OHS Canada March 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 M ar ch 2010

C A N A D A

Fit to be Tried

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

Preventing injury with biomechanics

boRDeR CRossiNg

Roadblocks up for foreign workers

All A-TwiTTeR

Safety gets conversational

MoTheR AND ChilD Birth defects risk revealed

AT iTs heART Sitting can be bad for health

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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

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S oc i al M ed ia

A New Conversation

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

Facebook, Twitter and other social media seem geared to the smartphone-talking, iPod-listening set. But safety-minded folks are hoping to extend that reach.

M A RC H 2010 Vo l u m e 2 6, Nu m b e r 2

By Dan Birch

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F or e i gn Wor ker S

A Strange Land It’s all about the promise of fair conditions and fair treatment. In theory, these are available to temporary foreign workers; in reality, the promise can be a bust.

By angela Stelmakowich

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B i oM e c han ic S

Back to Basics

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A new study is looking to give “occupational athletes” a leg up. Firefighters are among those who may benefit from applying biomechanics to work movements.

By roSie lomBarDi

departments 48

ac c i d e n t P r ev en tion

Dig It What’s the phrase? Call before you dig. Failing to do so can prove costly.

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l aW F i le

A Firm Footing on Change A refurbished Canadian standard for protective footwear has been published.

Are workplace parties obligated to immediately make the switch?

By Dan Birch

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S aF e ty gear

Lock Down on Safety The options available to make a workplace safe and secure run the gamut from physical barriers to locks, cameras, lighting and screening systems.

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By JaSon contant

A Deadly Peak

in this issue ed it o r ia l

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Whole, In Parts o h&S u P d at e

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Float plane crash claims six; welding blast spurs big fine in Alberta; deadly ore bin collapse in Saskatchewan; Ontario workers exposed to asbestos; no wait time for New Brunswick firefighters, police; mining company charged in Newfoundland and Labrador; and more. diSPat c heS

Alberta expects to see a peak in mesothelioma rates in the next few years. But will there also be an increase in related workers’ compensation payouts?

By Jean lian

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oc c u Pation al h y gien e

Workplace to Cradle Recent research out of New York State points to possible links between a mother’s job title and birth defects in offspring.

By Jean lian

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he alth Watc h

A Dire Sit-uation 20

Roadways a work hazard; thumbs down on workout time; building an information system; tracking fine proceeds; and more. exhiB it o r P rev ieW P r o F eSS io n a l direct o ry P r o d u c t S ho WcaS e ad i n d ex / rea der S erv i ce i n F o

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Wor k e r S ’ co M P en Sation

Stand up and listen. A new review suggests that prolonged sitting can be dangerous, hiking the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even death.

By emily lanDau

ti M e out

Unruly outpatient; employee of the month; nerves of steel; and more.

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The scars of others should teach us caution.

— ST. JEROME www.ohscanada.com

MARCH 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. 2 MARCH 2010

Whole, in Parts S

o, it’s true. There is no “I” in team. That, in part, may be the thinking behind Ontario’s move to merge occupational health and safety associations, opting to house the formerly “I” agencies under just four roofs.

As of January, three separate entities — the Construction Safety Association of Ontario, the Electrical & Utilities Safety Association and the Transportation Health and Safety Association of Ontario — became “one” as the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA).

And so it also went for the others: the Pulp and Paper Health and Safety Association, the Mines and Aggregates Safety and Health Association and the Ontario Forestry Safe Workplace Association emerged as Workplace Safety North (WSN); the Education Safety Association of Ontario, the Municipal Health and Safety Association and the Ontario Safety Association for Community and Healthcare was renamed the Health and Safety Association for Government Services; and the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, the Ontario Service Safety Alliance and the Farm Safety Association assumed the mantle, Safe Workplace Promotion Services Ontario.

With the bureaucratic names — not WSN; that has snap — any hint of a sector-specific ring has been merged out. However, officials assure that any such loss is in name only, pledging continued delivery of sector-specific services.

Now more than ever, that link becomes critical. With some sectors shrinking and others growing, stakeholders must be confident they can receive advice, assistance and solutions custom-built for their industries.

As it stands, everyone seems on board with the merger, However, speaking in consistently optimistic tones about shared efficiencies and allocation of more cash into front-line services. officials Information from Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurassure that ance Board (WSIB) notes savings will come from lower director, CEO and senior management expenses, infrastructure any such savings, reductions in administrative support, and less money spent on marketing/promotion and associated staff. loss is in It’s tough not to notice the bottom line, what with so many awash in red ink these days. But what happens after the initial name only. cost-cut glee is over?

At some point, fat turns to flesh, and cutting too deep invariably draws blood. What is not needed is a bloody mess at the end of the day.

WSIB projections appear confident any such mess will be avoided. The board expects efficiencies will be realized as early as this year, with net annual savings reaching $8.4 million by 2016. This is to be reinvested into front-line resources, ultimately resulting in as many as 80 new field staff.

Meticulous monitoring of expenditures is essential, as is the guarantee that any savings will not stray far from beefing up front-line services.

The final merger details were released just weeks before January’s announcement that an expert advisory panel made up of safety experts from labour groups, employers and academic institutions will guide an overhaul of Ontario’s oh&s prevention and enforcement system.

The mission? To recommend options for structural, operational and policy improvements. It sounds like another way to say “everything,” but it will specifically consider entry-level oh&s training, the underground economy’s impact on oh&s practices, and how existing legislation is serving worker safety.

One can only hope all this “all for one” foretells the power, efficiency and effectiveness of teamwork, not the panicked blade of a system in transition.

Angela Stelmakowich

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EDITOR 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.

WEBSITE: http://www.ohscanada.com INFORmATION AND RECOmmENDATIONS contained in this publication have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and to be representative of the best current opinion on the subject. No warranty, guarantee, nor representation is made

by Business Information Group as to the absolute correctness or sufficiency of any representation contained in this publication.

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Date of issue: March 2010.

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OH&S UPDATE

Laser mischief sparks charges FEDERAL — An Ontario man is facing 12 charges after he aimed a laser pointer at a police helicopter on three occasions in recent months.

On the evenings of November 10 and November 25, flight tactical officers with the Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) were flying over the Clarington, Ontario area when a directed light beam from a laser pointer was projected onto their Air1 helicopter. “On each occasion, the pilot had to take evasive action in an attempt to avoid the laser strikes,” notes a police statement, adding that no officers were injured. Both incidents were investigated, but no charges were laid at the time.

At about 8:40 pm on December 2, another laser beam was pointed at Air1 while it was on routine patrol above the municipality, the DRPS reports. Officers were able to conduct a ground search with the help of crew members, resulting in Gerald Cote, 25, being arrested without incident.

Cote faces charges under the Cana-

dian Aviation Regulations of projecting a directed bright light at an aircraft, engaging in behaviour that endangers the safety of an aircraft in flight, contrary to the Aeronautics Act, obstructing a police officer and mischief.

If convicted, a charge of pointing a directed bright light source at an aircraft carries a $100,000 maximum fine, imprisonment of as long as five years or both, says Deborah Baxter, a spokesperson for Transport Canada in Ottawa.

Regarding the difficulty pilots experience in spotting violators, DRPS spokesperson David Selby says, “You really have to have a real good handle, once your vision returns, to see where the light came from, and then you have to direct ground forces to the area.”

An air ambulance pilot transferring a patient to an Ottawa hospital last September was also targeted by a laser pointer. The pilot, who suffered retinal damage, remained off work and was unable to fly several months following the incident, says Rob Blakely, vice-president of EMS operations for Canadian Helicopters Ltd., the worker’s employer, which has offices in Quebec and Alberta.

faLLs target of investigations WHITEHORSE — The Yukon Workers’

Compensation Health and Safety Board (YWCHSB) has released its preliminary findings into three falls at two different work sites last year.

One incident, at Marsh Lake on September 8, involved a construction company supervisor who sustained injuries to the head, ribs and one wrist when he fell four metres from a roof and landed on a wooden deck. The YWCHSB determined the roof had unguarded edges and the supervisor was not wearing a fall arrest system, which was available on site.

The preliminary report notes the supervisor fell when he moved from a dry section of the roof over its apex and stepped on a wet patch, causing him to slip.

The two other incidents occurred at a residential development in Whitehorse.

Kurt Dieckmann, occupational health and safety director for the YWCHSB, says both falls involved “small contractors” at buildings “a fair distance apart.”

In the first incident, at about 10 am on August 25, a construction company

six die in fLoat pLane crash FEDERAL — Only two of the eight people on board a float

plane survived when it crashed in British Columbia.

At about 4:15 pm on November 29, the aircraft operated

by Seair Seaplanes Ltd. in Richmond, British Columbia plummeted into Lyall Harbour shortly after takeoff, says Corporal Darren Lagan, a spokesperson for the Island District RCMP. Lagan reports the plane was carrying one pilot and seven passengers, including a six-month-old baby. The pilot and a passenger were the only survivors.

The RCMP identified the deceased as Richard Haskett, 49; Cindy Shafer, 44; Catherine White-Holman, 55; Thomas Glenn, 60; Dr. Kerry Morrissey, 41; and her baby, Sarah Morrissey. Dr. Morrissey, a physician at Raven Song Community Health Centre, and White-Holman, a social worker at Three Bridges Community Health Centre, were both longtime employees of Vancouver Coastal Health, notes a release from the health authority.

The plane had travelled from Vancouver with stops on Mayne Island, Pender Island and Saturna Island, and was “heading for Vancouver when it ran into trouble at low level,” reports Bill Yearwood, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) regional manager, Air Investigations, Pa-

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cific Region in Richmond. “It sunk nose-first, but it hit the water flat,” Yearwood says of the aircraft.

