OHS Canada June 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 June 2010

C A N A D A

Silver platter

OHS CAN A DA

ser ves up 25 years

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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 AD I AT IO N

Invisible Touch

J U N E 2010 Vo l u m e 26, Nu m b e r 4

Two hundred workers at a nuclear plant were assessed for contamination late last year. The incident serves as a reminder to be vigilant around radiation.

BY JASON CONTANT

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M I N E V EHIC LES

Avoiding Pitfalls Mining: the equipment is big and so are the risks. Safe vehicle operation is among the many challenges for work above and below surface.

BY LAWRENCE CUMMER

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M E N TAL HEA LTH

Anxious Moments Anxiety disorders, a knot of more than a dozen conditions, are the most common of all mental illnesses. So why are so few people talking about them?

BY EMILY LANDAU

DEPARTMENTS

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

Need a Lift?

Hitchin’ a ride is just one of many forklift no-no’s. Workplace design, load weight and mechanical matters must be kept in mind to operate safely.

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WOR K E RS ’ CO M P EN S ATI ON

The Long and Short of It Ontario’s compensation board has a new policy to curb unnecessary narcotic use, but worker advocates hope pain relief is not lost in the shuffle.

BY DAN BIRCH

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Serve and Detect

IN THIS ISSUE ED IT O R IA L

4

A Criminal Mind O H&S U P D AT E

BY JASON CONTANT

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From aches and pains to fall protection, Westray and more.

62

TI M E OUT

Flash stance; bad e-etiquette; bumper thumper; wall of shame; rush job; scent-free scene; fit for fat; and full armour.

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Happy ending in close call; a helping hand; seeding 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

Methane gas is suspected as contributing to a recent earth-shaking and deadly mine blast. Gases anywhere can pose grave hazards, making detection critical.

2 5 TH ANN I V ERS A RY

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Pilots urge consideration of circadian rhythm; British Columbia police call for chronic stress benefits; two workers dead after shooting in Alberta; Manitoba ups enforcement; Ontario window washer’s fall arrested; inspections on the rise in New Brunswick; Nova Scotia prosecutors make plea for courthouse security; two dead in Newfoundland and Labrador; and more.

D ISPAT C HES

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S AF E TY GEAR

58 60 61

Support the strong, give courage to the timid, remind the indifferent, and warn the opposed.

— WHITNEY M. YOUNG JR.

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JUNE 2010

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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. 4 JUNE 2010 EDITOR

A Criminal Mind P

erhaps, at last, it has begun. Now is the time to unleash the ultimate bogeyman, an angry reveal meant to scare potential offenders straight.

It took four years to get a first conviction under the Bill C-45 changes to the Criminal Code of Canada, which, effective March, 2004, created a duty for anyone who directs work to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm.

Quebec-based Transpavé Inc. pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal negligence causing death and received penalties totalling $110,000 in early 2008.

The prosecution produced a range of opinions regarding its potential impact. Some pointed to the fine level, high in Quebec’s occupational health and safety circles, but not necessarily uncommon in other regions. Some argued that convicting a business (as opposed to a company official) squandered an opportunity to stamp the case as something different than the usual oh&s fare.

But almost everyone agreed that one is better than none.

It has taken considerably less time to get another Bill C-45 prosecution rolling, this time against Millennium Crane Rentals Ltd. in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. In April of 2009, a worker died after a crane tipped over and he was pinned between the unit and the side of the pit in which he was standing.

This time, the scope has widened, perhaps mimicking the oft-repeated ideal of responsibility from the top down. The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service laid criminal charges against the company, its president and a crane operator.

“Finally, we have a police force in Ontario that’s prepared But almost to stand up and tell employers if they kill a worker, they’re going to go to jail,” said Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario everyone Federation of Labour (OFL) in Toronto.

Criminal negligence charges against companies, officials or workers were possible before Bill C-45. They were seldom agreed used, likely for two reasons: the view that oh&s should rightly that one is be addressed through workplace safety laws; and that with so few attempts (and no successes), it was not a realistic option. better than The OFL argues that criminal charges must be laid more frequently if their potential for improving health and safety is none. to be realized. But that takes will.

Unfortunately, Ryan argues, there is no shortage of workrelated injuries and deaths where careful reviews of criminal provisions should be top of mind. The OFL cites several deadly construction incidents, including the deaths of four immigrant workers and the critical injury of a fifth last Christmas Eve in Toronto. “The carnage in our workplaces has to stop,” he says.

Or what about the case in British Columbia, where the United Steelworkers have launched a private prosecution to have criminal negligence charges laid against Weyerhaeuser Company Ltd.? A worker died in 2004 when, while cleaning out a hog machine, he became “engulfed by wood waste material.”

Weyerhaeuser was issued an extra assessment amounting to $297,000 after an investigation by WorkSafeBC determined that 12 staff in management or supervisory roles were “aware that the existing process for clearing the hog posed a significant risk to workers, but the employer made no significant changes to address the hazard until after the fatality.”

A process hearing into the Steelworkers’ bid for private prosecution is set for October 26, at which time a judge will decide if a criminal charge can proceed.

It may be that these cases will help to grease the wheels for more criminal prosecutions. Not all work accidents warrant such charges, but there is nothing wrong with the scare produced by a review that has the potential to take matters from the oh&s realm and plant them firmly in the criminal arena.

Angela Stelmakowich

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ASSISTANT EDITORS

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

ANGELA STELMAKOWICH astelmakowich@ohscanada.com JEAN LIAN jlian@ohscanada.com DAN BIRCH dbirch@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: June 2010

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OH&S UPDATE

CALL FOR FLIGHT TIME OVERHAUL FEDERAL — A national pilots’ association contends that Canadian regulations governing the number of hours commercial pilots can work are outdated and in desperate need of an overhaul.

“They were written before seat belts were made mandatory in automobiles,” captain Barry Wiszniowski, chair of the Air Canada Pilots Association’s technical and safety division, says of the flight duty time limits within the Canadian Aviation Regulations. Although updated in 1996, Wiszniowski argues more changes to the regulations are sorely needed.

As per existing requirements, commercial pilots may work 14 consecutive hours in any 24-hour period; that time

can be extended if unforeseen circumstances arise. The rules do not account for circadian rhythm disruption and the negative effects that this may have on a pilot’s operational performance, says Wiszniowski. Research has shown that fatigue can occur, downgrading a pilot’s situational awareness, judgement, reaction time, memory and more, he adds.

Wiszniowski points out that the International Civil Aviation Organization has recommended that flight duty time limits be based on scientific data.

A Transport Canada spokesperson notes the department is working on creating a joint working group to analyze the current science and consider possible regulatory changes. “This combined government-industry working group will make recommendations, which will then

go into a formal consultation process.”

Wiszniowski suggests information to help improve the regulations has been under review for some time. “We do not want to wait for another tragic event with fatigue as a causal factor to occur before we say, ‘We should have done more,’” he says.

To that end, Wiszniowski’s association launched a fatigue-tracking initiative last October in which Air Canada pilots document incidents of fatigue and contributing factors with an internationally accepted form used by pilots at other major airlines. It is anticipated the information will help build a Canadian database that can be compared with global industry standards, he says.

“We can’t measure what we don’t monitor, and we can’t monitor what we

AGENCY URGES FISHING FOCUS FEDERAL — Federal investigators say fishing vessel deaths

are among the most pressing concerns affecting transportation safety in Canada.

On March 16, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released a watch list of issues that it suggests pose the greatest risks to transportation workers and consumers in marine, rail and aviation sectors.

TSB chair Wendy Tadros says “these were the nine critical issues that we were seeing time and time again.”

Specifically, watch list recommendations relate to the following issues: deaths on board fishing vessels; inadequate emergency preparedness on ferries; train collisions with vehicles at rail crossings; inappropriate handling of longer or heavier trains; aircraft collisions with other planes, land or water; aircraft landing incidents; insufficient oversight of safety management systems (SMSs) and a lack of regulation requiring companies to implement SMSs; and frequent loss of and damage to transportation accident data.

Tadros suggests the complexity of solving these issues is the reason they persist.

Among its recommendations, the TSB is calling for safety assessments of high-risk rail crossings, improved warning systems and technological assistance for pilots, maintenance of passenger lists and evacuation drills for ferries, and increased training and safety procedures for fishing vessels.

Tadros says that about half of the TSB’s marine investigations revolve around fishing vessel accidents. The board website further notes the average number of deaths among fishing workers was 12 annually between 2005 and 2009.

“With a community like fishermen, if you just proclaim from Ottawa and impose a change, that’s not going to

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OHS CANADA

work,” Tadros argues. “It has to be personal for them and they have to understand what the benefits of operating in a safer manner are,” she adds.

Safety associations like Fish Safe, an industry-driven program based in Richmond, British Columbia, welcome the recommendations. Gina Johansen, project manager for Fish Safe, lauds the TSB’s encouragement of government and industry co-operation. The key to ensuring safety “is that fishermen take ownership,” Johansen says.

Transport Canada has issued a preliminary plan for implementing the TSB’s recommendations, including the proposed Fishing Vessel Safety Regulations, which “address vessel design, construction and equipment” and include “changes for vessels that may navigate in ice-covered waters.”

Transport Canada plans the following measures: UÊ for aviation, requiring the installation and operation of terrain-awareness warning systems on commercial aircraft to reduce risks of collision, and regulating when pilots can land in low-visibility situations; UÊ for railways, installing new signage at high-risk railway crossings and developing a new regulation to provide for better standards on high-speed corridors; UÊ for data collection, the department has put in place regulations requiring event recorders on locomotives, while requirements for aircraft data collection are being expanded. For fishing vessels, the Voyage Data Recorders Regulation will take effect this summer; and, UÊ for SMS, refining oversight in aviation SMS, strengthening the Railway Safety Act and creating a risk division to oversee rail enforcement.

— By Emily Landau

POLICE PUSH TO MAKE CHRONIC STRESS COMPENSABLE VANCOUVER — The British Columbia Police Association

(BCPA) is petitioning the province to expand what is considered a compensable mental stress claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA).

The BCPA notes that British Columbia’s WCA limits mental stress coverage to conditions following traumatic events, and fails to consider the long-term psychological damage resulting from cumulative stress on the job. Mental stress should be presumed work-related by being listed as a “disease” under Schedule B of the WCA, which, further, should recognize “that mental stress also occurs as a result of an accumulation of events,” argues a statement from the BCPA. Under Section 5.1(1) of the WCA, compensation may be available for mental stress that does not result from an injury if that stress is “an acute reaction to a sudden and unexpected traumatic event arising out of and in the course of the worker’s employment.”

Work-related stress experienced by police officers is not always the result of what the WCA “calls a ‘single, sudden and unexpected event,’” BCPA president Tom Stamatakis notes in the association statement, issued on March 24.

Dr. Clare Pain, director of the Psychological Trauma Program at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, agrees that cumulative mental stress can be debilitating for those in high-risk occupations, such as police officers. “The nature of their work takes them into innumerable traumatic experiences.”

In fact, Dr. Pain argues most people afflicted with chronic traumatic stress are often plagued with more difficulties than those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“They have things like alteration in the regulation of affect and impulses, alterations in attention and consciousness, somatization, alterations in self-perception, alterations in re-

don’t measure,” Wiszniowski says.

So far, he reports, data is showing that circadian rhythm disruption is a prevalent cause of fatigue. Problematic schedules have been reported to Air Canada, he notes, adding that the employer has been fairly accommodating.

LONE WORKER BARRIERS DELAYED RICHMOND — The deadline has been pushed back for instituting barriers in line with British Columbia’s workingalone requirements in the retail sector.

Stakeholders will have two months following the latest compliance date to have the protective measures in place, notes information from WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia. The new compliance date is the result of delays in completing a pilot project on the barriers, the board states.

Between April 1 and May 31, WorkSafeBC was to evaluate the use of bar-

lationships with other people and alterations in systems of meaning,” she reports.

Unlike PTSD, cumulative mental stress is not currently listed within the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which provides standard nomenclature for the classification of mental disorders.

Dr. Pain contends DSM-IV’s definition of PTSD is too restrictive for the spectrum of traumatic stress a person can undergo. “It doesn’t really fit in with what you see in people.”

Stamatakis compares the effect of mental stress on police officers to that of repeated physical injury. “Just as repeated concussions and blows to the head lead to brain damage in hockey players or other athletes, the cumulative effects of stress can cause chronic psychological injuries, including [PTSD], in police officers,” he notes in the statement.

In its petition, BCPA argues that by awarding police officers presumptive coverage for mental stress, the government would benefit from fewer long-term health issues among officers, reduced costs associated with extended appeals, more timely treatment to minimize time off work, and a shift in the police work culture to spur officers to seek help more readily.

“Our government takes the issue of appropriate compensation for workplace injuries seriously, including matters involving mental stress,” a spokesperson for British Columbia’s Ministry of Labour says in response. Labour minister Murray Coell has met with police representatives, she reports.

“The complexities of the matter warrant, amongst many things, a cross-jurisdictional consideration of the issue,” she says, but adds that “this is a complex issue requiring more research, study and discussion.”

— By Emily Landau

riers and “consider any needed design modifications.” From June 1 to November 30, recommendations and designs will be communicated throughout the retail industry.

“Province-wide compliance of all working-alone requirements will be facilitated by a number of compliance milestones, including a date for employers to have designs selected/adapted for their new sites, hiring of contractors, and completion of installations,” notes the WorkSafeBC statement. Previously, employers were informed they needed to be in compliance by September 30.

As per British Columbia’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, retail employers must ensure a worker is physically separated from the public by a locked door or barrier that prevents physical contact with or access to the worker, scheduling two workers or both.

The section applies to late-night retail premises — any gas station or other fuelling outlet, convenience or retail store —

open between 10 pm and 6 am.

“WorkSafeBC recognized that implementation of this requirement presented significant challenges to the industry in hiring extra staff or in identifying appropriate designs and completing construction of barriers in a cost-effective and timely manner,” the board notes.

Laurie Lowes, a member of the Retail Safety Society and health and safety manager for London Drugs in Richmond, says his company does not have any lone worker scenarios. Still, Lowes reports that one of the barrier designs resembles a windowed bi-fold door anchored into a counter. “They are collapsible barriers that can be opened up to serve the public during the day and then closed down to limit access to the lone worker at night.”

Three barrier designs were initially considered, says WorkSafeBC spokesperson Donna Freeman, including one in the community of Fort St. John and two in Surrey.

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JUNE 2010

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SHOOTING AT DEALERSHIP DEADLY EDMONTON — A mid-March shooting at

a car dealership in Edmonton claimed the lives of two employees and critically injured another.

At about 7:45 am on March 12, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) was notified of gunshots fired at the Great West Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership in the city’s west end, police note in a statement. Upon arrival, officers discovered two deceased, including the gunman, while a third man was transported to hospital in critical condition.

One of the deceased has been identified as dealership manager Garth Radons, 39; gunman David Burns, 54, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

All three men worked at the dealership, notes EPS spokesperson Lisa Lammi.

Bart Yachimec, owner of the dealership, expressed bewilderment as to what might have prompted the incident.

Hugh Pelmore, president and CEO of the Vancouver-based workplace violence consulting firm, ARETE Safety and Protection Inc., suggests some measures for averting violent incidents on the job.

These include profiling to help identify potentially violent employees, instilling a culture to prevent conflicts from turning physical, and adopting a clear policy of conflict management, Pelmore says.

He reports seeing the development of some common workplace trends that, he suggests, can produce environments where violence becomes a possibility.

These include a lack of clear expectations and consequences for employees, fear of conflict, inconsistent job-performance evaluations and poor supervision or response to daily issues.

A conduct policy must have teeth, Pelmore advises, adding that policies must

be used and actions taken.

With improved management, the idea is that “you never end up at this point,” Pelmore says of the shooting.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario lists a number of indicators that a person might become violent: UÊ intimidating behaviour, such as displays of anger and frustration; UÊ an increased level of stress, including recent job loss, financial struggles or problems in personal relationships; UÊ marked changes in behaviour; and, UÊ negative or non-existent personal relationships or an unhealthy obsession with the job.

HELPING EASE VOLUNTEER DOUBT EDMONTON — Volunteer search and

rescue (SAR) workers in Alberta can breathe a little easier now that provincial legislation provides them with the same liability protection already available to firefighters and police officers.

In late March, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA), which is part of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, announced that members of the Alberta legislature had passed Bill 6, or the Emergency Management Amendment Act, 2010. The act affords liability protection to SAR groups acting in good faith.

Previously, Alberta SAR workers were protected against liability but only when “tasked,” or sent out on a mission by a municipal or RCMP police force, notes AEMA spokesperson Tim Chander.

The protection now extends to all SAR personnel, Chander says. The only proviso is that they must “be performing their duty in good faith as per their training.”

Chander says Alberta moved forward with the changes following a widely pub-

78,221,817

licized incident in British Columbia, in which a lawsuit was filed against Golden & District Search and Rescue. “That was kind of a red flag,” for SAR agencies across the country, he suggests.

Monica Ahlstrom, president of the Search and Rescue Association of Alberta, agrees. “Even though it had been discussed for many years in the search and rescue circle, I think it actually took a lawsuit to highlight just how vulnerable some volunteers are,” Ahlstrom says.

Chander acknowledges that “good faith” is subjective, and each case must be considered on its own merits. “People still have the right to take someone to court, but now the judge can take into account this amendment,” he says.

“We think it’s going to go a long way in protecting our members,” says Ahlstrom. Still, she adds, “we think it’s just part of the puzzle.”

Officials would also like to see members covered for gross negligence and other possible lawsuits that fall outside the boundaries of the new law, she says.

As well, Ahlstrom says SAR workers should be provided more comprehensive workers’ compensation coverage.

At present, Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) covers volunteer SAR personnel only when they are on tasked missions, says Chander.

He says he is hopeful the changes will help reduce doubt among SAR workers.

“I think second-guessing yourself in an emergency situation can be detrimental to a degree,” he suggests. “You may not perform to the best of your ability.”

PROVINCE MAKING PROGRESS REGINA — Saskatchewan is touting its

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JUNE 2010

OHS CANADA

ping 30 per cent in the last seven years.

“While the reduction is significant, the injury rate remains unacceptably high.

More can and must be done,” Saskatchewan labour minister Rob Norris notes in a statement from the provincial WCB. In 2009, the WCB received more than 39,000 reports of worker injuries, the statement says. Additional improvement “requires the efforts of everyone in the workplace — employers who put safety first and employees who take the initiative for safety,” Norris says.

The ultimate goal is zero work-related injuries, an objective likely shared by recipients of the 2010 Safe Worker and Safe Employer Awards. (The awards are sponsored by WorkSafe Saskatchewan, a partnership between the provincial WCB and the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour.)

The 2010 recipient of the worker award is Bruce Skilliter, a district operator for SaskPower, who founded SaskPower Safety Days in the town of Kindersley, designed to show what field workers do in the line of duty.

Magna Electric Corporation took top honours with the employer award. In 2009, the company achieved 226,915 hours without any incidents and has operated safely in Saskatchewan for more than 20 years with no lost-time injuries.

personal protective equipment.

For manufacturing, Hurst says the focus will be similar: “guarding, personal protective equipment, [and] safe work procedures around the use of all the gear that would be employed.”

In addition to the construction and manufacturing sectors, the newly hired officers will zero in on workplaces that employ new, young or immigrant workers. “People who are new to an industry

[are] more likely to be less experienced, less trained, so we’re focusing on those areas,” Hurst says.

“Youth represent about 17 per cent of injuries,” notes Warren Preece, communications director for Manitoba’s WCB, adding young men are more likely to be injured than the rest of the population.

Hurst says that most new HSOs, like the existing officers, will be stationed in Winnipeg, where much of the province’s

ENVISAGE

ENFORCEMENT RANKS BEEFED UP WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government

is hiring five new health and safety officers (HSOs) as part of the province’s long-term strategy to reduce work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities.

“It completes a plan that was initiated in 2008 to bring on a total of 20 new health and safety inspectors,” increasing the complement to 74, reports Don Hurst, Manitoba’s assistant deputy minister for workplace health and safety. In all, 10 HSOs were hired in 2008 and another five last year.

“Enforcement is one of the key elements in the continuum of all the prevention tools at our disposal, starting with public awareness and making people aware of what they need to know about what to do in the workplace,” says Hurst.

The HSOs will be assigned to specifically monitor the construction and manufacturing sectors, he notes. For the most part, Hurst says, construction-related issues include fall protection, scaffolding, excavation, power tools, guarding and Circle number 16 on Reader Service Card www.ohscanada.com

JUNE 2010

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OFFICER DIES IN SHOOT-OUT LEADBURY — An officer with the Huron County detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) died hours after being shot near a rural hamlet in the province.

At about 10:20 am on March 8, the OPP reports that Constable V.D. (Vu) Pham, a 15-year veteran of the police service, was trying to pull over a vehicle just south of the Ontario community of Leadbury when he became involved in a confrontation with the armed driver.

“Pham was shot and fatally wounded as he exited his police cruiser,” the statement notes. The 37-year-old officer was transported by air ambulance to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries in the late afternoon.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — an arm’s length agency that probes fatal or injurious incidents involving police officers — is reviewing the incident.

industrial activity takes place. But others will be posted in Brandon, where agriculture is central, and in the cities of Flin Flon and Thompson, where safety issues linked to mining and economic development are key.

Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour in Winnipeg, applauds the steps to up inspector ranks, but insists there is always more that can be done. “As long as there [are] any lives lost or any workers being injured, there’s clearly more work to be done,” says Rebeck.

Notes Hurst, “We’ve doubled our inspections, but we’ve also doubled the number of individual workplaces that we visit, which makes a huge difference.”

FALLING WORKER ESCAPES HARM TORONTO — A window washer cleaning a Toronto building was saved by his fall arrest system after an equipment malfunction caused him to drop almost 20 storeys.

At approximately 2:45 pm on April 2, an employee of Premium Window Cleaning Ltd. was on the roof of a 33-storey building, preparing to use a bosun’s chair to descend the side of the building, says Bruce Skeaff, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL). At that point, the seat connected to a suspended line somehow unhooked from the rope and fell.

“The worker was left hanging from the ledge and lost grip

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SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon confirms that Pham and another officer were on scene at the time. There was an “exchange of gunfire,” Hudon says, and the armed man, 70-year-old Fred Preston, was also wounded.

On March 11, Preston was charged with both first-degree murder and attempted murder. The accused, however, died in hospital after four days in critical condition.

The OPP statement notes that Pham was responding to an unrelated call for service when he decided to pull over Preston’s vehicle. “They take the initiative to respond to situations as they arise; he was just doing his job,” OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino says in the statement.

In the 100-year history of the police service, 104 OPP officers have died in the line of duty.

— By Jason Contant

with his hands and went into a freefall to the 15th floor,” Skeaff reports. “That’s when the fall arrest system kicked in and the rope-grab locked,” he says. The worker received treatment in a local hospital for rope burns to his hands.

Premium Window Cleaning was issued a stop-work order for not having in place a written emergency rescue procedure related to the fall arrest system, says Skeaff.

While the worker escaped serious harm, falls from elevations represent a significant hazard. Information from the MOL website notes that falls are the cause of a quarter of all workrelated fatalities in the province.

Devices such as bosun’s chairs should not be mistaken for fall protection, cautions Andrew Sulowski, president of Sulowski Fall Protection, a Toronto-based consulting firm. “[These] are called work-positioning systems,” Sulowski says, explaining that while they enable window washers to do their job, they do not provide adequate protection from potentially fatal falls.

“The law requires that in addition to the work-positioning system, the window washer is equipped with a fall arrest system, which, in this simple case, will consist of another rope attached to the roof [at] a different anchor point,” he says.

“That rope will usually have the fall arrester, and between the fall arrester and the harness there will be a lanyard, which is either energy-absorbing or not.”

Although Sulowski recommends that qualified inspectors regularly monitor the equipment being used in fall protection,

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he adds that a worker should also conduct a before-use inspection on his fall arrest system.

Stakeholders must be aware of the dangers associated with being suspended from a harness for too long. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States cautions that orthostatic intolerance, or suspension trauma, may be experienced by those using fall arrest systems.

Orthostatic intolerance is caused by blood pooling in the veins when an individual is in a sedentary position. It can result in symptoms such as light-headedness, palpitations, fatigue, nausea, headache and fainting.

If prompt rescue is not possible, OSHA notes workers wearing fall arrest gear should be trained to pump their legs to activate muscles, and use of footholds can alleviate pressure.

EXCAVATOR OPERATOR CRUSHED IN CAB MANOTICK — An Ontario quarry worker suffered fatal crushing

injuries when a falling boulder landed on the cab of the excavator in which he was sitting.

MOL spokesperson Bruce Skeaff confirms the ministry was notified of the deadly incident in Manotick, Ontario, just south of Ottawa, at about at 9 am on March 24. The deceased was employed by Green Valley Environmental Group, a company that provides turnkey design and construction for septic systems. It also owns the quarry.

“The worker was excavating the base of a pile of aggregate when a heavy boulder on top of the pile came down on the [excavator] cab,” Skeaff reports. Emergency medical services, police and MOL inspectors attended the scene, he says.

Two stop-work orders were issued against Green Valley Environmental. The first directive cites the need to store crushed concrete block material in such a way as to prevent it from collapsing or falling, and so that moving the material will not endanger workers. The second order notes that “the working height of the storage pile shall not be more than 1.5 metres above the maximum reach of the equipment,” Skeaff says. “At the time of our investigation, it was higher than that.”

Brian Barrett, field director for DMS Safety in Curwensville, Pennsylvania, says of the incident that it sounds like there was “a ground-control problem” in which material fell from a highwall.

The major difference between underground and surface mining is the prevalence of highwalls in the latter, says Barrett, whose company provides training and consulting services.

Risks associated with highwalls include overburden of materials and stockpile areas being undercut, he reports.

Having falling-object protection available on excavators, however, should not lull stakeholders into a false sense of security, suggests the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in the United States. When operating in a surface mine, MSHA urges quarry workers to always check the highwall and surrounding conditions, and to be sure to position their cabs as far away from the highwall as possible to prevent injury or death.

INSPECTIONS, ORDERS UP IN 2009 FREDERICTON — Last year saw an increase in both the number of inspections by WorkSafeNB and the orders issued for noncompliance with oh&s requirements in New Brunswick.

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ducted 32 per cent more inspections in 2009 than in 2008, while the increase in orders issued in year-over-year comparisons — 43 per cent higher — was even more pronounced, says Roberta Dugas, chair of WorkSafeNB’s Board of Directors. Dugas’s comments follow the board’s release of its 2009 annual report on April 1.

Specifically, the report notes there were 8,548 workplace inspections in 2009 and 7,585 orders issued under the provincial OH&S Act. Last year, WorkSafeNB focused attention on three sectors with high accident frequency, costs or work risks: nursing homes, supermarkets and restaurants.

FIRST FATAL ACCIDENTS OF YEAR ST. JOHN’S — Two separate accidents in mid-March became the first fatal work-related incidents registered in Newfoundland and Labrador so far in 2010.

On March 20 at about 9:45 am, a 59-year-old man died when the excavator he was operating lost traction and slid into a frozen pond. Just two days earlier, on the afternoon of March 18, two men fell approximately seven metres from a platform at an Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) mine in Labrador City. One worker succumbed to his injuries, while the other was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

With regard to the March 20 incident, Newfoundland and Labrador RCMP Sergeant Wayne Newell reports that the excavator operator had worked for a company contracted by Newfoundland Power Inc. He was helping to reinstall power

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line poles damaged during a recent ice storm, says Newell.

He says the worker was traversing the area near the edge of the pond when the vehicle crashed through about 40 centimetres of ice, trapping him inside the cabin.

Firefighters in cold-water immersion suits retrieved the operator’s body from the cabin an hour and a half later.

In the IOC incident, Eldon Perry and Joshua Hayse were rushed to hospital, but only Hayse survived, notes a company statement. “IOC is working together with the appropriate authorities on the investigation of this incident and is deeply committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees.”

Vanessa Colman-Sadd, a spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Government Services, says provincial officers are investigating both deadly incidents.

ENVIRONMENT FOUND TO BE TOXIC ST. JOHN’S — A review of the pathology laboratory at the larg-

est health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador labels the working environment toxic — not because of the materials being handled, but the presence of dysfunctional relationships.

Released on March 15, the review by the Toronto-based Institute of Quality Management in Healthcare found that the relationships between management and staff at Eastern Health in St. John’s were punctuated by low morale, suspicion and distrust. These bad feelings appear rooted in poor communication and a lack of transparency around decisions.

The review of relationships among pathologists, manage-

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WORK CONDITIONS CALLED UNSAFE HALIFAX — Years of what Nova Scotia prosecutors view as provincial government inaction recently prompted a decision to formally complain about security at courthouses.

“It’s not getting any better. It truly is an unsafe environment for everybody,” argues Rick Woodburn, a prosecutor in Halifax and president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association (NSCAA).

On March 23, Woodburn says the group filed a complaint with Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour and Workforce Development, outlining what it regards as unsafe work conditions at provincial courthouses in Halifax and neighbouring Dartmouth. Although the complaint cites just the two facilities, he says NSCAA members are concerned about the safety of all provincial courthouses.

