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hand-held devices for years, says Norm Fraser, acting media relations manager for the company. The policy was instituted “when cellular telephones started coming into vogue, as it were, and more and more people started using them. It was recognized that there was a potential for safety compromise.”

Asked how the company became aware of the alleged violations, Fraser cites concerns raised by members of the public and other drivers. With British Columbia’s ban in effect since January, more eyes have been on operators.

As has always been the case, Fraser says CMBC’s policy notes that while operating a company vehicle, drivers cannot use, hold or look at any personal electronic device to talk, text or e-mail (buses do have a radio system that allows drivers to talk to transit control). As well, non-revenue vehicles used by supervisors, maintenance staff and security personnel have hands-free, company cellphones on board.

“We have sent letters out to our employees to have them gain a better understanding of where we’re coming from,” he says. “There have been several instances that happened where we had to apply our policy and everybody is complying.”

Moncton’s Barnes suggests “nothing happens overnight.”

The city moved forward with its policy “to change attitudes and to instill in our employees the fact that safety was of utmost importance,” she says.

At Finning, time has produced some promising results.

“We have noticed a decrease in our vehicle incidents since the policy was introduced,” Chokshi points out. “We can’t say that there’s a direct causation here, but there does appear to be a correlation.”

Angela Stelmakowich is editor of

OHS CANADA.

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SAFETY GEAR EYEWASH

Wash & Care

By Emily Landau

W

hether in a sawmill, an industrial workplace or a research laboratory, the danger associated with workers getting hazardous substances in their eyes or on their skin should never be underestimated.

Emergency eyewash and shower equipment is an integral part of any company’s response system, says Kimberly O’Connell, an occupational hygiene specialist with Workplace Safety & Prevention Services in Mississauga, Ontario (formerly the Industrial Accident Prevention Association).

“There are various chemicals that cause anything from eye and skin burns to… a loss of sight upon exposure,” O’Connell reports.

“It has to be Eyewash and emergency shower systems “would be necessary to treat any unimpeded kind of chemical incident that required immediate flushing.” access, so you The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) can’t have to in Hamilton, Ontario suggests that workplaces containing battery-charg- hop over things ing stations, laboratories, spraying operations and hazardous-substance or walk around dispensing areas could all make use obstructions.” of eyewashes, eye-face washes, emergency showers or a combination of these devices.

In the absence of a homegrown standard on the design, placement and use of such equipment, Canadians seeking guidance may turn to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in Washington, D.C., which released a revised eyewash/shower standard in 2009.

ANSI standard Z358.1-2009 was prepared by the Arlington, Virginia-based International Safety Equipment Association. Its specifications are fairly straightforward: eyewash and shower equipment must be located within 10 seconds of wherever a worker could be exposed, notes Michael Markovsky, vice-president of marketing at Haws Corporation in Sparks, Nevada. “It has to be unimpeded access, so you can’t have to hop over things or walk around obstructions,” Markovsky says. Once at the station, a worker needs to flush the affected area for a full 15 minutes.

Beyond these basics, the revised standard clarifies some of the more nitty-gritty aspects of the equipment and its uses.

Among the most significant changes is an updated explanation of appropriate fluid temperature for emergency fixtures. The previous version of the standard (circa 2004) specified that an eyewash or shower’s flushing fluid should be “tepid,” a term that is “open for interpretation,” notes Heather Koehn, associate product manager for emergency fixtures at Bradley Corporation in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Now,

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the standard specifies a temperature of 15 to 37 degrees Celsius, Koehn reports.

But not all work environments are the same temperature, so equipment must suit its surroundings. For colder outdoor settings, for example, it might be worthwhile to invest in portable freeze-proof units. Markovsky notes that when a worker comes into contact with a hazardous substance outdoors, it would be especially difficult to achieve the 10-second requirement set out in the standard if units were restricted to indoor environments.

Claudio Dente, president of Dentec Safety Specialists, Inc. in Newmarket, Ontario, says his company offers freeze-protected, gravity-fed units and freeze-protected shower units.

Sometimes, though, the problem is just the opposite: work environments can get too hot to ensure the temperature of emergency fluid remains within the acceptable range. The CCOHS lists foundries, steel mills, smelters and glass factories as possible candidates.

“Anything beyond [37 C] that you’re putting into your eyes, you’re running the risk of damaging eye tissue,” explains Markovsky. In addition, there is “equipment that actually has refrigeration or chilling involved with it. We refer to it as reverse tempering, where people are cooling water rather than heating it” to get within the 15 to 37 C range, he adds.

IN THE FLOW Over the past several years, advancements have been made surrounding flow control in eyewashes, eye-face washes and emergency showers.