Seair Seaplanes declined to comment at press time, but had earlier issued a statement noting the company’s “primary concern right now is to assist and provide support to the surviving pilot and passenger, and to the families of the loved ones who were lost.”

Lieutenant Paul Pendergast, a spokesperson for the Canadian Navy’s Maritime Forces Pacific, says the six deceased were found inside the plane, located in about 12 metres of water. Civilian vessels were first on scene, followed by the RCMP and Canadian Coast Guard, which carried out a search of the water’s surface and shoreline, says Pendergast.

A sonar search was conducted and divers were sent underwater. A second search was done, he says, with the bodies of the deceased recovered by 2 am the next morning.

Yearwood noted at the time that preliminary documentation appeared to indicate the plane was not overloaded. An investigation update in January indicates there were no outstanding maintenance deficiencies. It also says that none of the available lifejackets had been removed from the plane.

— By Jason Contant

supervisor fell almost 10 metres from a metal roof, notes one preliminary report.

The supervisor had been supplied and had previously used fall arrest equipment while on the roof, but he had gone up this time “to perform a short-duration task [inserting a missing screw] and failed to don either a travel restraint or fall arrest system,” one report says. It appears he overreached, slipped and fell.

The second fall, on the morning of October 20, involved a worker, 23, who was installing oriented strand board to the roof. He fell a little more than five metres, sustaining a fractured left wrist.

The investigation report notes that the worker slipped on a sheet of strand board and slid, managing to catch hold of the facia for several seconds before losing his grip and falling to the ground.

Again, the roof was unguarded and the worker was not using a fall prevention system, despite one being available.

Dieckmann says compliance orders related to worker training and fall prevention were issued in both cases.

The Yukon’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations state a worker must wear fall protection when “engaged in any work on a roof that a) is three metres

(10 feet) or more above the ground or other safe working level; b) has a slope of 2 vertical to 3 horizontal or steeper, or c) has an unguarded edge.”

The YWCHSB plans a fall prevention blitz in the future, Dieckmann says.

fire haLL conditions “toxic” ESQUIMALT — An independent audit of the Esquimalt Fire Department in British Columbia has revealed an “icy, toxic” work environment fraught with mistrust.

From July until December of last year, Ted Hughes, British Columbia’s former conflict of interest commissioner, reviewed organizational structure, culture and work relationships at the fire department. Released in early December, findings reflect information obtained from 41 one-on-one discussions with firefighters, Township of Esquimalt council members and municipal employees.

“For some time, the Township of Esquimalt has recognized that there have been issues in the fire department surrounding cultural health, costs and departmental stability,” a township release notes. “Management has been trying to

contain escalating costs and employees have not felt included or engaged.”

In the audit, Hughes notes that problems within the department began a number of years ago, after the township’s joint fire/police department was broken into separate entities.

The appointment of the deputy fire chief “has never met with the approval of other members of the department,” he writes. “There is a continuing clash of ideas and ideals between those with a police background and those who have only been firefighters.”

Work relationships within the department were further strained when the union representing the firefighters, Local 4264 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, was left out of discussions related to ongoing management restructuring proposals. The detailed proposals — which involved different operational models that could have changed the union status of some firefighters — were only secured after the union filed a freedom of information request.

“The level of current mistrust [is] palpable,” Hughes writes. “A state of low and depressed morale exists today throughout the department.”

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Mayor Barb Desjardins said at the time that council members were hopeful they would be able to develop “strategies that will start to address the issues.”

attack injures transit worker EDMONTON — A veteran bus driver in Edmonton had to undergo at least two rounds of surgery following a brutal at-

tack on the morning of December 3.

The 58-year-old driver has been with the Edmonton Transit System (ETS) for 33 years, says Stu Litwinowich, president of Local 569 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. On December 7, Litwinowich reports that the operator was listed in stable condition following surgery, including to his eye.

The worker was attacked at about 7:30 am when a man who appeared to

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be intoxicated boarded the driver’s bus, notes a statement from the Edmonton Police Service (EPS). “The male had allegedly assaulted the driver while on the bus, then dragged him off the bus where the assault continued,” the police note.

The attacker fled on foot, but was later arrested following police review of the bus’s security camera footage.

Gary Mattson, 24, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and assaulting a peace officer.

Litwinowich says his understanding is that there was a fare dispute. Most drivers will not contest an unpaid fare if the passenger is aggressive, he says, emphasizing that $2.50 is “not worth getting a punch in the [head] or two.”

Says Ron Gabruck, safety and security director for the ETS, “We’re always in the process of reviewing our safety and security measures, and we work very closely with operators and the union.”

One measure that Litwinowich would like to see adopted is equipping buses with protective shields. The ETS has been testing different shield designs since July and had hoped to have already completed the experimental phase, Gabruck says, “but we just haven’t found anything that totally meets our needs.”

Issues identified so far include glare, operator-rider interaction and acceptance by drivers.

While a shield is not a cure-all, Litwinowich says it can give a driver facing an assault extra time to contact dispatch for help, and can discourage assaults in the first place.

The Toronto Transit Commission has installed shields on 1,244 of its approximately 1,500 buses, notes spokesperson Danny Nicholson. Figures are not yet available to show if there are fewer serious assaults on drivers, Nicholson says.

Don Iveson, an Edmonton municipal councillor and chair of the city’s transportation and public works committee, suggests it is premature to say all buses in the city need shields, “but they may be warranted in some instances.”

Pointing out that crime is at 0.4 incidents per 100,000 rides, “prevention through training, technology and design, combined with preparedness to respond quickly, will afford staff the greatest security,” Iveson says.

Chris Chodan, a spokesperson for Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton, says the incident will be reviewed in relation to provincial violence and working-alone requirements.

deadLy bLast fueLLed by Leak FOX CREEK — A company in Alberta has been fined $375,000 following a welding explosion four years ago that claimed the lives of two workers.

The blast occurred at Alstar Oilfield Contractors Ltd.’s industrial yard in Fox Creek, Alberta, just before 2:30 pm on June 30, 2006. Journeyman welder Carey Klatt, 27, an independent contractor, and an Alstar Oilfield employee, apprentice pipefitter Robert Kennedy, 26, suffered fatal injuries, notes an agreed statement of facts filed in court.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure, as far as it was reasonably practicable to do so, the health and safety of workers, contrary to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Klatt and Kennedy were in the process of welding shut the doors of a metal shipping container that measured about two by six by three metres. “In the weeks leading up to the explosion, [Alstar Oilfield] had suffered several ‘break and entries’ into similar storage units,” the agreed statement notes.

Although the container in question had a padlock, a company manager instructed the workers to weld close the doors, which were rubber sealed. “The shipping container contained five propane cylinders. One of those developed a slow leak from a faulty valve,” causing propane to slowly accumulate and mix with air in the bottom of the container.

The day before the explosion, the container was at a remote location where an unknown worker or workers loaded the propane tanks into the unit, contrary to the company’s written procedure. “The container was then secured with a padlock. The driver responsible for [transport] did not have a key for this padlock and was unable to check the contents of the container before transporting it by truck to the yard,” the agreed facts add.

AEI spokesperson Chris Chodan says it “was determined through engineering analysis that it was most likely one of the [nine-kilogram] propane tanks that leaked out propane gas after being jostled on a rough road” during transport.

The next day, when preparing for the weld, Klatt was positioned in the centre of the two doors with Kennedy to his right. “Heat from the initial weld ignited the propane gas inside,” the facts note.

“Though [Alstar Oilfield] had developed sound procedures for safely con-

ducting hot work, [the company] failed to do everything reasonably practicable to protect against the explosion by failing to ensure the atmosphere inside the container did not contain flammable gases before welding was performed.”

As per court sentencing, $250,000 will go to the Fox Creek Fire Department to purchase equipment, $60,000 to the community’s school division to fund oh&s training programs for students, and

$60,000 to NorQuest College for two memorial bursaries for students undertaking workplace safety-related studies.

operator evades attacker CALGARY — The operator of a light-rail

transit vehicle in Calgary escaped harm when a knife-wielding man took a run at him in the early hours of January 4.

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potash company, supervisor charged in death LANIGAN — The widow of a Saskatchewan worker killed at PotashCorp.’s Lanigan mine reports being “relieved” that the Crown has moved forward with charges against the company and one of its supervisors.

“It’s such a long process from the time my husband was fatally killed at work until charges actually come out,” says Sylvia Tkach. Robert Tkach, 60, died in September of 2008.

Tkach had been driving a jeep-like vehicle underground at the Lanigan mine, located near the town of the same name, when it went over the edge of an unguarded ramp and rolled, says Jennifer Fabian, director of safety services for the occupational health and safety branch of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour in Regina.

PotashCorp. is charged with failing to do the following: • take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of a worker; • ensure the health, safety and welfare of all workers; • ensure all work is sufficiently and competently supervised; • ensure a supervisor complies with the provincial OH&S Act and regulations; and, • ensure a direct supervisor recorded all significant information relevant to a worker’s health and safety.

Supervisor Garth Gudnason faces a count of failing to take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of a worker who may be affected by the supervisor’s acts or omis-

An emergency button was activated in one of the CTrain’s three cars at about 1:25 am, prompting the driver to ask what the problem was, says Brian Whitelaw, coordinator of public safety and enforcement for Calgary Transit. A man responded that the button had been pressed accidentally, so the operator stopped at the next station and exited his cab to reset the emergency phone, Whitelaw says.

Heading to the centre car, the operator was charged by a man with a knife.

“He received quick direction from the control centre with Calgary Transit to get

sions, notes information from the ministry.

“While this matter is before the courts, we really can’t comment on it in any significant degree,” says Bill Johnson, public affairs director for PotashCorp. in Saskatoon.

Sylvia Tkach describes her late husband as an experienced underground miner, having worked at PotashCorp. for about five years and previously at a mine in Manitoba. “He never would have taken a risk,” she contends.