“Workplace conditions, both inside and outside the buildings, constitute an unacceptable hazard to the health and safety of prosecutors, witnesses, parties to proceedings [and] other stakeholders,” the NSCAA notes in a letter to the provincial labour department.

As examples of deficiencies at many courthouses, Woodburn points to the following: no metal detectors to weed out individuals who may be carrying weapons into court; a lack of secure prisoner boxes, increasing the risk of prisoner flight; inadequate security cameras; and a need for separate and secure entrances for courthouse staff.

Threats of violence made against prosecutors prompted the NSCAA to demand that a metal detector be installed

ment and clerical/support staff highlighted several concerns, such as an oft-repeated perception that “there is an inner circle who receives special treatment,” an unclear chain of command for technical staff, and daily disputes over the assigned workload value or the types of cases assigned.

“The practice of pathology is enriched by collegiality, yet in this department there are people who are settling scores, being passive-aggressive, hostile and intimidating,” the report notes. “The average daily workload has become a daily ‘maximum workload.’ It has created a productivity model that is working to a low common denominator.”

Vicki Kaminski, president and CEO of Eastern Health, characterizes the findings as “reason for concern,” adding that an opportunity exists to partner with staff to improve working conditions.

Report authors have penned 10 recommendations to improve relations, including the following: UÊ establish a pathology practice group with an elected, three-member council to develop a set of departmental rules, standard job descriptions, quality indicators and mentoring policies;

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at the Halifax provincial courthouse, says Woodburn. The detector was initially in place for a two-week pilot project, during which time weapons were recovered, but the unit was later removed, he reports. It was not reinstalled until the beginning of a high-profile trial, he adds.

Since being installed, he says 1,600 weapons, including knives, brass knuckles and pepper spray, have been seized.

“We’ve had prosecutors attacked right in the courtroom.”

Woodburn says security committees for each courthouse — made up of lawyers, judges, sheriffs and other stakeholders — forwarded suggestions to Nova Scotia’s justice department more than a year ago. However, “nothing substantial” has occurred since, he contends.

The inaction, coupled with an “all-out brawl” involving about 25 people from two rival gangs at the Dartmouth courthouse, spurred the NSCAA to file the complaint.

Justice department spokesperson Megan Tonet says “we continue to assess our security practices daily to ensure public and staff safety.” However, Tonet points out that “a security review of all court facilities in Nova Scotia was conducted in 2007, which consulted all stakeholders, including Crown attorneys. It also found that our courthouses were safe.”

The review included 11 recommendations, Tonet says, all of which are being implemented. Improvements so far include upgraded security surveillance, installation of panic alarms and the purchase of metal detectors.

— By Dan Birch

UÊ distribute work in line with sub-specialty practice and have the work assessed at regular intervals; and, UÊ develop written standards, policies and protocols for quality and performance in technical areas.

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 tollfree (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.

Will your organization be in compliance with Ontario’s new workplace violence prevention requirements when they come into force on June 15?

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Total Votes

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DISPATCHES

Grain collapse spurs long, but successful, rescue

By Jason Contant

A

scenario that too often proves deadly had a happy ending when an Ontario worker trapped in a grain silo for more than six hours was freed by rescuers, tired, but having escaped significant harm.

At about 6:45 am on March 3, workers at Foster’s Custom Farming Inc. in North Gower, Ontario — about 20 kilometres south of Ottawa — were breaking up and moving corn within a storage silo, reports Bruce Skeaff, a spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto.

Workers were trying to dislodge the bridged corn to get the grain to flow into a floor-mounted auger, with a sump at the centre of the silo, Skeaff says. As many as four workers were inside the silo at one point to break up the corn clumps, a task that included the use of various tools, he adds.

By 12:30 pm, Skeaff says that three individuals were still attempting to complete the job when “a large amount of corn broke free, collapsed and flowed toward the northwest area, where the workers were positioned.” Two workers managed to escape the silo, but the third, who had been standing closest to its centre, became engulfed in the corn.

The worker was retrieved about six hours later, thanks to the efforts of personnel from the Ottawa Paramedic Service, the Ottawa Fire Services (OFS) and the Ottawa Police Service.

The freed worker was in good condition, Skeaff says, but still received basic treatment on scene before being transferred to an Ottawa hospital for more thorough examination.

Foster’s Custom Farming was issued an order to develop and implement measures and procedures to prevent entrapment in grain within silos. The company was further directed, through a stop-work order, to prohibit entry into silos until the new procedures were in place.

Paul Hutt, sector chief for the OFS, says that almost 40 firefighters were on scene for the lengthy extraction process. “Once we ascertained that we had one person trapped, our tactical rescue team entered the grain bin from the top and went down to where the victim was,” Hutt says. The silo was about 18 metres high and the worker was trapped seven metres up.

“We determined he was right up to his shoulders, right up to his chin in the corn kernels,” Hutt says. Rescuers placed an air-supply line and mask on the worker while efforts unfolded.

Hutt says rescuers used plywood sheets, cut into halves and quarters, to fashion a base from which to work. The wood was placed behind the trapped worker to create a makeshift dam “to prevent the corn kernels from continuing to come over him.”

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Once that was complete, a barrel — with its top and bottom cut off — was placed over the worker’s head and around his body. Hoses from two vacuum trucks were used to suck up the corn that filled the inside of the barrel, Hutt reports.

“We removed the pressure off his chest because that was his biggest complaint.”

Rescuers cut a hole into the side of the silo and used ladders to reach the worker. “It was pretty much a horizontal working environment with him at this point,” Hutt says.

“Once we were able to get [a barrel] over his head and use the vacuum trucks to suck [corn] out around him, ultimately, that’s how we were successful in removing him.”

Jason Contant is editor of SAFETY NEWS.

CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

&

Resort operator rejects finding of foreseeability

By Emily Landau

A

n Alberta ski resort is appealing its conviction under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act in the wake of an employee’s death six years ago.

Sunshine Village Corp., owner of a ski and snowboard facility in the Alberta resort town of Banff, was convicted in early 2009 of failing to ensure the safety of a worker. Brian Caruk, acting chief Crown prosecutor in the province, confirms that an appeal by the company was heard before the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta on March 4 of this year.

A summary by the trial judge notes that in September of 2004, a mechanic’s helper died days after suffering massive head injuries. Jan-Karl Stunt, 25, had been sitting on the upper work platform of a work chair on a chair lift approaching a terminal building. Stunt was injured when the platform’s foldable access stairs broke upon entering the terminal.

The summary notes that clearance for the work chair “did not allow for a person to be seated on the upper work platform.” The judge determined the deadly incident was caused by the momentary inattentiveness and carelessness of three of the company’s employees, including Stunt.

Edmonton-based Alberta Employment and Immigration confirms Sunshine Village was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay an additional $250,000 to the ski hill operations and management program at Selkirk College, a multi-campus community college in British Columbia.

The trial judge ruled “the accused’s liability arises from the lack of assistance by visual aids or special procedures in place to remind employees when care is required.”

On appeal, the employer submits that the trial judge “erred in law by failing to address the principle of foreseeability,” arguing there was no failure to comply with either legislative or industry standards, and that the other workers involved testi-

fied to having been trained properly.

Doug Firby, associate director of communications, media and marketing for Sunshine Village, insists the incident was not reasonably foreseeable. “With the benefit of hindsight you can look back and imagine how you could have foreseen it,” Firby says. “But we didn’t have the benefit of hindsight.

This was something that had never happened before at Sunshine and, to our knowledge, hasn’t happened with this particular brand of lift anywhere in North America.”

Firby argues it was not foreseeable that the three employees would be simultaneously inattentive at the precise moment of the incident, as the trial judge had found.

The company further maintains the absence of signage did not play a role.

Still, Firby reports, “We’ve brought in an individual occupational health and safety expert who’s done an audit of our entire operation and come up with more than a hundred recommendations, most of which have already been implemented.”

As well, lift operators and maintenance workers are now in constant radio communication to ensure foldable stairs are in the proper position and that no workers are on the upper platform.

Although Sunshine Village is willing to go beyond what is mandated by legislation to protect its workers, “I think it would be very hard, unless you were just engaging in a ‘what-if ’ exercise, to actually imagine this sort of accident happening,” Firby argues.

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

OHS CANADA.

Good deeds demand equally good policy

By Caitlin Crawshaw

W

hen a Saskatchewan truck driver came across a car wreck while making a delivery, he did what any Good Samaritan would do: he pulled over.

First responders had yet to arrive and, seeing someone trapped inside the wreckage, the trucker opened the vehicle door to free the driver, unfortunately injuring his own back in the process. While it may not be an everyday occurrence for workers to witness accidents in the course of their employment, it is certainly not unheard of for those lending a helping hand to be injured in some way.

Walter Eberle, the labour representative for the tripartite board of Saskatchewan’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) in Regina, says there have been other cases involving Good Samaritans being injured in recent years.

As an example, he cites an incident involving a courier who came upon a pedestrian who had been struck by a car at an intersection. The courier sustained an injury to his back while moving the pedestrian out of harm’s way.

Incidents like these spurred the WCB to develop a new policy to deal specifically with kind acts on the job that end with unfortunate results. The new Good Samaritan policy, which took effect last November, details coverage for any worker injured while helping out during an emergency situa-

tion encountered in the course of employment.

Eberle emphasizes that the situation must be a true emergency. The policy offers the following example of a nonemergency case: a taxi driver diverts from her planned route to help a man she spots struggling to lift packages out of a car.

The cabbie suffers injuries as a result.

“As this is not a situation where the person requiring assistance is at risk of (potential) serious harm and the taxi driver deviated from the course of employment to provide assistance, the injury is not compensable,” the policy states.

There is a subjective element to the new rules, but Eberle says these will help the WCB to adjudicate claims more easily and fairly.

Saskatchewan is not alone. For example, Valerie Royle, president and CEO of the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board in Whitehorse, says her organization has an overarching policy to address claims “arising out of and in the course of employment” that can cover injuries sustained during Good Samaritan acts.

Royle notes every case is different and must be adjudicated individually.

Workplaces in the Yukon sometimes have individuals designated as first aid responders in the event of an emergency. If a person opts to take matters into his own hands, perhaps administering CPR, he may not be compensated for an injury, she reports. “If it’s clearly not your job to do it, and there’s someone else around who can do CPR, you won’t get covered for getting hepatitis, for instance,” Royle adds.

Michael Mitchell, a workers’ comp consultant with Aon Consulting in Toronto, says it is not clear to him why more provinces have not developed tailored Good Samaritan policies. Even without them, well-meaning workers would likely receive compensation anyway, Mitchell suggests.

While he does not believe Saskatchewan’s policy will kick start like responses across Canada, Mitchell is at a loss to see any downside for boards that follow suit. “There’s nothing negative to it at all. There’s no question it’s helpful.”

Caitlin Crawshaw is a writer in Edmonton.

Rules clarify TASER use, beef up training

By Dan Birch

O

ntario has joined a number of other jurisdictions in adopting new guidelines and standards on how to ensure the use of TASERs meets the twin goals of officer and public safety.

New policies on conducted energy weapons (CEWs), popularly known by their trade name, have already been announced by Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Columbia and other jurisdictions in the wake of the October, 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport.

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Released March 29, Ontario’s new policy touches on CEW procedures to be used by officers and training standards for both users and instructors, notes a statement from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. “When used appropriately, these weapons remain an effective option for police services in carrying out their responsibilities and protecting our communities,” Rick Bartolucci, Ontario’s community safety minister, notes in the statement.

The use-of-force guideline speaks to circumstances for CEW use, restrictions on use, post-deployment procedures, medical considerations, equipment control and reporting mechanisms, the ministry notes. Training requirements cover assessment tools and academic, proficiency and judgementbased components.

Police forces across the province are expected to implement the new policies immediately and the Ontario Police College will begin enhanced TASER training for instructors this summer, the ministry states.

Officers welcome the new rules, says Larry Molyneaux, president of the Police Association of Ontario in Mississauga, Ontario. Describing the new policy as “excellent,” Molyneaux says that training all TASER-using personnel to the same standard will serve to bolster officer safety.

Chief Daniel Parkinson agrees. The head of the Cornwall Community Police Service and president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police says increasing training instills more confidence in officers. “The more training they have on [TASERs], the better they’re going to be at avoiding harm to themselves or anyone else,” Parkinson maintains.

The use-of-force standard “dispenses with any mystery” about what constitutes acceptable TASER practices, he says, and provides a useful “road map” for officers.

Among other guidance, the policy offers this direction: s CEWs, generally, are to be used only in situations where subjects are threatening or displaying assaultive behaviour (use may be appropriate in other circumstances, taking into account the totality of the circumstances and the imminent need to control a subject); s before use, officers must consider certain factors (effectiveness of efforts to de-escalate the situation, if verbal commands are not practical or are not being followed, risk of secondary injury, and if it is reasonably necessary to use an intermediate weapon); and, s where possible, CEWs are not to be used on handcuffed subjects, pregnant women, the elderly, children or visibly frail people, or on sensitive areas, like the head and throat.

The new approach is in line with recommendations from Ontario’s policing standards advisory committee. Its review of TASER use identified variations among police services “in their operational procedures for CEWs and in the provision of CEW training across the province.”

Despite general support, Molyneaux argues that all frontline officers should be trained and permitted to carry the devices. TASER use is currently restricted to tactical/hostage rescue units, preliminary perimeter control and containment teams, and front-line supervisors.

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Officers not equipped with TASERs either must wait for back-up or move up the use-of-force scale to a more lethal option, says Molyneaux. “Your only other option would be your firearm.”

Dan Birch is assistant editor of

OHS CANADA.

Putting a stop to harm on the farm

By Emily Landau

F

ewer injuries and deaths are the central thrusts of a pilot project examining agricultural safety in Manitoba.

In March, the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) announced that it would provide $188,000 in funding to a two-year research initiative led by the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP), a farm lobby organization that represents both operator and worker interests.

“We’re looking at all different types of commodities and what their hazards and risks are in their workplaces,” reports Doug Chorney, a farmer and vice-president of KAP. The idea is to consider “ways to mitigate these risks in a practical way.”

The pilot project will involve a farm-check program in which specialists will visit agricultural operations and explore safety concerns, he notes.

WCB communications director Warren Preece says researchers will assess machinery safety, perform safety audits and “look into chemical storage, livestock handling and the different sorts of hazards.” Agriculture has been covered under Manitoba’s workers’ comp law only since January, 2009.

“Agricultural safety is a bit in its infancy,” says Marcel Hacault, executive director of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association in Winnipeg. Still, officials welcome the project, noting that “more and more farmers in Manitoba have employees and they’re looking for support services to plan and implement farm safety,” Hacault says.

Glen Blahey, Manitoba’s farm safety co-ordinator, notes that mechanical interactions are the most common cause of injuries in agricultural workers. But Blahey also cites work with livestock, chemical exposures and the nature of the work itself, which can lead to soft-tissue strains and sprains.

An individual in less-than-peak physical condition can be more susceptible to agriculture-related injuries because of slower movement and reaction times, he points out.

Although legislation is in place to protect workers, Chorney suggests the agricultural community lacks “the learning connection between what the regulations are and between what the farmers actually do on their farms.”

The objective, he says, is “to deliver information that will change the culture of safety and really change the behaviour of the farm workplace.”

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RADIATION

INVISIBLE TOUCH

BY JASON CONTANT Officials at Bruce Power’s nuclear generating station in Tiverton, Ontario received the lab results days before Christmas, 2009. The findings were not as they might have hoped.

Initial reports indicated that over the span of four days in November, there was the possibility that as many as 200 workers were exposed to alpha particles, which can be hazardous if particulates are inhaled or ingested. Indeed, a preliminary follow-up determined that combined with other sources PHOTO: LARS SUNDSTROM/STOCK.XCHG

of radiation last year, one worker’s exposure may have exceeded the regulatory dose limit for the year.

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Cautionary Tale It sometimes takes years for a story to be told. A statement of claim was filed in early 2009 on behalf of 200 former soldiers who were exposed to radiation in June of 1958.

The members of the Canadian Armed Forces were performing decontamination work at a nuclear facility in Chalk River, Ontario. The claim notes that clean-up was needed after “mixed fission radioactive material” was scattered in and around the plant, owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, one month earlier. The soldiers were exposed after several metallic uranium fuel rods overheated and ruptured inside the reactor core.

The statement of claim argues the federal government “downplayed the true nature and extent of the decontamination work,” did not provide personal protective equipment appropriate to guard against radiation exposure, and distributed “shoddy” dosimeters unable to “detect the true levels of radiological risk.” The claim adds that reasonably effective equipment “would have substantially reduced exposure to radiation.”

Guardsman Ted Mason vacuumed hot dust in the “most radioactive area” of the reactor, directly above control rods at the top of the unit. Work shifts were limited to 90 seconds, “considered equivalent to other work shifts that range from 2.5 to four hours,” the claim contends.

Despite the short shifts, Mason says he was ordered out of the area because of high radiation levels “on many occasions” and had to regularly scrub down his body. “God, I can remember a couple of times scrubbing so hard that I still got a scar on the back of my neck where the scrubbing brush would cause me to bleed,” Mason says.

Sometimes, though, clean-up would not be sufficient. “You’d come back [and supervisors would say], ‘No, no. Go in and scrub again. You’re still active,’” he reports. “I would light up like a friggin’ neon light when I would come off of that thing sometimes.”

During these work periods, Mason wore two pairs of coveralls, nylon socks, rubber boots, cotton gloves, a plastic suit with hood and a service respirator. The seams and openings of his outfit were sealed using masking tape.

At the time, Mason had problems with his teeth, gums and back. Today, he suffers from an array of health conditions, including fibromyalgia, fatigue, memory loss, blackouts, skin rashes, respiratory problems, back problems and sweating.

“If I were to wash my car, I would probably have to change my top twice. I would be so soaked [with sweat],” he says.

“Some of this has got to be attributed to doing something instead of just getting old,” Mason argues. “I said to my wife two days ago, ‘If I was a dog, they would have euthanized me, just walking around in total pain.’”

CLEAR NUMBERS Exposure limits in this country follow the ALARA — as low as reasonably achievable — principle, which says every reasonable effort should be made to maintain radiation exposures as far below the dose limits as practical. Under federal law, worker exposure is permissible to a maximum of 100 millisieverts (mSv) of wholebody ionizing radiation over five years — an average of 20 mSv a year — but no more than 50 mSv in any single year.

In the Bruce Power case, the worker with the greatest exposure is believed to have received a dose of 54.7 mSv in 2009. For most workers, however, preliminary tests confirmed readings were well below the regulatory limits, says utility spokesperson Steve Cannon.

“The science and practice of radiation safety is very advanced,” suggests Dave Tucker, president of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association (CRPA) in Carleton Place, Ontario. Very few occupational risks “are understood as well and, on the whole, managed as well and to such a high standard as radiation exposure is,” says Tucker, who is also a senior health physicist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

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As such, it may be surprising that a worker in as strictly regulated an industry as nuclear power generation can have exceeded the dose limit. The possibility highlights that at-work exposures can exist and demonstrates the need for vigilance always.

Both acute (short-term, high-level) and chronic (long-term, low-level) radiation exposures have been linked to a variety of adverse health effects, notes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. Depending on dose and exposure time, the EPA reports outcomes can include increased cancer risk or radiation sickness, some of the symptoms being nausea, weakness, hair loss, skin burns, diminished organ function or even death.

Radiation generally falls into two broad categories: ionizing and nonionizing. A review of information notes that non-ionizing radiation refers to, among other things, radiation from microwaves and infrared sources (like heat lamps and ultraviolet rays from the sun); ionizing radiation comes from alpha or beta particles, gamma rays or X-rays and neutron sources.

The latter type of radiation has a

definite occupational link, being present in work settings such as health care, research, nuclear reactors, food manufacturing and industrial radiography.

ON THE GROUND With regard to the Bruce Power radiation exposures, workers were helping to carry out a reactor restart project that involved grinding feeder tubes. A routine air sample taken on November 26, 2009 detected the presence of long-lived particulates — identified as cobalt-60 — in a plant vault, notes an investigation report from the utility.

Because the possibility existed that workers not directly performing grinding work, but working in the vault area, may have been exposed to alpha particles, Bruce Power assembled a team to pinpoint just how many workers may have been affected.

A follow-up report states that 563 workers were assessed for exposure and, of these, 192 were estimated to have exceeded one mSv. This group included 92 workers who may have exceeded two mSv and 27 workers who may have exceeded five mSv. For some perspective, Doug Bore-

PHOTO: HEMERA

ham, Ph.D., a radiation biologist and professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences at McMaster University, notes that airline pilots and crew members can be exposed to anywhere from six to 10 mSv annually as a result of cosmic radiation.

Or consider an individual in a uranium mine, says Dr. Boreham, who may get one or two millisieverts a year.

(There are certainly radiation sources to which individuals are commonly exposed. Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta notes the following: one dental X-ray, 0.04 to 0.15 mSv; one chest X-ray, 0.1 mSv; one mammogram, 0.7 mSv; and one year of exposure to natural radiation from such things as soil and cosmic rays, 3.0 mSv.) As part of the Bruce Power restart project, Cannon says that work involved cutting, cleaning and milling severed feeder tube ends before installing new segments (the tubes connect to both ends of the reactor’s fuel assemblies to transport heavy water coolant to and from steam generators). During grinding work, however, hazardous “activated corrosion products” became dislodged, notes a statement from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the country’s regulator for the sector.

“We have decades of experience characterizing alpha radiation in operating reactor units, but now we’ve learned it can be significantly different in reactors that have been laid up for an extended period, depending on how they were laid up,” says Cannon.

Since the incident, he reports that Bruce Power has taken additional protective measures, such as deploying new alpha-detecting instruments and monitors and upping “the requirements for air-supplied plastic suits and respirators inside the reactor vaults.”

[to monitor their presence].”

He points out that an alpha particle, which is capable of travelling only one to five centimetres in the air, can be blocked by a piece of paper or a layer of dead skin. Still, these particles need to be monitored to be identified.

It requires very specific instrumentation and methods, “so people doing the checks have to know what they’re doing,” Tourneur notes. An appropriate distance between the surface being monitored and the instrument is necessary, he adds.

If sampling at Bruce Power was being done for beta particles and gamma rays — but not alpha particles — the presence of the latter may not have been known early on.

For exposures involving possible alpha contamination, the CRPA’s Tucker says the preferred order of responses by employers would be as follows: eliminate the hazard, guard the hazard and guard the worker. “The way you go about doing your work dictates the level of hazard that will be generated,” he suggests. “It might be safe to work on a contaminated piece of equipment, but not to weld it and cut it and do things that will cause the activity to become

airborne,” Tucker explains.

Some experts say inhalation of alpha particles is possible when radioactive material (such as uranium, thorium or plutonium) becomes airborne and enters a worker’s breathing space. Spills, leaks and inadequate engineering controls can lead to this. Also, alpha particles can be ingested through contaminated hands while eating or drinking.

SOLID PROTECTION To protect a worker from radiation sources (these include alpha and beta particles, gamma rays and X-rays), experts suggest that three basic protective principles come into play: time, distance and shielding. Ideally, workers should minimize the time spent with potential sources of radiation and maximize the distance from the hazard, notes Ray Ilson, director of environmental health and safety at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “The dose rate decreases with the square of the distance, so if you move away a few feet, you cut your dose quite a bit,” Ilson says.

Unlike alpha particles that travel only a few centimetres, “in principle, you could have a gamma ray go an infinite distance,” says Brian Gaulke, a

CAREFUL MONITOR The gradual decay — or half-life — of beta particles and gamma rays is shorter than that of alpha particles, explains Frank Tourneur, senior director of risk and radiation safety at the University Health Network in Toronto. Considering the Bruce Power incident, Tourneur suggests “these fission products, which have been accidentally released from the fuel, have concentrated and, over time, the betas and gammas have decayed to a point where the alphas dominate and, therefore, you need special instruments

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regional radiation specialist for Health Canada’s Atlantic region in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. “You can’t completely rid yourself of a gamma field, only reduce its intensity to safe levels,” Gaulke says.

While alpha particles can be easily blocked, higher-level radiation requires thicker and denser materials for adequate shielding. For beta particles, Ilson says the “normal” shielding material is Plexiglas, although aluminum and other light metals, heavy clothing or a block of wood will also suffice.

Blocking gamma rays and X-rays demand materials such as lead, tungsten or several feet of concrete.

Industrial radiography is one occupation in which workers face the potential for high radiation doses. Indeed, as of the end of 2005, Health Canada reports that six industrial radiographers in the country exceeded 100 mSv over a five-year timeframe. Another 172 workers were 50-plus mSv and 683 exceeded 20 mSv over that period, says the “2007 Report on Occupational Radiation Exposures in Canada.”

Corie Doyle, administrator for the Alberta-based Canadian Industrial Radiography Safety Association (CIRSA), says the industrial radiography field often requires specific techniques to help shield workers from gamma radiation. Doyle notes that CIRSA members work primarily in the oil and gas industry and use gamma rays to perform integrity (or non-destructive) testing of structures, including pipelines.

Industrial radiographers use a device called a collimator to direct gamma rays

“preferentially in one direction,” she says. Tungsten collimators are among the protective approaches used; steel plates and concrete walls are the others, Doyle reports.

“If no shielding is used, then the distance between the radiation source and other people would have to be very large. This normally isn’t very practical,

so shielding must be used,” she adds.

Keith Eckerman, a senior scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, says shield design and work location are paramount to ensure exposure time is minimized when the shield is not in place.

For a nuclear medicine or computed tomography (CT) department

Most experts agree that acute exposure to large doses of radiation presents a cancer risk.

Although unlikely as a result of workplace exposure, severe acute radiation exposure to the entire body (or a significant portion of it) can produce “radiation sickness,” which causes simultaneous damage to vital tissues and organs.

Doug Boreham, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, reports that the bone marrow (hematopoietic), gastrointestinal and central nervous systems can all be affected. The threshold for the hematopoietic system is about 4,000 millisieverts (mSv), he says, noting that at that level “half the people will die and half won’t.”

Ray Ilson, director of environmental health and safety at Dalhousie University in Halifax, points to a September, 1999 incident in Japan in which two workers at the JCO Co. Ltd. nuclear fuel plant died after being exposed to radiation doses reported to be in the range of 6,000 to 17,000 mSv. Workers were converting enriched uranium into oxide powder for use in preparing fuel for an experimental reactor, notes a report from the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington, D.C. “It appears that workers deliberately circumvented safety measures to save time,” the report states. Sixteen kilograms of uranyl nitrate was transferred into a precipitation tank, almost eight times more than its safety limit of 2.4 kg.

The workers died several months later. “Basically, their immune systems and other bodily functions shut down over a period of several weeks,” Ilson reports. “Even with medical attention, there was nothing that could be done.”

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PHOTO: ABLESTOCK.COM

High and Low

Model Practice Some models to help guard against negative health effects from radiation exposure remain controversial in medical circles.

Canadian regulatory requirements are based on what some may consider the safest model: the linear no-threshold model.

“This is the most conservative model since it assumes that any radiation dose, even the very tiniest, results in a negative effect,” says Ray Ilson, director of environmental health and safety at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

There are other models that suggest there is only a slight increase in risk at low doses. The idea is that risk becomes proportional to dose at higher doses.

Perhaps one of the most contentious is the hormesis model, which says that low doses of radiation actually have a positive effect and decrease overall cancer risk. Doug Boreham, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, argues that exposure to small amounts of radiation stimulates the body’s protective mechanisms.

Louise Parker, Ph.D., chair of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Nova Scotia division in Halifax, says she is not “particularly persuaded” by the hormesis effect. Much of the research related to the model has been carried out at the cellular level, which “may or may not have implications for human health,” Dr. Parker suggests.

At this stage — and until embodied in guidelines or regulations — Dave Tucker, president of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association in Carleton Place, Ontario, calls the concepts “interesting science.”

at a hospital, a nuclear reactor or a radiopharmaceutical facility, high-energy gamma and X-rays are arguably the more hazardous forms of radiation that will be encountered.

Keeping a tab on exposures, though, is critical to guard against the possibility of long-term effects on health.

Badge-like personal dosimeters help to measure radiation dose.

University and hospital staff who wear the dosimeters typically turn in the devices every three months and tally totals at the end of the year, says Ilson.

Other workers may wear an electronic dosimeter that sounds immediately when the dose amount has been reached. “Nobody wants to find out three months later when you get your results,” he points out.

HEALTH QUESTIONS Just what impact radiation exposure has on health remains up for debate, with no consensus on what may result in the long-term or short-term. Some say exposure to radiation “adds on to an initial risk that the individual has” of cancer, estimated at 20 to 30 per cent of the population, Eckerman notes. “In some sense, you have to survive long enough to realize that risk.”

If an individual is exposed to “1,000 mSv acute all at once, the risk in the population of getting cancer goes up five per cent,” reports Dr. Boreham. “That’s like getting 1,000 mammograms instantaneously. That’s overloading your system,” he says.

“Protracting the dose significantly reduces the effect,” Dr. Boreham explains.

Protracted means that exposure is

spread out over time, allowing the body, tissues and cells to repair themselves and reduce radiation’s effects, some experts contend.

“If you want to compare the one year in the nuclear plant with the one mammogram, the mammogram carries more of an effect,” argues Dr. Boreham. “Those medical exposures are acute and instantaneous; the occupational exposures are spread out over the year,” he reports.