Most eyewashes, Markovsky says, expel arced streams of water directed at one another, which allow the water to contact the outer corner of the eye and run toward the nose. He argues that this “traditional approach is 180 degrees different” from the medical community’s method of eye irrigation, noting that his company offers products that provide a more medically efficient flow pattern, in which the solution hits the inner corner of the eye and flows outward.

“There are things called lacrimal puncta, which are little holes in your ocular cavity that are adjacent to the bridge of your nose, and those holes drain excess fluid out of your eye cavity,” explains Markovsky. However, with the traditional method, the hazardous material is flushed into the affected worker’s nasal cavity, possibly leading to ingestion.

When purchasing emergency fixtures, consumers must consider the pressure and impact of the water flow. Line pressure in eyewashes can be anywhere from 30 to 100-plus pounds per square inch (psi), says Markovsky, noting that ophthalmologists have told him that when an eyewash is running at a very high line pressure with no flow control, “it would be a torture test for someone who’s not injured to stick their face into one of these things and stay there for 15 minutes, with water blasting against [their] eyeballs.”

PHOTOS: CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT - BRADLEY CORPORATION, BRADLEY CORPORATION, HAWS CORPORATION, DENTEC SAFETY SPECIALISTS, INC.

But eyewash water pressure can also be too low, causing the fixtures to function improperly. Koehn notes that emergency fixtures must be 30 psi at the point of entry, and workplaces would be well-advised to ensure their systems do not have high pressure drops, which would cause water pressure to be too low on impact.

“It’s important that end-customers look for high-quality, tankless heating systems that have a low pressure drop, like 10 to 12 psi or something like that, and have high-quality, highgrade alloys and components inside,” Koehn says.

But whatever the pressure, keeping one’s eyes under an eyewash for 15 consecutive minutes is bound to be uncomfortable. “It can hurt if it’s too hard or if you’re using a spray head or a traditional spray,” Dente comments.

To make the process more bearable, Dentec offers an aerated spray head that softens water flow. The head “throws billions of bubbles at the eyes so it’s easier — although still uncomfortable — to hold your eyes open and stick [them] under the water,” Dente says.

In addition, some equipment makers are exploring new waterdelivery methods that tweak nozzle size and placement in emergency showers.

Jim Johnson, general manager of Encon Safety Products in Houston, remarks that the ANSI standard now allows for multiple nozzles to be located at the sides of the shower as well as above the user’s head.

“The overhead shower serves a great service for fullbody drench coming down, but there are situations when someone may be affected by a spray that was in an upward motion,” Johnson notes. “[If] they’re affected under the armpits, in the groin or mid-body area, maybe under the neck, [then] water being projected from the sides helps address those concerns a little better than the overhead shower does.”

Beyond nozzle placement, product designers are experimenting with different nozzle sizes to provide a more thorough washdown. Koehn explains that over the past 30 years, a showerhead of 25 centimetres in diameter has been the standard size to provide an evenly dispersed flow. With technological advancements and new knowledge surrounding fluid dynamics, however, that larger showerhead is no longer necessary, she says, pointing out that several companies now offer smaller nozzles that more effectively concentrate flow

and provide a faster washdown.

“Instead of having a cylindrical pattern that isn’t necessarily evenly distributed throughout, imagine the pattern as more of a conical fashion, [filling] the entire cone,” she adds.

PORTABLE, STATIONARY When determining what type of eyewash unit to buy, one fundamental decision will be whether the purchaser should choose a portable, self-contained unit equipped with either stored water or a sealed cartridge of eyewash solution, or a plumbed unit connected to a local water source.

Before choosing, a company should first consult relevant material safety data sheets (MSDSs) to learn about the properties and potential risks of any chemicals to which workers may be exposed, suggests Kelly Piotti, product manager of emergency eyewash products for Sperian Protection in Smithfield, Rhode Island. “It starts with an MSDS sheet, looking at what type of stations those caustics require, whether it’s a personal or primary [unit], and then looking at the size of the location that you have to put them in,” Piotti says.

Koehn advises that employers should periodically do a walkthrough analysis of the workplace to ensure safety measures are still applicable. “Maybe the facility’s assembly locations have changed, or maybe operations have just shifted from the year prior,” she suggests.

Portable systems are often used where Employers should assess work plumbed water is not environments to determine whether available. Koehn says to go with portable or plumbed many consumers are eyewashes. looking for stations which can be moved around operations. Piotti points to one of Sperian’s best-selling units, a portable eyewash station that has a “smaller footprint” than other stations, making it an option for workplaces where space is at a premium.

Size makes portable showers more difficult to negotiate than portable eyewashes, but Richard Felton, vice-president of Hughes Safety Showers in Sarnia, Ontario, offers his company’s tank-shower design — containing a 1,135-litre storage tank and immersion heater — as an option for those needing emergency showers in remote or unplumbed locations.