Currently undertaking health and safety studies, she says she has visited the underground ramp where the incident occurred. “It was so simple to prevent,” she argues, adding it is “startling” to her that the work-related hazard apparently went unchecked.

Johnson says the provincial investigation report contained multiple recommendations and “really did cover quite a wide variety of areas,” including hazard identification and seat belt use. PotashCorp. has implemented all recommendations, he reports.

“Safety is the number one priority at every one of our facilities and it’s something we take extremely seriously.”

Sylvia Tkach would like to see the province be more aggressive with inspection and enforcement efforts. Fines levied for oh&s violations should be higher, she maintains, suggesting that some penalties are “trivial” for companies with ample resources.

— By Dan Birch

back in his cab and barricade himself in until help could arrive,” Whitelaw says.

It does not appear the man attempted to breach the operator’s cab.

The suspect was seen walking along the street to the next rail station and, while standing on a platform there, was approached by officers for both Calgary Transit and the Calgary Police Service.

After taking out a knife, waving it in front of himself and ignoring demands to drop the weapon, a police spokesperson says a conducted-energy device was successfully deployed. The suspect was then taken into custody.

78,221,817

John Marleau, 22, faces three counts of assault with a weapon and one count each of possession of a weapon, carrying a concealed weapon and causing a disturbance.

Calgary Transit will undertake a detailed review of the incident to determine if changes to existing safety procedures are warranted, Whitelaw says.

“New-generation” vehicles — equipped with on-board monitors so operators need not leave their cabs, as well as video cameras that enhance image resolution — are already being put into service, he points out.

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ore bin coLLapse cLaims worker ESTERHAZY — Two workers at a potash

mine in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan were injured, one fatally, on November 28 when a raw ore bin’s bottom collapsed and the material spilled out.

A 28-year-old worker at The Mosaic Company’s K-2 mine, about three hours east of Regina, died, and another employee, 40, sustained non-critical injuries in the 2 am incident.

Brad DeLorey, director of public affairs for The Mosaic Company in Saskatchewan, reported in early December that it was not known what caused the bin bottom to break off and how much material was inside at the time. “We will get to the bottom of this. That’s why we have been working so diligently with the government [inspection] officials,” DeLorey said.

Three mine inspectors attended after being notified at 5:30 am, and stayed there until the afternoon of November 29, says Glennis Bihun, executive director of the oh&s branch within Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour in Regina.

Speaking generally about ore bin designs, Bihun says the containers are often similar to round grain bins. Constructed from heavy steel and having cone-shaped bottoms, ore bins are typically freestanding structures supported by buildings. Vibrating feeders draw the ore from the bins and onto conveyor belts, Bihun reports.

Following the incident, DeLorey says that The Mosaic Company suspended operations in the immediate area and redeployed employees to other parts of the mine. Counselling, as well, was made available to workers and their families.

The time-loss injury rate (time-loss claims divided by the number of workers covered) for Saskatchewan’s potash mining sector climbed from 1.39 to 2.05 per cent between 2007 and 2008, but remained below the 2008 average of 3.7 per cent for all industries.

hike proposed for max fines WINNIPEG — Manitoba is looking to in-

crease maximum fines for breaches of health and safety requirements.

Top penalties under the Workplace Safety and Health Act are among the lowest in the country, notes a statement from Manitoba Labour and Immigration.

The last time fine levels were revised was back in 1997.

On December 3, labour minister Jennifer Howard introduced amendments that would see maximum fines for a first offence under the WSHA increase from $150,000 to $250,000, and penalties for a subsequent breach climb from $300,000 to $500,000.

city haLL gets security update WINNIPEG — New security measures were operational at Winnipeg’s City Hall in early January, just weeks after a man entered council chambers carrying a bottle of kerosene.

Security concerns were raised after the man spilled some of the kerosene, its smell alerting city councillors. There were no injuries in the December 16 incident, and commissionaires were able to escort the man out of chambers.

On January 5, the City of Winnipeg

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announced that a uniformed guard from Avion Security Corp. had started patrolling City Hall during regular business hours. A second guard was to be on duty during public meetings, also as of January 5, the city notes. As well, more security cameras are being used.

Extra personnel and cameras are part of a process that kicked off last August to implement a comprehensive security strategy for the civic centre campus, made up of the council building, an administration building and a courtyard. Council allocated $100,000 for security upgrades in last year’s capital budget and an additional $700,000 in the 2010 budget.

Deepak Joshi, director of the City of Winnipeg’s Department of Planning, Property and Development, says additional measures were to be phased in during January.

“We have to establish a physical presence,” suggests councillor Grant Nordman. “We’re sort of sitting ducks when we’re in the council chambers. We’ve had no security as far as the gallery is concerned,” Nordman says.

Councillor Gord Steeves says that he does not feel unsafe at City Hall and

cautions against any “hair-trigger response,” such as changing accessibility.

“I really think it would be a bad outcome if suddenly people felt excluded from City Hall,” Steeves says.

take care near vehicLes WINNIPEG — Amendments have been

proposed to Manitoba’s Highway Traffic Act in a bid to bolster the safety of those operating emergency vehicles.

If passed, motorists would be required to approach stopped emergency vehicles with caution when the vehicles’ beacons are flashing, says a statement from Manitoba’s transportation department. Drivers would need to slow down and pass tow trucks and roadside-assistance vehicles only when it is safe to do so, the statement notes.

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

Get caught violating the new rules?

The fine for a single breach would run at $278.

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penaLty for asbestos breach LONDON — Richmond North Property

Corp. was handed a $37,500 penalty in December for violating asbestos requirements pursuant to Ontario’s OH&S Act. During the summer of 2007, the company was renovating a building that it owned in London, Ontario, the Ministry of Labour (MOL) reports in a statement.

The ministry identified that asbestos was present and initiated an investigation.

Richmond North Property pleaded guilty to breaching the provincial OH&S Act by failing to do the following: advise workers of asbestos-containing material, provide workers with the location of the material, and inform workers whether or not the material was friable.

hospitaL faiLed to report scabies BURLINGTON — An Ontario hospital has

received a $10,000 fine for its failure to notify the MOL within four days of being advised that a worker had an occupational disease.

In early December, Joseph Brant Me-

morial Hospital Corporation was fined under Ontario’s OH&S Act in connection with an incident at a facility in Burlington, Ontario on April 30, 2008.

That day, the hospital was informed a patient who had just been admitted had been in contact with scabies, a highly contagious skin rash caused by microscopic mites, notes an MOL statement. The following day, members of the hospital’s infection control management team implemented a scabies-surveillance protocol at the hospital, prompting staff reports of skin rashes between late May and late July.

During the last month, two workers were, in fact, diagnosed with scabies and lost time from work, the labour ministry reports.

The MOL did not learn of the outbreak until it was raised by local media.

muck fLood kiLLs young worker BELLEVILLE — The failure to develop and

implement safety procedures and devices to protect workers from a run of muck has landed Sherritt International Corporation, operating as Canada Talc, a $285,000 fine.

The natural resources company was sentenced on January 19 after pleading guilty to one breach of Ontario’s OH&S Act. MOL spokesperson Bruce Skeaff says that Sherritt International originally faced 10 similar counts, but all were dropped after receipt of the guilty plea.

A young worker at the Canada Talc mine in Madoc, Ontario died after becoming caught in a flood of muck — a mix of broken rock, sediment and water — on August 20, 2008.

The worker had been operating equipment to fill bins with muck flowing down from other areas of the mine, notes

a statement from the MOL. The ministry reports that during the night, a co-worker on the surface heard unusual sounds coming from the muckloading area. Checking an underground camera, the worker saw an overflow of muck. The worker underground was called by phone, but when there was no response, a third worker was sent to investigate. Upon arrival, the muck overflow was apparent. The young worker had been asphyxiated.

Provincial oh&s investigators identified a number of shortcomings related to the incident: the young worker’s control station was located directly in front of the tunnel from which muck was flowing; water had been added to the muck to make it flow more quickly; the worker had not yet completed task-specific training; the employee was working alone; and the mine’s written procedures did not adequately address how to control the run of muck.

poLice officer fataLLy stabbed OTTAWA — A suspended Mountie faces a murder charge following the December 29 slaying of an Ottawa police officer.

Constable Ireneusz (Eric) Czapnik, a three-year veteran of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), was at a local hospital when he was attacked and stabbed at approximately 4:30 am. Czapnik, 51, succumbed to his injuries an hour later, the OPS reports.

“Thanks to the prompt response of members of the public and, in particular, two paramedics at the scene, the suspect was apprehended,” says Ottawa police chief Vern White.

Kevin Gregson, 43, has been charged with first-degree murder, robbery and using an imitation firearm in the commis-

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sion of an offence. The suspended RCMP officer, formerly based in Saskatchewan, pleaded guilty in April of 2007 to uttering threats following an incident in Regina, says RCMP spokesperson Sergeant Julie Gagnon.

In July of 2008, an RCMP adjudication board ordered Gregson to resign or be dismissed. He appealed and a decision had not been rendered by the time of the murder, Gagnon says.

Neither an OPS spokesperson nor Gagnon could say if there was any connection between Czapnik and Gregson.

Czapnik immigrated to Canada in 1990 and worked for the first 16 years at an office-furniture company in Ottawa, says a biography from the Ottawa Police Association (OPA). He joined the OPS in 2007.

“We are left with a void in our hearts and our lives that cannot be filled,” says OPA president Steve Boucher.

“This was the first homicide of an Ottawa police officer since 1983,” the city’s mayor, Larry O’Brien, notes in a statement. “The killing of an officer in the service of protecting our public safety is universally condemned,” O’Brien says.

no need to wait for benefits FREDERICTON — New Brunswick moved

forward last December with proposed amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act that would eliminate the threeday wait period for police officers and firefighters claiming related benefits.