Louise Parker, Ph.D., chair of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Nova Scotia division and a population and cancer researcher at Dalhousie University, studies the link between radiation exposure and cancer. Bone tumours and leukemia are the “most common” cancers that Dr. Parker sees in the wake of radiation exposure.

Still, she adds, researchers do not have a firm grasp of cancer risk associated with very low doses of radiation.

Noting that there are “so many other competing causes of cancer,” Dr. Parker suggests that “it’s very hard to pick out that cancer risk at the population level which is attributed to that small exposure to radiation.”

Everyone is exposed to things that “alter our risk of cancer — tobacco smoke, environmental pollution, ultraviolet radiation, poor diet,” Dr. Parker says. “It can be that for some individuals, the extra risk of cancer associated with an exposure to radiation is sufficient to tip them over that threshold between somebody not having the disease and having the disease.”

It appears there are no clinical effects for acute radiation exposures in the 0

to 250 mSv range. “There is some evidence of subcellular damage, but without symptoms,” says Ilson. “This may illustrate the body’s own defences.”

Beyond cancer risk, Dr. Parker says that radiation exposure could also result in chronic inflammation related to heart and cardiovascular disease, as well as to changes in the function of the immune system.

“Our immune system is one of the things that protects us from cancer,” Dr. Parker points out.

“The vast majority of cells which have started on this cancer path are destroyed before they ever grow into a tumour,” she says. “So if you perturb that system, you can increase your likelihood that a cell is going to slip through that net and develop into tumours,” adds Dr. Parker.

However, Ilson offers, “Since humans, and all life on earth, have evolved in an environment of low-dose radiation from the sky, the earth itself [and] our food… there is reason to believe that this is quite ‘normal’ for us.”

Still, the ALARA principle (exposures as low as reasonably achievable) is sound advice for employers whose workers may encounter radiation as part of their jobs.

Tourneur’s view is that regulators in this country use the linear no-threshold model (see “Model Practice,” above) “because they have to. There’s nothing else you can really [use]. They’re protecting the public and the environment and that’s their duty.”

Jason Contant is editor of CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY NEWS.

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MINE VEHICLES

Avoiding

Pitfalls

BY LAWRENCE CUMMER Vehicle operation can be dangerous in any work environment. That danger, however, may be magnified when the massive vehicles commonplace in the

ards. Not often, but still too often, the mix can turn deadly.

PHOTO: XSTRATA COPPER

mining industry combine with the environment’s natural and man-made haz-

PHOTO: CP PHOTO - BRANDON WALKER/TIMMINS DAILY PRESS

BIG BY NECESSITY Vehicle-related fatalities in mines have driven some to call for stricter regulation. Perhaps in response, mine operators wanting to minimize risks have started testing new technologies and ramping up training and vehicle education.

Gerald Allen, provincial mining specialist at Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto, reports that vehicles and workers interacting badly has been among the leading causes of serious injuries and fatalities related to mining in years past.

Neil Crocker, chief inspector of mines for Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour in Regina, might agree. By its nature, mining is “dangerous because you put big equipment and people into confined spaces,” Crocker notes.

That said, he points out that incidents involving falling vehicles are not very common. “Basically, most of the overthe-edge-fall issues have been beaten by technology.”

By virtue of the need to haul tonnes of materials and loose rock called muck, mining vehicles can weigh as much as 45 tonnes. Consider a scoop tram that is four metres tall, three to four metres wide and perhaps as much as 10 metres long.

“If you’ve got a front-end loader that weighs [thousands of kilograms], how does it even know there’s a person there?”

Crocker asks.

Allen agrees, adding that the most common hazards associated with mining vehicles are struck-bys. “I think if you were to ask a miner, ‘What’s the biggest hazard around mobile equipment?’ They’d say, ‘them seeing you,’ especially if you’re on foot or driving a very small personnel vehicle.”

Vehicle heights and tight packaging create blind spots — but the thought is that these can be overcome by training and good traffic enforcement.

OPEN AND CLOSED Stopes, created by removing ore, and other open pits may present another challenge to safe vehicle operation — one that has Cheryl Dufoe of Wahnapitae, Ontario calling for stricter regulation and enforcement.

Three years ago, Dufoe’s 25-year-old son, Lyle, and the scoop tram he was operating fell down a 45-metre open stope at Xstrata Copper Canada’s Kidd Creek Mine in Timmins, Ontario. There were no witnesses.

Crown prosecutors filed two charges under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act against Xstrata Copper Canada. The counts cited the company’s alleged failure to comply with Ontario’s mines and mining plants regulation.

Among the regulation’s requirements are the following: a shaft, raise or other opening in an underground mine shall be securely fenced, covered or otherwise guarded; and when material is dumped from a vehicle occupied by a person, the dump point shall include features designed to prevent the vehicle from going over a bank, over a bench or into a raise or other open hole.

Xstrata Copper Canada was acquitted on both health and safety counts in February.

With regard to her son’s death, Dufoe says she does not believe that what she describes as “a piece of snow fence” should be viewed as an acceptable barrier option under provincial requirements. Even if equipped with some sort

of warning sign, she argues that no “work should be done behind that fence until there are proper concrete curbs or barriers in place around the open stope.”

To prevent the type of fall that claimed her son, Dufoe says it should be mandatory to erect concrete berms on stope edges, similar to those on highways or at temporary construction sites. Berms could be moved from location to location, as needed, with little wasted time, manpower or money.

Tom Semadeni, general manager of the Kidd Creek Mine, responds the worker had received training but it appears, for some unknown reason, that he opted to take down the gate.

“You rely on the person’s knowledge to not go to the edge of the cliff versus erecting a fence so that the person can’t get across,” Semadeni says.

Dufoe dismisses any suggestion that her son would have skirted safety, pointing out that he had, in fact, earlier received a letter from his supervisor “commending him on his safety and his hard work.”

A MATTER OF CONTROL For Semadeni, the incident was a lesson around administrative controls and hazards. “What you want to do is opt for physical barriers (where practical) that make it impossible for someone to bypass the administrative controls.”

In the years since the deadly incident, Semadeni says that mine officials looked at hazards at the site — from falls to exposure to rotating machinery, slippery conditions and confined spaces — and have focused efforts on identifying what measures will help keep workers protected.

Matthew Dufoe holds a photo of his brother, Lyle, who died in a fall at the Kidd Creek Mine.

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Saskatchewan’s Lanigan Mine was the site of a worker fatality two years ago when a vehicle went over the edge of a ramp.

“The expectation of each mine is to assess what is required in order to ensure the hazard is mitigated to make sure there is no risk to an employee,” says Richard Banting, an electrical-mechanical specialist at Workplace Safety North in North Bay, Ontario.

Barriers must change based on the work being done, the vehicles involved and the materials being mined, Banting points out. Depending on the application, a barrier will often serve only as a warning to operators. There are times, however, when regulation and best practice demand engineered blockers of concrete and steel, he says.

Crocker notes that Saskatchewan revised a regulatory section a few years back in the wake of a deadly incident in the province. If an individual believes that there may be a hidden hazard, a physical barrier must be erected and a sign displayed that explains the hazard, he says.

“You’re always trying to mistake-proof your operation,” Semadeni comments. “Safety is kind of a journey; unfortunately it’s not a destination. You can never put your feet up and say, ‘Okay, that’s it.’”

New hazards and variables can always be introduced, Semadeni says. “The people and the conditions change, especially in a mine where it’s basically an ongoing construction project. You’re always changing the workplace every day because you’re developing the mine.”

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HIGH TOLL Nancy Hutchison, health and safety coordinator for the Ontario and Atlantic arm of the United Steelworkers in Toronto, says Ontario has witnessed at least five fatalities related to vehicles and barricades (or a lack of barricades) between 1992 and 2008. A union analysis of the incidents suggests that had there been stronger, more secure barriers in place, worker deaths could have been avoided, Hutchison contends.

As it stands, she reports that a barricade can be anything from a piece of rope to a cement blockade. “It is really from soup-to-nuts as far as what it should look like,” she says.

“If there was more consistent definition of what these barricades would do, what their size would be, what their composition would be, we think they’d do a much better job at preventing [falls involving] machinery and/or workers,” Hutchison continues.

Absent suitable barricades, Banting says that falls in vehicles typically could be as much as 25 metres. The falls are generally rare, but certainly fatal.

Because open-pit mines have benches [vertical levels], Crocker explains that even an approximately 300-metre-deep mine would have drops of about 13 to 33 metres and be on a slant. That, he says, is high enough to prove fatal — although not always.

“We’ve had guys go over the edge and end up upside down hanging in their seat belts,” he says. They may be scared and bruised, “but they’re not hurt.”

Crocker says the most common place where workers run into problems is when trucks are dumping in a stockpile and get too close to an edge. If rear tires go over an unguarded edge, the dumping truck could fall.

To combat any such incidents, he reports that regulators across the country ask for the minimum of a berm to catch the tires and a bulldozer to maintain the berm.

Safe practice instituted by most mining companies is to avoid having trucks and loaders get close to the edge, opting instead to have trucks dump material close to it, and then have a bulldozer push that material over the edge.

Avoiding proximity to the edge appears to be the safest course of action. Allen points out that there can be fatal consequences from any vehicle fall. “It only takes a fall of a few feet to kill someone, and you don’t need to see all the incidents that have occurred in any industry to realize that.”

NEED TO REDEFINE Coroner’s inquests into vehicle-related deaths have resulted in recommendations to beef up best practice guidelines and to revise regulatory requirements. In 2007, Allen reports that an underground worker in Ontario was killed when a sixyard scoop tram ran into him. The inquest jury exploring the circumstances of the worker’s death recommended that reflective materials on hard hats be improved. Although reflective striping already was required by regulation, the jury suggested that this visual cue be around the hat’s entire brim.

The inquest into the death of a Saskatchewan worker three years ago also produced recommendations. A worker and his vehicle broke through an underground floor in a mine, prompting a call to redefine existing rules for marking haz-

PHOTO: PETER WILSON/STARPHOENIX

Dufoe would like to see more changes still. “It would cost so little for these concrete berms to be made that could be moved from one location to another and ensure the safety of the workers. I don’t see how it isn’t done. It just appears to be common sense,” she says.

On a case-by-case basis, says Semadeni, each fall-related hazard can be addressed by providing warning, allowing only authorized entry or by preventing entry completely.

Ontario regulatory provisions demand barriers and appropriate signage, but do not specify the required barrier strength, says Allen. “We believe that the barriers should match the hazard and, certainly above all else, employers should understand very clearly what’s expected of them to keep people safe,” he goes on to say.

To the Max The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan was hit with the maximum allowable penalty for a single breach of occupational health and safety requirements following the death of miner Robert Tkach in September, 2008.

Tkach, 60, was driving a jeep-like vehicle underground at PotashCorp.’s Lanigan mine when the vehicle went over the edge of an unguarded ramp and rolled, notes a statement from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour in Regina.

On March 15, PotashCorp. received penalties totalling $420,000 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of a worker, contrary to Saskatchewan’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. The penalty includes the maximum $300,000 fine and the maximum $120,000 victim fine surcharge, the ministry statement notes.

Despite the top fine being levied, Tkach’s widow, Sylvia, says she believes maximums should be higher still. “I don’t think they are high enough in Saskatchewan and they are not providing a deterrent.”

PotashCorp. originally faced four charges citing the company’s failure to ensure the following: a supervisor took reasonable care to protect the health and safety of a worker; all work was sufficiently and competently supervised; a supervisor complied with the OH&S Act and associated regulations; and a direct supervisor recorded all significant information relevant to a worker’s health and safety.

Garth Gudnason was also charged as a supervisor, cited for failing to take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of a worker who may be affected by the supervisor’s acts or omissions. Gudnason’s charge was later withdrawn.

“There have certainly been some pretty significant changes to our practices” in the wake of the incident, says PotashCorp. spokesperson Bill Johnson. A provincial review “identified a number of areas where improvements can be made.”

Among others, the changes that have been adopted relate to safety training (including hazard recognition and identification, controls and inspections) for both employees and supervisors; operational policies and procedures (such as more stringent inspection requirements and improved marking of potential hazards before travel in certain areas of the mine is permitted); and underground vehicles (proper rollover protection).

The most recent fine represents only the second time Saskatchewan courts have ordered the maximum penalty — both times to PotashCorp, confirms Laur’Lei Silzer, a spokesperson for the province’s Ministry of Justice and Attorney General.

The first $300,000 fine was issued in 1998 following the deaths of two workers and the serious injury of a third two years earlier at a company mine near Saskatoon.

In cases with repeat convictions, Sylvia Tkach argues that penalties should be increased accordingly. “You need to up the ante. You need to send a message.”

— By Jason Contant

ards, Crocker reports. Saskatchewan’s Mines Regulations say that the top of every ore pass, manway or other opening into which a worker could step or fall must be covered with a securely installed covering or guarded by an adequate barrier.

Compliance is one thing, but moving beyond that is another. Allen shares a number of best practices around mining vehicles that employers should consider: s proper parking areas with temporary strobe lights to help eliminate collisions; s back-up cameras for trucks and graders (these cameras are not particularly helpful on scoop trams); s use of proximity sensors in congested or limited-visibility traffic areas; s pedestrian and vehicle communication protocols in tighttraffic areas; s enhanced worker visibility through such measures as reflective striping on helmet brims; and, s information-sharing with outside contractors about the level of dumping sites.

Allen is a strong supporter of proximity detection systems, which use sensors to inform an operator what may be around, from a pedestrian to an object or an open stope.

Calling the systems “a very powerful way” to signal hazards (as opposed to a worker seeing a barricade), he says that a number of mines in Canada and, especially in the United States and Australia, have either started testing or implementing the technology.

These systems warn operators of pending collisions and

improve awareness around blind spots. For example, Jannatec Radio Technologies of Sudbury, Ontario has developed J.A.W.S. (Jannatec Advanced Warning System), a collision avoidance and radio frequency ID (RFID) system.

Vehicles and workers are equipped with an RFID device that determines distance from each other through a signal sent between devices. Fixed tags can then be placed at hazard locations, such as openings, restricted areas or unsafe ground to alert vehicle operators to the danger.

“There is no reason why a worker or a piece of machinery, or a worker on a piece of machinery, has to fall down a hole,” says Hutchison. She sees a need for better enforcement of existing safety legislation, something illustrated by the lost lives of workers, coupled with stricter definitions. “We know if we had a proper definition of barriers, it [might] cost a little more, but, of course, it would absolutely, absolutely save lives. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Hutchison says.

Dufoe plans to seek out other families in Ontario who have lost loved ones in mining incidents similar to the one that claimed her son. “You hate to pull a scab off a wound, [but] what I’ll have to do is call those families,” she says.

“If a traffic law hasn’t changed in 20 years and fatalities keep piling up, the Ministry of Transportation should be forced to do something about it,” Dufoe says. “I think the Ministry of Labour is going to have to revise some particular sections in their rules as well.”

Lawrence Cummer is a writer in Toronto.

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MENTAL HEALTH

Everybody’s been there. That big report is due. There are some people at work you could certainly do without. And talk of layoffs has surfaced yet again.

Workplace demands, relationships and uncertainties can breed anxiety in even the most relaxed employee. But what is the effect on workers with anxiety disorders? These conditions threaten to transform everyday stress into an impaired ability to function.

That can downgrade not only the well-being of the individual involved, it can compromise the productivity and morale of the workplace as a whole.

,6'-31 +-+#,21 ILLUSTRATION: JAMES WARDELL

BY EMILY LANDAU

HIDDEN COSTS A 2002 federal report on mental illness in Canada determined that anxiety disorders — a blanket term that covers more than a dozen conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessivecompulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder — are the most common of all mental illnesses. So why are so few people talking about them?

Mental health and wellness issues have enjoyed an enhanced profile in recent years, but anxiety disorders have not received the same levels of attention. “We talk a lot about depression, but forget about anxiety,” observes Joti Samra, Ph.D., an adjunct professor and research scientist at Simon Fraser University’s Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare in Vancouver.

Just why this is the case has not been pinned down, but Dr. Samra suggests it may be because anxiety does not carry some of the common tell-tale signs of depression, such as lateness or absenteeism. “For most people with mental health issues, that’s how they’re first flagged in the workplace,” she says.

Experts say anxiety disorders brought on or exacerbated by the workplace environment frequently manifest in presenteeism, a situation in which employees are present but, because of medical conditions, are not fully functioning or fully productive. Beyond presenteeism, there is the potential for conflict with colleagues, higher costs associated with prevention and accommodation, and work-related accidents.

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causes “clinically signiďŹ cant distress or impairment.â€? ÂŽ' PDEJG anxiety Beyond GAD, Wilkerson says, panic disorder and obsescompulsive disorder may be the most common related =JTEAPU EO = sive conditions on the job. The former can result in a painful senin the chest that mimics a heart attack, while the latter DQCA >QNEA@ sation causes ďŹ xations on minor details and an uncontrollable need repetitive behaviours to reduce anxiety.

E?A>ANC KB to perform Wilkerson points to the case of a Toronto woman who could not leave her driveway without checking (once as LKPAJPE=H many as 22 times) that she had locked the front door.

HKOO JKP CAUSE AND EFFECT? KJHU PK PDA “The brain can heal itself, but the brain can also be bruised and damaged by social experience and bullying, chronic EJ@ERE@Q=H job stress, oppressive un=J@ PDAEN B=IEHEAO certainty [and] embedded frustration,� says Wilkerson. =J@ PK OK?EAPU “Seventy per cent of adults with anxiety and depression will have developed those >QP PK PDA symptoms in childhood.�

AILHKUAN Â? ?KIIAJPO While there is currently no deďŹ nitive knowledge of +=NPEJ 1D=EJ what causes anxiety disor-

Merv Gilbert, Ph.D., a registered psychologist and principal of the Gilbert Acton workplace health consulting ďŹ rm in Vancouver, says the risk of on-the-job accidents and injuries in someone with an anxiety disorder is a “biggie.â€? Why? Dr. Gilbert points out that “a core feature of a lot of anxiety disorders is some degree of impairment in decision-making and concentration.â€?

More attention needs to be paid to the relationship between anxiety and at-work accidents, he argues. It is often the case, however, that “something has to happen [on the job] before anyone does anything.�

Dr. Gilbert cites a case in British Columbia where a worker had an accident upon returning to work — arguably too soon — following the death of a family member. “He was driving a piece of heavy equipment, and one of his coworkers looked in the cab and said, ‘He was there, but nobody was home,’â€? Dr. Gilbert says. “He wasn’t psychologically present,â€? he adds. “I think [anxiety] is a huge buried iceberg of potential loss, not only to the individual and their families and to society, but to the employer,â€? comments Martin Shain, Ph.D., principal of the Neighbour@Work Centre, a workplace health consulting ďŹ rm in Caledon Village, Ontario. Two questions need answers to identify the factors that contribute to an employee’s anxiety at work, Dr. Shain suggests: First, what pre-existing anxieties and concerns do people bring to their workplaces? Second, how does the workplace itself raise or lower the chances that employees will develop anxiety disorders?

COGNITIVE, PHYSICAL Bill Wilkerson, CEO of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Mental Health in Port Hope, Ontario, says that anxiety disorders “are very treacherous, dynamic and disabling conditions when they’re either not treated or treated late or treated inadequately.�

Janet Haines, Ph.D., a lecturer at Australia’s University of Tasmania who has written extensively on work-related anxiety and phobia, says symptoms can be cognitive, such as feelings of impending doom, and physical, like increased heart rate, hot and cold ashes, stomach upset or tremulousness.

Most people can expect to experience these symptoms now and again. If severe anxiety becomes persistent, though, this may signal the possibility of an anxiety disorder.

The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), notes the most common anxiety disorder is GAD, characterized by “excessive anxiety and worry� for a majority of days over six months in which the

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ders, experts suggest that it is a combination of biochemical traits, acquired behaviours and social experiences. “All the anxiety disorders have been found to have some kind of biological predisposition, and there have been a number of ďŹ ndings about brain-function abnormalities in most of the anxiety disorders,â€? says Dr. Michael Van Ameringen, an associate professor of psychiatry at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “There are certain circuits in the brain that process information, respond to information, respond to things that are fear-related,â€? Dr. Van Ameringen explains. “These circuits can be overactive in some people, which you don’t ďŹ nd in people who don’t have an anxiety disorder,â€? he continues.

Beyond the mental turmoil experienced by those with anxiety disorders, the conditions have been linked to physical health risks, from immediate effects like fatigue and changes in appetite to some more serious long-term conditions. “We know the division between mind and body isn’t as clear as medicine had made it out to be in the past,� notes Dr. Samra. “If you look at a range of chronic health conditions — cardiac disease, hypertension, diabetes — about half of individuals who have one of those conditions will also have co-morbid depression or anxiety.�

There is a “strong physiological component to anxiety, where people may be experiencing, most commonly, things like chronic pain, headaches and fatigue,� Dr. Samra says. “We know that depression, anxiety, stress — all of these things exist on a continuum. So all of us, at some point, fall somewhere along that scale,� she says.

UNFRIENDLY TERRITORY For someone with an anxiety disorder, or at risk of developing one, the workplace can be a volatile environment. While most employees may characterize their workplaces as stressful, the effect is likely to be more pronounced, perhaps even debilitating, for those with anxiety disorders. “Anxiety is really what we mean by stress, isn’t it?� asks Dr. Shain. “We’re not worried about stress unless it results in anxiety,� he observes.

With BlackBerry, e-mail and cellphones raising expectations of immediate response, today’s workplaces promise to ratchet up employee stress. “I think the workplace has been an intensiďŹ ed, unpleasant, technology-driven, isolating experience for lots of people,â€? asserts Wilkerson. “It comes down to mental and emotional space — micromanaging, excessive e-mails, false deadlines, management

owned business. Kate was experiencing what she calls “anxious meltdowns� between 3 and 5 pm every day.

Worried about her employer’s reaction, she did not disclose her condition, but instead requested reduced hours.

The employer refused, causing Kate’s anxiety to balloon.

The situation was only made worse by what she saw as harassment by one of her co-workers. “I felt trapped,� Kate recalls. “Work felt like a prison, in a way.�

The feelings worsened until it was not solely mid-afternoon episodes, but feelings of dread in the mornings, before even arriving at work. Once there, she found the workplace demands left her feeling burned out. “When I came home, I was spending all my time at home licking my wounds, but then I wasn’t recuperated the next morning when I had to go back in.� She stayed for two more years, but acknowledges “the work I was doing wasn’t good.�

It is important for people to get some downtime, says Kathy Jurgens, national program manager of Mental Health Works in Toronto, a corporate training program offered by the Canadian Mental Health Association. “As far as someone who has anxiety in the workplace, if you’re fearing for your job, you may know you should unplug, but it might be difďŹ cult for you to actually force yourself to do so,â€? Jurgens says. “We are least productive when we are the most stressed,â€? argues Dr. Haines. In extreme situations of untreated anxiety, she says that workers might develop a workplace phobia, or “the experience of intense anxiety triggered by the workplace and a strong avoidance response,â€? which can lead to absenteeism and either short- or long-term disability leave.

UNDER THE RADAR If untreated, anxiety disorders can harm more than individuals; they can have a negative impact on the workplace as a whole. “A combination of depression, anxiety disorder and substance abuse — most often alcohol — is causing quite a cataract of lost days in the workplace,� says Wilkerson. Indeed, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto cites a review from the Public Health Agency of Canada that found productivity losses from mental illness amount to approximately $17.7 billion a year in Canada.

Depression may be the most public face of mental health, but there are other conditions lurking below the surface. As well, there may be considerable interplay between different conditions that fall under the mental health umbrella. “Depression usually doesn’t start as depression,� notes Simon Fraser’s Dr. Samra. “It will commonly start as chronic anxiety and turn into depression.�

But if anxiety disorders are so common on the job, why are they not more fully recognized and addressed?

5KNNEA@ =>KQP DAN AILHKUAN‘O NA=?PEKJ ODA @E@ JKP @EO?HKOA DAN ?KJ@EPEKJ >QP EJOPA=@ NAMQAOPA@ NA@Q?A@ DKQNO 2DA AILHKUAN NABQOA@ ?=QOEJC )=PA‘O =JTEAPU PK >=HHKKJ

practices which are driven by a world in which people are really not paying attention to each other’s own sensibilities. I think we’re treating each other more remotely.�

And it may be that loss of traditional one-to-one interaction that is worrisome.

Wilkerson says harassment — which he deďŹ nes as any behaviour that either “intentionally or negligentlyâ€? produces injury to mental health — is responsible for a great deal of anxiety in the workplace.

Harassment may include everything from bullying and mobbing to “a situation where a supervisor is really expecting too much from a person over too long a period,� he says. The supervisor may be unaware of the negative impact, or may simply regard the demands as part of the worker’s job.

Kate, a Montreal mental health professional who suffers from GAD and social phobia, felt the full force of anxiety attacks when she was employed as an administrative staffer at a small, family-

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Mary Ann Baynton, president of Mary Ann Baynton & Associates, a Waterdown, Ontario-based management consulting ďŹ rm, suggests that while a worker with depression might be viewed as a “slacker,â€? that is unlikely to be the case for an anxiety sufferer. His actions are likely interpreted as ambition, attention to detail and eagerness to please, Baynton says.

Those outward behaviours are unlikely to elicit a call for change. “Some people with anxiety may just be ignored as someone who’s struggling and just given space because the thought is that they’ll deal with it and still produce,� she says.

Anxiety sufferers who opt to disclose their conditions will likely be met with some common misperceptions. “If they complain about conditions of work that are making them anxious, they can sometimes be characterized by their fellow workers as not carrying their load,� says Dr. Shain.

However, being forthcoming about conditions can be tough in light of the stigma associated with mental health conditions in general. “We’ll often feel safe quicker with a friend at Tim Hortons talking about our personal issues,� says Jurgens.

To counter misconceptions, Dr. Richard Swinson, medical director of the Anxiety Treatment and Research Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, recommends viewing an anxiety disorder

the same way as a physical condition. “If we substituted the experience of a migraine, would you expect that telling people to get over that migraine headache would help?� Dr. Swinson asks. “Everybody gets anxious and most people, fortunately, can handle that,� he says. “The people with anxiety disorders don’t have the luxury of being able to handle it.�

the intensity of an individual that is out of proportion with the importance of the detail,� she observes. “Some of my colleagues, when they’re dealing with anxiety, will write these enormous e-mails that go on for pages.�

Fortunately, anxiety disorders are very treatable if identiďŹ ed and diagnosed properly. The most common methods of treatment are medications and cognitive behaviour therapy, which helps anxiety-sufferers achieve more realistic thoughts about their situations, and also uses breathing, relaxation and problem-solving skills to help them cope.

While seeking treatment is up to individual workers, experts agree they should talk to their employers. Baynton suggests that if a worker discloses his condition, or if an employer senses that the employee is struggling, there are two questions that should be asked: s What do you need to be successful in your job? — the answer helps identify supports the worker may require; and, s What will you do to ensure your own success? — since an anxiety-sufferer often feels out of control, says Baynton, the process helps the person to “regain a sense of control and responsibility for their own well-being at work.�

Dr. Van Ameringen further suggests that role clarity and expectations should be addressed. For example, someone with GAD probably needs “more clear direction about tasks that need to be completed,â€? while a person with social anxiety might beneďŹ t from reduced group work.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), which fulďŹ ll both the desire for privacy and the need to explore solutions, may also prove crucial for a worker struggling with a mental health condition. “Traditionally, an employee assistance program is meant to do an assessment, support and refer to the appropriate community resource,â€? says Francois Legault, national director for the Employee Assistance Services Bureau at Health Canada in Ottawa.

Ž5A‘HH KBPAJ BAAH O=BA MQE?GAN PHYSICAL TO MENTAL The potential link between physical and SEPD = BNEAJ@ mental should not be ignored. Wilkersays that if a worker is off the job =P 2EI &KNPKJO son on short- or long-term disability for illness or injury, “in 75 per cent of P=HGEJC =>KQP an those cases, if they’re off six months or more, they will develop depression and KQN LANOKJ=H anxiety as a secondary diagnosis.� Once the original injury heals, however, “they still EOOQAO � O=UO can’t get back to work, and the secondary diagnosis has been missed,� he adds.

(QNCAJO Jamey had been a manager at a Halifax youth

RAISING THE PROFILE Like all mental illnesses, a problem in identifying an anxiety disorder is its invisibility. Unlike a broken arm, says Dr. Gilbert, “mental health disorders, in most cases, are insidious.�

Without already having the condition disclosed, a supervisor’s most important tool will be monitoring changes in usual behaviour. Dr. Gilbert points to an employee committing more errors on the job, being withdrawn, experiencing mood uctuations, and being agitated or distracted as potential signs that the person may be suffering from some sort of anxiety disorder.

Baynton says excessive attention to detail may be another clue that an anxiety-sufferer is struggling. “Sometimes it’s

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shelter for more than two years when he experienced a depressive breakdown that forced him onto extended disability leave. Beyond managing the shelter’s day-to-day affairs, his work often involved crisis management. “Years of front-line work among threats of suicide and violence ďŹ nally took their toll,â€? says Jamey. On his way to work one day, he reports feeling “like a veil of tears were just on top

Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Samra and Dr. ÂŽ'J LAN ?AJP with Dan Bilsker.