“It seems like a lot of companies are getting audited.

Inspectors are saying, ‘You need a shower here.’ They don’t have any water here. They don’t have any way of heating the water, so they’re looking for a self-contained unit where they can just purchase it and get their plant back up and running,” Felton remarks.

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Possibly more divi- Barrier-free emergency fixtures sive than “portable versus are an important workplace plumbed” is the question consideration. of what constitutes the best flushing fluid. The CCOHS notes that ANSI defines an acceptable flushing fluid as “potable (drinking) water, preserved water, preserved buffered saline solution or other medically acceptable solutions.”

Piotti is a fan of sealed saline solution, often found in gravity-fed portable units.

She says that in addition to the sterile cartridge requiring less maintenance than a plumbed station, saline solution is more sanitary than standard potable water. “We’ve done several studies, and there have been some locations where E. coli was found to be in water,” Piotti reports. “You already have a caustic in your eye, so the [last] thing you want to do is add to that.”

As well, she notes that the pH balance of tap water — the measure of acidity within a solution — is not properly suited for the human eye. “A saline solution is pH-balanced for your eyes, so there is less damage done to the epithelial layer,” Piotti explains.

Not to mention, adds Encon Safety’s Johnson, that “the packaged solution lets you extend the life of the unit because it is sterilized or would have preservatives.”

Despite the concerns surrounding potable water, many manufacturers recommend it as the most reasonably priced and reliable flushing source. “It is already meeting Health Canada requirements because it’s going to be ingested,” Dente says.

From a cost perspective, Markovsky points out that refills for gravity-fed units are much more expensive than municipal water. But his most pressing concerns with sealed cartridges are the safety risks — if the sealed cartridge has been used and not yet replaced, it can leave a gap of time in which a workplace will have no fluid to deal with any eye injury that might occur. “That’s a dangerous situation,” he says.

Another option, one that is close at hand, is the personal eyewash, squeeze bottles containing a small amount of saline

solution. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We package a 32-ounce [0.9 litre] bottle, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s used for very quick, personal washes,â&#x20AC;? says Johnson, who cautions that while these bottles offer a temporary remedy, they are not to be used in place of a standard eyewash unit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of workers like that safety factor or that crutch of having a personal wash station where they can just reach and grab it and start addressing the injury on their way to the shower and eyewash,â&#x20AC;? he suggests.

REFRESHER COURSE The hope is that a workplace will seldom need to make use of an emergency eyewash or shower. Nonetheless, plumbed systems should be activated regularly for maintenance. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even if you have the best system, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to clear it of potentially any sediment thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in there,â&#x20AC;? says Koehn.

Let the water run on a weekly basis so that in the event of an emergency, the system is ready to dispense fresh water, Felton recommends. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If water sits in that hose for two weeks, are you going to drink it? Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to let it run for a bit.

You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have that luxury when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve just had acid spilled on you,â&#x20AC;? he comments.

In addition, Dente suggests, the wash system should be run by employers for a full 15 minutes once a year, as speciďŹ ed in the ANSI standard.

To shield units from bacteria build-up, Koehn recommends one of two anti-microbial protection methods. One is a spray, while the other is integrated into the plastic itself.

Information from Haws Corporation, for instance, notes that some spray head surfaces are impregnated with silver to help prevent the build-up of mould and mildew.

Koehn also urges employers to install drains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At a minimum ďŹ&#x201A;ow, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at least [1,135 litres] coming out of that shower. If they have a shower and eyewash activated, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking at more like [1,700 litres],â&#x20AC;? she notes, cautioning that without drains â&#x20AC;&#x153;there could be severe water damage.â&#x20AC;?

Ultimately, Piotti remarks, it is crucial to ensure employees understand what the equipment is and why it is necessary. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of times, what we ďŹ nd is people are going into the bathroom and ďŹ&#x201A;ushing their eyes themselves,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unfortunately, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not getting that full 15-minute ďŹ&#x201A;ush to really rinse that caustic out of their eye, which leads to additional issues for their eye.â&#x20AC;?

Training on emergency ďŹ xtures should be done twice a year to accommodate new employees and those whose roles might have changed, says Koehn.

In addition, â&#x20AC;&#x153;training has to be [done] for the employer,â&#x20AC;?

Felton recommends, noting that too often this is carried out after an accident occurs. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dangerous out there.â&#x20AC;?

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

OHS CANADA.

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OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE PHARMACEUTICALS

Under the Radar

By Jason Contant

W

orkplace safety has always had its high-risk industries — mining, forestry and construction among them. Pharmaceutical drug manufacturing and testing, though, rarely causes a blip on the safety radar.

“This is an industry that’s very, very tight when it comes to hazards,” says Alexander MacGregor, president and dean of faculty at the Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology.