The amendment was tabled December 4 by Donald Arseneault, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour. “When our police officers and firefighters are on the job, they are exposed to dangers that put their lives at risk,” Arseneault noted at the time.

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ImmedIate penaltIes now an optIon HALIFAX — Nova Scotia is no longer walking softly. When

it comes to oh&s, the Department of Labour and Workforce Development now carries a big stick.

A department administrator now has the authority to assign a penalty to workers, supervisors and employers after reviewing orders issued by an oh&s officer. The change is thanks to the Occupational Health and Safety Administrative Penalties Regulations, which came into force on January 15.

In the past, the Nova Scotia government has relied on an escalating series of actions — education, promotion, enforcement and prosecution — to make clear its message about the need to comply. Now the threat of an immediate financial hit is expected to further improve adherence and, in turn, make the province a safer place to work.

Says provincial labour minister Marilyn More, “If this new system saves one life or prevents one injury, then we are one step closer to being a province that has no workplace accidents or fatalities, and that is where we strive to be.”

“Penalties increase if there is any injury or potential for injury, and if there are convictions or administrative penalties issued to the same person over the preceding three years,” says Kevin Finch, a spokesperson for the labour department in Halifax. Finch notes that for incidents involving no injuries a worker will pay as much as $100, up to $250 for a supervisor and a maximum hit of $500 for an employer.

An administrator may also increase or decrease the pen-

alty in line with the harm the contravention causes to any person, efforts taken to prevent the breach from occurring and/or if any “economic benefit” is derived from the violation, the regulations state.

The expectation is that immediately paying the piper will “encourage” stakeholders to play it safe. “There should be an impact on any unsafe or illegal work practices in that all the parties should be looking to eliminate the unsafe conditions and remove the risk,” says Chrissy Matheson, a communications officer for the labour department.

Using an administrative fine system is sound thinking, suggests Amy Bradbury, a lawyer with Ritch Durnford in Halifax. “While most employers are careful to ensure compliance with safety requirements in the workplace,” Bradbury notes, “the potential for a fine as a result of a violation will make employers more diligent to ensure they are meeting their obligations under the [OH&S Act].”

The new system is not without a release button, meaning employers, supervisors and workers subject to an administrative penalty (this is a first for employees) can appeal to the Occupational Health and Safety Appeal Panel.

“It’s something that we think was badly needed in this province. We hope this is an initiative that will get everybody’s attention,” says Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

— By Donalee Moulton & Jason Contant

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“We want to show them our profound gratitude,” the minister said of the approximately 470 police officers and about 4,800 full-time and volunteer firefighters who would be affected by the change.

The wait period was adopted in the early 1990s at a time when the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (now WorkSafeNB) was facing tough financial challenges. The wait period means no benefits are payable for the first three days following a work-related injury.

There are two exceptions: employees who are off work for 21 or more working days are reimbursed for the initial three days, and workers who are hospitalized as in-patients receive benefits immediately.

Doug LeBlanc, president of the Atlantic Provinces Professional Fire Fighters Association, says he is “extremely” pleased by the proposed change. For years, the New Brunswick Police Association (NBPA) had been pushing for an exemption applying to police officers and firefighters.

The New Brunswick government has ruled out further exemptions, Arseneault says. “We’re only going to do this for the firefighters and the police officers because we do feel they’re in a class of their own.”

agency homes in on co hazards SAINT JOHN — New Brunswick safety officials are warning workers and employers alike to address carbon monoxide (CO) dangers during winter months.

During colder weather, notes a statement from WorkSafeNB in Saint John, fuel-fired heaters and machinery are often used indoors, away from natural ventilation, increasing the potential for CO exposure and poisoning. “Basically, it’s produced by anything that burns fuel,” Lee O’Blenis, an occupational hygienist with WorkSafeNB, says of CO. “Since cars, lawn mowers, propane-powered forklifts, pressure washers, concrete cutters, water pumps, air compressors, generators and floor polishers all can produce carbon monoxide, the risk is present in a variety of workplaces,” says O’Blenis.

Symptoms of exposure include tightness across the chest, headache, fatigue, dizziness and nausea.

The best course of action, O’Blenis recommends, is to eliminate the potential for exposure. This can be achieved by ensuring effective ventilation is in place and, if possible, by replacing fuelpowered equipment with that powered by batteries, electricity or compressed air.

tips to make snow removaL a safe venture SAINT JOHN — It’s Canada, so snow is likely to be among the

offering for the winter (sometimes even the spring).

But with the white stuff comes the necessity for removal.

WorkSafeNB in Saint John recently issued some tips to help employers with the task that, if done improperly, can result in worker harm.

“Since the greatest hazard faced in removing snow from roofs is the risk of falling, it’s important that employers provide, and employees use, fall protection,” WorkSafeNB engineer Roland Roy says in a statement.

“When crews are working together to remove snow from a flat roof, guardrails may be the best means of fall protection to

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avoid the risk of tripping over multiple lanyards,” Roy says.

But since falls can occur from a roof, as well as through openings on a roof, care must be taken to clearly mark such things as skylights, hatches and air conditioning units that should be avoided while snow removal is under way.

WorkSafeNB reports that other accident prevention tips include the following: clearing flat roofs at least once a year as they accumulate snow easily; knowing the roof’s load limit to prevent the possibility of a collapse; roping off working areas on both the ground and the roof; ensuring access points to the roof edge and areas on the ground are marked; and clearing snow in a crossdirection to the roof trusses.

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hit-and-run leads to arrest HALIFAX — Halifax police have arrested a man almost two months after a hit-andrun on a bridge last November injured two officers carrying out vehicle checks.

On January 11, 20-year-old Kevin McDougall was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm and drug trafficking, the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) reports in a statement.

The incident occurred just after 3 am on November 29 as the two officers approached MacDougall’s vehicle as part of “Operation Christmas.” The vehicle quickly accelerated — resulting in one officer being dragged a short distance and the other being thrown to the pavement — before fleeing the scene.

The ensuing investigation led to the

search of a residence in which “evidence related to this incident as well as a quantity of cocaine, marijuana and other drug paraphernalia was seized,” the HRP says.

Mining coMpany charged ST. JOHN’S — A mining company in

Newfoundland and Labrador faces nine health and safety charges following an incident in January of 2008.

Teck Resources Limited has been charged with failing, as an employer, to provide a safe workplace, ensure workers were made familiar of the hazards they may face on the job, provide sufficient ventilation, undertake regular inspections and provide the necessary training and instruction that would ensure worker health and safety, reports the Department of Government Services.

The incident occurred at the Duck Pond mine near Millertown, Newfoundland. After one shift was done, workers on the next shift went underground as instructed, but 18 were reported to have been exposed to toxic gases.

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, call (416) 442-2122 or toll-free (800) 668-2374.

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So, what’s on your mind?

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

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DISPATCHES

Safer roads a must to protect cycling workers

By Regan Ray

W

ayne Scott spent 25 years seeing Toronto from a bicycle. Now the retired bike courier is arguing to improve the state of the city’s streets.

In a complaint before the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) in Toronto, Scott argues that roadways are unsafe for municipal bike workers, representing a breach of the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act. Paramedics, police officers and parking-enforcement staff are among the City of Toronto employees who cycle as part of their work duties.

Scott charges that the convenience of motorists has been placed “ahead of the health and safety of cyclists who are doing what every level of government encourages Canadians to do — get out there on bicycles.”

In January, he submitted a follow-up rebuttal for review after meeting with an OLRB mediator last November. Scott is urging the board to address working conditions by ordering, among other measures, improvements to road design, creation of more bike lanes and enforcement of traffic violations on city streets.

Among the municipality’s cycling workers, Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has 18 mountain bikes in its fleet and 30 staff trained for its mountain bike program. Implemented in 1996, the program was established to provide rapid response through congested areas.

Bruce Newton, a superintendent with Toronto EMS, reports the number of biking-related injuries involving those in the program is “negligible.” Bike paramedics, for example, work in non-winter months and their duties cover mostly pre-planned events, such as charity runs and parades, which do not involve a lot of street patrolling.

The Toronto Police Service, for its part, has officers on bikes 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, says Larry Molyneaux, director of member benefits for the Toronto Police Association. It is at the discretion of individual units and officers whether or not to ride on bad-weather days.

Molyneaux reports that no officer has been seriously injured while working on a bicycle, but adds that injuries, such as those from falling after hitting potholes or while negotiating slippery roads, are inevitable. “Any roadway is dangerous.

When you are on a bicycle, you have to be that much more aware of your surroundings,” he advises.

Education, Molyneaux says, is the key to safer roadways.

Without that, additional infrastructure, such as bike lanes, will not translate into positive results.

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Just how dangerous are Toronto’s streets for those who pedal for a living? In his complaint, Scott asks that the city complete, within a year, an independent study of the dangers faced by workers who cycle, and to identify and implement safety measures within two years.

A 2003 report by the City of Toronto’s Transportation Services Division states 2,572 car-bike collisions were reported from January, 1997 through December, 1998. Of those, 85 crashes resulted in major injuries and 10 involved fatalities.

The majority of collisions took place at intersections (including driveway and lane entrances), and involved motor vehicles turning. Collisions occurred most frequently in daylight and in summer, the report notes.

In June of 2001, the City of Toronto Bike Plan was introduced to “shift gears toward a more bicycle-friendly city.” The plan contains 43 recommendations, including 1,000 kilometres of bike lanes, shared roadways and off-road paths. As of last October, 418 km of bikeway had been completed, notes an update from the city.

Still, Scott is urging the OLRB to use existing oh&s laws to push Toronto to act more quickly. “This does speak to the employees of the city and every other cyclist that’s out there.”

Regan Ray is a writer in Toronto.