The tool represents “an attempt to KB PDKOA ?=OAO explain to employers why you should do something, why you should pay atEB PDAU‘NA KBB tention to this stuff and here’s how,� says Dr. Shain. “It’s all very well to say to employers, got all OET IKJPDO KN these responsibilities and we’ve got this ‘You’ve sort of perfect legal storm of pressures building on you to provide and IKNA PDAU maintain a psychologically safe workplace, but we don’t how to do it,’� he says.

SEHH @ARAHKL tell youUltimately, the goal is that with the proper education and organizational workplaces will @ALNAOOEKJ =J@ move toward eliminatinginitiatives, psychological hazards. managers with appropriate training =JTEAPU =O = may helpProviding in this regard.

Wilkerson says there is a need for several things: a clear OA?KJ@=NU quantiďŹ cation and understanding of the new work hazards @E=CJKOEO Â? relating to cognitive, behavioural and sensory impairment; a

of me like a heavy blanket.�

Jamey was diagnosed with depression and began a year-long mental health leave to recuperate.

But as his leave continued, he says his anxiety magniďŹ ed. One day, while driving past his workplace to test his reaction, he experienced a panic attack in the parking lot. “You really get tight, you get the butteries in the stomach, and my heart started to race a bit.â€?

The panic attacks persisted, and although he underwent visualization exercises — acting out the scenarios that caused anxiety — with his therapist, the anxiety did not subside. While listening to the radio, he heard about a difďŹ cult incident related to the work he had only recently been doing, and, again, suffered an attack. It was at that point that Jamey realized he would be unable to return to his previous job.

Returning to work following an injury or illness is challenging for anyone, but for those suffering from anxiety disorders the hurdles may be higher still. Dr. Gilbert insists that a return-to-work plan, one that incorporates relapse prevention and relapse management, can help orchestrate a return with minimal anxiety.

Measures such as allowing for a graduated return, job shadowing and time away from work for appointments with EAP counsellors or psychologists are among the tools that might smooth the worker’s transition, he suggests.

Neither Kate nor Jamey were conďŹ dent that accommodation was possible in their previous jobs, and opted to secure new positions where this would be more likely. Jamey reports his manager was very supportive, but he felt the nature of the work was never going to be compatible with his anxiety.

Jamey says he is functioning well in his new position as a manager at a community mental health centre. Despite it being a high-pressure job, he says the bulk of work is managing people, and this has not caused him anxiety to date.

ARMED WITH INFORMATION Dr. Samra remarks that mental illness is “seen as a private problem,â€? but perhaps that view should change. Jurgens insists that companies must develop a comprehensive education plan to hike mental health awareness. “I think it comes down to increasing mental health literacy, that they start talking about it, ďŹ rst and foremost,â€? she says.

One effort devoted to doing just that is Guarding Minds@ Work, an evidence-based process that instructs employers on how to assess and address “risks to mental health that are embedded in the way work [is] organized and managed and designed,� says Dr. Shain, who developed the resource along

new model of occupational health where occupational physicians play an important case-management function in companies; and that oh&s responses are as available to a worker with a mental condition or disorder as if he had suffered a burn injury or fall from a ladder.

The role of an employer “is not to treat psychological health conditions,� says Dr. Samra. “It’s to be supportive around those.�

Adds Dr. Shain: “I think anxiety disorders are one of the foreseeable harms that we are seeing more and more of in the workplace,� brought on by having to do more with less.

What he sees evolving in related law “is an increased pressure on employers to provide a psychologically safe workplace, which basically means that you have to do the same thing for mental health as for physical health. It’s a due diligence thing.�

Dr. Gilbert reports that he is optimistic about the future of mental health treatment and anxiety awareness on the job.

With the emerging work force consisting of younger people now entering employment, “there’s a higher level of psychological literacy,� he suggests. “People are a lot more comfortable talking about these things, using words like depression, anxiety, panic disorder, stress and so on. So a lot of the stigma is dying off.�

And that may be good not only for the individual, but for the whole of the workplace.

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

OHS CANADA.

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ACCIDENT PREVENTION

LIFT TRUCKS

Need a Lift?

ALL AROUND: Forklifts, forklift trucks or lift trucks — whatever the version, these units are an everyday feature in many of today’s workplaces. It is advisable, however, not to equate “ordinary” with a lack of potential for harm.

Forklifts warrant hazard-specific notice, attention and care.

Any sector in which forklifts are used should be up for review, but a recent safety blitz by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto paid particular attention to retail, wholesale, transportation, automotive, wood and metal fabrication, food, beverage and tobacco, offices and related services, chemical, rubber and plastics, industrial services, utilities, mushroom farms and greenhouse operations.

UP AND DOWN: Lifting devices can be used to move, raise, lower or remove large objects or a number of smaller objects on pallets or in boxes, crates or containers, notes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States.

HARMFUL POTENTIAL: These seemingly simple movements have proven harmful. In Ontario, for example, the MOL notes that 18 workers have died since 2003 following incidents involving lift trucks, reach trucks, forklifts and tow motors. With regard to lost-time injuries, there were 9,455 between 1996 and 2008. The MOL advises that injurious actions include when a lifting device strikes an object, when workers are hit by lifts or improperly secured loads, and when preventive maintenance and load capacity checks are insufficient.

TUMBLE BUMBLE: Overturns are the leading cause of forklift-related deaths, accounting for about 25 per cent in the United States, notes a 2001 alert from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). If a sit-down forklift is overturning, do not try to jump free. Stay with the truck, firmly holding on and leaning in the opposite direction of the overturn. If a stand-up unit with rear access begins a lateral tip-over, step backward through the access point, NIOSH advises.

ON CONDITION: The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario notes there are many work conditions that can up accident potential: s workplace design — narrow and cluttered aisles, obstructions at intersections and doors, traffic volume in work areas, loading dock conditions, ramps with different surfaces, noise, odours, toxic gas, dust and poor lighting; s load — material poorly stacked or piled on a pallet, pallets in disrepair, loads that are too heavy, and loads that are unstable or block an operator’s view; and, s mechanical — malfunctioning brakes, steering, mast assembly, clutch or transmission, leaks in hydraulic systems or transmission, non-existent or malfunctioning safety devices, forklift emissions, blind spots or obstructions, and poor layout of control and displays.

ROUND AND ROUND: To be safe, checks need to be done on a regular basis. And with forklifts, the CCOHS notes that regular means before each use. Taking a look around — in the form of a visual or “circle” check — includes confirming such things as general conditions and cleanliness; engine oil, fuel and radiator water levels; wear, damage and air pressure on wheels and tires; breaks, chips and wear on carriage teeth; wear on chain anchor pins; crimps, wear or rubbing involving hoses; bends or cracks on forks; damage to seat belts; that there are no obstructions on the floor or overhead; and that warning devices, headlights and warning lights are working as intended.

In addition to the circle check is the operational pre-use check, which covers practical tests, including those below: s the foot brake’s pedal holds and the forklift stops smoothly; s the parking brake holds against slight acceleration; s the clutch and gearshift work smoothly with no jumping or jerking; s raise the forks to maximum height and lower completely to check that the lift mechanism operates smoothly; and, s tilt the mast all the way forward and backward to ensure the tilt mechanism moves smoothly and holds.

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FORK IT OVER: When it comes to forklift forks, a more thorough inspection at least every six months, preferably done by a trained individual, is necessary to look for any cracks or distortion, the CCOHS advises. Check forks for the following: wear (constant abrasion can reduce their thickness and ability to lift loads at the designed capacity); distortion (forks can be bent out of shape); and cracks in the heel and hanger (cracks may occur where attachments are welded on or in the inside radius of the bend area).

DOCK TALK: Naturally, forklifts are a regular feature of loading docks. Information from WM Manufacturing Ltd. in Mission, British Columbia offers the following tips: s keep the forklift clear of the dock edge while vehicles are backing up to it; s do not begin loading or unloading until a supply truck has come to a complete stop, the engine turned off, the dock lock engaged and the wheels chocked; s do not drive into the trailer until the bridge or dock plate has been attached; s drive straight across the bridge plates when entering or exiting the trailer; and, s use dock lights or headlights when working in a dark trailer.

TAKE A PASS: WM Manufacturing recommends a forklift not be used in certain circumstances: the mast has broken or cracked weld points; the forks are unequally spaced; hydraulic fluid levels are low; hardware on the tilt cylinders is loose; tires are not filled to the operating pressure indicated on the tire; and batteries have cracks or holes, uncapped cells, frayed cables, broken cable insulation, loose connections or clogged vent caps.

SEE TO SEE: Keeping an eye out is critically important — not only for forklift operators, but for those working in the immediate area. Consider the forklift driver in the United Kingdom who was fined in April of 2008 for failing to take reasonable care. The operator was driving a rough-terrain forklift truck while the forks were loaded with a stack of 12 modular sheds, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports in a statement. With the load obscuring his vision, the forklift hit a worker as the unit moved forward.

The HSE suggests asking a few questions: s Does the forklift operator have good all-around visibility? s Do the seat belts and restraints meet the needs of the job? s Can drivers get in and out of the cab safely and easily? s Is the vehicle bright enough to be seen?

YES AND NO: As always, there are things to do and things not to do. Consider these tips from NIOSH and the CCOHS: s do not raise or lower the forks while a forklift is moving; s do not allow passengers to ride on forklifts unless a seat is provided; s evaluate intersections and blind corners to determine whether or not overhead dome mirrors could improve the visibility of operators or others on foot; s alert those nearby by using horns, audible back-up alarms and flashing lights; s repair cracks, crumbling edges and other defects on docks, aisles and other operating surfaces; s if handling pallets, ensure that forks are level, high enough to go into the pallet, and the proper width to provide even distribution of weight; s to maintain steering control, turn with the rear wheels, do not turn the steering wheel sharply at fast speeds, and do not overload the unit; and, s when going up or downhill, angle forks downhill without a load and uphill with a load.

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION NARCOTICS

The Long and Short of It

By Dan Birch

P

rescription narcotic use, perhaps abuse, has served as fodder for its fair share of headlines and has grabbed attention from medical and compensation types alike.

Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in Toronto joined this group with the release of its “multifaceted” narcotics strategy, effective February 16, which seeks to head off the potential for addiction among claimants.

Components of the WSIB’s new strategy include maximum doses, increased contact between community and board physicians to facilitate worker care, and discussions with health care providers regarding resources to help workers who have developed a dependence on narcotics, says WSIB spokesperson Christine Arnott.

Using prescription opioids — synthetic pain-killing drugs such as codeine, morphine and oxycodone — to ease chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) is “controversial because of the side effects of “The WSIB opioids, the physical tolerance they build up (with related withdrawal reis concerned actions and possibility of addiction) and... disapproval by regulatory bodabout the ies,” writes Dr. Andrea Furlan, co-author of a 2006 article in the Canadian increasing risk Medical Association Journal. Nausea, vertigo and drowsiness are among the of dependency side effects, the review notes. observed with A key feature of the WSIB policy is the restricted use of long-acting long-acting opioids (LAO). Many workers with new injury claims will no longer be narcotics,” covered for LAOs during the first 12 weeks following an injury (claimants says Arnott. can use doctor-prescribed LAOs, but costs will not be paid by the WSIB), Arnott reports. Using short-acting opioids (SAO) is still permissible, she adds.

“The WSIB is concerned about the increasing risk of dependency observed with long-acting narcotics,” says Arnott.

“There are milder drugs on WSIB formularies available to workers which could be effective.”

There are exemptions — the LAO prohibition does not apply to claimants with occupational diseases, such as cancer, or those in the WSIB’s serious injury program.

MATTER OF DURATION One difference between short- and long-acting narcotics is as their names suggest: duration. While the former is expected to relieve pain for two to four hours, pain relief with the latter is longer and it may only need to be taken once or twice daily, says Dr. Janet Wright, an assistant registrar with the College

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of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta in Edmonton.

The organization, working with regulatory colleges across the country, has created a national guideline for opioid use.

It answers important questions for physicians, including the following: What factors should be considered when prescribing? How should addiction/outcomes be monitored? What steps should be taken if addiction appears to be forming?

Short and long versions of the same strength, Arnott notes, “may be equally effective. However, [SAOs] work faster and may be easier to adjust in dosing.”

Management of prescription narcotics is an area that workers’ compensation boards continue to evaluate as the evidence grows, says Jennifer Leyen, director of special care services at WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia.

For years, says WorkSafeBC chief medical officer Dr. Peter Rothfels, the board covered opioid costs only during the first eight weeks of recovery, barring “extenuating circumstances.” The problem was that with no firm definition of “extenuating circumstances,” it was interpreted in many ways, Dr. Rothfels says.

He suggests that some doctors were actually contributing to patients developing addictions. Despite best intentions, a physician would prescribe higher doses of opioids in a bid to ease a worker’s pain, in some cases leading to addiction. “We felt we had to put the brakes on this.”

WorkSafeBC instituted a practice directive in October of 2008 requiring that a review be done at the eight-week mark; the treating physician must fill out a form and provide information about the worker’s health condition, narcotics treatment history and the effectiveness to date.

The claimant is also informed that he must agree to certain conditions, including that he will not sell the opioids, will use one doctor and one pharmacy, and will not obtain early refills, Dr. Rothfels notes. This establishes a contract and allows WorkSafeBC to opt out of payment if the worker does not meet the conditions, he adds.

The physician and worker letters must be returned to the board within four weeks, during which time the claimant’s opioid expenses will be covered.

A WorkSafeBC medical advisor reviews cases where both the doctor and claimant request continuation of narcotics after eight weeks. If the advisor concurs, the treatment can go on for another three months; if the advisor disagrees, he will discuss the matter with the attending physician.

Should a decision be made to stop coverage at 12 weeks, Dr. Rothfels reports that WorkSafeBC offers additional pain management and addiction treatment services. “We are not impinging upon the physician’s right to prescribe,” he says.

“We are simply saying we’re not going to pay for it.”

In Ontario, WSIB clinical staff carry out a review at the 12-week mark. WorkSafeBC, for its part, does not distinguish between long- and short-acting narcotics in its policies, Dr.

KEEPING TRACK Ellen MacEachen, Ph.D., a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto, says that more attention needs to be paid to the relationship between early return-to-work (RTW) conditions and prescription narcotic use by injured workers. “The worker is the one at the centre, sort of in this grey zone,” Dr. MacEachen suggests.

In light of her research, she makes the following observations: UÊ improved communication about RTW problems is needed; UÊ workers and doctors are the key parties in recognizing medication use and RTW difficulties, meaning safe forums for worker feedback about workplace conditions are necessary and physician advice should be taken seriously; and, UÊ to ensure proper monitoring, employers should know what type of medications are being used, workers’ compensation board decision-makers should track medication use, and when medication use is high, board decision-makers should consider problems in workplace conditions, not just worker coping strategies.

Rothfels says. In as much as 90 per cent of cases, he notes, SAOs are prescribed in the first eight to 12 weeks post-injury/surgery.

He argues that most research shows the odds of developing an addiction are higher with SAOs than LAOs. Still, there are numerous individual factors that come into play.

In announcing its narcotics strategy, the WSIB highlighted some notable statistics: “Trends show that 40 per cent more injured workers have been prescribed narcotics (opioids) compared to 10 years ago. There have also been 100 per cent more narcotic prescriptions over that same time.”

But not only are more people receiving narcotics, the board notes, “doses prescribed by physicians have also increased.”

Describing one of the motivations behind penning national guidelines, Dr. Wright of the Alberta college says it is hoped that they will help increase the comfort and confidence of physicians to prescribe painkillers.

In general, Dr. Wright says, doctors “are not trained very well in this area.” This lack of experience can lead to doctors being hesitant to prescribe opioids in bona fide cases, meaning that some patients may not be getting the pain relief they need, she says. “How do we help people use these drugs, which can be very useful in the management of CNCP?” The expectation is that that question will be answered with the national guideline, which will, ultimately, be made available online.

DIVIDED SUPPORT What do injured worker advocates think of the WSIB’s strategy? Steve Mantis, secretary for the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, says he worries that it is “impinging” on the independence of doctors and, as such, may lead to claimants not receiving adequate pain relief.

The driving motivation may be more financial than health-related, suggests Mantis from his home near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Indeed, pointing to the WSIB’s 2009 stakeholder consultation report, he says it cites the restricted narcotic formulary as a way to manage health care costs.

But the policy is aimed at ensuring “injured workers obtain appropriate narcotic therapy as prescribed by their physicians to support treatment goals, including recovery and safe return to work,” Arnott responds. “Since the WSIB offers alternative drugs to long-acting narcotics for pain control, there may be little impact on overall drug costs.”

At WorkSafeBC, Dr. Rothfels notes “the motivation was the human cost, particularly around what happens to injured workers on long-term, and particularly high-dose, narcotics.

We see terrible spirals that happen to them.”

Arnott says that in cases where a treating physician feels

strongly that an LAO is necessary, “case-specific circumstances will always be considered.”

Mantis says he would like to see some analysis of how many injured workers are taking painkillers, why they need this type of medication and what the outcomes have been.

“If the worker’s health is the number one priority, let’s have some information,” he argues.

Mantis suggests opioid-linked side effects can negatively affect the safety of a worker (or of coworkers) on the job.

This lack of WorkSafeBC’s Leyen says responses such as drowsiness could prove danexperience gerous in certain situations, including when a heavy equipment operator recan lead to quires a high level of cognitive awaredoctors being ness and manual dexterity to complete work tasks. She emphasizes, however, that every client has “a different rehesitant to sponse to the narcotics.”

Dr. Wright notes that side effects prescribe typically appear when opioid therapy opioids in begins and when dosage is increased.

The issue of opioid-using injured bona fide workers has surfaced in Saskatchewan, where some worker advocates cases. have argued that the compensation board’s return-to-work (RTW) policies force some claimants to return too early, possibly endangering their own lives and those of co-workers.

Injured workers may conceal their painkiller use, says Ellen MacEachen, Ph.D., a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. Dr. MacEachen, who has undertaken research into problematic RTW cases, cites the example of a miner operating heavy machinery who does not want to complain because he does not want to lose his job.

Dr. MacEachen and her team surveyed 48 injured workers in Ontario who were having great difficulty with the RTW process. Unprompted, 20 workers mentioned opioid use specifically and 21 spoke of medications generally.

“They take the pain medication to cope with the requirement of going back early,” suggests Dr. MacEachen. Doing so, however, leads to the twin risks of overexertion/re-injury or injury resulting from impairment, she says.

Mantis points to the peer pressure “to pick up your end of the work. You take another pill and you do [the work], but that ends up in further injury or re-injury.”

Dan Birch is assistant editor of

OHS CANADA.

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SAFETY GEAR GAS DETECTION

Serve and Detect

By Jason Contant

W

hen the bodies of the final four missing workers were recovered days after a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia in April, the event gained the unfortunate distinction of becoming the most deadly mining accident south of the border in 40 years. The fatality toll was 29.

The four-day rescue effort was complicated by the fact that rescue teams entering the mine encountered “unfavourable atmospheric conditions,” says a statement from Massey Energy Company, the Richmond, Virginia-based owner of the mine. The conditions required that bore holes be drilled about 330 “Not all metres into the mine and exhaust fans used to make conditions safe confined enough for teams to proceed.

Like many explosions at coal mine spaces are operations, it is believed that a buildup of methane gas played a role in the equal and the West Virginia accident. Whatever the final conclusions, the fatal incident il- gases found in lustrates the importance of proper gas monitoring and what can go wrong them can vary when hazardous gases reach dangerdramatically.” ous concentrations.

For those looking to minimize any potentially catastrophic consequences — in coal mines as well as a host of other work environments — there is a range of gas monitors, accessories and sensors to fit the bill.

ONE, TWO OR THREE In general, monitors fall under two main categories: fixed and portable products. A third option is stand-alone monitors, which are similar to fixed gas detectors, but can also be transported from one work site to another.

Depending on the conditions and activities of a workplace, choices range from single to multi-gas detectors, specific sensors (such as catalytic bead and infrared that monitor the lower explosive limit [LEL] of combustible gases), and photoionization detectors, or PIDs, which are used in workplaces where volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present.

Purchasing decisions should be guided, first and foremost, by the workplace environment. “Typically, where the biggest mistake will be made with a piece of equipment or a piece of technology is that it’s not properly applied to the application,” suggests Dave Wagner, director of product knowledge at Industrial Scientific Corporation in Oakdale, Pennsylvania. Wagner notes mistakes run the gamut from uncertainty over which gases are present to which ones require monitoring and may interfere with the proper functioning of a sensor, such as chlorine in a catalytic bead sensor.

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Joe Glorioso, sales application product manager for Mine Safety Appliances Company (MSA) in Pittsburgh, says a standard detector monitors “the big four”: oxygen, combustibles, hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon monoxide (CO).

Asked about using fixed or portable monitors, Glorioso says a rule of thumb is that fixed gas detectors are mainly used for monitoring an area while portables are used for personnel. “In my opinion, there are really no set black-andwhite guidelines,” he says. “In many cases, you really should have both,” he adds.

Greg Reeves, president of Oakville, Ontario-based Arjay Engineering Ltd., says fixed gas detection systems are ideal where “there could be continuous emissions of a gas,” such as in a parking garage, chemical plant or warehouse, or in areas where an unexpected or catastrophic leak could occur, including a refinery.

Glorioso agrees, saying fixed monitors offer 24/7 coverage in workplaces where there’s “a lot of ground to cover.”

He would count himself a supporter of teaming both fixed and portable monitors. “You can spread out your permanent instruments, but your portable instruments, again, will protect that worker,” Glorioso notes. “Say you spread out your fixed instruments every [15 to 30 metres], depending on where the leak occurs, the temperature conditions [and] the wind, it could all affect where that gas cloud dissipates to.”

CLOSE QUARTERS On their own, offers Reeves, portable monitors are a good choice for confined spaces, “especially if you’re going into spaces where you don’t know what gases may be there.” The big four gases are typically targeted, but added protection from “unknowns” may be achieved by using what he calls a background broad-range sensor. Two examples include a broad-range VOC sensor and a solid state sensor.

Consider a situation in which workers in a sewer are unaware that a few blocks upstream a worker at a dry-cleaning service has just dumped some percoethylene. “You may not necessarily alarm because it is not one of those [four] target gases,” Reeves says.

Ross Humphry, president of Canadian Safety Equipment Inc. in Mississauga, Ontario, agrees, pointing out that sewers are already prone to oxygen deficiency and the presence of methane and H2S gases. Add to those expected hazards that industries in the area “can deposit waste solvents and chemicals [and this] can create a soup of toxics that may not be detectable by the sensors in the instrument you have chosen,” Humphry cautions.

Circumstances can certainly change. He notes that utility manholes, which also have the potential for oxygen deficiency, but usually do not contain materials that generate methane and H2S gases, can have these gases migrate into them. “Not all confined spaces are equal and the gases found

PHOTOS: TOP, BOTTOM LEFT - DRAEGER.; CENTRE, BOTTOM RIGHT - MSA

in them can vary dramatically based on the types of processes that can create the gases,” Humphry says. In some cases, he notes, positive pressure supplied air may be considered a safe alternative.

SENSOR SENSE It is important to choose the correct gas detector, but choice of sensors is equally critical. Bob Henderson, president of GfG Instrumentation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, says one of the more significant developments in recent years is that manufacturers continue to expand their product lines, offering end-users more sensors from which to choose.

Take infrared sensors, for example. Ideal for certain combustible gases, Reeves says that these are “very selective and precise,” and can be tuned to the specific wavelength absorption of a target chemical. “Depending on that wavelength, you can determine which gases it will or will not respond to, and you can make that wavelength very loose or very tight,” he reports.

Reeves says infrared sensors tend to be used for refrigerants, which include variations of the compounds trifluoroethane, tetrafluoroethane, chlorodifluoromethane and trichlorofluoromethane (freons are used in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems).

Other working environments in which infrared sensors might be a solid choice include offices, breweries and greenhouses, where carbon dioxide (CO2) is used to either monitor indoor air quality or to control air flow.

The wavelength of a CO molecule is long and ideal for a large infrared sensor, while CO2 has a very short wavelength, Reeves says. As such, the sensor for CO2 can be small, usually no longer than the length of a finger, he adds.

“You can get an infrared sensor full of electronics and interface for $300 to $400,” notes Reeves. “If you move up into the longer wavelengths, like refrigerants, which require the longer wave path, they come into the thousands.”

Henderson notes that the purchase price will go up by approximately $1,000 to $1,100 for an instrument equipped with an infrared-type combustible sensor, versus one with a traditional LEL, or catalytic bead, sensor.

Besides the higher cost, Wagner suggests that infrared sensors carry another disadvantage compared with catalytic bead — the inability to detect hydrogen.

Reeves further cautions that users of infrared detectors should be aware these may not pick up “gases that may give you nuisance or cross-sensitivity. And you may not want to ignore those other gases.”

Gas detectors can be used in a variety of work-related environments, including manholes, pipes and industrial plants.

For workplaces that have opted for infrared sensors, but also have hydrogen in their applications, Henderson suggests there are a few options: use an electrochemical sensor to measure the hydrogen or provide a traditional LEL sensor for hydrogen and employ the infrared sensor for everything else.

HARD TO TELL Humphry notes there are some issues of concern when it comes to catalytic bead sensors and combustible gases. The sensor is “unable to distinguish one combustible gas from another and can only provide accurate gas levels when they are calibrated with a known gas or are programmed with a variety of different gas responses and are then told which calibration curve to use,” he explains.

Glorioso sees a couple of advantages in choosing infrared over catalytic bead sensors. These include a longer sensor life expectancy (infrared sensors can last five-plus years compared with about two years for catalytic bead), and there is no need for oxygen to be present within the workplace atmosphere to detect gas.

With traditional LEL sensors, Glorioso explains that an oxygen sensor is usually placed right next to the first sensor to ensure that enough of the gas is available to provide a good reading.

In addition, equipment manufacturers note that infrared sensors are more responsive to large hydrocarbons, require less frequent calibrations and cannot be “poisoned” like traditional sensors.

Catalytic bead sensors, says Reeves, are “notoriously poisoned by silicone.” If there is silicone in the air, he reports that “the vapour starts to stick on the sensor and it basically suffocates the sensor.”

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TIME LINES Time is of the essence when it comes to being exposed to hazardous gases. Consider, for example, what hours — or even minutes — may mean when that gas happens to be hydrogen sulphide.

Parts per million (ppm) 10 50 to 100 200 to 300 500 to 700 >1,000

Time 8 hours 1 hour 1 hour ½ hour to 1 hour Minutes

Effects & Symptoms Permissible exposure level Mild eye, respiratory irritation Marked eye, respiratory irritation Unconsciousness, death Unconsciousness, death

* Adapted from RAE Systems’ “Guide to Atmospheric Testing in Confined Spaces”

An ammonia electrochemical sensor may also become poisoned. “It has a hard time recovering after it gets a heavy dose of ammonia,” says Reeves, adding that because there is no chemical reaction occurring with the infrared option, it is not as susceptible to these recovery issues.

SENSITIVE MATTERS With the long list of gases that can be found on the job, the possibility exists of interference gases or cross-sensitivities of gases. Beyond silicone and sulphur, Wagner says chlorine is an inhibitor on a traditional LEL sensor.

“A chlorinated compound in a high enough concentration would tend to prevent a traditional combustible gas sensor from being able to respond. It won’t give you false alarms; more a false sense of security,” he suggests.

Likely the most common — and possibly the most trouble-

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some — of cross-interference is hydrogen’s effect on a CO sensor, says Wagner. “That’s something that is fairly hard to avoid.”

Cross-interference aside, the ease and frequency of calibration is a factor for some when purchasing a monitor.

Manish Gupta, marketing manager with Draeger Safety Canada Limited in Mississauga, Ontario, offers an example: some units require monthly calibration while others do not have to be calibrated for two years. Manufacturers can even set units “so that if you don’t calibrate it within 30 days, the unit will shut down,” Gupta reports.

The same can be done for units in which a field or “bump” test is not performed before each use. Bump testing involves using a “squirt gas” to ensure the unit is working properly and sounding an alarm.

While regulatory provisions in many jurisdictions demand a bump test or full calibration of portable gas moni-

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INFRARED ADVANTAGE Some sources contend that infrared gas detectors offer a number of advantages over catalytic bead units. First, infrared detectors provide a speedy response (typically less than 10 seconds), demand little maintenance and greatly simplify the checking process, through the use of modern micro-processor controlled equipment.

As well, the detectors are designed not to be affected by any known “poisons,” and can operate in inert atmospheres and under a wide range of ambient temperature, pressure and humidity conditions.

The principle behind the units is dual wavelength infrared absorption. This means light passes through the sample mixture at two wavelengths — one of these is set at the absorption peak of the gas to be detected; the other is not. The two light sources are pulsed alternatively and guided along a common optical path and, finally, through the sample gas.

The beams are then reflected back by a retro-reflector, returning once more through the sample and into the detector.

The signal strengths of sample and reference beams are compared and a measure of gas concentration provided.

tors before each use, Humphry suggests this protective measure does not always take place. The requirement “is great in theory, but rare in practice,” he argues.

Although manufacturers have developed automatic tests that can be done quickly, it is up to each individual user to actually complete the checks.

Docking or calibration stations are also available so that users can configure units, for example, to alarm when gas levels reach a certain concentration. In past, says Gupta, users had to return to equipment makers to make any such change. “Now you’ve got the option that you can customize the unit to your own needs,” he says. “You’re not stuck in a mould anymore having to buy what is available and hope it works for you.”