So it may have come as a surprise to those in the sector when, almost two years ago, a quality control manager died after being exposed to a hazardous chemical at the lab where he worked. In October of 2008, Ronald Daigle, 46, began experiencing respiratory difficulties after his shift at Sepracor Canada Limited in Windsor, Nova Scotia. Daigle was admitted to a Halifax hospital, where he died the next day.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour and Workforce Development found he had been exposed to trimethylsilyldiazomethane, a potentially toxic flammable liquid. Jim LeBlanc, director of the department’s Occupational Health and Safety Division, Despite said in April that Daigle’s fume hood — a ventilation device that exhausts manufacturing hazardous fumes away from workers’ breathing zones — was not functionsafeguards, ing at the time. The company was “in the process of repairing the roof and very small they turned the ventilation system amounts of off,” LeBlanc reported.

In April, Sepracor Canada was drugs can charged with five violations of the province’s Occupational Health and enter a Safety Act. Among other things, the charges allege the failure to do the following: ensure all employees were worker’s body. made aware of the hazards associated with the testing method being conducted, thereby delaying emergency procedures when the chemical odour was detected; ensure employees were using adequate personal protective equipment while performing the testing method; and ensure employees working with or near controlled products were trained in procedures for their safe use, storage, handling and disposal.

Sepracor Canada will be in court on September 14.

HAZARD CONTROL As would be expected, health and safety hazards in the pharmaceutical manufacturing and testing sector are tackled via a combination of engineering, administrative and personal protective equipment controls.

Michelle Smolenaars Hunter, a spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline Inc. in Mississauga, Ontario, notes that fume

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hoods, laminar flow hoods and glove boxes are all used in the company’s quality control laboratories. While laminar flow hoods control the directional flow of a contaminant, glove boxes allow workers to interact with substances in the box without the material actually contacting the skin.

With regard to hazards, MacGregor says it is important to differentiate between those at manufacturing plants and those at drug-testing labs. One “might see more hazards in [laboratory] environments because you are handling a lot of toxic chemicals and chemicals that can react,” such as pyridine, methylene chloride, chloroform and benzene, he says.

Workers’ compensation statistics from selected jurisdictions appear to show that inhalation-related injuries are rare.

In Nova Scotia, less than two per cent of claims in pharmaceutical manufacturing between 2005 and 2009 were classified as respiratory system diseases. By contrast, traumatic muscle injuries were among the leading claims, coming in at nearly 18 per cent. Out West, just under four per cent of all claims from 2005 to 2009 for British Columbia’s drug-manufacturing sector were related to toxic and noxious substances.

TESTING, TESTING Just as hazards can vary between pharmaceutical testing and manufacturing spaces, so too can precautions, says MacGregor. Laminar flow hoods may be used in testing areas to ensure the flow of air in the environment is one-directional.

“It takes the chemical away in one direction and extracts it away, as opposed to allowing it to flow in all directions where it can get out and actually affect the operator.”

In manufacturing, drugs that are considered highly potent are “often manufactured in containment areas where there is strict control on air filtration,” MacGregor says.

Despite manufacturing safeguards, very small amounts of drugs can enter a worker’s body, MacGregor notes. “Those safe levels of drugs are often cleared out of your system rapidly.” However, workers with certain drug allergies may experience reactions, he says. For that reason, all manufacturing workers undergo annual medical physicals that screen for allergies, respiratory illness and any other ailments.

Smolenaars Hunter says although there are currently no certification requirements for pharmaceutical quality control lab workers, oh&s acts and regulations are “strictly followed to ensure worker safety.” MacGregor adds that Canada’s Food and Drugs Act offers “good manufacturing practices.”

Companies “strive to continuously train their staff as part of an ongoing in-house process,” MacGregor says. But “mistakes do happen,” and a worker may be injured or worse.

Unfortunately, just a single blip on the radar can exact a heavy toll.

Jason Contant is editor of SAFETY NEWS.

CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

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ACCIDENT PREVENTION

OUTDOOR WORK

Here Comes the Sun ENVIABLE POSITION: Working outside, basking in the warmth of the sun’s rays — sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Those stuck labouring inside may look on with envy, but the great outdoors is hardly an oasis. A variety of hazards lurk, from insects to ultraviolet radiation to heat stress.

“Outdoor workers are exposed to many types of hazards that depend on their type of work, geographic region, season and duration of time they are outside,” notes information from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States. Among the many people who earn their livings outdoors are farmers, foresters, landscapers, roofers, road pavers and construction workers, the institute reports. “Employers should train outdoor workers about their workplace hazards, including hazard identification and recommendations for preventing and controlling their exposures,” NIOSH advises.