Province offers answers to coverage questions

By Dan Birch & Jason Contant

N

ova Scotia health care workers responding to pandemics and other public health emergencies no longer need to worry about workers’ comp coverage.

With a view to facilitating labour mobility that can help bolster pandemic preparedness, the Nova Scotia government and seven unions signed a “Good Neighbour Protocol” last October. The agreement “confirms how health human resources will be shared across the province and how health care providers will be compensated and protected while responding to an emergency that impacts the health care system,” reports Nova Scotia’s Department of Health.

The protocol clarifies questions that, left unanswered, could threaten labour mobility. As an example, health care staff who volunteer to temporarily work outside of their regular workplaces will continue to be covered by Nova Scotia’s workers’ compensation system. They will also receive their regular pay and benefits.

“Having the right mix of health care providers in the right place when we need them is the foundation of this agreement,” says health minister Maureen MacDonald.

During the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, members of the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union (NSGEU) had many questions about travelling to Ontario to work, says union president Joan Jessome. “We couldn’t tell them if they were going to be protected or who may be paying them, among other things.”

Similar questions apply even if the transfers are within Nova Scotia, Jessome says. As per the protocol, both employee and employer must consent to any transfer. Also, the agreement makes clear that a transferred worker must receive appropriate protective gear and related training.

Beyond the NSGEU, other signatories include the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, the Nova Scotia arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Auto Workers union, Local 902 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Service Employees International Union, Local 727 of the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour.

Concern over coverage is just one issue that may add to the stress of health care workers during public health outbreaks. In Toronto, officials are trying to keep stress-related absenteeism among health care workers to a minimum by ensuring staff are in the know. A team of psychiatrists and nurses at the city’s Mount Sinai Hospital has developed an eight-week, on-line training course, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, meant to do that very thing.

“The Pandemic Influenza Stress Vaccine” course, available at www.msh-healthyminds.com/stressvaccine, will do double-duty as an educational tool and will serve as the “basis of pandemic resilience research,” a hospital statement notes.

“Mount Sinai experts understand that the spike in health care workers’ stress-related absenteeism results from fear of contagion, concern for family members, job stress, interpersonal [difficulties], isolation and perceived stigma.”

The course is based on lessons learned during the Toronto outbreak of SARS, says lead researcher Dr. Robert Maunder, a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital. Earlier this year, Dr. Maunder and another psychiatrist there, Dr. William Lancee, led a pilot study of on-line training for 150 health care workers. “Results suggest that the training improves health care workers’ belief that they can handle the changes a pandemic brings, confidence in support and training and interpersonal problems,” the hospital reports. “This also suggests the training may be able to reduce stress-related absenteeism.”

The course, broken into weekly segments that take about 30 minutes to complete, covers such topics as normal stress response, coping approaches and communication skills. Gillian Wilde, a nurse clinician at Mount Sinai Hospital, says in a statement that “because of the course, I know that experiencing stress during a pandemic is a normal response. However, it doesn’t mean that I have to feel helpless or afraid.”

Dan Birch is assistant editor of ohs canada; Jason Contant is editor of canadian occupational health & safety news.

Police chief nixes on-duty workout time

By Jason Contant

W

innipeg’s police chief has turned down a proposal from the union representing officers to pay for on-duty workout time, concluding that such a move threatens to reduce police presence on the streets.

Chief Keith McCaskill of the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) was responding to early-January requests from the Winnipeg Police Association (WPA) for approximately one hour of scheduled workout time on each shift. That would translate to 30 minutes paid for by the city, with officers matching with their own half-hour of unpaid time.

At a press conference in January, McCaskill said setting aside the proposed fitness time for each police member would reduce the number of officers available to respond to calls, potentially taking three to six patrol units off the streets.

“Our goal always is to serve the citizens the best way possible by providing them with the resources and officers to respond to calls in the most efficient way,” says Constable Jason Michalyshen, a public information officer with the WPS. “It is important we keep our resources on the streets,” Michalyshen emphasizes.

But WPA president Mike Sutherland rejects the argument that workouts on work time would chip away at street presence, pointing out that exercise time could be staggered in line with the availability of units throughout the day.

“We’re saying, ‘Let’s create an environment where workouts are going to be made as opposed to missed,’” Sutherland says. “If it becomes a situation where it is extremely busy, we know it won’t happen that day.”

The WPS has not ruled out the idea, Michalyshen advises, but it is not something that is on the agenda at this time. He suggests the proposal is something that could be brought to the table during the collective bargaining process, expected to take place toward the end of the year.

Sutherland contends the workout plan could benefit officer health, reducing absenteeism from illness and injury “that will more than make up” for time spent exercising. The City of Winnipeg has already donated gym space in police stations across the city, he says.

A very real issue for officers is that criminals leaving prison “after being inside for years and working out [are] very, very powerful,” says Sutherland. Physically wrestling an offender can quickly drain a police officer, he suggests, a situation that is further exacerbated by the 10 to 15 kilograms of equipment strapped to a front-line officer’s waist.

“There’s not a lot of offenders that will let you stretch and warm up before you engage in what could be life-and-death struggles,” Sutherland says. “You are given on-duty time for

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familiarity with a firearm, TASER, etc., but very little [time] to make sure your body is in the kind of shape it needs to be.”

Sutherland points to Calgary, where one hour of workout time has been built into the 12-hour schedule.

Materials matter when it comes to fighting fires

By Dan Birch

T

here were no deaths, no injuries. But a close call during a commercial property blaze in Summerside, Prince Edward Island last summer is still on the mind of the city’s fire chief.

The fire at a two-storey bank on August 1 “rattled us a bit,” Jim Peters acknowledges. It also has his team thinking about the need for a building information system that would contain data, such as a structure’s basic composition.

Back in August, says Peters, firefighters attacked the second-floor fire with less-than-perfect information. “We were unaware of the construction of the building,” he says. “It was a fairly new building. It was only about 15 years old.”

The exterior was a mix of brick and concrete. All known facts led Peters and his crew to conclude the entire structure would have steel framing and joists.

They were wrong. The roof was supported by wood trusses, a much weaker option in the event of a fire, Peters reports.

While firefighters worked away on the second floor, he says the trusses burned, eventually causing the suspended ceiling, wiring and other material to come crashing down.

The thinking behind a building information system, Peters says, is to help prevent near misses and to bolster the safety of firefighters on scene. Summerside’s fire department is in the very early stages of developing such a system.

One useful source of information has been the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States. For example, NIOSH encourages fire departments to conduct pre-incident inspections and planning to identify buildings that contain truss construction. “Whenever possible, inspect buildings during the construction phase to help assess the different types of construction,” NIOSH urges.

Information collected can be stored in computers at emergency dispatch and on trucks.

Tim Jenkins, president of the PEI Fire Fighters Association and a volunteer firefighter in Charlottetown, likes the idea of a comprehensive system. While some preplanning has been done at a number of high-risk locations in Charlottetown and Summerside, Jenkins says his sense is the collected information, including hazardous material data, is “not a very organized system at this point.”

Peters and Jenkins agree that it would take considerable time to collect and log the data.

Ideally, Jenkins says, it “would be nice to have a standardized system across the Island.”

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MARCH 2010

ohs canada

Think ahead, be cautious and slow it down

By Angela Stelmakowich

I

n music, “slip slidin’ away” may be a hummable notion.

That tune, however, hits a sour note when it comes to driving in wintry and severe weather conditions.

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in Des Plaines, Illinois is offering driving tips to help motorists be prepared, vigilant and ready for roads that can prove tricky to navigate and negotiate.

“Treacherous weather and the conditions it brings cannot be controlled by motorists. However, if motorists drive cautiously, they are more likely to make it to their destination safely and without incident,” ASSE president Christopher Patton said in a statement last December.

The advice is not meant simply to help safeguard motorists, but all road users, including workers whose vehicles serve as both transport method and office: law enforcement staff, emergency responders, truckers, utility workers and more.

Indeed, in the United States, vehicle collisions continue to be the top cause of work-related fatality, the ASSE notes.

Some of the leading causes of fatal crashes include failing to stay in the proper lane or running off the road; driving too quickly for conditions; being distracted behind the wheel; operating in an erratic/reckless manner; and failing to obey traffic signs or signals. Consider the following cautions: • check tires, wiper blades, fluids, lights, belts and hoses; • the faster a vehicle is travelling, the longer it will take to stop; • leave adequate space between vehicles; • do not use cruise control and avoid abrupt steering manoeuvres when driving on ice and snow; and, • stay attentive and reduce speed in limited visibility.

The ASSE advises employers with workers on the road to equip each vehicle with a winter storm kit that includes, among other items, blankets, a flashlight, a cellphone with a charger and extra batteries, a shovel, a first aid kit, non-perishable food, extra warm clothes and a water container.

As well, both employers and employees should plan ahead and allow plenty of time to travel, make sure vehicles are winterized and check weather conditions before hitting the road.

Angela Stelmakowich is editor of

ohs canada.

Criminal negligence charges against pilot dismissed

By Jason Contant

M

anitoba’s high court has overturned a lower ruling that found a pilot forced to land his plane in downtown Winnipeg guilty of criminal negligence.

Writing for the three-member Manitoba Court of Appeal, Justice Barbara Hamilton determined that Mark Tayfel, a pilot for Keystone Air Service Ltd., “was not properly convicted” of one count of criminal negligence causing death and four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The December 16 ruling did, however, uphold a convic-

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By Rosie Lombardi

J

udging by the headlines, it may appear that some provinces are raking in big bucks from occupational health and safety fines that can easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Consider Alstar Oilfield Contractors Ltd., recently ordered by an Alberta court to pay a $375,000 penalty in connection with an explosion that killed two workers. Or SNC-Lavalin Power Ontario Inc., also fined $375,000 in a provincial court last July following a worker’s electrocution.