The ability to configure is particularly important should permissible exposure levels be amended. GfG’s Henderson points out that the new threshold limit value (TLV) for sulphur dioxide in the United States is 0.025 parts per million (ppm). That is down considerably from the previous limit of two ppm, he says. “That is going to make detection very problematic for a lot of people.”

A new TLV for H2S, dropping from a permissible level of 10 to one ppm, is also expected to come into effect soon, Henderson reports.

Gupta notes that, besides targeting specific gases, certain sectors may need products that offer superior sensor stability.

Some sensors on the market will compensate for workplace conditions such as temperature, humidity and pressure, he says.

In the mining industry, for example, some sensors will allow for calibration to be done above ground and still work underground. Gupta cautions that that is not always possible with all types of gas detectors.

Sensor life also varies depending on the product. Reeves points out that improved sensor technology for electrochem-

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ical cells has allowed some manufacturers to guarantee sensor life for five years or more, whereas just three or four years ago, the lifetime was closer to two years.

Improved technology is also making it possible for nanotechnology to be used in gas detection, says Reeves. For example, he notes that nanosized microcircuits are currently being examined primarily in the United States for terrorism-related applications.

“It’s falling over into the general industrial side to see how the nanotechnologies could be applied to general gas sensing,” he says. Reeves says he expects that such tiny sensors would take little energy to drive them, with minimal battery power and long battery life.

Currently, Gupta reports, many products come with rechargeable batteries that use “trickle charges,” which means that if the unit is left in the charger overnight, it does not overheat or damage the product.

Of course, price is always a consideration, which, unfortunately, can have a negative influence on gas detection buying decisions. “Cheap, throwaway units [are] now cluttering the market,” suggests Humphry, adding that “most end-users just want to buy the instrument and be done with it.”

He advises gas detector purHand-held monitors (and chasers to view the equipment calibration kits) help to much the same way as they ensure workers are prowould a motor vehicle. “It has to tected in confined spaces. be serviced and you have to refuel it. There is no escaping the inevitable,” Humphry says.

Although it may not seem to be the case initially, Gupta says that disposable units cost an employer more in the long run. And, in the worst case scenario, a poorly functioning or malfunctioning instrument can mean the difference between life and death.

Jason Contant is editor of SAFETY NEWS.

CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

&

PHOTOS: CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT - MSA, MSA, DRAEGER, DRAEGER.

* Adapted from information from BW Technologies by Honeywell

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ay/June 1989: Sharper than the rest… May/June 1989: I think it hits home and helps all think of what is most important in life… December 2002: What a compelling hoto! It immediately evokes the story behind the image, proving that a picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words… May/June 1989: The poignancy of the image is what ptivated me. It deftly illustrates the tension between work and family life, contrasting the hazards we face at work, which can and do harm us, with the natural good of w life which we ought to cherish and protect… September/October 1990: The best… January/February 1995: I find those covers most authentic to the main topic article. ey are very dark and thought-provoking art… November/December 1993: Great illustration of microbe present on a keyboard, just waiting to get picked up… January/ bruary 1990: This is a persuasive cover… June 2008: The artistic nature of the cover appealed to me… December 2002: The cover exemplifies the reasons all persons ed to be prepared for emergencies. The caption is thought-provoking and draws a person to the article to find out more… June 2004: The hen on the cover reminds me of employer and the chick is the employee… July/August 2000: This is so very topical at this time. I think it is eye-catching and an article that I would specifically purchase e magazine to read. Th This hiss iss issue is issue is get getti getting tting bi bigger b igger than igger igg tha th h n it it was was att the th h time time off original oriigin i all pub publ publication… blic li ati ation tion on… June June 200 Ju 2005 2005: 5: Cap 5: C Capt Captures aptur tures th tures the h vi viewe viewer’s iewerr’s ’s att at attention… tten tentio tenti tion… n… JJune 2004: Love the look… n… ay/June 1989: Like ke th the e look lo o of it… July/August 2009: The graphics are amazing and shows that still in this day and age, with all the knowledge ge o out there, people still are posed to chemicals ls tha that ha at ccould o be avoided by using the proper PPE… July/August 1985: Clear… March/April 1988: This cover illustrates the care a e tthat ar h we should be taking ery time we do a jo job. ob. I jjust think that it makes you aware of just how fragile we human beings are… October/November 1998: Good graphics aph p ic and context listing… ctober/Novemberr 1998: 199 99 98: It captures the whole meaning behind fall protection… January/February 2001: Issue January/February 2001 is very cle 98 cclear lea in delivering the oh&s essage. It shows the he e rri risk sk llike sk i someone who acts like a circus player who walks on a naked line with a wooden stick to balance him. In the same e tim ti time printing the word risk Red indicates thatt th the he o oh&s h sequences of taking any risk will be potentially hazardous… January/February 1990: I like the message portrayed yed ye d iin simple picture… Sepmber/October 1990: TThis his cover reminded me of the importance of safety in the workplace… June 2004: It epitomizes the parent and child relationship – and is touching nd hits the heart… April/May rill/M 1998: The picture of the mine rescue team during the Westray disaster… March/April 1988: The graphic relates well with the associated OHS ItCANADA is celebrating its 25th Over and thecontent… years,June occupational ticle… October/November em mbe 2009: make a great point… March/April 1988:anniversary.

Combination of graphics 2004: The issue of young worker safety is very portant to myself and the the corporation. Although we have standard health and safety training for all new employees and annual refreshers, I, as management health and — in somea video waysI obtained significantly; others,forvery fety rep, developed specialized pe ecia health trainingand for oursafety students.has Theirchanged training includes watching from WSIBin specifically young workers… July/August 2009: e cover first attracted m me e to read further as it implicated many issues, not just about metals, but the safety issues. It appears as though we are being physically taken over So The what or developments have the inoh&s over theJuly/August 2002: I feel that the y industry, chemicals an and nd otherlittle. hazards. coverevents was simple, yet sophisticated, and held ashaped lot of emotion a verypath subtle manner… lour chosen with a old dd document o is a invitation for one good and peaceful moment to read. There is not too much writing on the cover, everything is well balanced… last quarter-century? And what lies ahead on the road to improvement? eptember/October 1990: 90: The use of red and the graphic is striking, without offending anyone… September/October 1990: Because it represents the importance of reembering those who we e lost lo to unnecessary workplace deaths… May/June 1989: I find it intriguing, and want to open it up and read the cover story… March/April 1991: Cheryl a partner withcould Heenan BlaikietoLLP in Toronto and head of the National e image is striking, and nd d all a three of theEdwards, subject matters described be related the picture.

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The increase oh&s advisors, unions, and safety ugust 1985: Lots of emotion… mo oti July/August 2002: I“allowed liked the meaning behind it.trade Everyone shouldjoint havehealth professional ethics…committees January/February 2001: I liked the overall to press this issue as an increasingly more important issueallon the corporate agenda.” fect. It was artistic and dw well-designed. e and others It made its message clearly and pointedly. Moreover, its a message managers understand – balancing issues, resources, safety, Norm Keith, a partner with Gowlings in Toronto and leader of its1985: National Occupational sts and all the other factors acctor that go into any decision…

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(January/February 2004):1990: The so-called corporate “This y attention right away a and nd it made a good September/October The visualWestray image ofBill therevises tombstone brings itliability… home quite strongly about how workplace acis exactly what needs to happen,” says Jason Foster, a director for the Alberta Federation of Labour.

If to not place themselves in the dents can affect families ess – makes you pause and think… June 2004: I believe that it necessary to educate the parents to inform their children someone flouts the “has pay a huge fine or doupa for littlethemselves bit of jail iftime, finallycould realize e of fire. Parents need tto oe ensure their children havelaw theand nerve andtoself-confidence to stand they he feelmight an incident occur… January/February 2001: Work always has risk associated sssoc with December 2002: An law excellent depictionSays of how easily one can be isolated from of allthe known surroundings in an instant during a that weit… take health and safety seriously.”…

Sherri Helmka, executive director Employsaster… September/October Occto 1990: The coverCouncil really hits home. It makes youknow realize thatinyou need to behealth safe not at the workplace, ers’ Advocacy of Ontario, “We all that, some cases, andonly safety is on a Boardbut in every day life, because if e’re not, it can affect al allll o of us of on Directors’ way or another…

January/February 2005: It is very colourful…

March/April 1988: Dynamics, colour and how it draws you into the isagenda, but it’s paid lip service. Well, guess what? Those days are over.” e… May/June 1989: I llike ik the artwork and how it impacts the topic to the reader… October/November 2008: I work in nanotechnology, so this cover stuck a chord with e. I think it was an interesting erres picture that would spark interest in a subject most people know very little about… July/August 2009: I like the skin turning to metal. It made Beyond Bill C-45, Keith cites two other key developments: increased oh&s enforcement e want to read the article cle e as we are a manufacturing company… January/February 1990: I just like how they use the comparison to the old Uncle Sam wants you. I think through orders and prosecutions, greater media andinvolved publicand awareness. gets your attention and dd does o a great job compliance of getting the message across…

July/Augustand 2009: I like the artistry it really grabs the readers attention… July/August 002: At the time that this hiis cover c was published, I was currently taking courses at Ryerson University and was the author’s student. I was new in the field of health and safety nd this article and course rsse gave g The me Shame a great Game foundation (October/November in understanding how 2009): to apply Citing mythe knowledge.

2007 report This was of the and Workers’ still is anCompensation important issue facing safety administrators in e workplace. I still have ve e this th issue! it a beautiful of cover art, but also relevant information…

May/June reallyinlike the graphic of the pregnant BoardNot of only Novais Scotia, Justicepiece Gregory Warner said it appeared the board saw at least1989: some Imerit male worker in a non-traditional trrad job and I believe the issue of the effects of work on reproductive health and safety is extremely important the idea of naming and shaming. The report notes the WCB envisions “a province where customers and under-reported… January/ bruary 1990: The cover ve er e emphasizes the need for workers who, in some circumstances, are required to wear personal protective equipment… October/November 2009: are less inclined to buy products or support businesses that show no regard for safe work practices.”… e-catching… January/February /FFeb 2001: Gets to the heart of safety excellence – risk and risk tolerance… January/February 1990: I like the message it is sending. It is clear Hassan Yussuff, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, says he supports “anything to nd it got my attention first rsst over o the other magazines… April/May 1998: The Westray incident has had the most significant change on health and safety in Canada in many bring lightthe to heart the fact that we a particular employer is not living up–tonever its legal ars… December 2002: 2:: Home H is where is and can all relate to a disaster at home mindobligation.” losing your home totally, as illustrated in the picture… July/ ugust 1985: I liked how w the th cover had a futuristic look to it. I would be compelled to pick it up and read it… July/August 2002: This is the backbone of the oh&s profesTothe avoid courts, badJanuary/February press in the first2007: place,Use stakeholders well-advised on… December 2002:: I found fo that image really penalties fit with the or title… of dog and would what is be being depicted and why… December 2002: The essaging behind the imagery mag is loud and clear – emergency planning/preparedness is a necessity for action in an eventuality as opposed to have thoughtful and effective processes in place. Ontario-based safety professional, David to an exercise in hypothesis… nuary/February 1995: 5: TThe h use of abstract art really makes it stand out… March/April 1988: For the artistic visualization of what is the most common areas affecting strain uries, well portrayed… October/November 1998: It is my favourite because it catches your eye and this is a safety topic that is vital to this industry. Still many companies o not adhere to fall protection… July/August 2000: Visually appealing and I like the humourous approach… January/February 1990: Gets your attention and a great ke-off on a time-honoured poster… July/August 1985: Good imagery. Captures your attention and makes you want to read more… July/August 2009: I liked this cover ecause it attracted my attention and motivated me to learn more about the heavy metal issue… January/February 1990: It seems to give the best safety message at a ance… March/April 1988: The colours and the subject matter… June 2008: It speaks to keeping young and new workers safe. Cover is very Canadian… March/April 991: looks better than the others and more interesting… June 2004: Great image that immediately dials the viewer into the issue of protecting younger workers, which is hugely important issue in the workplace. Love the composition and colour scheme… July/August 1985: Very different… March/April 1991: It paints the grim picture that eople usually want to avoid when dealing with issues such as death. Very good portrayal… July/August 2002: Using a book and the old-style glasses was a good tie-in to e legal aspects of ethics... November/December 1993: The message on this cover takes the “safety” message into the office space and provides visible clues that safety is

25TH ANNIVERSARY

SILVER TIME

g specific work environment. The 1993 cover, with its virus laying atop a computer keyboard key drives the safety message home with one clear image… March/April 199 t This is my favourite cover because, after all these years, it still stays with me – all the darkness associated with workplace fatalities and incidents. It stands out… June 200 f Depicts how fragile our young workers are, how we need to protect the health and safety of our youth who become our replacements in the work force. The importance . nurture our young workers with life skills needed to survive out there in the coop and strengthen them to maturity in the work force… June 2005: The artwork presents a ve / clear connection to the emotional impact the issue involves. It grabs my attention, but also links to the emotions… September/October 1990: It was a very moving cov s The tombstone was a grim reminder that there still have been deaths at the workplace… March/April 1991: It is a very powerful picture and caption… October/Novemb f 1998: The best cover by far, one of the best issues, very topical at the time. It brought fall protection to the forefront before legislation made training mandatory in 200 e Hard to look at that cover and not get the message. Great Job… March/April 1988: The cover immediately got my attention and the topics covered (not unlike any of t … other editions), were important. mpor portan port tant. tant t. Th Thanks…

Tha nks k … October/November Octo ctob t ber ber/N ber/N /Novem /No vemb vem ber 1998: ber 19 1998 98: Visually 98 Visua Visua Vi sualllllly interesting. int inter in terest esti ting ing. C Caught Caug augh aug ht my attention ht attttent enti tion ion without wiith tho h utt eve even nh having aving avi ing to to enl enla enlarge larg the image… March/Ap e 1991: Because it tackles es a tough topic that many workplaces have to deal with and that all too often is ignored… June 2005: Been there… January/February Jan nua 1990: Remin suggests thebesafety audittoprocess should be health viewedand as safety, a pivotal development in am and not turn a blind eye g me of the old war recruitment ru uitment Ireton, posters. CRSP, Employees need to “recruited” look after their own participate in our programs progra … health and safety issues ess iin n thehealth workplace. all need to work together the greater good…

July/August 1985: Distinct colouring and th three-dimensional hr e aspect… Jul and We safety.

Before 1985, Iretonforpoints out, the usual measurements of safety performs August 2009: It shows the the issue pictorially without reading the write up… December 2002: I love the photo in that it powerfully captures the m meaning ea of the word “disaster” ance related to injury experience. k March/April 1991: I think hink the artwork is amazing, the contrast of light and dark. The picture also fits extremely well with the subject matter o off tthe h article/magazine… Apr - May 1998: Cover story oryy and content… July/August 2002: The words say it all… October/November 2009: Information inside… October/November Octobe er/ 1998: This cov The Role of the Audit (December 1998): An oh&s audit can be defined as a systematic, independent g shows an actual worker err d doing oing an actual worksite activity (instead of the more “artistic” covers). Despite the reality of the picture, the ladderr ccage a gives a sense of a spid reviewoftothe verify conformance established guidelines or Occupational can M d web, which gave me th the he impression “web” of complex with regulations and requirements thatstandards… go along with fall protectionhazards in Canada…

March/April a 1988: This was be identified and made management left uncontrolled, cause injury, equipment y wake-up call to make our ou ur workplaces ergo-friendly and known start to to reduce the sprainthat, and ifstrain accidents andwould reaping the benefits today in 201 2010…

10… January/February 1990 damage d like the message it presents se ents – direct andor to industrial the point…disease.

July/August 2000: Blend of graphics and article titles, use of colour… May/June 198 1989: 89 It reminds us of a continuu : of the impact of exposure. su ure. I also am a fan of laughter in learning and of course enjoy demonstrating what a right to know includes. It wass a trifecta of success… Marc r April 1991: The graphic hiic design of cover really captures to read articles…

It immediately your a attention tt and you are drawn Ofthecourse, if Ireton hadmyhisinterest druthers, hethe would cite December a long list2002: of other advancescatches over the e read the title… January/February y/February While the company has the responsibility to improvement provide the necessary safety equipment, large respon responsibility nsi for using it has to app last 1990: 25 years, including the following: leadership — business leaders area far more … to the worker… September/October mber/October 1990: There still are far too many workplace fatalities… October/November 2008: Very interesting rreflective efl shot… September/O aware of their safety responsibilities and duties; commonality of disciplines — there is greater - tober 1990: The visual al aspects aspects of the image and cover are interesting and compel me further to open… May/June 1989: The illustration fi fits ts well with the main articles understanding that safety, quality and environment can be managed in similar ways, not as he connection between a wo : the magazine. It is also oe eye-catching… ye-catching… July/August 2009: The picture grasps a viewer’s attention quickly and, in a glance, one can make tthe andThe emphasis on ishealth —imaginative health issues more methodically. e place hazard and the a adverse dverseseparate affects to silos; workers. artistic work striking, andare verydealt well with done…

April/May 1998: Westray w was a a pivotal point in history f president 1988: of the The Council Construction in British Columbia, : safety in this country. G Good ood imageGrant for theMcMillan, cover… March/April brightof colours attract the Associations eye immediately; the shape is instantly rrecognizable ec and draws an a s sociation with the topic. c.. In contrast dark covers and images on of the things other covers, thislaptops cover transmits the message (to me e anyway) a of the positive thin says to thethefar-reaching armominous of technology —some through such as and smartphones —m - about health and safety… tyy… October/November 1998: It shows the importance of fall arrest.

The articleapproach appeared at right time me. I w was in the process of rewriti has been critically important.

The devices support a systematic to the reducing orfor elime the safe work practicess o on n fallinating restraintsoccupational and fall arrestinjuries systems. and Withdiseases, this coverMcMillan focused on suggests, the actual because fall hazard I was to practices hold the int interest tere of the participants… Jul data andable best d August 2009: Very dynamic, yn namic, makes you want to open and read articles… September/October 1990: The statue of the child will attract almost are now more easily assembled and distributed. “When we more effectively define and describe alm all people’s attention y children are our most p precious recious gifts. We have and we need to do everything to protect them, but also to protect ourselves for them as well… … March/April 1988: Colo the oh&s problem or challenge, we can start to work on prevention,” he says. / design and text all attract ra act attention to this important health and safety topic in a unique way… July/August 2009: Because it is so gripping gripping… g… July/August 2000: I like t l design and caption. This hiss topic is still very relevant today… January/February 2001: Illustrating the role and practice of health and safety ass a balancing act is elegant a A the New Conversation (March 2010): media “is a communications channel that have to , poignant… June 2004: 4: IItt shows relationship of a mother chicken andSocial her chicks.

Motherly love is always eye-catching and we generally accepted… acce ep June 2004: I like chic explore.

It’s the 21st century and we’ve got to about be right up there as in terms getting p ens, plus it is plain and d ssimple… imple…

September/October 1990: There is something a tombstone on athegovernment cover of a health andofsafety mag magazine gaz that somewhat draws t e reality of what can happen ppen home…

January/February The picture really the main and storymarketing about risk for andOntario’s it was a very cool pic picture… ctu June 2004: Depicts t our messages out,” says2001: Tom Zach, director of depicted communications Ministry r generational transfer off rresponsibility esponsibility for safety a clear and 1991: picture is very gets your says eye right rig ght away… March/April 198 of Labour…

“It’sinamazing thesimple kind photo… of reachMarch/April that we can haveThe now where we good didn’t– before,” n The colour grabs my attention tttention and the subject matter of pressure points and the breaking down of the body due to poor work health and safe safety ety rules speaks volumes on ho Terence Little, manager of corporate Internet services for WorkSafeBC… “We want workplace safety r far we have come…. July/August ulyy/August 2009: Graphics and message… January/February 2001: Sends out a message… June 2005: Dramatic, ey eye-catching, ye-c graphics are colo to be part of the conversation in corporate lunchrooms and boardrooms, but also in people’s livd ful and dynamic, appropriate opriate to topic. Calls to you to pick up and read… June 2004: First of all, the cover provides humour, but more impor importantly, r ta raises the importance roomsworkers and dining rooms,” says school Julie Tries, communications for Nova Scotia’s Workers’ - making safety an integral ral part ing of young lives. With no formal programs on health andadvisor safety; young workers often lack the exp experience per to recognize and avo Compensation Board. e workplace hazards. In no order rder to prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities, the first step is for young workers to understand their rights and res responsibilities spo in the workplace : found the humour and ssimplicity implicity of the cover really raised awareness to this important issue… January/February 1990: It struck me as a great grea at lilink between our past, prese a and future… January/February Fe ebruary 1990: For violations me this is theand best unsafe combination of a familiar statement (We Want You) and an important message “Oh&s behaviour are becoming entrenched in our collective con- ooff protecting yourself. I used t f cover as a poster on myy officesciousness door for months.

The both articlessocially for the month were great as well – informative MSDS information understa understanding as being and morally unacceptable,” says Edwards.

“Just like and it has be- and of the issues surroundi - them… March/April 19 1991: 991: Good reading…

January/February 2001: In a time of combating leading indicators, it is imperative that come unacceptable in the last few decades to drink and drive — and more recently, to talk onwee aadopt strategies for defensi h strategies in mitigating gb behaviours… ehaviours… July/August 2000: Graphically tells story of content inside… May/June 1989: Nice to see a woman, ffuture utu mother represented on t a cellphone or text and drive — oh&s violations and fines are publicized in many jurisdictions e magazine cover… June e2 2004: 004: Young worker safety is of highest priority… April/May 1998: Struck a chord at the time of workers in a major majo or d disaster, that changed healt now, and the embarrassment and impact on corporate reputation that this brings is contributk safety law forever. Good od image without being too graphic, yet at a distance. Just the right grabber… January/February 1990: “Protect yourself” yourrsel is what we have had to d ingworkplace to changes corporate behaviour.”

As well, having oh&s be part of school curricula also t for many decades to survive ur vive the andin what we will have to do forever to avoid the consequences of not being safety-minded on a and nd off the job. We are very f bodesCorporation well for thewhere future, Edwards says.the highest priority… September/October 1990: I thought the sta y tunate to be working fo for or the DuPont SAFETY occupies statue atu was so appropriate for t n story… December 2002: 02 2: Nothing more to be said once reading the caption… January/February 1995: Oh&s is all about people. The cov cover ver caught my attention in its d t sign, highlighting the fa faceless aceless Asked masses…

June 2005:(June Powerfully graphic of a very real and serious work to condition…

October/November 1998: The picture w & Answered 2009): “The imagining basic principles and practices relating safety areOctober/No identical ove / taken at the perfect angle gle to illustrate the dangers of working at heights…

July/August 2009: The image is very graphic, and grabs the reade reader’s e r ’ attention immediately, piq whether it’s in the home, in the workplace or in the play place. So, if those same principles are both : ing their interest. This cu curiosity uriosity then leads the reader to review the titles, and read the articles to learn more about the picture and the safetyy issue is it refers to… June 200 taught and reinforced in each of those contexts, there’s a greater probability that students will apprecir Eye-catching and cute.. M Makes akes you look as to why a hen and a chick are on an occupational health magazine. Then when you read the capt caption tio about young worker safe ate and understand and then demonstrate the appropriate actions,” says Dr. Michael Alpern, executive y it makes sense and the em mother other instinct sets in, so that you agree that extra care needs to be taken to ensure young workers are protected… March/April M 1988: Like the director the artwork Job Safety Skills Society….

“If message we really–want a cultural shift and we really to make / sual impact… January/February y/ /February 1995:ofThe is striking.

As well, the “Everyone is responsible” – is one want that was way ah ahead he of its time… March/Ap long-term gains,” says Sarah Wheelan, young worker ambassador at issue the former Industrial Accident - 1988: Good image. Image mage tells story. Not a negative or tragic image…aMarch/April 1991: It brings an to the surface that is sometim sometimes me very difficult to deal with Prevention Association, “it has to start early, when people formulate theirrelevent approach andtime… their frames of /De e June 2005: This cover ill illustrates lustrates a major issue in all workplaces…

March/April 1988: The cover was very for the November/ November/December 1993: Colour gra … your attention. Problem m iiss veryreference common,and affects us points daily. Fun with on a serious workplace ork safety is all about. W their of view life.” punch line… September/October 1990: This cover is what wo n need to prevent accidents ent ntts b before efore efo f re th the they h y happ happen h appen app en to to prevent preven pre ventt tragedies ven trag tragedi edies dies as illustrated illllusttratted d on thi this h s cove ccover… overr… Apr ove A April/May pril/ il/M l/May May 19 1998 1998: 98: Th The he W Westray estray est tray Mi Mine ne dis d disast disaster i ast aste er is the one incident that tru s opened my eyes to the fact that some large, profitable employers were turning a blind eye to safety in the name of profits. It amounted to criminal negligence and no e t ployer was beyond scrutiny after this… September/October 1990: Statue symbolism – someone has passed away. This gets you thinking what went wrong. Why?... Jul r August 2009: Visual graphics and story… July/August 2002: The topic is always an important issue in health and safety. The design is clear and to the point… Januar a February 2005: When you look at the cover it gives you the impression of strength – strength in health and safety. Everyone should go home in the same condition that th l arrived at work… March/April 1988: The human body is the focus of the page as it is ultimately the focus of health and safety. The simplicity of the design combined w s the colors on many possible injury points is what drew my attention… January/February 2007: The dog looks so friendly, but you know you should treat him with respe t All industries have jobs and equipment that mirror the dog. Dangerous if not treated with respect… December 2002: The picture depicts the truth about being ready for www.ohscanada.com J U N E 2 0 1 0 49 o disaster of any sort… January/February 2008: This cover asks the reader to assess our abilities and, at the same time, to re-think our emergency plans.

I found it qu s thought-provoking… October/November 1998: It shows a worker using the correct protective gear… July/August 1985: I like the cover display… May/June 1989: It caug

volved, people tend to notice… December 2002: You know what it is all about and it’s something we have to think about – what we would do if we had a disaster… April/ ay 1998: The fall out from this mining disaster had an immense impact on health and safety regulation, i.e. the introduction of the concept of “criminal negligence” to the anada Criminal Code with Bill C-45… April/May 1998: This is probably the most significant event in Canadian oh&s history… January/February 1990: This cover has a eat eye-catching focus on the person wearing the PPE. It uses colour well and it draws your attention to the face of the character and then over to the bullets that indicate e main topics in the issue… October/November 1998: I feel that the perspective of this photo is fantastic. Not many people have the experience of what it is like climbing fixed ladder with a cage… March/April 1988: Visually interesting and easy to understand… January/February 2005: I always have said that safety must remain simple nd at times light-hearted. With the comic book defender edition, OHS CANADA must believe in me… October/November 1998: Really amplifies the point of the need for ll arrest… July/August 2002: The cover is estheticallyy pleasing p g and the content of that particular p issue is all of interest and relevant in myy role… June 2004: Caught my e. Great visual aid. Greatt m message… essage ess age… September/October Septtemb ber/ er/O /Oct O tobe b r1 1990: 1990 990: I fe ffelt fel eltlt th the h pi picture ictu cture t re sho showed h wed d th the he b beauty beau eautty eau ty and d im iimportance impor mpor porttan tance off lif tance life fe wi w with ith h th the he ttrag tragedy ragedy rag ed of preventable human loss… edy y/August 2009: I love the he e graphics, graphics, it made me stop and take notice, enough to actually open the magazine and read the article… July July/August y/A 2000: The cover defiely led me to quickly open en n it to find the information, which was most helpful... January/February 2008: Effective at capturing my interest.... S September/October 1990: It ows what misery and grief eff ccan an fall onto a family over an accidental death... June 2008: High impact, bright colours, female face in uniform uniform… m… September/October 1990: e photo is so compelling a and nd haunting, makes me take a second look… July/August 2009: It gets right down to the point. It is very visual,, ssomething o that people look for owadays to spark there interest te erest since people have no time to stop and actually pay attention to what is going on. This is an eye-catcher an and nd people want to see why this and is turning into metal so o tthey hey go in and keep on reading in the mag. Great Cover… March/April 1988: Simple, but gets the message across… acro June 2002: I found the ver to be very provocative ea and nd “scary.” It relates excellently to the subject matter and does justice to draw the attention of the reader to the e story st (and the edition)… July/ ugust 2009: Impact of tthe he cover design… June 2004: It was a toss-up for me between this one on ne and the October/November 998 cover featuring fall arrest rrrest (I am terrified of heights and I felt like I was on that ladder myself!).. But B the play on words and the eat use of imagery of TThe he Parent Gap did it for me. It was a very clever, very visual, very go good ood way to introduce a very imortant subject. It was really ea allyy fun going through the covers over the years. Thanks for inviting me… me January/February 2005: e image of an OH&S superperr hero draws on the icons of comic books to emphasize the importance importan n ce of health and safety without C A N A D A eing too serious or heavy ea avy vy handed… October/November 1998: The photo on the cover clearly clea arl illustrates that there will be o within the magazine p pererr taining to fall arrest… July/August 2000: Impact... January/Febru January/February uar 2007: Very intense-looking ose on the dog’s face. Speaks eaks for itself… October/November 2009: I have no one favorite. All the issues are very well done, informativ informative ve and helpful. I like them all… arch/April 1988: Pressure ep points oints are helpful to people recovering for soft-tissue injuries and they often forget about using them… January/Fe January/February ebr 2008: Could you cope? is is an important message ew which hich is being broughtTo to readers’ celebrate attention… our silver September/October anniversary, 1990: weI liked asked this cover bothas it is a very serious seriou us a and somber cover and makes e want to read more… October/November cto ober/November 1998: I feel that this cover shows the safety message. A barrel ladder and the person wearing a ffall al arrest system… September/ ctober 1990: Reminds us th that hat workplace accidentsOHS can be CANADA fatal andreaders should be and taken seriously… website October/November visitors to take 2009: a Not sure. It kin kinda nda jumped out the most… July/ ugust 2002: Visually, the co cover over grabs the reader’s attention and the reference to ethic in oh&s… July/August 1985: The contrast between th the he human body verses the comuter and machines is eye-catching. ca atching. The human body walk seems down very vulnerable memoryto lane. its environment…

We chose June25 2004: covers It is funand yet thought-provoking. H Having a children who will soon e getting their first jobs in a ccouple ouple of years, I worry about those employers’ integrity when it comes to keeping them informed of their rights a and nd the safety hazards they will ce… September/October 1 1990: 990: As a parent of three asked smallparticipants children, I attempt totovote remember for their alwaysvery that they favourite. are the reason I do what I do.. Having H lost my dad to a workace incident when I was a tteenager, eenager, I know I do not want them to go through the same. The small angel holding a teddy bear forces that de desire esi to protect them to be everesent… July/August 2000: 0:: FFirst, irst, please let me say how difficult a decision this was; and must have been for you to narrow the selection to o sso o few. OHS CANADA covers ThereGreat were plenty to consider: photographs and ways strike through with the he e theme and are very well done. artists, photographers and designers!