BUZZ OFF: There is no shortage of bugs to drive an outdoor worker up the wall. In Canada, a short list of big pests that come in tiny packages includes mosquitoes, bees, wasps, hornets and ticks. Their bites carry outcomes as varied as West Nile virus, anaphylactic shock and Lyme disease. Some uncertainty, it seems, is to be expected. As Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Toronto notes, “There is no way to predict how serious West Nile virus will be in any given year.”

GOING VIRAL: West Nile virus, which can cause fever, headache and fatigue, is transmitted to humans via mosquito bites, notes information from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver. These symptoms generally last about one week. Approximately 80 per cent of people infected will not get sick, the centre reports, with the remainder having “mild to moderate illness that starts three to 14 days after being infected.” In less than one per cent of cases the impact of the virus can be more serious, causing meningitis, encephalitis or polio-like paralysis. If a person develops severe headaches or neck stiffness with no apparent causes, or if other West Nile symptoms surface, it is advisable to contact a doctor.

TAKE COVER: Ontario’s health ministry offers the following tips to prevent mosquito bites: s Spray down — Consider applying DEET-based repellents to exposed skin, although the concentration should not exceed 30 per cent for adults. s Cover up — Keep exposed skin to a minimum by wearing long-sleeved shirts or jackets and pants. Bug-protective gear may be in order for workers who spend long periods outside. s Clean house — “The best way to keep mosquitoes away,” the ministry notes, “is to clean up areas where they like to breed.” Get rid of standing water at least once a week. Some popular mosquito hangouts include bird baths, old tires, empty containers and clogged ditches.

INVOLUNTARY HOST: Mosquitoes aren’t alone in their ability to transmit disease. Ticks, which make their homes primarily in woods and tall grasslands, can also spread disease, reports the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario. A tick infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium, can spread Lyme disease when it feeds on its host’s blood. Possible effects include “rashes and flu-like symptoms to more serious symptoms, including arthritic, cardiac and neurological effects,” the CCOHS notes.

The disease is usually treated effectively with antibiotics, especially when caught early on.

Borrelia burgdorferi-bearing ticks have known populations in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia, the Public Health Agency of Canada reports, though there is a “low risk of Lyme disease being contracted almost anywhere in Canada.”

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KEEP IT CLEAN: Anaphylactic shock, the body’s severe allergic reaction to an insect sting or bite, is often top-ofmind when bee, wasp or hornet stings occur. Immediate emergency care is required in such a scenario, NIOSH advises. “Thousands of people are stung by insects each year, and as many as 90 to 100 people in the United States die as a result of allergic reactions.” Of course, most people will survive a sting just fine. The Canada Safety Council in Ottawa suggests taking the following measures post-sting: remove the stinger using a firm object, such as a credit card, sweeping it across the site and pulling out the stinger (don’t use tweezers or squeeze the skin); use soap and water to clean the site; and apply ice for a few minutes and a hydrocortisone cream afterwards.

TIME LAPSE: Though not as readily apparent as a bee sting, the effects of ultraviolet radiation (UV) can take their toll over time. It’s well-known that UV can lead to skin cancer and, as the Canadian Dermatology Association (CDA) in Ottawa notes, outdoor workers are at higher risk because they are exposed to the sun for long periods of time. Adding to that danger is the fact that the workers are in the sun when ultraviolet radiation “is at its strongest, between 12 noon and 2 pm,” the association reports.

KNOW YOUR ABCs: UV radiation, the CCOHS notes, is divided into three wavelength categories: UV-C, UV-B and UV-A. While some UV exposure is healthy (it stimulates vitamin D production), excessive exposure “can damage the skin and the eyes. The severity of the effect depends on the wavelength, intensity and duration of exposure,” the centre points out.

The CDA offers the following prevention advice: s limit outdoor work under the sun between 11 am and 4 pm; s seek shade as much as possible, especially during breaks; s wear sun-blocking clothing, such as hats, pants and long-sleeved shirts; and, s apply an SPF 30 or higher broad-spectrum sunscreen to all exposed skin.

COOL DOWN: Ontario’s Ministry of Labour in Toronto cites various ways to control heat stress. Some steps include the following: acclimatize staff by gradually increasing the amount of time they spend in hot conditions; reduce physical demands with mechanical aids; provide cool, shaded work areas; increase break frequency and length; offer cool drinking water; and train employees on the symptoms of heat stress.

STRESSFUL SITUATION: Too much of anything can be a bad thing, and body heat is no exception. As information from Work Safe Alberta in Edmonton notes, the body “works best” when its internal temperature is 37 degrees Celsius. This is “necessary for your vital organs to function normally. During a regular day, your body temperature may vary by about 1 C depending on the time of day, your level of physical activity and how you are feeling.”