So where does the money go?

It depends on the jurisdiction, but the short answer is the cash can be split among a government entity, a non-profit oh&s cause and a fund for victims of crime.

In the Alberta case, $250,000 went to the Fox Creek Fire Department, $60,000 to a local school division for health and safety-related training, $60,000 to establish two oh&s college bursaries and $5,000 to be split between the provincial government and the fund for victims of crime.

The ruling in Ontario ended with $75,000 going into a victims’ fund and $300,000 being directed to a municipal government, minus certain provincially incurred expenses, says Brendan Crawley, senior coordinator of media relations for the Ministry of the Attorney General in Toronto.

Ontario courts levied about $28 million in fines under the

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tion for dangerous operation of an aircraft.

The charges follow an incident on June 11, 2002. Tayfel was piloting a small plane to and from a commercial fly-in fishing camp when the aircraft ran out of fuel, forcing him to land on a busy Winnipeg street. Justice Hamilton notes in the ruling that after picking up a group for return to Winnipeg, the aircraft fuel gauges began to drop quickly. This was followed by both engines failing.

All occupants were injured, one fatally, when the aircraft came crashing down. No one on the street was hurt.

Tayfel was originally found guilty of six counts of criminal negligence for failing to ensure there was sufficient fuel for the flight. The Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba concluded that pilots need to consider and distinguish between visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR); the latter demands more fuel as a precaution.

The pilot “chose to fly VFR in IFR conditions,” the lower court ruling noted. “The accused’s conduct both in failing to ensure that there was adequate fuel on board to safely complete the flight and in the manner in which he responded when it became clear that there was a problem with the fuel constitute both criminal negligence and dangerous operation of an aircraft,” the decision states.

Justice Hamilton disagreed. The Court of Queen’s Bench cited Tayfel’s failure to ensure sufficient fuel was available, she notes. “However flawed his conduct was in addressing the sufficiency of the fuel for the flight, I am of the view that this conduct, when considered in the context of all the evidence, is not conduct that meets the very high threshold of wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.”

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23

Occupational Health and Safety Act during fiscal 2008-2009.

The amount represents a hearty increase over the $12 million in 2007-2008 and about $5 million in 2000, notes statistics from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.

Crawley says municipalities are responsible for collecting OH&S Act fines and are entitled to the revenue. However, they first must cover the province’s expenses, which include “adjudication, prosecutorial and other administration costs.”

Alberta, in addition to other provinces with the legislative option of creative sentencing, does things a bit differently. Since 2002, judges have been able to direct the proceeds of oh&s penalties to organizations and causes that advance workplace safety, notes Chris Chodan, a spokesperson for Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton.

St. John Ambulance, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and the Manufacturers’ Health and Safety Association have been among the beneficiaries, Chodan says.

Similar to its central-Canadian cousin, the total value of OH&S Act penalties in Alberta is also on the rise. The take for 2007 was a record $1.7 million, and that number was surpassed in 2008, with some $5 million collected. “There’s been a 10-fold increase since 1997,” Chodan reports.

Of the approximately $5 million in 2008, AEI figures show 88 per cent of that total was in the form of creative sentencing. The remainder, says Chodan, would be split between the provincial government and the victims of crime fund. Alberta’s system has been fashioned thus to avoid the perception that prosecutions are attempts to generate revenue, he says.

The victim fine surcharge, employed by many jurisdictions throughout the country, is as much as 40 per cent of the base fine, depending on the locale. In Ontario, Crawley says the surcharge is 25 per cent for base fines of more than $1,000, and all surcharges tacked onto OH&S Act convictions are deposited into the Victims’ Justice Fund (VJF).

The fund provides assistance to victims of violent crime to cover emergency expenses such as childcare, transportation, medical and funeral expenses. Although surcharges are applied to OH&S Act convictions, no VJF money is directed to those involved in work incidents, says Crawley. “Injured workers would typically have recourse to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, which provides a much richer spectrum of benefits than what is available for victims of crime.”

Anthony Pizzino, national health and safety director for the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ottawa, says increases in oh&s fines and convictions are steps in the right direction, but adds that there is plenty of room for more enforcement effort. “There are about 1,000 worker fatalities annually across Canada, and that number has been holding steady since 1993,” Pizzino says.

Rosie Lombardi is a writer in Toronto.

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ohs canada

One-third of companies shy away from hiring disabled

By Jason Contant

A

bout one-third of executives responding to a recent poll say they are discouraged from hiring individuals with disabilities amid concerns over managing potential underperformance issues.

The survey of 110 human resource senior executives from a cross-section of Ontario-based businesses was released in November. Thirty-six per cent of respondents noted that discouragement, in part, flowed from it being “harder to dismiss an underperforming person with a disability than one without a disability.” Responses were collected from public, private, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

Conducted by COMPAS Inc. for the Toronto branch of the Job Opportunity Information Network (JOIN), responses also revealed the following: 24 per cent of executives reported concerns over the potential for higher absentee rates; 21 per cent cited a perceived expense related to hiring an employee with a disability; and 16 per cent pointed to increased effort to train employees.

It was not all negative, however. When presented with positive reasons for hiring a person with a disability, the following emerged as the most likely to motivate hiring: • 53 per cent reported they thought said individuals would bring “fresh perspectives” to the job; • 53 per cent said they believed employees with disabilities would “try harder”; • 46 per cent noted they felt disabled employees are “much more loyal”; and, • 41 per cent agreed with the idea that those living with disabilities are “more reliable on the job.”

Susan Howatt, chairperson of the Board of Governors for JOIN Toronto, says that while many employers recognize the value that people with disabilities can provide in a workplace, “outdated stigmas are still the number one barrier.”

The survey found that only 22 per cent of business executives reported being aware of the Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act, which covers such issues as accessible employment practices, policies and training.

Oftentimes, employers who want to move forward with accommodating workers with disabilities do not consider that disabilities are not solely physical, says Sharon Myatt, an employer development consultant with JOIN Toronto. “Over 50 per cent of disabilities are hidden and episodic,” Myatt points out.

Establishing a work environment where all employees can achieve their potential is important, suggests Sylvia Chrominska, group head of global human resources and communications for Scotiabank in Toronto. When it comes to accommodation, Chrominska says Scotiabank uses a variety of tools, including a centralized fund that supports job applicants and employees with disabilities to ensure they have tools (such as assistive technologies, interpreters and other services) necessary to do their work tasks; flexible work hours and arrangements to accommodate all employees; and adaptive tools built into technology applications and websites to ensure these are accessible to workers with disabilities.

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Circle number 32 on Reader Service Card

a

SOCIAL MEDIA

N

a s t r e i v o N o N C ew

By DAn BIrCh

Lissa has a question. How can she bring

cial media” may invoke thoughts of

more positive reinforcement to her com-

Facebook-obsessed teens (or those a

pany’s occupational health and safety bit older still) and banal Twitter tweets, incentive program — the goal being to

it can and is being used for good — the

bolster worker buy-in?

good of health and safety on the job.

Why not just ask the employees what

Take Lissa’s earlier conversation,

incentives they would like to see? re-

held on an on-line discussion board

sponds CLaRose.

known as Workscape, an offering of

Workers observed performing safe

the Canadian Centre for Occupational

acts could be recognized by having Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamiltheir names entered into a monthly ton, Ontario. Users trade information draw for a gift card, Rebecca chimes in.

and views on any number of topics, ev-

Injecting some caution into the ex-

erything from emergency eyewash sta-

change, Djohnson suggests that rewarding employees for working a cer-

tions to heat stress and work violence.

Discussion forums like Workscape

tain period of time without injury is a and chat rooms are actually the grandrecipe for underreporting.

daddies of social media, having been

And so the conversation goes. It in wide use long before the arrival of

ILLuStrAtIOn: jAMES wArDELL

could be taking place among col-

Facebook and that ilk.

leagues sitting around a meeting room

The CCOHS and other oh&s-minded

table, sipping coffee and snacking on

agencies continue to forge their social

muffins. But it’s not.

media presence. Just how are safety

It’s taking place online, an example

folks employing these communication

of social media in action, with a work-

tools? More important, can they play a

place-safety twist. While the term “so-

concrete role in preventing injuries?

Discussion forums like Workscape and chat rooms are actually the grand-daddies of social media.

www.ohscanada.com

MArCh 2010

27

But social media, as its name suggests, is about promoting conversation.

That can transform the old single-lane roadway into a bustling expressway.

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Something old, Something new Social media and plain-old media — what’s the difference? Most of us are familiar with the latter, so-called “traditional” media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines and so on. In keeping with the “traditional,” these communication avenues have been largely one-way streets, with readers consuming the information directed their way. But social media, as its name suggests, is about promoting conversation.

That can transform the old single-lane roadway into a bustling expressway.

Joseph Thornley, CEO of the Toronto-based communications firm, Thornley Fallis, takes a stab at defining social media. It is “on-line communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author,” he wrote on his blog in the spring of 2008. “To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.”

Social media is a broad term, one that is still malleable enough to change shape as technology evolves, suggests Amanda Vega, head of the communications company, Amanda Vega Consulting, in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The tools and the names have changed over the last few years, but social media as a practice has been around for 15-plus years. It just never had a name,” says Vega, an author and contributor to The Social Media Bible.

“There’s a heck of a lot of options,” suggests Tom Zach, director of communications and marketing for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto. The MOL waded into the social media pool in March, 2009 when it posted its first message (properly known as a tweet) on Twitter.

Social media, Zach says, “is a communications channel that we have to explore. It’s the 21st century and we’ve got to be right up there as a government in terms of getting our messages out.”

The MOL’s very first tweet provided a link to information about an incident on a construction site in which a worker suffered paralysis after falling. Through the bulletin, the ministry reminds employers to provide appropriate stairs, runways, ramps or ladders for scaffolding.