To me, the July/August 2000 coverr iiss very bold and daring. It cuts ght to the point and gets the he e message across, while taking a great risk of offending the entire medical community. P.S. It was a toss-up betw between wee this and December 2002. art; high andand simple depiction.

The reat photo… March/Aprill 1 1988: 988: It appeared fromoriginal the cover to relate withconcept current health safety issues regarding pain/strain injuries… JJune u 2002: The colour and the ct that it really relates to the he e topics of the issue, it makes you think before you even open the issue. I want to read this one… January/February January/Februa ar y 2001: Risk high rope walkof images was human only surpassed health g is a risk business and this iss p picture icture fits very well…variety March/April 1991: A simple face. Anyone by can the recognize that something is not rright ig with him. With health and fety, it is best to start with h tthe he very basic health and safety concerns… December 2002: The cover is rather simple but provides a very cclear, le yet unwritten message… and safety issues covered: repetitive work, proteceptember/October 1990: As As soon as I had my eyes on it, it hit home.

Losing someone from something that could have been preventable, e everyone v could relate to that. I t the sadness in the picture. re e. I felt I was there. The person who had lost someone and everything left was an angel built in stone. The design desig gn is really catchy. Good job… equipment, return to nuary/February 2001: The he e reduction of risk in ourtive everyday workplacesWestray, and activitiesfall is theprotection, only way we will ever achieve “ZERO” harm.. W We need to educate, educate nd educate all work forcess rregarding egarding the reduction of risk… September/October 1990: There is no ambiguity in this message. Health and ssafety af risks lead to tragedy. The work, occupational disease, ethy is so blue, and the angel el also also looks like an innocent child…

July/August 2009: Groovyoh&s specialprofessional effects… January/February 1995: All too to oo often we have people in our orkplace that insist that there ere is a need for more safety specialists/advisors/reps etc. to police the workplace. They take safety as someone ee else’s job and do not take reemergency preparedness, young worker safety, onsibility to operate in a ssafe afe work environment. ics, The internal responsibility lies with everyone directly or indirectly involved and, as for the th he p picture drawn, it shows what vel each person participates es and the person in the forefront is “you”… May/June 1989: It made me think, more than the other covers… December Dece emb 2002: Reality... January/ WHMIS, harassment and more. bruary 1995: The artwork rkk and and the message it represents…

September/October 1990: Dark, yet VERY effective. This cover says it all, supp supported po by the Robson-Lang Tanry tragedy story. EVERYONE ON NE can identify with the cover pic. My number two choice was June 2004 – the Parent Gap young worker co cover. ove This one definitely speaks uder than all of them… March/April arch/April 1988: This cover depicts the body and our actions on it which makes one think of health and safety firs first st a and foremost being important In This all,cover about readers votes. any career or place of work… orrk… January/February 1990: says 500 it all, the reason forcast doing their what you do. All The our hard work is for som someone me else… April/May 1998: e group of men facing potential te ential death after every ride down, faceless yet doing it everyday, relying on someone else to protect them every st step, tep yet knowing those “people” final results and what voters hadseen to in say follows. ay not be looking out for th their heir health and safety and yet doing it anyway.

It is the best I have a long time… July/August 1985: Visually, Visu ual it meant while we all start ut in life in the same way, we we are not all protected the same way… January/February 2005: I like the picture… November/December 199 1993: 93: I thought it was cute… July/ ugust 2009: It caught my ey eye ye immediately, and is pertinent to the industry I work in (mining)… December 2002: It really drives home the importance impo orta of emergency planning. struck a chord with many o off the managers of our company as we have sites that are at risk of floods from natural sources… July/August 19 1985: 985 The cover suggests a numer of ethical issues which interest in nterest me as someone who reads a great deal in biomedical ethics: Of course some of the issues may be of myy o own w creation and not at all on e minds of those who designed ig gned the cover… April/May 1998: It is indicative of the real-life importance of a safe working team, due diligence diligen nce and internal responsibility… ctober/November 1998: The The graphics and topic are parallel and striking… March/April 1988: There is some gender neutrality. It is highlighted highlig gh with bright colours, deals th ergo issues that are the e number number one cost and type of injury… April/May 1998: I believe this story single-handedly changed the face eo off safety and programs for all anadian business (C-45)… … April/May April/May 1998: This was the start of companies finally being forced to take worker safety seriously. Before e tthis, h it was only the profit that unted… January/February ryy 2007: 2007: ItIt caught caug caug augh ht my eye when ht wh hen I first first viewed vi viewe iewe ewed d it iit… t… Oct t…

O October/November ctobe b r/N r/Nove /Novembe b r 1998 1 1998: 998: One One off the h be b bette better ette tterr vi vvisual isuall imp isu iimpacts impact mpact actss an a and nd the article was very good as nd ell… October/November 1998: Graphics and that it shows even with a cage for protection, you still require added protection, such as fall arrest… December 2002: The esign and the mix of text and image… October/November 1998: I like real life covers that show something about an important aspect of OH&S. I like that it is a picture working safely… March/April 1991: Artistic, thought-evoking. Good choice for the issues covered inside… July/August 2009: Visually captivating… March/April 1991: realistic illustration of an individual stricken by grief. The artwork elicits a very human (and far too common) response to a workplace tragedy. This image exemplifies the ed to prevent fatal accidents in the workplace… July/August 1985: From 1985 to now, the computer has opened the door to research that was only available in print ack then… July/August 2009: It is so shocking… January/February 1995: It had a picture of many people all “looking” the same to me, portraying the internal responsibilsystem, that everyone is responsible for health and safety. It is a team effort… May/June 1989: This truly reflects the protection of mankind and it starts from the birth. We 2 0 1 0 OHS CANADA 50 J U N E from ave to protect everything the start so it does not become a disease and non-stoppable… October/November 2008: There are so many evocative images used in your vers, but I kept coming back to this one. The colours are stunning and the subject matter borders on sci-fi. The image takes us into another world that we are just beginning

A Lasting Image

/ August 2000: The cover caught my eye and it was full of useful information… June 2008: Features our RCMP; well-deserved… July/August 1985: Historical first issu e perhaps unintended message, but in retrospect suggests the birth (or dawning) of the increasing use of technology in the monitoring and tracking of oh&s issues… Decemb a 2002: It has to be because of the drama the picture evokes... June 2004: I like the idea of not using a hard-lined picture to lead the reader to a not so hard-lined article e get turned off by the fist or large picture over something. The idea of using the chicken and the chick is interesting and fun… March/April 1988: I liked the simplicity an g the focus on the ordinary human being… December 2002: I felt the picture really got the point across… October/November 1998: I think it’s a great photo, first off. I ha e seen this view and climbed a ladder like this dozens and dozens of times. I can appreciate the cage around the ladder, etc. Secondly, I feel very strongly about fall prote r tion and how so many people seem to take working at heights for granted… June 2004: Young worker awareness is a very important part of my oh&s training program an y this illustration with the hen and chick just caught my attention and seemed to portrait the message… January/February 1995: Much different from all the others… March … April 1988: Simple, artistic rti tiisti stic tic yet yett ins iinspiring… nspir piri i ing ing… S September/October epttemb ber/ er/O /Oct O tobe b r 1990 1 1990: 990: Th TThere here was here her was a reality real ealit lity be b bet between etwe tween wor tween workk and and d home home that hom that th h t drew drew me towards dr toward tow ards ds tthis h cover… January/Februa - 2008: It is a challenging in ng question and one that we do not consider until we see someone else coping in crisis… October/November 199 1998: 98 Great photo… Septembe ERGONOMICS (MARCH/APRIL 1988):are It brought light the responsibilities associated with being t October 1990: I took th this his picture as a grave marker for a child. Children our mostto precious assets – a reason to be extra careful around d tthem h and a reason to be ext : careful of ourselves at work work so we can go home them and the things that complete they needsafety and depend onby usidentifying to do. If you do not look afte after er yyourself for yourself, you ce a supervisor and to allowed us tododevelop a more program responsibility r tainly will for your children… ld dren… January/February It is direct andis clear in itsof message…

November/December 1993: looking… u 2002: The mora and culpability…1990: The human body the focus the page, as it is ultimately the focus ofCool health and JJuly/August s and ethical decision off o oh&s h&s applies to everyone in every workplace…

January/February 2008: I love theergo-friendly. picture. I think it makes people tthink hi about what could happe safety…

This was a wake-up call to make our workplaces e on the job sites and why hyy they need to plan ahead and cover all the bases… April/May 1998: Westray was a defining moment and became e a real game changer… Oct / ber/November 1998: I llike ike the graphic display. The perspective of depth increases the perspective of height. Height is where we need the p r even if they have PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1990): The message is clear. In essence: Uncle protection, r false security of walls a around round them when climbing… June 2004: Young workers are statistically the most vulnerable group... October/Nov October/November vem 1998: It caught my ey OHS Wants You to practice workplace safety… Employees need to be “recruited” to look after their own e and was interesting… M March/April arch/April 1988: Image of overall body and pressure points really stresses impact of work on a body… June 2008: IItt rreally gets the safety messag health and safety, participate in our programs and not turn a blind eye to health and safety issues in the ril 11988: It is bold and immed - across. It is colourful and an nd everybody recognizes the Mounties, so it is a focus-getter that attracts your attention and curiosity… March/Apr March/April workplace.

We all need to work together for the greater good. : ately catches your eye… … September/October 1990: The symbolism of the headstone says so much about why safety matters to everyone… Ju June une 2005: Graphics and topic t Many of us have “werewolves” re ewolves” in our organizations, so this cover is easily identifiable… May/June 1989: It’s more about preventative tha than an reactive. The pregnant lad INTERNAL RESPONSIBILITY (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995): It had a picture manythe people all aand e draws on your emotions… nss… December 2002: Here are a few thoughts that went through my head when I studied thisof cover: “smallness: nd vulnerability of the home “looking” the the same to me, portraying theainternal responsibility system, is responsible g comparison with the torrent orrrent of raging water; Idea of the home being safe place is destroyed.

Wherethat caneveryone you be safe?

Why is thefor home hom me all alone? Have other hom … already been washed a away? way? Ishealth this picture just a glimpse of aeffort… much greater catastrophe?

What could home or and its family ffrom ro this emergency?... March and safety.

It is a team The internal responsibility lieshave withprotected everyonethe directly indirectly ? April 1988: I liked the ccontrast ontrast of colour and it stood out…

April/May 1998:isItresponsible,” tells a powerful storythat between the ahead rescueof team pic and the title title. e. It is a very solemn reminder… involved…

The message, “Everyone is one was way its time. s January/February 1995: 95 5: Colourful and eye-appealing, this cover best exemplifies the truth of the story. There is no one person that is free from fro doubt (cloudy effect) as / their role in health and d ssafety. afety. TheWESTRAY farther down the pecking order of a workplace, regardless of size, the clouds increase until some workers worker r s place p themselves in obscuri (APRIL/MAY 1998): I believe this story single-handedly changed the face of safety and / Well done… March/April Ap pril 1991: Compelling cover picture – conveys a serious message. Also contents listed are of particular interest, e.g. JH JHSC HS and ergonomic articles, programs for all Canadian business… The Westray Mine disaster is the one incident that truly opened - our workplace… November/December em mber/December 1993: Caught my attention off the bat. Enlarged picture and had a chuckle and new exactly whatt the th message was… Octobe my eyes to the fact that some large, profitable employers were turning a blind eye to safety in the name n November 2009: Just e explains xplains what safety is all about and it is very modern… March/April 1991: It hits home. Serious picture for a seri serious iou topic… July/August 200 of profits. It amounted to criminal negligence and no employer was beyond scrutiny after this. unknowingly l Original… May/June 19 1989: 989: It’s a very striking image of a woman who is obviously pregnant and who may be exposing her unborn child unk k no to chemical hazard - I think that the issue off rreproductive eproductive health (for men and women) associated with chemical hazards from work is something that we have e ccome o a long way on, but it FALL PROTECTION 1998): 1990: I feel very about fall protection - something that still needs ed ds to be improved and discussed (OCTOBER/NOVEMBER more often… September/October The strongly serenity of the image in contrastand with th the he ssubject matter… March/Ap how some many people seemto to take working at heights for granted…

The perspective of the thisresponsibilities photo is fan- aassociated s 1988: This was the issue ue that started down the road committing to a career in health and safety.

It brought to light sso with being a super many safety peopleprogram have thebyexperience what it is likeand climbing a fixedJuly/August ladder with1985: a cage… s sor and allowed us to de develop evelop tastic. a moreNot complete identifyingofresponsibility culpability…

The Hard picture rreally ea grabs your attention. Th . position of the man like ke e a fetus demonstrates the fragility of the unborn to the various we are exposed to at work and home… home e… June 2005: I think it is ne to look at that cover and substances not get thethat message. e how the wolf is depicted ed d as a worker. This is so true in many jobs. Scars do run deep… December 2002: What an unbelievable photo… July/August Julyy/A 2009: It simply caug - my eye more than the o others… thers… October/November 1998: I like the(DECEMBER picture from up aboveIt looking downhome on thethe person climbingoftoemerthe top… … JJune u 2004: We moved a lon EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS 2002): really drives importance d way in making our young un ng workers aware of the hazards.

Thishorror was aof start for many…

2004: Because occupational health th is very important to me. Th gency planning…

From the Katrina to the June devastation in Haiti,young we areworker faced with this issuehealt … cover illustrates, very w well, ell, and in a soft way, how much older workers have an important role to play in demonstrating to younger workers tthe over and over again... The “smallness” and vulnerability of the home in comparison with the torrent of he importance that each oth I have to preserve its own wn safety… January/February 1990: It depicts exactly what we would like all workers to wear to protect themselves themselves… s… December 2002: I like th raging water; the idea of the home being a safe place is destroyed. … cover because it is a real-life eal-life photograph, and not some abstract picture. The “white water” in the background underlines the story about how ho ow quickly disaster can strike e October/November 1998: 998: Simple, clear, oh&s-related… October/November 2008: Photography/artwork is incredible… January/February January/Februa ar y 2008: This was my favori YOUNG SAFETY (JUNE With 2004):everything Having children who will soon be getting their first in nnew e cover because of the image mage itself and theWORKER slogan “Could you cope?” that happened with 9-11, it brought a lot of jobs stuff into ew perspective… March/Ap coupleWe of years, I worry employers’ when it comes to keeping them of ooff mine work, and the worke r 1988: It represents impacts pacts on ahuman. do health andabout safetythose for the person… integrity April/May 1998: The cover captured the informed general culture and thenotsafety hazards they face… their children haveand the mutual nerve re - who, on a daily basis, fface ace the their realityrights of possibly returning home thatwill day.

TheseParents workersneed havetoaensure strong sense of teamwork responsibility esp to each other whe andI think self-confidence stand up themselves. t it comes to safety, and h have ave safety continuously on their minds. this picture to captured thatfor sense of camaraderie and need to rely on eac each ch other to ensure they go hom / that day... March/Aprilill 1 1988: 988: Very artistic… March/April 1988: I selected this cover because it highlights all of the body areas that our people peo ople experience work and hom - pain… October/November em mber 1998: The photo is very eye-catching and appropriate headline…

March/April I believe ittoiscongetting gm more than one message acro WHMIS (JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005): At times,toit the looks to me like we have to 1988: be superheroes s before you even open the th he cover.

I like ideamessage. of showing theWHMIS, different many musclestill areas thegetting body tothe bebasics awarecovered… of. Everyone in the ho be made aware of this vey thethe safety With areofnot When youworkplace look at sshould t July/August 2000: Thiss iiss a great cover because it highlights a huge issue all workplaces face – doctors who help kill our return-to-work programs pro o g ra by giving employees th the cover it gives you the impression of strength, strength in health and safety. Everyone should go home : opportunity to write their eirr own note, literally. If I had a dollar for every time an employee told me that their doctor asked them how long they would wo like to be off, I could bu in the same condition as they arrived at work. ” 10 Kindles. Doctors are re e most definitely the loaded guns in our return-to-work programs and “Doc Holiday” expresses it perfectly… January/February Januaryy/F 1990: It reflects th t biggest obstacle I have e to to face as a safety person – trying to get people to take the responsibility for their safety. The problem personnel would d rather r try to get out of prote HARASSMENT (JUNE 2005): Many of us have “werewolves” in our organizations, so this cover is easilyforrgo their safety glasses or hea / ing themselves because e someone someone else has failed to follow the guidelines then they would do their co-worker a favour by telling them they forgot identifiable… presents very clear connection toJuly/August the emotional impact the issuemelts involves… . ing protection… April/May /M May 1998: The subjectThe andartwork the photo is why athis is my favorite cover…

2009: The mercury into the h hand. a The pain must be unbea Powerfully graphic imagining of a very real and serious work condition.

- able and it is so traumatic atic just to even see it. This is a good wake-up call to draw our attention in treating the dangerous liquid safely. Well done do one to the design… June 200 n I like the image of a “mad-dog” mad-dog” employee… October/November 1998: Less abstract and gruesome than some of the others. Shows how to od do o it the right way… January NANOTECHNOLOGY (OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The colours are stunning the subject … February 2001: Health h and and safety is a balancing act between various priorities within2008): a business.

We always say H&S and is number one on o our ur list, but how do we mainta s that… October/November mber 1998: Depicts the on topic effectively…

2001: The artistic of this cover page captur captured red my attention… March/Ap matter borders sci-fi.

The imageJanuary/February takes us into another world that wemessaging are just beginning to understand l 1991: I feel the grief just usst looking the picture without even reading any 1988: Content…

September/October This is ccover made the reader awa as at health and safety activists…

I think it text… was anMarch/April interesting picture that would spark interest in a 1990: subjectThi t of the consequences of p poor oor workplace safety. The picture says it most all… people March/April I think the artwork on the cover portrays the right rig ght image of workplace traged know 1991: very little about. s that can happen when n you are are not nott careful carefu eful f l or or plan plan pl lan a happy, happy happy hap py, he h healthy ealt alth lthy hy wor work workplace k lace en kplace kpl environment. vironm vir i onmentt. TTh The he art he artwor artwork twor workk ccaptures apture apt ture uress more more off th the he ssadness adness adn d ess an and d empathy than a picture or e photo portrait… January/February 2008: It was very descriptive… December 2002: An awesome picture of a personal disaster… May/June 1989: Addresses issues d e rectly for women and I really liked the article on humour to help present safety… January/February 1990: It depicts both the responsibility of workers to protect themselv : and the employer’s responsibility to provide the education and equipment necessary for the worker to fulfill their responsibilities… December 2002: It is dramatic and re e resents a real situation that is faced by real people; while many HSE personnel will not witness this, there are those of us who brave the world outside of Canada and th t reminds us why we do what we do. Many of the other covers were also excellent, including the Westray one, distorted faces to represent the chemical and psychologic - impact of exposure/accidents and the stone angel cover. Good job… January/February 1990: I found that this cover really made a statement that was direct, to the poi e and got subscribers’ attention as soon as they looked at it. Everyone has heard the line, “We want you.....” And what better line to follow that up with, on an OHS magazin www.ohscanada.com J U N E 2 0 1 0 51 r cover than, “to protect yourself.” Way to go. Keep up the good work… March/April 1988: This cover could apply to any worker in any industry. Although the others a g also good, this is a general description and is something that not all industries think of… January/February 2005: Excellent. The picture really did say it all in this one…

e issues of safety… December 2002: I like this cover because it speaks to the unpredictability of the world and all the occupational hazards that go along with the unprectability… January/February 1995: It drew me to it as soon as I looked at it… October/November 1998: The angle of the shot photo rather than art/carton… March/ pril 1988: Man in motion… January/February 1990: I like the use of a familiar public theme or message transposed to a safety message. I find people remember safety ages or messages when they can relate them to everyday events or expressions… May/June 1989: The cover made me stop and think about not only the immediate azards, but the long-term ramifications of our decisions… September/October 1990: The cover is rather thought-provoking. The contrast has the right amount of message th the picture… January/February 1990: Good articles and good combination of text and graphics… December 2002: An amazing photo. Wow… January/February 990: I think it most speaks to what oh&s is all about… January/February 1990: The cover looks right at you and says to wear safety clothing. And that is the point: to wear fety gear and be safe… May/June y 1989: it jjust looked natural and I liked the articles advertised on front… March/April p 1991: I think people p p need to be reminded about orkplace fatalities from ttime ime me to to ti time time. me. I thi me think h nkk this thi h s cover cove cove overr captures capt apture tures how how everyone everyo eve ryone ryo ne should sho h uld ld feel feell about fe abo b utt the th h subject… sub subje bj ct ct… t Oc O October/November ctob t ber/ er/N /Nov Novemb ember ber 200 2009 2009: 9: Ver 9: Ve Veryy eye-catching and thoughtovoking. October/November ve ember 1998: Real pictures of real issues say a lot more then drawings sometimes… January/February 2001: It is a g great rea metaphor for health and fety overall. We all walk lkk a tightrope everyday at our workplaces when it comes to health and safety. We must always be aware of the dang dangers, ge we try to balance work erformance with safety conditions, co onditions, and we often face challenges with employers who do not see health and safety as a priority… June 2002: A Abstract b style of art was very e-catching… Decemberr 2 2002: 002: The photo drew me in and piqued my interest. I wanted to find out what the story was all about… January/F January/February Feb 1990: It shows that erybody has a responsibility sib bility for their own safety… January/February 2001: The concept is the reason… January/February 2005:At times it it looks lo to me like we have to e superhero to convey the he e ssafety afety message, and with WHMIS, many still are not getting theApril/May basics covered…

1998: 4.18 July/August per cent 2002: The glasses an and nd llegal-looking book seemed jump out at you… December em mber 2002: This picture is worth a thousand words which seem to be happening many times over. From the horror off K Katrina to the devastation in aiti, we are faced with tthis his issue over and over again. This cover is also how “Themany group people of men arefacing feelingpotential in a world death of ambiguity. after everyAre ride we a alone lon and facing destruction? down, faceless yet doing it everyday, relying on someone vely cover, powerful message… esssage… December 2002: The cover certainly was an attention-grabber.

But it was the article on mobbing that I foun found nd very interesting… March/ else feel to protect them every yet December knowing those pril 1991: It does an excellent xcellent job of showing the strong emotions one would when dealing with step, death…

2002:‘people’ This picture picturre really depicts the need for may not beaction looking outGreat for their health and safety.” 1990 eadiness” in case of disaster. sa aster. Everyone should have a well-rehearsed emergency/disaster plan. shot…

January/February 1990: 0: This photo cover is classic nd vintage. It encompasses ssses health and safety as a whole and signifies a decade of commitment and dedication. The message is clear, in essence, esse en Uncle OHS Wants You “This was Sharper the startthan of companies finally being practice workplace safety… fe ety… November/December 1993: Coz I like it… May/June 1989: the rest… May/June 1989: I think itt h hits i home and helps all think to takeevokes workerthe safety what is most importantt in n life… December 2002: What a compelling photo! Itforced immediately story seriously. behind theBefore image,this, proving that a picture is, indeed, worth a the profit that counted.” ousand words… May/June Ju une 1989: The poignancy of the image is what captivated me.itIt was deftlyonly illustrates the tension between work and familyy llife, if contrasting the hazards e face at work, which ca can an and do harm us, with the natural good of new life which we ought to cherish and protect… September/Octoberr 1 1990: The best… January/ “This is probably the most significant event in bruary 1995: I find those osse covers most authentic to the main topic article. They are very dark and thought-provoking art… November/Decem November/December mb 1993: Great illustration oh&s history.” microbe present on a ke keyboard, eyboard, just waiting to get picked up… January/February 1990: This is Canadian a persuasive cover…

June 2008: The artistic n nature a of the cover appealed me… December 2002:: TThe he cover exemplifies the reasons all persons need to be prepared for emergencies. The caption is thought-provokin thought-provoking ng a and draws a person to the ticle to find out more… JJune une 2004: The hen on the cover reminds me of a employer and the chick is the employee… July/August 2000: This iiss sso very topical at this time. hink it is eye-catching an and nd an article that I would specifically purchase the magazine to read. This issue is getting bigger than it was at the ttime im of original publication… ne 2005: Captures the vviewer’s iewer’s attention… June 2004: Love the look… May/June 1989: Like the look of it… July/August 2009: The graphicss a are r amazing and shows that ll in this day and age, with with all the knowledge out there, people still are exposed to chemicals that could be avoided by using the proper PPE… … JJuly/August 1985: Clear… arch/April 1988: This cover co over illustrates the care that we should be May/June taking every 1989:time 4.6we perdocent a job. I just think that it makes you aware of just h how ow fragile we human beings e… October/November err 1 1998: 998: Good graphics and context listing… October/November 1998: It captures the whole meaning behind fall protection… prrote January/February 001: Issue January/February brruary 2001 is“Itvery caught clearmy in delivering eye, as I know the oh&s when message. my wifeIt was shows pregnant, the risk like someone who acts like a circus playe player er w who walks on a naked line there were lot of things regarding chemical safety th a wooden stick to balance allance him. In the same timeaprinting the word risk in Red indicates that we the oh&s sequences of taking any risk will be p potentially ot hazardous… Janudidpicture… not know or realize.” y/February 1990: I like e tthe he message portrayed in simple September/October 1990: This cover reminded me of the importance of sa safety afe in the workplace… June 004: It epitomizes the pa parent arent and child relationship – and is touching and hits the heart… April/May 1998: The picture of the mine rescue tea team am during the Westray disasr… March/April 1988:: TThe he graphic “The relates cover well made withme thestop associated and think article… aboutOctober/November not only 2009: It make a great point… March/April March/ /Ap 1988: Combination of the of immediate hazards, the long-term aphics and content… June un ne 2004: The issue young worker safetybut is very important to myself and the corporation. Although we have standa standard ard health and safety training of our decisions.” r all new employees and nd d annual refreshers, I,ramifications as management health and safety rep, developed specialized training for our students. Their ttraining ra includes watching a deo I obtained from WSIB SIIB specifically for young workers… July/August 2009: The cover first attracted me to read further as it implicated manyy is issues, not just about metals, “I think it hits home all thinkchemicals of ut the safety issues. It appears pp pears as though we are being physically takenand overhelps by industry, and other hazards. The cover was simple simple, e, yet y sophisticated, and held what isI feel mostthat important in chosen life.” with a old document is a invitation for one good an lot of emotion in a veryy ssubtle ubtle manner… July/August 2002: the colour and nd peaceful moment to read. ere is not too much writing tiing on the cover, everything is well balanced… September/October 1990: The use of red and the graphic is striking,, w without offending anyone… eptember/October 1990: 0: Because it represents the importance of remembering those who we lost to unnecessary workplace deaths… May/June May/Ju un 1989: I find it intriguing, nd want to open it up and nd d read the cover story… March/April 1991: The image is striking, and all three of the subject matters described could d be related to the picture. It mpels the reader to look okk d deeper… eeper… September/October 1990: I love angels and this one that was picked for the cover was awesome! A little ea angelic girl would certainly ract attention to the cover ve er of a lot of readers… March/April 1991: Emotion without words – even in the thumbnail you can tell the topic… Jun June ne 2005: Working for Canaa Post, it is a reality I deal ea al with every day… June 2004: I find that this cover speaks March/April volumes1991: to the5.44 issues perthat centwe face in today’s society around arou und young worker injury and tality. Nothing is more important mportant than ensuring the safety of young workers as they embark on a new path in their lives. It should be an excitin exciting ng time and a happy time. As arents, business leaders a and nd educators, we need to ensure that we take the lead “Thisinisensuring my favourite that each cover and because, every young after worker all entering the ew work force is protected. We still rights stays as with me: darkness ave to instill a sense of co courage ourage into them, one where they are not afraid tothese standyears, up for ittheir they areallnothe different than any worker. W We are all entitled to a safe with fatalities opportunity: and ork environment and the e rright ight to go home with all of our digits intact every day.associated This cover for meworkplace depicts a nurturing one of trai training inin and knowledge transfer incidents. stands out.” om life’s experiences. Because ecause you can, be safe today and everyday… July/August 1985: Lots of Itemotion…

July/August 2002: I liked the m meaning e behind it. Everyone ould have professional e ethics… thics… January/February 2001: I liked the overall effect. It was artistic and well-designed. It made its message clea clearly arly and pointedly. Moreover, simple face. Anyone can any recognize a message all managers errs understand – balancing issues, resources, safety, costs“A and all thehuman other factors that go into decision… Octob October/November ber/ 2009: It looks that something is not with we him.