Excessive heat can lead to the following conditions: s heat edema — swelling of body parts, particularly the ankles; s heat rashes — small red spots on the skin caused by inflammation from plugged sweat glands; s heat cramps — sharp muscle pains prompted by internal salt deficiencies; s heat exhaustion — weakness, dizziness, nausea and muscle cramps related to water and salt loss; s heat syncope — giddiness and fainting because of insufficient flow of blood to the brain while standing; ultimately caused by body fluid loss and lowered blood pressure; and, s heat stroke — partial or complete loss of consciousness, often when body temperature surpasses 41 C.

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LAWSUITS

Behind the Trade

By Emily Landau

T

he concept of a lawsuit is fairly rudimentary — one party brings a civil action before a court, claiming compensation for damages alleged to have been inflicted by another party. Personal injury lawsuits can, for the most part, be filed by anyone against any person or entity, with at least one notable exception: an individual covered under workers’ compensation legislation cannot sue his employer for injury sustained in the course of employment.

Jim Stewart, a Calgary registered nurse, is one of many workers who has run into this roadblock. A class action suit he filed against the owner/operator of a long-term care facility was struck down in April, in part because the centre was covered under Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA).

Stewart charged that while working at the Holy Cross Centre in 2001, there was “undisclosed asbestos in the facility,” and that when it was removed during renovations, the job was done in a “negligent manner, which resulted in health risks and dam- “Workers give age” to members of the proposed class action suit, notes the Alberta Court of up the right Queen’s Bench ruling from April. Stewart had initiated the unsuccessful acto sue their tion on behalf of workers and residents employer for at the Calgary facility.

At the heart of workers’ comp law is personal the so-called “historic trade-off.” The agreement means that “workers give injury and up the right to sue their employer for personal injury and negligence for acnegligence.” cess to an employer-funded workers’ compensation scheme,” explains Ryan Conlin, a partner with SBH Management Lawyers in Toronto. Employers covered by the legislation must pay premiums to a collective workers’ compensation board (WCB), which funds wage-loss benefits and medical care or rehabilitation for work-related injuries.

Despite the seemingly straightforward delineations of the bargain, the system can be anything but black and white.

IN THIS TOGETHER Workers’ compensation has its origins in Europe, but its story in Canada begins in 1913 when a report by Sir William Meredith (commissioned by the Ontario government) summarized his plan for an independently administrated, no-fault insurance plan with a focus on collective liability. The very next year, Ontario passed related legislation and became the first province to create a WCB. Previously, “workers could receive damages and health care paid for by their employer only if they could prove that the accident was their employer’s fault,” says Katherine Lip-

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pel, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and the Canada research chair on occupational health and safety law.

However, limited funds often made it impossible for a worker to pursue a lawsuit, adds Michael Lynk, a law professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. “Most injuries or diseases that were acquired through the workplace went uncompensated because the workers couldn’t access the lawyers or the court system,” Lynk says.

Compensation systems quickly surfaced to the east and west of Ontario — Nova Scotia in 1915 and Manitoba in 1916 — with neither labour nor employer groups being entirely satisfied with the results.

“Because both groups had some equivalent degree of dissatisfaction, it was probably a good piece of legislation,” Lynk quips. He notes that the system afforded employers the ability to control costs and improve their financial planning, while workers were granted security and social insurance to stave off “what usually would have been a devastating financial blow” if a serious injury did occur.

APPEALS AVAILABLE The protocol is fairly simple following an injury: a claim is filed by a worker and assessed by a WCB as to whether it qualifies as a work-related injury or an occupational disease.

If the board does not side with the claimant, he can opt to pursue the ruling through an appeals process.

If both a WCB and an appeals tribunal determine the worker’s injury was not incurred in the course of employment, then the worker has the right to pursue civil action against his employer — a pursuit that is possible in theory, but rare in practice, says Christian Beaudry, a senior partner with Ogilvy Renault LLP in Montreal.

“There are a number of situations which are really close to the limit,” Beaudry suggests. “Theoretically speaking, a court may say, ‘Well, the employer is at fault, although it did not fall within the boundaries of the act.’”

Conlin offers the example of a person injured while driving to work. Depending on the circumstances, the injury may be viewed as a valid claim. Alternatively, he asks, would a worker be eligible to sue if he was injured while working offpremises or after hours?

While a worker could sue his employer after exhausting all means available under workers’ compensation legislation, most lawyers seem to agree that this scenario is doubtful and a successful suit improbable. “It is very unlikely that there would be any civil responsibility on the part of that worker’s employer,” comments Thomas Davis, a partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Montreal.

For the most part, then, an employee covered under workers’ compensation is unlikely to successfully sue his employer.