Use of social media outside the workplace may provide a reliable gauge of its potential. Indeed, many Canadians are exploring social media applications themselves, suggests Nate Elliot, a researcher for Forrester Research, a global IT firm with offices in Toronto. “Canadian on-line users have aggressively adopted social technologies:

ohs canada

79 per cent use social media at least once each month, and Canadians are the most active social networkers in any market we survey,” Elliot wrote in the December, 2009 report, “Canadian Social Technographics Revealed.”

A new lAnguAge

Tweets, fans and blogs — the social media wave has flooded everyday-speak with plenty of jargon.

Here are a few terms that any dedicated follower cannot live without.

Blog: The contraction of “web log,” blogs are websites that can be operated by individuals or organizations, and that are characterized by frequent content updates and reader commentary.

Follower: Twitter users have followers, individuals who have signed on to receive their tweets.

Channel: Not unlike television, YouTube has channels that offer programming from specific entities. Organizations and individuals can create their own channels.

Fans: Companies and organizations on Facebook have what they call “fans,” essentially people who follow their pages.

Tweet, retweet: Messages posted on Twitter by users are called tweets. A retweet, designated by RT or a double-arrow icon, is the term used when someone reposts another person’s message.

Wiki: Consider this definition, courtesy of the ultimate wiki, Wikipedia: a wiki is “a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked webpages via a web browser.” Organizations can also use wikis internally to share whatever information they choose.

SAving fAce Vega notes that Facebook and Twitter — currently “controlling the universe,” she quips — are two social media biggies, but the list of vehicles is long and includes YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, blogs, wikis, Flickr and SlideShare. (The last two options allow users to upload and share content online, with Flickr serving as a photo depot and SlideShare as a storehouse for slide presentations.)

On Facebook, anyone and everyone can form groups focused on common interests and organizations can create their own pages. Both site operators and users can place text, pictures and video on these pages, although only operators can adjust the settings to control the degree of user interaction.

A January posting by the CCOHS on its Facebook page reminds office workers to take regular stretch breaks and offers an Internet link for a free injury-prevention poster.

Twitter is known as a “microblog” because posted messages cannot exceed 140 characters.

By choosing to “follow” any number of entities, a user’s Twitter homepage will contain all of the

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Viewers from across Canada and around the world are tuning in to check out the prevention flicks, Blais reports.

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latest tweets from the individuals and organizations he happens to be following.

It would be fair to say the character limit serves as a barrier to posting substantive explanations — imagine detailing the ins and outs of fall protection in 140 spaces.

That’s why tweets often include links to online materials, with the tweet itself serving as a quick headline, not the entire story. An important aspect of Twitter is the user’s ability to repost (note: retweet) the tweets of others, usually along with some attached comment.

YouTube, for its part, is more than a place to watch illegally uploaded television and movie clips. If that’s all it was, it would not really meet the social media standard. Lively user comment streams can be found below many videos (usercreated and user-copied), and people also converse by posting their own video responses.

“The number of topics that [people] can engage on, or discuss, is really limited only to everybody’s imagination,” Erin McConnell, president of Wilcox Group in Vancouver, says of social media.

For example, want to learn how to make authentic Indian naan bread?

Looking for a primer on nuclear fission? How about some pointers on safe roofing methods? All are just a quick YouTube search away.

Consider one offering from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries in Tumwater, Washington. A 10-year residential roofer tells viewers his job has served him well: he makes a good living and enjoys doing quality work.

Still, roofing is a dangerous business. He’s actually taken two tumbles, he says, but being tied off saved the day. “You don’t have to sacrifice safety to do quality work and make a profit.”

A wider umbrellA “It’s amazing the kind of reach that we can have now where we didn’t before. We’re seeing evidence of that in pretty much all of the social media tools we use,” says Terence Little, manager of corporate Internet services for WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia.

The board has dived into the social media pool in a big way. Operating YouTube, Facebook and Twitter sites, WorkSafeBC is looking to make a splash and surely ranks among the most active Canadian entities dealing with health and safety.

Little’s partner in social media, Dave Blais, highlights WorkSafeBC’s solid YouTube statistics. “Particularly in the last two years, it’s really

ohs canada

started to take off. We’ve got 174 videos on there.

We’ve got 5.1 million views to date,” says Blais, the board’s senior manager of e-business. Average daily video views have hit the 10,000 mark.

It’s not just British Columbians who are watching. Viewers from across Canada and around the world are tuning in to check out the prevention flicks, Blais reports. “It’s really helped get our videos out in a way that we never actually even really anticipated.”

Many WorkSafeBC videos offer two features not always found in educational programming: they are informative and entertaining. Consider a log-loading safety video that is lightly peppered with salty language and a cliffhanger ending.

Ontario’s MOL fired up its own YouTube channel last November, with its first video focusing on safety in auto body shops. The province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, based in Toronto, also has a channel featuring a couple dozen videos.

Research from the MOL shows that people look to YouTube when trying to find safety videos, rather than turning to the websites of individual organizations, Zach reports.

Another motivation for the MOL to get on YouTube is the success that other Ontario ministries have had with the platform, he says. The provincial health ministry, for example, uploaded a mumps prevention spot that has attracted international attention and more than 60,000 views. “We really see social media or our on-line presence to be the future of how we’re going to communicate out,” Zach adds.

WorkSafeBC’s maiden tweet was posted in April of 2007, eight months after Twitter went online. Since then, the agency’s tweeting style has evolved to truly embrace the spirit of social media. That spirit appears to have struck a chord with followers, who have grown to about 2,600.

Apart from tweeting about WorkSafeBC announcements, the board regularly retweets the news of others and responds to comments and questions from Twitter users, even those outside its list of followers.

“We’re not there yet,” Zach concedes. “We’re sort of taking baby steps in this to see what works for us.” While the MOL tweets often, the content is usually a link to a related ministry press release (ABC Company fined for serious worker injury, new occupational exposure limits in place, and so forth). Nonetheless, at 600 followers, headway is being made.

It is understandable that health and safety organizations would be cautious about what material they opt to repost, since doing so could appear as an endorsement of the content. “We make sure it’s something that represents our organization and is credible and reliable before we make it public, because once you do, it’s there,” says Krista Travers, a marketing communications officer with the CCOHS.

Judging by the number of oh&s agencies on Facebook, the social media tool is prized for its ability to draw a youthful audience. Young worker campaigns invariably include a Facebook link.

Si Lence, a mime that is the face (but not the voice) of the most recent youth initiative from Nova Scotia’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB), maintains his own Facebook profile, YouTube and Twitter pages and a blog.

“Videos and pictures helped us gain traction online as young people would tag themselves [on Facebook] and share among other friends,” reports Julie Trites, communications advisor for the WCB in Halifax.

Trites notes that more than 500 photos were snapped at street team events and posted online, an approach also employed by WorkSafeBC and other compensation boards. Why? “You need something interesting and engaging for your audience to read, watch and share. Once people are interested and engaged in a conversation, the next challenge is to sustain that conversation,” Trites says.

The Nova Scotia WCB has its own social media program, and the board is none too shy about exploring other novel ways to spread the safety word. Right now, that message is being sent on dry-cleaning bags.

The WCB is the first advertiser in the province to purchase ad space on the bags, a move meant to attract the notice of a “more professional and management-level demographic,” says Trites.

“Because people generally dry clean their ‘work clothes,’ they target people as they prepare for their workday.”

The bags were part of the WCB’s $100,000 prevention campaign last fall, which also included advertising on television, the Internet and billboards, as well as in elevators.

“We want workplace safety to be part of the conversation in corporate lunchrooms and boardrooms, but also in people’s living rooms and dining rooms,” Trites points out. “Our strategy to do that, on the advertising front, is to move our messages closer to the workplace and closer to the community,” she says.

Consider that elevator ads appeared in four major hospitals in the Halifax area.

The WCB’s youth-focused campaign, as well as a youth initiative in British Columbia, is getting closer to the community by dispatching individuals into the streets. Out West, these street teams drop in on events at colleges, universities and other places where young people gather, says WorkSafeBC’s Little.

Attention, pleASe For all its potential benefits, social media is not without its challenges and limitations. As Trites notes, once an organization has attracted an audience, it has to retain these followers.

It’s an issue that officials at Manitoba’s WCB

have been debating. The board’s youth campaign includes a Facebook page that, during summer months, has regular announcements about contest prize-winners — a handy way to keep young people interested and engaged, suggests Warren Preece, communications director for the WCB in Winnipeg. When the contest is not running, however, a regular supply of additional content is needed to keep the page fresh, Preece says.

“It’s a matter of trying to keep it alive, which is a time-consuming process. You have to apply a lot of resources,” he suggests. “One thing about the [Internet] is it’s instant, but people want something new every minute of the day.”

Still, information need not be exhaustive, particularly with Twitter’s tight character limit.

Not only do social media users crave frequent updates, they want responses to their queries — right away. “If somebody has to wait two hours, even, for a response, when they’re used to getting it inside of three or four minutes, that can be an issue,” says Wilcox Group’s McConnell, noting that approval processes to ensure answers are appropriate can eat away at a timely response.

Travers says the CCOHS — which in addition to Workscape has Twitter, Facebook and SlideShare sites — does its best to reply quickly to questions and comments. Sending a private, direct message to the user can cut down on response time, but the preference is to respond publicly as often as possible, she says.

Creating content and interacting with users consume staff time. So, too, does monitoring and possibly censoring a particular social media site.

After all, lively comment forums run the risk of becoming too lively (think personal attacks and offensive material).

WorkSafeBC’s Blais notes that, though rare, there will always be an “abusive element” within social media. “That’s where you do need to monitor, because you don’t want to create a space that is not appealing for people to participate in.”