With health a whole other ol… July/August 1985: 5: The The caption of how computers were supposed to help make things better and,right instead, have invented othe bunch of issues with it. It safety,December it is best to start Like withthe thelook veryand the message as like the person in the eb bubble. ubble. That is how we were thinking instead of outside theand bubble…

2002: messag ge it conveyed… September/ basic health safety ctober 1990: Attention-grabber…

-g grabber… October/November 1998: Climbing a ladder to success, whileand talking fall concerns.” protection… October/Nove October/November emb 1998: Good depth of cture with graphics. This iss p picture icture also very well relates to the content covered within the magazine… October/November 1998: I just like th the he p photo… January/February without words.”

990: I work in the oil patch attch and do see a lot of workers taking their own safety for“Emotion granted, so to protect your self is a great message to all. Ev Even ven if you are not in industry, me of the worst offenders ers rss ar are ep private riv i ate t or sm small allll co contractors… ntr t act actors tors… JJune une 20 2005: 2005 05: It gr grabbed abb bbed d my attention attttent enti tion ion ri right ight ht away away and d it made mad ma de a good de good d po point… poi intt… S September/October Sep epte ept ep 1990: The sual image of the tombstone brings it home quite strongly about how workplace accidents can affect families – makes you pause and think… June 2004: I believe that it cessary to educate the parents to inform their children to not place themselves in the line of fire. Parents need to ensure their children have the nerve and self-confidence to and up for themselves if they feel an incident could occur… January/February 2001: Work always has risk associated with it… December 2002: An excellent depiction of ow easily one can be isolated from all known surroundings in an instant during a disaster… September/October 1990: The cover really hits home. It makes you realize at you need to be safe not only at the workplace, but in every day life, because if we’re not, it can affect all of us on way or another… January/February 2005: It is very lourful… March/April 1988: Dynamics, colour and how it draws you into the issue… May/June 1989: I like the artwork and how it impacts the topic to the reader… ctober/November 2008: I work in nanotechnology, so this cover stuck a chord with me. I think it was an interesting picture that would spark interest in a subject most N E 2 0 1 0 OHS CANADA 52littleJ Uabout… eople know very July/August 2009: I like the skin turning to metal. It made me want to read the article as we are a manufacturing company… January/Februy 1990: I just like how they use the comparison to the old Uncle Sam wants you. I think it gets your attention and does a great job of getting the message across… July/

-courses at Ryerson University and was the author’s student. I was new in the field of health and safety and this article and course gave me a great foundation in understan /ing how to apply my knowledge. This was and still is an important issue facing safety administrators in the workplace. I still have this issue! Not only is it a beautiful piece ycover art, but also relevant information… May/June 1989: I really like the graphic of the pregnant female worker in a non-traditional job and I believe the issue of the effe eof work on reproductive health and safety is extremely important and under-reported… January/February 1990: The cover emphasizes the need for workers who, in som ecircumstances, are required to wear personal protective equipment… October/November 2009: Eye-catching… January/February 2001: Gets to the heart of safety exc ylence – risk and risk tolerance… January/February 1990: I like the message it is sending. It is clear and it got my attention first over the other magazines… April/May 199 rThe Westray incident has had the most significant change on health and safety in Canada in many years… December 2002: Home is where the heart is and we can trelate to a disaster at home – never mind losing g your y home totally, y as illustrated in the picture… p July/August y g 1985: I liked how the cover had a futuristic look to it. I wou -be compelled to pick itt up up and d read read d it… it July/August July/ Jul Ju l /Aug ly/A Augustt 2002: 2002 2002 02: Th Thi This is is is is th the h ba b backbone ackb ckbone kbone off th the he oh& o oh&s h&s pr h& profession… ofe f ssi ssion ion on… De D Decem December ecem cemb ber 20 ber 2002 2002: 02: I fou 02 ffound ound d th that tha h t th tthe he im he image really fit with the title dJanuary/February 2007: 07 7: Use of dog and what is being depicted and why… December 2002: The messaging behind the imagery is loud an and nd clear – emergency planning kpreparedness is a necessity esssity for action in an eventuality as opposed to an exercise in hypothesis… January/February 1995: The use of abstrac abstract ct a art really makes it stand out yMarch/April 1988: For orr the the artistic visualization of what is the most common areas affecting strain injuries, well portrayed… October/Nov October/November vem 1998: It is my favour tbecause it catches yourr eye eye and this is a safety topic that is vital to this industry. Still many companies do not adhere to fall protection… July/ July/August /A 2000: Visually appe oing and I like the humourous ou urous approach… January/February 1990: Gets your attention and a great take-off on a time-honoured poster… July July/August y/A 1985: Good image dCaptures your attention n and and makes you want to read more… July/August 2009: July/August I liked2009: this cover 5.86 because per centit attracted my attention and motivated motiva ate me to learn more about t nheavy metal issue… January/February nuary/February 1990: It seems to give the best safety message at a glance… March/April 1988: The colours and the e subject s matter… June 2008 ?speaks to keeping young ng g and new workers safe. Cover is very Canadian…

“The March/April cover first 1991: attracted looks mebetter to read thanfurther the others as itand implicated more interesting… interesstin June 2004: Great ima many issues, just important about metals, theworkplace. safety issues. /that immediately dials the th he viewer into the issue of protecting younger workers, which is anot hugely issue but in the LoveItthe composition co omp and colour scheme as though we arewant being overwith by issuess such rJuly/August 1985: Very ryy different… different… March/April 1991: It paints the grimappears picture that people usually to physically avoid whentaken dealing su as death. Very good p industry, chemicals other hazards.” ctrayal… July/August 2002: 002: Using a book and the old-style glasses was a good tie-in to the legal aspectsand of ethics...

November/December 1993: 19 99 The message on this cov utakes the “safety” message sa age into the office space and provides visible clues that safety is not just a production worker or outdoor (construct (construction tion worker) matter. It is often in this day work and age, with all The the knowledge kstruggle to get the “salaried aried staff” to embrace safety matters as having application“Still, to their specific environment.

1993 cover, with its its virus laying atop a compu out there, stillfavourite are exposed chemicals akeyboard key drives the e safety safety message home with one clear image… March/April 1991: people This is my cover to because, afterthat all these e years, ye it still stays with me – could be Depicts avoidedhow by using sthe darkness associated d with with workplace fatalities and incidents. It stands out… June 2004: fragilethe ourproper young personal workers are, how w we w need to protect the hea protective equipment.” /and safety of our youth h who who become our replacements in the work force. The importance to nurture our young workers with life skills needed d to to survive out there in the coo nand strengthen them to maturity maturity in the work force… June 2005: The artwork presents a very clear connection to the emotional impact the issue e in involves. It grabs my attentio “I like thisThe cover becausewas it attracted my attention dbut also links to the emotions… mo otions… September/October 1990: It was a very moving cover. tombstone a grim reminder that there stilll have ha been deaths at the wo and motivated1998: me toThe learn theone heavy eplace… March/April 1991: 19 991: It is a very powerful picture and caption… October/November bestmore coverabout by far, of the best issues, isssue very topical at the time .brought fall protection to to the forefront before legislation made training mandatory in 2002. Hard metal to lookissue.” at that cover and not get the message. messsag Great Job… March/Ap …1988: The cover immediately ed diately got my attention and the topics covered (not unlike any of the other editions), were important. Thanks… October/November Octo obe 1998: Visua “Inenlarge a glance, one can March/April make the connection between a tinteresting. Caught myy attention attention without even having to the image…

1991: Because it tackles a tough topic that manyy workplaces w have to deal w workplace hazard and the adverse effects …and that all too often iss ignored… ignored… June 2005: Been there…

January/February 1990: Reminds me to of workers.” the old war recruitment posters. Emplo Employees oye need to be “recruited” slook after their own health alth and safety, participate in our programs and not turn a blind eye to health and safety issues in the workplace. We all all need to work together for t ygreater good… July/August Au ugust 1985: Distinct colouring and three-dimensional aspect… July/August 2009: It shows the issue pictorially withoutt reading re the write up… Dece eber 2002: I love the photo hoto in that it powerfully captures the meaning of the word “disaster”… March/April 1991: I think the artwork is amazing, am maz the contrast of light a -dark. The picture also fits fitts extremely well with the subject matter of the article/magazine… April/May 1998: Cover story and content… July/August July/ /A 2002: The words say eall… October/November ber 2009: Information inside… October/November 1998: This cover shows an actual worker doing an actual worksite workssite activity (instead of the mo -“artistic” covers). Despite pitte the reality of the picture, the ladder cage gives a sense of a spider web, which gave me the impression of the “web” “we eb of complex regulations a frequirements that go along lo ong with fall protection in Canada… March/April 1988: This was a wake-up call to make our workplaces ergo-friendl ergo-friendly ly and start to reduce the spra gand strain accidents and nd d reaping the benefits today in 2010… January/February 1990: I like the message it presents – direct and to the point… po oin July/August 2000: Ble aof graphics and article e titles, titles, use of colour… May/June 1989: It remindsJune us of2004: a continuum 6.28 perofcent the impact of exposure. I also am a fan of lau laughter ugh in learning and of cour ,enjoy demonstrating what wh hat a right to know includes. It was a trifecta of success… March/April 1991: The graphic design of the cover really captures ca my interest to read t darticles… December 2002: 002: It immediately catches is your attention and than you are drawn the to read the title… January/February 1990: While the company co has the responsibil “Nothing more important ensuring safety of young as they on atonew path in worker… September/October 1990: There still .to provide the necessary ryy safety equipment, a largeworkers responsibility for embark using it has apply to the stil are far too many workpla their lives.reflective As parents, business leaders and 1990: The visual aspects of the image and coverr are …fatalities… October/November ovember 2008: Very interesting shot…

September/October a interesting and compel m wewell need to ensure we take themagazine. lead in It is also eye-catching… July/August 2009 ,further to open… May/June /June 1989: Theeducators, illustration fits with the mainthat articles in the 2009: 9: The picture grasps a viewe ensuring each and every young worker entering tattention quickly and, in n a glance, one can make that the connection between a workplace hazard and the adverse affects to workers. The artistic artisstic work is striking, imaginati work force yand very well done… April/May April/May 1998: Westray wasthe a pivotal pointisinprotected.” history for safety in this country. Good image for the cover… March/ March/April /A 1988: The bright colou -attract the eye immediately; attely; the shape is instantly recognizable and draws an association with the topic. In contrast to the dark covers and ominous om images on some of t dother covers, this coverr transmits transmits the message “The play(toon mewords anyway) andofthe thegreat positive usethings of imagery about health and safety… October/November 1998: It shows sho the importance of fall of ‘The Parent Gap’ didprocess it for me.

Very clever, srest. The article appeared re ed at the right time for me.

I was in the of rewriting the safe work practices on fall restraints and fall arrest systems. syst With this cover focus very good to introduce a very 2009: Very dynamic, makes you want to open and eon the actual fall hazard arrd I was able tovery holdvisual, the interest of the way participants…

July/August and read articles… Septembe important subject.” eOctober 1990: The statue atu ue of the child will attract almost all people’s attention as children are our most precious gifts. We have and we need to od do everything to protect the rbut also to protect ourselves se elves for them as well… March/April 1988: Colour, design and text all attract attention to this important health and safety sa topic in a unique way “It depicts how fragile young workers are, how we eJuly/August 2009: Because ca ause it is so gripping…

July/August 2000:our I like the design and caption.

This topic is still very relevant today… January/February Janua ar y 2001: Illustrati protect the andand safety of our youth, who It shows the relationship of a mother chicken ,the role and practice off health health and safetyneed as a to balancing act health is elegant poignant…

June 2004: ch hic and her chicks. Mothe becomeJune our 2004: replacements in the work slove is always eye-catching ch hin ng and generally accepted…

I like chickens, plus itforce.” is plain and simple… September/October 1990: There Th her is something about a tom tstone on the cover of a health health and safety magazine that somewhat draws the reality of what can happen home… January/February 2001:: The Th picture really depicted t “Wethe moved a long way in making our young /main story about risk and an nd it was a very cool picture… June 2004: Depicts generational transfer of responsibility for workers safety in a clear and an nd simple photo… March/Ap the hazard.

This a start forthe many.” f1991: The picture is very err y good – gets your eye right away… March/Aprilaware 1988: of The colour grabs mywas attention and subject matter of pressure prres points and the breaki ydown of the body due to to poor work health and safety rules speaks volumes on how far we have come…. July/August 2009: Graphics and d message… m January/Februa ,2001: Sends out a message… sssage… June 2005: Dramatic, eye-catching, graphics are colourful and dynamic, appropriate to topic. Calls to you to pick pic up and read… June 200 eFirst of all, the cover provides ro ovid vides id des humour, humour, but humour hum butt more more importantly, iimpo mporta t ntl ntly tlly, raises raiises the th he importance iimpo mporta rtance t nce on making makkin ma ki g safety king safe afet f ty ty an integral i tegrall part integr int part of of young youn youn oung g workers work orkers kers lives. lives. With lilives W Wi no formal school program ton health and safety; young workers often lack the experience to recognize and avoid workplace hazards. In order to prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities, the first step ofor young workers to understand their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. I found the humour and simplicity of the cover really raised awareness to this importa fissue… January/February 1990: It struck me as a great link between our past, present and future… January/February 1990: For me this is the best combination of a fam eiar statement (We Want You) and an important message of protecting yourself. I used the cover as a poster on my office door for months. The articles for the month we ygreat as well – informative MSDS information and understanding of the issues surrounding them… March/April 1991: Good reading… January/February 2001: In a tim …of combating leading indicators, it is imperative that we adopt strategies for defensive strategies in mitigating behaviours… July/August 2000: Graphically tells story tcontent inside… May/June 1989: Nice to see a woman, future mother represented on the magazine cover… June 2004: Young worker safety is of highest priority… Apr www.ohscanada.com J U N E 2 0 1 0 -May 1998: Struck a chord at the time of workers in a major disaster, that changed health/safety law forever. Good image without being too graphic, yet53 at a distance. Ju /the right grabber… January/February 1990: “Protect yourself” is what we have had to do for many decades to survive the workplace and what we will have to do forev

t priority… September/October 1990: I thought the statue was so appropriate for the story… December 2002: Nothing more to be said once reading the caption… Januy/February 1995: Oh&s is all about people. The cover caught my attention in its design, highlighting the faceless masses… June 2005: Powerfully graphic imagining of very real and serious work condition… October/November 1998: The picture was taken at the perfect angle to illustrate the dangers of working at heights… July/August 009: The image is very graphic, and grabs the reader’s attention immediately, piquing their interest. This curiosity then leads the reader to review the titles, and read the ticles to learn more about the picture and the safety issue it refers to… June 2004: Eye-catching and cute. Makes you look as to why a hen and a chick are on an occupanal health magazine. Then when you read the caption about young worker safety, it makes sense and the mother instinct sets in, so that you agree that extra care needs be taken to ensure young workers are protected… March/April 1988: Like the visual impact… January/February 1995: The artwork is striking. As well, the message – veryone is responsible” – is one that was wayy ahead of its time… March/April p 1988: Good image. g Image g tells story. y Not a negative g or tragic g image… March/April 1991: brings an issue to the surf surface urf rfface th that hatt is is sometimes someti etimes times very very difficult d fficu diffi dif ficultlt to ficul to deal deal with… dea with h… June June 2005: 2005 20 05: Th 05 Thi This is cov is cover er ill illustrates llusttrat rates tes a m major ajo j r issu iissue ssue in in all all wor work workplaces… k lace kplace kpl aces es… March/April 1988: The ver was very relevent for or the time… November/December 1993: Colour grabs your attention. Problem is very common, affects us daily. Fun nw with a serious punch line… eptember/October 1990: 90 0: This cover is what workplace safety is all about. We need to prevent accidents before they happen to prevent tr tragedies rag as illustrated on this ver… April/May 1998: 8: TThe he Westray Mine disaster is the one incident that truly opened my eyes to the fact that some large, profitable employ employers yer were turning a blind eye safety in the name of profits. ro ofits. It amounted to criminal negligence and no employer was beyond scrutiny after this… September/October 1990: S Statue t symbolism – someone as passed away. This gets etss yyou ou thinking what went wrong. Why?... July/August 2009: Visual graphics and story… July/August 2002: The topicc iiss always an important issue health and safety. The d design esign is clear and to the point… January/February 2005:January/February When you look at 1990: the cover 7.53itper gives cent you the impression o off sstrength t – strength in health nd safety. Everyone should uld go home in the same condition that they arrived at work… March/April 1988: The human body is the focus of th the he page as it is ultimately the cus of health and safety. y.. The The simplicity of the design combined with the colors on “It many depicts possible both the injury responsibility points is what of workers drew mytoattention… protect JJanuary/February an 2007: The themselves and the employer’s responsibility to og looks so friendly, butt yyou ou know you should treat him with respect. All industries have jobs and equipment that mirror the dog. Dangerous s if not treated with respect… the education and equipment necessary ecember 2002: The picture tu ure depicts the truth about being ready for a disaster of anyprovide sort… January/February 2008: This cover asks the reade reader er to assess our abilities and, for workers to fulfill theirIt responsibilities.” the same time, to re-think nkk our emergency plans. I found it quite thought-provoking… October/November 1998: shows a worker using the co correct orr protective gear… July/ ugust 1985: I like the cover over display… May/June 1989: It caught my eye as I know when my wife was pregnant. There was a lot of things rregarding eg chemical safety we d not know or realize. I tthink hink anytime there are babies or children involved, people tend “‘Protect to notice… yourself’ December is what 2002: we You haveknow had what to doit is alll a about b and it’s something we decades survivehad thean workplace ave to think about – what att w we e would do if we had a disaster… April/May 1998: The fall for out many from this miningto disaster immense impactt o on health and safety regulahave to do forever toThis avoid n, i.e. the introduction o off the concept of “criminal negligence” to the Canada Criminal and Codewhat with we Bill will C-45…

April/May 1998: is probably proba ably the most significant event consequences not being safety-minded Canadian oh&s history… y… … January/February 1990: This cover has a great eye-catchingthe focus on the personofwearing the PPE. It uses colour we well ell a and it draws your attention on and off the job.” the face of the character er and then over to the bullets that indicate the main topics in the issue… October/November 1998: I feel that the pe perspective ersp of this photo is fanstic. Not many people ha have ave the experience of what it is like climbing a fixed ladder with a cage… March/April 1988: Visually interesting and de easy to understand… Janu“It reflectsWith the biggest obstacle I have toedition, face OH y/February 2005: I always ways have said that safety must remain simple and at times light-hearted. the comic book defender OHS HS CANADA must believe in as a safety trying to get people to and e… October/November err 1 1998: 998: Really amplifies the point of the need for fall arrest… July/August 2002:person The cover is esthetically pleasing d the th content of that particular for their safety.” 1990: I ffelt the picture showed the ue is all of interest and d rrelevant elevant in my role… June 2004: Caught my eye. Great visual aid. take Greatresponsibility message… September/October eauty and importance off lilife ife with the tragedy of preventable human loss… July/August 2009: I love the graphics, it made me stop and take no notice, otic enough to actually open “It struck metoasquickly a great link itbetween e magazine and read th the he article… July/August 2000: The cover definitely led me open to find the information, which was mostt h helpful... January/February our what past, misery presentand andgrief future.”

008: Effective at capturing rin ng my interest... September/October 1990: It shows can fall onto a family over an accident accidental tal death... June 2008: High pact, bright colours, female male face in uniform… September/October 1990: The photo is so compelling and haunting, makes me take a second d look… lo July/August 2009: It ets right down to the point. in nt. It is very visual, something that people look for nowadays to spark there interest since people have no time to stop a and n actually pay attention to hat is going on. This is a an n eye-catcher and people want to see why this hand is turning into metal so they go in and keep on reading in the m mag. a Great Cover… March/ pril 1988: Simple, but g gets ets the message across… June 2002: I found the cover to be very provocative and “scary.” It relates excellently to o the th subject matter and does stice to draw the attention on of the reader to the story (and the edition)… July/August 2009: Impact of the cover design… June 2004: It was a to toss-up for me between this ne and the October/November ovvember 1998 cover featuring fall arrest (I am terrified of heights and I felt like I was on that ladder myself!). But the p play la on words and the great e of imagery of The Parent rent Gap did it for me. It was a very clever, very visual, very good way to introduce a very important subject. It wass rreally e fun going through the vers over the years. Thanks an nks for inviting me… January/February December 2005: 2002: The image 8.58 of perancent OH&S superhero draws on the icons of comic books tto o emphasize the importance health and safety without ho out being too serious or heavy handed… October/November 1998: The photo on the cover clearly illustrates thatt tthere h will be info within the agazine pertaining to fall alll arrest… July/August 2000: Impact... January/February 2007: Very intense-looking pose on the dog’s face. Speakss ffor o itself… October/Novem“The messaging behind imageryand is loud andI like them all… March/April 1988: Pressure points er 2009: I have no one favorite. favorite. All the issues are very well done,the informative helpful. pointts a are helpful to people recova ing for soft-tissue injuries ess and they often clear: forget emergency about usingplanning/preparedness them… January/Februaryis 2008: Could you cope? This is an important message messag ge which is being brought to necessity for cover actionasinit an asand somber cover and makes me want to read more… O aders’ attention… September/October em mber/October 1990: I liked this is aeventuality very serious October/November 1998: I to anand exercise in hypothesis.” el that this cover shows th the he safety message. Aopposed barrel ladder the person wearing a fall arrest system… September/October 1990: Remindss u us that workplace accidents n be fatal and should be e taken seriously… October/November 2009: Not sure. It kinda jumped out the most… July/August 2002: Visually, tthe h cover grabs the reader’s ention and the reference ce e tto o ethic in oh&s…“IJuly/August like this cover 1985: because The contrast it speaks between to thethe human body verses the computer and machines is ey eye-catching. ye-c The human body unpredictability and all the occupational ems very vulnerable to it its ts environment…

June 2004: Itofisthe funwork yet thought-provoking.

Having children who will soon be getting their first jobs in n a couple of years, I worry hazards that gothem along with unpredictability.” bout those employers’ integrity nttegrity when it comes to keeping informed of their rights and the safety hazards they will face… September/O September/October Octo 1990: As a parent of ree small children, I attempt em mpt to remember always that they are the reason I do what I do. Having lost my dad to a workplace incident when I w was a teenager, I know I do depiction how easily one can ot want them to go through ug gh the same. “An The excellent small angel holding of a teddy bear forces that desire to protect them to be ever-present… July/Augu July/August ust 2000: First, please let me bemust isolated surroundings in an to so few. OHS CANADA covers always strike throughh w y how difficult a decision on n this was; and have from been all for known you to narrow the selection with the theme and are very instantToduring a July/August disaster.” 2000 cover is very bold and daring. It cuts right to the point a ell done. Great artists, p photographers hotographers and designers! me, the and nd gets the message across, hile taking a great risk o off o offending ffending the entire medical community. P.S. It was a toss-up between this and December 2002. Great photo… Ma March/April arch 1988: It appeared “The picture depicts the truth about om the cover to relate wit with th current health and safety issues regarding pain/strain injuries… June 2002: The colour and the fact that it really rela relates ate to the topics of the issue, beingI want ready a this disaster any sort.” makes you think before yyou ou even open the issue. to for read one…ofJanuary/February 2001: Risk high rope walking is a risk business an and nd this picture fits very well… arch/April 1991: A simple mp ple human face. Anyone can recognize that something is not right with him. With health and safety, it is best to start w with ith the very basic health and fety concerns… December ber 2002: The cover is rather simple but provides a very clear, yet unwritten message… September/October 1990: A Ass soon as I had my eyes on it hit home. Losing someone me eone from something that could have been preventable, everyone could relate to that. I felt the sadness in the picture. I ffelt I was there. The person ho had lost someone and nd de everything verything left was an angel built in stone. The design is really catchy. Good job… January/February 2001: The reduction red duc of risk in our everyday orkplaces and activitiess iiss th tthe he only he onlly way way we will wililll ever ever ac ach achieve hi ve “ZE hieve hie “ZERO” ZERO” ZE RO ha RO” h harm harm. arm rm. We We ne need ed d to to edu educate, d cat cate te, edu educate d cat cate te a and nd d edu educate d cat cate te all all wor workk forc fforces orces orc es reg rega regarding ar ard ar the reduction of risk… eptember/October 1990: There is no ambiguity in this message. Health and safety risks lead to tragedy. The sky is so blue, and the angel also looks like an innocent child… y/August 2009: Groovy special effects… January/February 1995: All too often we have people in our workplace that insist that there is a need for more safety specialists/ dvisors/reps etc. to police the workplace. They take safety as someone else’s job and do not take responsibility to operate in a safe work environment. The internal responbility lies with everyone directly or indirectly involved and, as for the picture drawn, it shows what level each person participates and the person in the forefront is “you”… ay/June 1989: It made me think, more than the other covers… December 2002: Reality... January/February 1995: The artwork and the message it represents… Septemer/October 1990: Dark, yet VERY effective. This cover says it all, supported by the Robson-Lang Tannery tragedy story. EVERYONE can identify with the cover pic. My mber two choice was June 2004 – the Parent Gap young worker cover. This one definitely speaks louder than all of them… March/April 1988: This cover depicts the body J U N E 2 0 1 0 OHS CANADA nd our actions54 on it which makes one think of health and safety first and foremost being important in any career or place of work… January/February 1990: This cover ys it all, the reason for doing what you do. All our hard work is for someone else… April/May 1998: The group of men facing potential death after every ride down,

-doing it anyway. It is the best I have seen in a long time… July/August 1985: Visually, it meant while we all start out in life in the same way, we are not all protected t fsame way… January/February 2005: I like the picture… November/December 1993: I thought it was cute… July/August 2009: It caught my eye immediately, and tpertinent to the industry I work in (mining)… December 2002: It really drives home the importance of emergency planning. It struck a chord with many of the managers eour company as we have sites that are at risk of floods from natural sources… July/August 1985: The cover suggests a number of ethical issues which interest me as someo -who reads a great deal in biomedical ethics: Of course some of the issues may be of my own creation and not at all on the minds of those who designed the cover… Apr sMay 1998: It is indicative of the real-life importance of a safe working team, due diligence and internal responsibility… October/November 1998: The graphics and top –are parallel and striking… March/April 1988: There is some gender neutrality. It is highlighted with bright colours, deals with ergo issues that are the number one cost a :type of injury… April/Mayy 1998: I believe this storyy single-handedly g y changed g the face of safetyy and p programs g for all Canadian business (C-45)… April/May 1998: Th ewas the start of companies ani niies finally finalllly being finall fina b be bei eing ing forced fforce fo orce rced d to to take take k worker worke rker k r safety safe afet f ty ty seriously. seriiou ser iously l . Before Befo efore f re this, this thi h s, s, it was only onlly on ly the th h profit profit fit that th hatt counted… counte nted t d… d… January/February Januar y/F Januar Jan y/Febr /Feb e 2007: It caught my e …when I first viewed it… … October/November October/November 1998: One of the better visual impacts and the article was very good as well… October/November October/Nove emb 1998: Graphics and th sit shows even with a cage age for protection, you still require added protection, such as fall arrest… December 2002: The design and the mixx of of text and image… Octobe eNovember 1998: I like e real real life covers that show something about an important aspect of OH&S. I like that it is a picture of working safely… safelyy… March/April 1991: Artist ethought-evoking. Good d choice choice for the issues covered inside… July/August 2009: Visually captivating… March/April 1991: A realistic illustration illustra atio of an individual stricken egrief. The artwork elicits tss a very human (and far too common) response to a workplace tragedy. This image exemplifies the need to prevent fatal fattal accidents in the workplace hJuly/August 1985: From om m 1985 to now, the computer has opened the door to research that was only available in print back then… July/A July/August Aug 2009: It is so shocking eJanuary/February 1995: 95 5: It had a picture of many people March/April all “looking” 1988: the 8.79 sameper to cent me, portraying the internal responsibility system, that everyone evver y is responsible for hea eand safety. It is a team e effort… ffort… May/June 1989: This truly reflects the protection of mankind and it starts from the birth. We have to protect eve everything er y from the start so it do …not become a disease a and nd non-stoppable…

“The colour October/November grabs my attention 2008:and There theare subject so many evocative images used in your covers, but I kep kept pt ccoming back to this one. T pressure andimage the breaking of ,colours are stunning and nd d the subjectmatter matterofborders on points sci-fi. The takes us down into another world that we are just beginning to understand da as health and safety activis theIt gets bodythe due to pooracross work inhealth safety rules /Cool stuff… January/February ebruary 1990: message a veryand simple way.