But for sectors where legislation does not mandate WCB coverage, all bets are off. “If [workers] are not covered by work-

SEEKING BALANCE “In these days of social and industrial unrest it is… of the gravest importance to the community that every proved injustice to any section or class resulting from bad or unfair laws should be promptly removed by the enactment of remedial legislation.” These are the words of Sir William Meredith in his historic report, which laid the foundation for a modern workers’ compensation system in Ontario and the rest of Canada.

“The country whose legislature is quick to discern and prompt to remove injustice will enjoy… the blessing of industrial peace and freedom from social unrest,” Meredith continued in his October, 1913 final report.

At the time, industrialization and urbanization continued to transform the Canadian social landscape. The “workingman” gained more political clout, to the point that a labour party eventually became the junior partner in an Ontario farmer-labour coalition government in 1919. After years of growth, the Canadian economy slowed and fell into recession in 1913, while internationally, the European powers spiralled toward the carnage of the First World War. Under existing compensation practices in Ontario, the dependents of a deceased worker were entitled to receive a payment equal to three years of the worker’s salary, notes an April, 1914 article from The Globe, now The Globe and Mail, explaining the workers’ comp bill that was passed later that month. If dependents were unhappy with the sum, they were “at liberty to bring an action in the courts to recover at common law, and suffer the risk of their claim being punctured by the artifices of experts and lawyers,” the newspaper commented.

“That the existing law inflicts injustice on the workingman is admitted by all,” Meredith wrote. He went on to note that it would be the “gravest mistake” if the proposed law was determined “not by a consideration of what is just to the workingman, but of what is the least he can be put off with; or if the legislature were to be deterred from passing a law… owing to groundless fears that disaster to the industries of the province would follow.”

— Dan Birch

ers’ compensation legislation, they’re entitled to make a personal injury action,” Conlin notes.

Though more than 90 per cent of the work forces in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and British Columbia had comp coverage (as of 2008), other work forces, such as Ontario’s, had less than 75 per cent covered, note statistics from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada.

Alberta, a province belonging to the 90 per-cent-plus club, has a notable gap in its mandatory coverage: agriculture. Lippel describes this as a “travesty,” arguing that “farm work is one of the most dangerous kinds of work being done.”

Rod Scarlett, executive director of the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers in Sherwood Park, Alberta, says he is not aware of cases where injured farm workers have sued their employers. The goal, Scarlett suggests, should be to have improved safety training and education to prevent injuries in the first place.

“I don’t think we want to get into a situation like the United States where everything becomes a legal battle,” he says.

While individuals not covered by workers’ comp can bring civil action against their employers, loopholes exist for insured workers to pursue litigious action against third parties.

David Brady, a partner with Hicks Morley in Toronto, says that when a third party is involved in an accident in Ontario — for instance, a motor vehicle accident or product liability case — the worker has options. “I can either take workers’ comp benefits or I can elect and sue those people for having been at fault,” Brady explains, adding that depending on the suit’s outcome, the worker could still receive WCB benefits.

Even if a worker chooses benefits over litigation, a WCB might yet sue the third party. In Alberta, the board can “seek recovery from the third party of the compensation paid by WCB,” says Jennifer Dagsvik, media relations specialist for the board in Edmonton. The claimant can select the lawyer who will handle the case, receive part of the proceeds and is not responsible for paying any court costs or damages, Dagsvik reports.

NO TURNING BACK Since its inception, Lynk says, the workers’ compensation system has developed into a more sophisticated machine. “We probably cover a great many more illnesses and diseases that we now know have some origin or arise at least in part from the workplace,” he suggests.

Lippel says she prefers the current no-fault, exclusive jurisdiction model of workers’ compensation. If workers were able to sue their employers — even se“We probably lectively — then companies would be required to purchase private insurance, cover a great and thus, would be unwilling to pay their WCB premiums. “That’s going to many more put a lot of pressure on our public system,” she says. illnesses and Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees diseases.” in Ottawa, agrees that while workers would like to see the system improved, it is superior to civil litigation. “I’m not sure labour would want to revisit that decision,” Moist says of the historic tradeoff between workers and employers.

“Access to the courts is desired by some at times, but it’s not available to most in terms of resources,” he adds.

Moist cites reduced WCB benefits, bureaucratic delays and protracted debates about acquired versus pre-existing conditions as causing a great deal of frustration among workers.

“Sometimes it manifests itself in people wanting to sue,” he says. “Labour’s preferred option is to improve legislation and access to benefits.”

Despite its shortcomings, Lynk suggests the system’s longevity affirms its success. “The fact that we still have workers’ compensation, albeit with some modifications and alterations over the years… means that it’s been accepted and embedded as part of our social contract.”

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

OHS CANADA.

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TIME OUT

DIVERSION TACTICS: Sure, we’ve all surfed the Internet for a few minutes here and there to give our minds a break from the daily grind. But when those few minutes turn into 60 hours of online video watching over the course of a month, there’s clearly a problem. Such was the situation at Health Canada, where some bureaucrats were found to be spending excessive amounts of time on non-work-related web surfing, e-mailing and video viewing, QMI Agency reported in April. Heads did roll, with an unspecified number of staff members being handed pink slips. South of the border, Securities and Exchange Commission employees have also come under fire — in this case for tapping pornographic websites at work, The Associated Press reports. One (now former) lawyer for the commission spent up to eight hours a day viewing and downloading porn. Not one to be restricted by hard drive space, the man burned the files to discs and stored them in his office.

CAN OF WORMS: What do you get when you cross a truck full of worms with a trailer’s worth of fertilizer? A squirming traffic mess. Police and firefighters were called to just such a scene in early May after a cube truck and a tractor trailer collided near Woodstock, Ontario, The Canadian Press reported at the time. Fortunately, there were no critical injuries, but unfortunately for firefighters, they were left with the chore of cleaning up the icky mishmash.

TOP THIS: Ketchup, pickle, mustard… gob of spit? One of these “toppings” clearly doesn’t belong. A Clark County police officer in Washington state has filed a lawsuit to get a bit of redress for the (unsolicited) special-order Whopper he received at a Burger King restaurant, The Associated Press reported in April. The officer’s suit names both Burger King and the operator of the local franchise in Vancouver, Washington. After dropping in for a bite early one morning in March of 2009, the officer got an “uneasy feeling” about a couple of workers — uneasy enough that he thought it prudent to give his burger a quick once-over. It was at this point he discovered the slimy surprise. DNA testing proved a link to one worker, who eventually pleaded guilty to assault.

Though Burger King has fired both employees, the officer is seeking a minimum of $75,000 in damages.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH: Staff and children at a daycare in Toronto have been getting used to life with some stubborn, furry neighbours. Despite a series of attempts to dislodge them, the family of foxes refused to decamp. The Toronto Star reported in early May that two adults and three pups had fashioned a den beneath a shed located next to the children’s fenced-in playground. Since daycare operators were not permitted to shoot or trap the foxes, they attempted various unsuccessful ploys, including scattering dog hair and urine near the den, spraying the foxes with garden hoses and blaring music outside the den both day and night. Animal control officials have assured daycare staff and area residents that the foxes pose no danger, saying that only rabid foxes 58

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would be of concern. Toronto’s fox population, officials have said, is well-protected against rabies. Whatever the case, staff and residents were eager for the whiskered interlopers to pack up and leave.

REAL MATURE: A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker at the Miami International Airport was rightfully upset when a supervisor made light of his supposedly modest bits, but the worker’s violent response was clearly all wrong. NBC News in Miami reported in early May that the 44-year-old TSA employee was taking part in a training session on full-body scanners, which offer rather intimate views of individuals. As the worker stepped through the machine, the supervisor cracked a few jokes about his genitalia. The staffer became visibly embarrassed and angry, and later confronted his co-worker in a parking lot, whacking him with a baton on the arm and back. He was arrested the following day and charged with aggravated battery.

UNSAFE WORK?: Imagine your task is to sail a boat built from more than 12,000 plastic bottles from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. Hmmm… perhaps a dangerous work refusal is in order? Alas, the Plastiki’s six-person crew had made it safely from the Golden Gate City to Christmas Island as of early May, CNN reported at the time. Just over 3,600 nautical miles (about 5,800 kilometres) into its voyage, the vessel still had another 7,400 miles (approximately 11,900 km) to go.

The crew had the opportunity to spread its message of environmental sustainability at a local high school while the Plastiki was re-stocked and underwent preventive maintenance.

LIFE LESSON: That most controversial of personal protection equipment items was in the news yet again when police at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game zapped an overzealous fan with a TASER in May. The 17-year-old, like many a Phillies devotee before him, took to the outfield and ran around in circles while waving a white towel, The Associated Press reports. With two security officers unable to stop the spectacle, a police officer joined the chase and caught up with the teen about 30 seconds later, delivering a shock to the surprised showman. No doubt, the spectators at Citizens Bank Park looked on in concern, and then in relief as the fan got up and walked off the field with security personnel at his side.

The young man later apologized and said he had learned a valuable — and shocking — lesson.

EAT YOUR WORDS: Instead of toasting success with a glass of champagne, a failed bank robber was reduced to chowing down on her own list of demands. The 40-year-old woman in Columbus, Ohio walked into a local bank in May and handed the teller the small piece of paper, The Associated Press reports. But then she noticed a police officer in line behind her, panicked, snatched the note and fled. The officer gave chase and caught the woman just as she was trying to swallow the evidence. She soon coughed up the goods — both figuratively and literally.

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