The nostalgic layout is effective… July/August 2000: TThe h cover caught my eye and speak volumes howwell-deserved… far we have come.” ewas full of useful information… ma ation… June 2008: Features our on RCMP; July/August 1985: Historical first issue; perhaps unintended dm message, but in retrospect su egests the birth (or dawning) niing) of the increasing use of technology in the monitoring and tracking of oh&s issues… December 2002: It has to be b because ec of the drama the pictu illustrates the to care should -evokes... June 2004: I lilike ike the idea of not “The using cover a hard-lined picture leadthat the we reader to a not so hard-lined article. I get turned off by the fist o orr large picture over somethin beistaking everyand time we March/April do a job. I just thinkI liked the simplicity and the focus on the ordinary hu tThe idea of using the ch chicken hicken and the chick interesting fun…

1988: human um being… December 200 that itOctober/November makes you aware 1998: of just Ihow we photo, first off. I have seen this view and climbed nI felt the picture really g got ot the point across… thinkfragile it’s a great climbe ed a ladder like this dozens a humanetc. beings are.”I feel very strongly about fall protection and how so many people sseem -dozens of times. I can appreciate ap ppreciate the cage around the ladder, Secondly, e to take working at heigh -for granted… June 2004: 04 4: Young worker awareness is a very important part of my oh&s training program and this illustration with the hen an and nd cchick just caught my attenti “Pressure points1995: are helpful to people nand seemed to portraitt tthe he message… January/February Much different from all the others… March/April 1988: Simple, artistic yet iinspiring… ns September/Octob recovering from r1990: There was a reality ality between work and home thatsoft-tissue drew me injuries towardsand this they cover… January/February 2008: It is a challenging questio question on and one that we do not co often forget about using them.” esider until we see someone eone else coping in crisis…

October/November 1998: Great photo… September/October 1990: I took this picture e as as a grave marker for a chi nChildren are our most p precious recious assets – a reason to be extra careful around them and a reason to be extra careful of ourselves at work so w we e ccan go home to them and d apply toyourself any worker in any you industry.” ythe things that they need ed da and nd depend on us to “The do. If cover you docould not look after for yourself, certainly will for your children… January/February January/ /Fe 1990: It is direct a hclear in its message… N November/December ovember/December 1993: Cool looking… July/August 2002: The morale and ethical decision of oh&s applies to e everyone ve in every workplace tJanuary/February 2008: 08 8: I love the picture. I think it makes people think about what could happen on the job sites and why they need to plan a ahead he and cover all the bases oApril/May 1998: Westray sttray was a defining moment and became a real game changer… October/November 1998: I like the graphic displa display. ay The perspective of depth /creases the perspective eo off height. Height is where we need the protection, even if they have a false security of walls around them when climb climbing… bin June 2004: Young wo sers are statistically the m most ost vulnerable group... October/November 1998: It caught my eye and was interesting… March/April 1988: Imag Image ge of overall body and pressu spoints really stresses impact mp pact of work on a body… June 2008: It really gets the safety message across. It is colourful and everybody recogniz recognizes zes the Mounties, so it is a foc tgetter that attracts yourr a attention ttention and curiosity… March/April 1988: It is bold and immediately catches your eye… September/October 199 1990: 90 The symbolism of the hea estone says so much about bo out why safety matters to everyone… June 2005: Graphics and topics. Many of us have “werewolves” in our organ organizations, niz so this cover is eas eidentifiable… May/June ne e 1989: It’s more about preventative than reactive. The pregnant lady draws on your emotions… December 2002: Here He ere are a few thoughts that we ethrough my head when n I studied this cover: the “smallness: and vulnerability of the September/October home in comparison 1990: with8.79 the per torrent centof raging water; thee IIdea d of the home being a sa -place is destroyed. Where here can you be safe? Why is the home all alone? Have other homes already been washed away? Is this picture ju just ust a glimpse of a much grea -catastrophe? What could ulld have protected the home and its family from this emergency?...

“The picture March/April showed the 1988: beauty I liked and theimportance contrast of colour of and iitt stood s out… April/May 199 life with the tragedy of preventable human loss.” and eye-a oIt tells a powerful story b between etween the rescue team pic and the title. It is a very solemn reminder…

January/February 1995: Colourful eye-appealing, app this cover best exe Iplifies the truth of the story. to or y. There is no one person that is free from doubt (cloudy effect) as to their role in health and safety. The farther dow down wn the pecking order of a wo splace, regardless of size, ze e, the clouds increase until some workers place themselves “As in obscurity. soon asWell I had done… my eyes March/April on it, it hit1991: home.Compelling Losing ccover ov picture – conveys a serio from that could have been 1993: C smessage. Also contentss llisted isted are of particular interest, e.g. JHSC and ergonomicsomeone articles, to oursomething workplace…

November/December Caught a my attention off the b prevented — everyone could relate what to that.” yEnlarged picture and ha had ad a chuckle and new exactly what the message was… October/November 2009: Just explains safety is all a about b and it is very modern yMarch/April 1991: It h hits its home. Serious picture for a serious topic… July/August 2009: Original… May/June 1989: It’s a very striking im image ma of a woman who is ob coverI think is what is all health (fo fously pregnant and who ho o may be exposing her unborn child unknowingly to chemical“This hazards. thatworkplace the issue ofsafety reproductive (for or men and women) associat about.

We needthat to prevent accidents before and discu owith chemical hazards ffrom rom work is something that we have come a long way on, but it is something still needs to be improved discussed uss more often… Septembe they happen to prevent tragedies.” eOctober 1990: The serenity re enity of the image in contrast with the subject matter… March/April 1988: This was the issue that started me down the e rroad o to committing to a care yin health and safety. It brought brought to light the responsibilities associated with being a supervisor and allowed us to develop a more complete safety sa afe program by identifying “The ofathe headstone ,sponsibility and culpability… billity… July/August 1985: The picture really grabs your attention. The position of symbolism the man like fetus demonstrates the the fragility of the unborn to t much about safety dvarious substances thatt w we e are exposed to at work and home… June 2005: I think it is neat how thesays wolf so is depicted as awhy worker.

This is so true tru in many jobs. Scars do r everyone.” ,deep… December 2002: 02 2: What an unbelievable photo… July/August 2009: It simply caught my eye morematters than thetoothers…

October/Novemb October/November be 1998: I like the picture fro …up above looking down wn no on n the person climbing to the top… June 2004: We moved a long way in making our young workers aware of th the he hazards. This was a start f dmany… June 2004: Because eccause young worker occupational health is very important to me. This cover illustrates, very well, and in a soft way, how ho ow much older workers have nimportant role to play in nd demonstrating emonstrating to younger workers the importance that each other have to preserve its own safety… January/February January/Februarr y 1990: It depicts exactly wh nwe would like all workers ke ers to wear to protect themselves… December 2002: I like this cover because it is a real-life photograph, and not so some ome abstract picture. The “wh ywater” in the background un nd underlines the story about how quickly disaster can strike… October/November 1998: Simple, clear, oh&s-related oh&s-related… d… October/November 200 …Photography/artwork iss iincredible… ncredi edibl dibl ble… January/February JJanu anuary anu ary/ ary /F bru /Feb /Fe bruary 2008: bruary 2008 20 08: Th This Thi his is was my fa ffavorite favor avor vorit ite co cover ver because becau becau be cause se off th the h im image it image itself self sel lf a and nd d th the h sl sloga slogan logan ““Could Could Coul Cou ld you cope?” With everythi …that happened with 9-11, it brought a lot of stuff into new perspective… March/April 1988: It represents impacts on human. We do health and safety for the person… Apr /May 1998: The cover captured the general culture of mine work, and the workers who, on a daily basis, face the reality of possibly not returning home that day. These wo -ers have a strong sense of teamwork and mutual responsibility to each other when it comes to safety, and have safety continuously on their minds. I think this picture captur …that sense of camaraderie and need to rely on each other to ensure they go home that day... March/April 1988: Very artistic… March/April 1988: I selected this cov -because it highlights all of the body areas that our people experience work and home pain… October/November 1998: The photo is very eye-catching and appropriate ythe headline… March/April 1988: I believe it is getting more than one message across before you even open the cover. I like the idea of showing the different muscle are yof the body to be aware of. Everyone in the workplace should be made aware of this… July/August 2000: This is a great cover because it highlights a huge issue all wo www.ohscanada.com J U N E 2 0 1 0 rplaces face – doctors who help kill our return-to-work programs by giving employees the opportunity to write their own note, literally. If I had a dollar for55 every time an e ,ployee told me that their doctor asked them how long they would like to be off, I could buy 10 Kindles. Doctors are most definitely the loaded guns in our return-to-wo

e responsibility for their safety. The problem personnel would rather try to get out of protecting themselves because someone else has failed to follow the guidelines then ey would do their co-worker a favour by telling them they forgot their safety glasses or hearing protection… April/May 1998: The subject and the photo is why this is my vorite cover… July/August 2009: The mercury melts into the hand. The pain must be unbearable and it is so traumatic just to even see it. This is a good wake-up call to aw our attention in treating the dangerous liquid safely. Well done to the design… June 2005: I like the image of a “mad-dog” employee… October/November 1998: ss abstract and gruesome than some of the others. Shows how to do it the right way… January/February 2001: Health and safety is a balancing act between various iorities within a business. We always say H&S is number one on our list, but how do we maintain that… October/November 1998: Depicts the topic effectively… January/ bruary 2001: The artistic messaging of this cover page captured my attention… March/April 1991: I feel the grief just looking at the picture without even reading any xt… March/April 1988: Content… September/October p 1990: This cover made the reader aware of the consequences q of poor p workplace p safety. The picture says it all… arch/April 1991: I thinkk tthe he art he artwork artwor twor workk o on n th tthe he cover he cover por portrays port trays th trays tra the h ri right ight ht im iimage mage off wo workplace rkpl rkp k lac lace trag ttragedy ragedy d that th hatt can ha h happen happe appe ppen n when when wh hen you you are are nott ca careful reffull orr p plan a happy, healthy workace environment. The artwork rttwork captures more of the sadness and empathy than a picture or a photo portrait… January/February 2008: It was vvery e descriptive… December 002: An awesome picture urre of a personal disaster… May/June 1989: Addresses issues directly for women and I really liked the article on hum humour mo to help present safety… nuary/February 1990: Itt depicts both the responsibility of workers to protect themselves and the employer’s responsibility to provide the education edu uca and equipment necesry for the worker to fulfill fill ttheir heir responsibilities… December 2002: It is dramatic and represents a real situation that is faced by real people; while while many HSE personnel will ot witness this, there are e tthose hose of us who brave the world outside of Canada and this reminds us why we do what we do. Many of the other othe er ccovers were also excellent, cluding the Westray one, e,, d distorted istorted faces to represent the chemical and psychological impact of exposure/accidents October/November and1998: the stone 9 per angel cent cover. G Good job… January/Februy 1990: I found that thiss ccover over really made a statement that was direct, to the point and got subscribers’ attention as soon as they looked at it. E Everyone v has heard the line, We want you.....” And w what hat better line to follow that up with, on an OHS magazine cover than, “to protect yourself.” Way to go. Keep up the th he g good work… March/April 988: This cover could apply pply to any worker in any industry. Although the others are also good, this “Despite is a general thedescription reality of the andpicture, is something the tha that at not all industries think of… ladderI have cagemany givesmembers a sense of my a spider nuary/February 2005: Excellent.

Excellent. The picture really did say it all in this one… January/February 1990: family in m mining i – and have lost a few web, which gaveI like me this the cover impression of it sspeaks ends due to accidents… … JJuly/August uly/August 2000: It speaks to the complexity of the issues of safety… December 2002: because pe to the unpredictability the ‘web’ of Itcomplex the world and all the occupational cccupational hazards that go along with the unpredictability… January/February 1995: drew meregulations to it as soonand as I looked loo oke at it… October/Novemrequirements that go 1990: along Iwith er 1998: The angle of th the he shot photo rather than art/carton… March/April 1988: Man in motion…

January/February like fall the use o off a familiar public theme or protection Canada.”events or exp essage transposed to a sa safety afety message. I find people remember safety images or messages when they can relate them in to everyday expressions… pre May/June 1989: e cover made me stop a and nd think about not only the immediate hazards, but the long-term ramifications of our decisions… September/Octob September/October ber 1990: The cover is rather perspective of depth increases ought-provoking. The contrast on ntrast has the right amount of message with the picture… January/February“The 1990: Good articles and good combination combin nat of text and graphics… the perspective of height.

Height is 19 ecember 2002: An amazing az zing photo. Wow… January/February 1990: I think it most speaks to what oh&s is all about…

January/February 1990: 99 The cover looks right at where we need protection, even if I lik u and says to wear safety fe ety clothing. And that is the point: to wear safety gear and be safe… May/June 1989: it just looked natural and liked ked the articles advertised on a false security of walls ont… March/April 1991: 1: I think people need to be reminded about workplace fatalities from time tothey time.have I think this cover captures how ev everyone very should feel about the around while climbing.” bject… October/November mber 2009: Very eye-catching and thought-provoking. October/November 1998: Real them pictures of real issues say a lo lot ot more then drawings somemes… January/Februaryy 2 2001: 001: It is a great metaphor for health and safety overall. We all walk a tightrope everyday at our workplaces w when h it comes to health and “This is aand safety topic face that challenges is vital to wi fety. We must always be ea aware ware of the dangers, we try to balance work performance with safety conditions, we often with ith employers who do not see industry.

Still,drew many alth and safety as a priority… io ority… June 2002: Abstract style of art was very eye-catching… December this 2002: The photo mecompanies in and piqued dm my interest. I wanted to find dofor nottheir adhere fall protection.” ut what the story was alll about… about… January/February 1990: It shows that everybody has a responsibility own to safety…

January/February January/Februa ar y 2001: The concept is the ason… January/February arr y 2005: At times it looks to me like we have to be superhero to convey the safety message, and with WHMIS, many still stil are not getting the basics amplifies point aofthousand vered… July/August 2002: 002: The glasses and legal-looking book seemed to jump out at you… December “Really 2002: This picturethe is worth thousa an words which seem to be need fall arrest.” appening many times over. ve er. From the horror of Katrina to the devastation in Haiti, we are faced with this issuethe over and for over again.

This cover iiss a also how many people are eling in a world of ambiguity. big guity. Are we alone and facing destruction? Lovely cover, powerful message… December 2002: The cover certainly w was a an attention-grabber. But “The picture was taken at one w was the article on mobbing bing that I found very interesting… March/April 1991: It does an excellent job of showing the strong emotions would ou feel when dealing with perfect angle to illustrate eme eath… December 2002: 2: TThis his picture really depicts the need for “readiness” in case of disaster. Everyonethe should have a well-rehearsed emergency/disaster erg action plan. dangers of working at reat shot… January/February eb bruary 1990: This photo cover is classic and vintage. It encompasses health and the safety as a whole and signifies ad decade of commitment and heights.” edication. The message iiss clear, in essence, Uncle OHS Wants You to practice workplace safety… November/December 1993: Coz I like it… … May/June 1989: Sharper an the rest… May/June e1 1989: 989: I think it hits home and helps all think of what is most important in life… December 2002: What a compelling p photo! h It immediately evokes e story behind the image, ge e, proving that a picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words… May/June 1989: The poignancy of the image is whatt ccaptivated a me. It deftly illusates the tension between nw work ork and family life, contrasting the hazards we face at work, which can and do harm us, with the natural good o off n new life which we ought to erish and protect… September/October ptember/October 1990: The best… January/February 1995: I find those covers most authentic to the main topic article. artticl They are very dark and ought-provoking art… No November/December ovember/December 1993: Great illustration of microbe present on a keyboard, just waiting to get picked up… Janua January/February ar y 1990: This is a ersuasive cover… June 2 2008: 008: The artistic nature of the cover appealed to me… December 2002: The cover exemplifies the reasons all persons persson need to be prepared for mergencies. The caption n iiss thought-provoking and draws a person to the article to find out more… June 2004: The hen on the cover reminds me eo of a employer and the chick the employee… July/August ugust 2000: This so very topical at this time. it iseveryone eye-catchingwho and an article thattime I would purchase se tthe magazine to read. This OHSis CANADA would like toI think thank took the tospecifically vote andpurchas ue is getting bigger than an n it was at the time of original publication… June 2005: Captures the viewer’s attention… June 2004: Love the look…

May/June 1989: Like the provide such thoughtful comments. Congratulations, as well, to our cov- lookka… ok of it… July/August 2009: 009: The graphics are amazing and shows that still in this day and age, with all the knowledge out there, people still are re exposed to chemicals that er contest winner PamMarch/April Leggatt, 1988: a senior EHSillustrates specialist withthatPatheon uld be avoided by using g the the proper PPE… July/August 1985:— Clear…

This cover the care we should be ta taking akin every time we do a job. ust think that it makes you yo ou aware of just how human beings aare…

Gooddevice. graphics and context listing… …O October/November 1998: Inc. —fragile whowe has received newOctober/November Kindle wireless1998: reading captures the whole meaning an ning behind fall protection… January/February 2001: Issue January/February 2001 is very clear in delivering the oh&s oh h&s message. It shows the risk e someone who acts like ke e a circus player who walks on a naked line with a wooden stick to balance him. In the same time printing the word risk ris in Red indicates that the h&s sequences of taking g any any risk will be potentially hazardous… January/February 1990: I like the message portrayed in simple picture… September/October Sep pte 1990: This ver reminded me of the e importance importance of safety in the workplace… June 2004: It epitomizes the parent and child relationship – and is touching ga and hits the heart… April/ ay 1998: The picture off the the mine rescue team during the Westray disaster… March/April 1988: The graphic relates well with the associated a article… rt October/November 009: It make a great point… oin nt… March/April 1988: Combination of graphics and content… June 2004: The issue of young worker safety is veryy iimportant to myself and the rporation. Although we e have have standard health and safety training for all new employees and annual refreshers, I, as management health and safety safe rep, developed specialed training for our students. en nts. Their training includes watching a video I obtained from WSIB specifically for young workers… July/August 2009 2009: 9: TThe cover first attracted me read further as it implicated ca ated many issues, not just about metals, but the safety issues. It appears as though we are being physically taken over ove er by b industry, chemicals and her hazards. The cover was was simple, simp si imple impl le yet le, yet sophisticated, soph ophi hist isti tica icated t d, and and d held h ld a lot hel lot of lo of emotion emot moti tion ion in in a ver veryy ssubtle ubtl ubt btle le man manner manner… ner… JJuly/August uly/ uly l /Au /A gus /Augus gustt 2002 2 2002: 002: I fe ffeel eell that tha th h t the the th he co colour chosen with a old docucolo col ent is a invitation for one good and peaceful moment to read. There is not too much writing on the cover, everything is well balanced… September/October 1990: The e of red and the graphic is striking, without offending anyone… September/October 1990: Because it represents the importance of remembering those who we lost to necessary workplace deaths… May/June 1989: I find it intriguing, and want to open it up and read the cover story… March/April 1991: The image is striking, and all ree of the subject matters described could be related to the picture. It compels the reader to look deeper… September/October 1990: I love angels and this one that was cked for the cover was awesome! A little angelic girl would certainly attract attention to the cover of a lot of readers… March/April 1991: Emotion without words – even the thumbnail you can tell the topic… June 2005: Working for Canada Post, it is a reality I deal with every day… June 2004: I find that this cover speaks volumes to the ues that we face in today’s society around young worker injury and fatality. Nothing is more important than ensuring the safety of young workers as they embark on a new J U N E 2 0 1 0 OHS CANADA 56It should ath in their lives. be an exciting time and a happy time. As parents, business leaders and educators, we need to ensure that we take the lead in ensuring that each nd every young worker entering the work force is protected. We have to instill a sense of courage into them, one where they are not afraid to stand up for their rights as

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an advertising feature PRODUCT SHOWCASE

THE NEW MSA ADVANTAGE® 420 HALF-MASK RESPIRATOR The New MSA Advantage® 420 Half-Mask Respirator is designed to incorporate user-friendly features including maximum comfort, improved donning and fit, enhanced safety, and reduced maintenance cost. The Patent-pending UniBond over-molded one-piece silicone facepiece, helps eliminate possible leak paths which may be present in other silicone half-mask respirators. All MSA plastic Advantage or metal Comfo® threaded cartridges can be used with the Advantage 420 Respirator. www.msanet.com

MSA For more information, circle No. 100

GLOVE GUARD “New Products! Glove Guard LP has added High Vis Yellow & Lime Green to its Glove Guard® and Utility Guard™ product lines and added High Vis Yellow, Orange and Green to its Soft Pouch line. They have also added a new Open Mesh size, 3” x 5”, to their Utility Bag™ line.”

Visit us at www.gloveguard.com or call 281-426-2714 GLOVE GUARD For more information, circle No. 101

INTRODUCING THE NEW 3M™ PARTICULATE RESPIRATOR 8510, N95 The 3M™ Particulate Respirator 8510, N95 is our newest addition to the respiratory protection product portfolio. It delivers comfortable, reliable worker protection and its fluid resistance passes the highest test level of 160mm Hg, reducing the potential exposure of the wearer to the spray and spatter of blood and body fluids.* The 8510 has been designed with comfort in mind. The soft inner material provides added comfort while the cup-shape design makes the 8510 spacious and durable. These features, along with the braided straps and adjustable M-noseclip, are designed for enhanced comfort to help increase user wearability. www.3mishealthandsafety.ca 3M For more information, circle No. 102

FREE BOOKLET ELIMINATES THE CONFUSION OF CHOOSING CUT PROTECTION Before you invest time and money in highly specialized – and expensive – cut-resistant gloves, you should know a thing or two. But where do you find the information you need?

Superior Glove Works has the answer. The Superior Book of Cut Protection was created with input from industry experts, as well as Superior’s own in-house expertise - the result of nearly a century in the glove trade.

To order a free copy of The Superior Book of Cut Protection, go to: http://www.superiorglove.com/sales/index.asp or contact: info@superiorglove.com Toll free: 800-265-7617 SUPERIOR GLOVE For more information, circle No. 103

DON’T BUY GAS DETECTORS

There’s a better way to do gas detection … iNet iNet is a software-based service. It increases safety; providing visibility into alarms, exposure and usage. It also keeps gas detectors working without costly and time-consuming maintenance.

And, iNet subscribers do not have to buy the gas detectors. Instead, they receive Gas Detection as a Service. www.dontbuygasdetectors.com

iNET For more information, circle No. 104

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A D V E R T I S I N G D I R E C T O RY 3M

www.ohscanada. com

Industrial Scientific

www.3MisHealthandsafety.ca For ad see page 64

Red Cross

www.indsci.com For ad see page 47

Cederroth Industrial

www.redcross.ca For ad see page 44

Levitt Safety

www.firstaid.cederroth.com For ad see page 13

Superior Gloves

www.levitt-safety.com For ad see page10,12,14,17

Howard Leight

www.superiorglove.com For ad see page 15

Miller Fall Protection/Sperian

www.howardleight.com For ad see page 2

Uvex

www.millerfallprotection.com For ad see page 8,9

Haws

www.uvex.com For ad see page 5

MSA

www.hawsco.com For ad see page 57

WSIB

www.msanet.com For ad see page 45

www.wsib.on.ca For ad see page 14

Nasco

www.nascoinfo.com For ad see page 11

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TIME OUT

IN THE FLESH: Perhaps the goal was to “let it all hang out” while charging the proverbial gates. In early March, a Regina man was visibly successful on the first point; not so much on the second. Absent any substantial clothing, the man made a run for the mayor’s office — a run of the physical rather than the “serve-our-community” kind, CBC News reported at the time. The 34-year-old entered City Hall at approximately 10:15 am, yelled at a cashier, boarded an elevator and got out on the 15th floor, where the mayor’s office is located. Visibly distressed, he entered the office, but the mayor was not in.

Staff managed to subdue the impromptu visitor, who was known to employees. He was held by a commissionaire and bylaw officers until police arrived. Even before the incident, security on the main floor was under review.

MISS-MANNERS: Sure, electronic devices can allow for instant communication — regardless of a message’s importance — but the gadgets are wreaking havoc on common courtesy. A survey developed by Robert Half Technology shows that 42 per cent of chief information officers interviewed have witnessed a decrease in workplace etiquette resulting from more frequent use of mobile electronic devices.

Only six per cent of those polled said the use of things like cellphones, smartphones, hand-held devices and laptops had led to fewer breaches in etiquette. There are plenty of human versions of tech overload: the misguided multi-tasker, who believes e-mailing or texting during a meeting or conversation demonstrates efficiency; the e-mail addict, who uses excessive messaging to communicate every perceived need; the broadcaster, who has no qualms about using a cellphone anywhere to discuss anything; the cyborg, who wears a wireless earpiece or headphones at all times; and the distractor, who puts his phone to buzz, but leaves it on hard surfaces to make it obvious to all that yet another call is coming in.

receiving the manager’s message on Facebook, the teen wrote back, “OK.” Two days later, however, the former employee wrote for all to see that she hoped the business would lose customers. A private message about her firing would have been more appropriate, the teen later told a local newspaper.

CLOSE SHAVE: Chalk this up to wasting a working man’s time. A member of the Florida Highway Patrol had to attend a fender-bender fuelled by the most moronic of causes, and to deliver the most remedial of messages: Do not shave your privates while behind the wheel. A 37-year-old woman — no stranger to the wrong side of the law — was rushing to meet her boyfriend and, apparently, wanted to look “just so” for her visit, notes an article from QMI Agency. Police report that her ex-husband, sitting in the passenger seat, took the wheel while she put the finishing touches on a bikini shave. Alas, not enough eyes were on what lay ahead, that being a pick-up truck. The car slammed into the truck, resulting in minor injuries for its occupants. The careless shaver, convicted of drunk driving the day before, had had her licence suspended and her car ordered impounded. Now, she faces a raft of new charges.

NO SENSE IN SCENTS: The City of Detroit is looking to institute some odourly order with the move to discourage, perhaps even ban, scented products. The Associated Press reported in March that municipal employees will be urged not to wear products such as perfume, cologne, deodorants and lotions. But the preferred ban will also apply to scented products, including candles, perfume samples from magazines and air fresheners. The decision is in line with a $100,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit, in which a city employee argued that her colleague’s perfume made it challenging for her to do her job.

EXERCISE REGIMEN: Chasing criminals can be a tough CRANKY CANINE: This dog’s strange appetite can only slog, one that demands a certain level of fitness. So the South be matched by his bad attitude. There were no injuries — to the officer or anyone else — when Winston the pit bull went to town on a parked cruiser in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After freeing himself from his fenced-in confines at a welding shop on March 14, the Toronto Star reports that Winston managed to tear off a section of the police car’s front bumper and damage its tires. A local judge has ordered the angry pooch to undergo obedience and canine “good citizen” classes, as well as wear a tag that says Winston is “potentially dangerous.” If training is successfully completed, charges against the owner are expected to be dismissed.

KISS OFF: A 16-year-old youth in Britain learned through Facebook that she was no longer employed at a café. The unceremonious boot followed an incident in which the teen misplaced a bit of cash while picking up biscuits for café staff, QMI Agency reported in March. Her former manager said she had tried to reach the worker by phone, but to no avail. The owner, none-too-pleased about the till being short, decided the employee would have to be fired. Within a few minutes of 62

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African Police Service is hoping to exchange fat for fit by directing officers to join a new health program called Viva Fitness, The Canadian Press reported in March. In line with the program, officers must agree to have their body mass indexes monitored and to maintain the uniform sizes issued when they leave the police academy. The program kicked off in March, with a demonstration by about 200 police trainees performing jumping jacks and other exercises.

FULL COVERAGE: Porn players in sunny California may soon need to suit up before hitting the sheets. The Associated Press is reporting that the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will be carrying out a more probing exploration of a proposal to require porn actors to wear condoms during sex scenes. The idea comes from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which also supports protective measures for nurses and doctors who work with bodily fluids. A requirement currently exists for proof that an actor has tested negative for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases within a month of going to work on a porn film.

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3M is Active Communication

3M, Powercom Plus and Peltor are trademarks of 3M. Used under license in Canada. Š 2010, 3M. All Rights Reserved. 1004-01148 E BA-09-14356

3M is Health &

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When employees need to safely communicate in high noise environments 3M™ Peltor™ Powercom Plus™ Two-way Radio Headsets offer all in one communication with no wires to tangle or expensive belt radios hampering your employees movement.

3M™ Peltor™ Wireless Solutions Headset features the latest in technology. This headset allows for ultimate flexibility when “synched-upâ€? to your existing communication system. You transmit and receive without the need for interconnecting cords and wires. Features include: 9 (/$)$00 2- 1, %1

To request the demonstration of a system that allows your employees to communicate in a high noise environment, while also protecting their hearing, visit www.3MisHealthandSafety.ca ,/ " ))

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9 ,*- 1(!)$ 1, !,1' -,/1 !)$ +# *,!()$ 4 6 / #(, 0601$*0 3M can help your organization implement an effective hearing conservation program and help your employees protect their hearing future. No matter the application, you’ll find what you need because 3M is Health & Safety.

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