A more frequent problem is that user comments and information may be a bit off the mark. “You have to let people express themselves in their own voices,” and in a way that suits their personalities, says Blais. “And that may not be the way that we would talk about [an issue].”

That very expression can serve to provide helpful feedback, Blais says, pointing to WorkSafeBC’s YouTube videos. Viewers can offer “additional information, new information, other context, to make the information that much

“Once people are interested and engaged in a conversation, the next challenge is to sustain that conversation,” Trites says.

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Organizations with robust social media programs may have full-time “community managers” to do the necessary tending.

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more valuable,” he says.

The feedback doesn’t always show up online, Blais says, noting that the channel’s main demographic — 35 years and older — is a bit “shier to participate in an open way on the web.” Viewers are “very happy to send us all kinds of feedback through an e-mail, one-on-one, but it seems to be a bigger step to transition to posting that feedback on a public website.”

While an organization can exercise some control over its own social media spaces, it becomes much more difficult — impossible, really — to control how its material is passed on and regurgitated. “An advantage and limitation is that people can comment as they share the information, whether it’s positive or negative,” McConnell says, suggesting that the goal should be to encourage as much materialsharing as possible.

With social media, “you’re able to spread information fairly quickly. And if it’s really useful information, it can go viral.”

Blais agrees, adding that the credibility of the message increases with each send. “When people take ownership of our material and pass it on to others, the effect is so much greater in many cases than when we do it ourselves,” he says. bottom dollAr Cost is obviously top of mind for any organization considering an entry into the social media fray. To the good, tools such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are free, says Blais. “You’re not incurring any [server] costs or any kind of other infrastructure costs.”

But, adds Trites, social media does not just happen. “There is careful thought that goes into why and how a company should get involved.”

Little says the perception exists “that you can jump right into social media and it’s going to do all sorts of wonderful things for you.” The reality is that patience is a must, he says. “It’s quite a steady growth and you have to keep at it for a longer period of time.”

Organizations with robust social media programs may have full-time “community managers” to do the necessary tending — determining content and increasing engagement with users.

But, says the CCOHS’s Travers, dedicating those human resources is not necessary to enter the game. Taking things one step (or two) at a time is just fine.

“Here at CCOHS, we’re still learning,” she notes. “We’ve made a lot of inroads. We’re proud

ohs canada

of the progress we’ve made and the results that we’ve attained.”

But how does an organization that is hoping to enhance oh&s by using social media gauge success? “There are many debates on how to best measure social media,” Travers says. “I think it comes back to what your goals are.”

The MOL’s Zach agrees that “metrics need to be involved. There needs to be some sort of measurement and evaluation, and we’re exploring that right now.” Possible options include on-line surveys and formal polling of the ministry’s social media users, he says.

Travers offers additional possibilities, such as the number of Twitter followers/retweets, Facebook fans/group members, and the quality of interactions with users. She acknowledges that the latter is more challenging to assess.

Quality viewer interaction is something that WorkSafeBC has been experiencing with its roster of YouTube videos, Little says. Before YouTube, the board would send videos directly to its audience. “We didn’t know if [users] watched it or if they gained any information from it, but now we can actually see by the comments that people are engaged,” he says.

Manitoba’s WCB has also had positive results from its interactive youth videos. Viewers, Preece says, “really retained a lot more of our personal risk-management model and really kind of experienced the workplace safety thought processes that we’re trying to portray.”

The argument can be made that a profit-driven business can more easily calculate its return on investment from social media marketing than an organization with an educational mandate.

A business sells products, dedicating time and money to promoting product X via social media, and ends up with favourable sales. Conclusions can be advanced that social media had something do with improvements on the bottom line.

But Canada’s health and safety agencies are hawking something different: awareness and behavioural change. As Preece notes, the ultimate measure of success, whether marketing through social media or traditional avenues, is hard numbers such as worker injury rates. But additional, critical factors come into play with these numbers, he says, including regulatory enforcement efforts, employee training and more.

Still, social marketing is regarded by some as indispensable. It has been shown that awareness and attitude changes “are essential components of behaviour change, and we know that behaviour change has a payoff in safety,” Preece says.

Little regards social media tools as an increasingly important part of the educational mix, but they remain just that: one component. “It has to be one of many ways that you get your message out. You can’t just rely on social media alone.”

Dan Birch is assistant editor of

ohs canada.

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Foreign workerS

A

Strange

Land

By AngelA StelmAkowich

Everyone is supposed to be treated the same way, no matter whether a person is born here, visiting as a temporary foreign worker (TFW) or employed as a migrant worker. Regulators argue that written occupational health and safety protections make clear that no distinctions exist. But critics contend those assurances — for individuals actually in the trenches, on the farm or at the factory — are sometimes scarcely worth the paper they are written on.

Another round Layers of concern over TFWs were peeled back on Christmas Eve with the deaths of four migrant workers at a work site in Toronto. The incident served to renew debate over the use and protection of these workers — a discussion that had been dulled recently by a hard-hit economy and fewer work permits being issued.

Critics contend the changing landscape — perhaps as temporary as the workers’ stays — does not mean problems have disappeared. Rather, a system permeated by rot has driven people underground.

The object of concern: the federal Temporary Foreign Workers Program. The program has a number of arms, including ones for seasonal agricultural workers, live-in care-givers, low-skill workers and a host of jobs to cover off a wide variety of work force needs.

Last May 19, a federal directive was issued stating that all unused labour market opinions

(LMO), which assesses the potential impact that hiring TFWs will have on Canada’s labour market, issued before that date were to expire on November 28, 2009. “If a worker has not applied for a work permit by that date, the LMO is no longer valid and the employer must apply for a new LMO if he/she still wishes to hire a foreign worker,” says information from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

Changes to the program — including banning TFWs who have worked in the country for four cumulative years from returning for six years — have been slammed by some critics. Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a Toronto-based advocacy group, called the move little more than “double speak” when it comes to addressing the plight of TFWs. The consequences “will be far-reaching in cementing the status of migrant workers in a perpetual cycle of precariousness,” said Evelyn Enca-

Above: The aftermath of a swing stage collapse, in which five migrant workers plummeted 13 storeys, four to their deaths, on Christmas Eve. Right: Scaffolding from which workers had been refurbishing balconies hangs from a Toronto apartment building.

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pHotoS: left: Cp pHoto - RiCk MAdonik/toRonto StAR; RigHt: Cp pHoto - CARloS oSoRio/ toRonto StAR

lada Grez, national organizer in Toronto for J4MW. A 2006 report from London Metropolitan University, looking at migrant workers in England and Wales, notes that interviews with 200 migrant workers and more than 60 employers showed that risks were not specific to migrant workers. “However, what it does reveal is that migrants are more likely to be working in sectors or occupations where there are existing health and safety concerns and that it is their status as new workers that may place them at added risk.”

A statement last year from the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) in Edmonton, commenting on its own TFW review, notes that “since the downturn began, many highskilled foreign workers have been laid off and sent home, but that employers in the restaurant, hospitality and service industries continue to import new foreign workers.” More and more, low-skill workers are ending up in construction, agriculture and the low end of services, reports Encalada Grez. probe continues The Toronto deaths occurred when a Metron Construction Corp. crew was refurbishing balconies. The five migrant workers were working from scaffolding at the 13th storey of an apartment building at about 4:30 pm, notes a statement from the Toronto Police Service (TPS). The scaffolding, known as a swing stage, separated in the middle, and all five workers plummeted to the ground.

Fayzullo Fazilov, 31; Aleksey Blumberg, 33; Alexander Bondorev, 25; and Vladimir Korostin, 40, were killed, says a statement from the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) in Toronto. Dilshod Marupov, 21, suffered broken legs and serious spinal injuries, the OFL notes.

The work site was no stranger to safety notice — from October 20 to December 17, a number of oh&s compliance orders were issued related to conditions at both buildings on the site — but the swing stage in question had not been among either actual or perceived deficiencies.

After the deaths, notes information from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto, the constructor, Metron

Safe Suspension Just weeks after the fall in Toronto, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) issued an alert on the safe use, maintenance and inspection of suspended work platforms.

Falls, the most significant hazard associated with using swing stages, can occur under a number of scenarios, including the following: • suspended platforms overturn because the counterweight does not have sufficient weight or its point of support on a building fails; • the swing stage collapses because it is overloaded; • the platforms on modular-type stages are inadequately attached; or, • exposure to chemicals or corrosive materials has damaged the motors, platforms or wire ropes to which the stage is suspended.

Workers must wear a full-body harness connected to a fall arrest system with an independent lifeline, or one that is securely fastened to the platform or scaffold.

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Construction, was issued 12 additional orders. One of these directed the company to secure the scene, while the 11 others cited the need for documentation relating to, among other things, records of fall protection training, all rental agreements between Metron Construction and suppliers, and payroll records for all employees working at the project.

Detective Kevin Sedore, a TPS investigator, confirmed in mid-January that the criminal investigation was continuing and he expected the probe would be a lengthy one.

In the wake of the deadly collapse, the MOL announced it was moving forward with a 90-day enforcement blitz to heighten awareness around work-related falls. criminal view Within days of the deadly collapse, the OFL called on the province’s attorney general, Chris Bentley, to launch a criminal investigation, possibly with a view to charges under the oh&s provision of the Criminal Code of Canada.

That provision, spelled out in Bill C-45, came into force six years ago, more than a decade after the Westray Mine disaster. The specific language is as follows: “Everyone who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.”

In an open letter to Bentley, OFL president Sid Ryan acknowledged that an oh&s investigation is under way, but that a bigger stick needed to be used. “We would like to see you take more seriously the provision in the Criminal Code of Canada that gives your office the power to lay criminal charges if an employer causes death or serious harm due to negligence,” Ryan noted in the letter.

Later asked about progress to date, Ryan reported he is pleased the police investigation is continuing. Noting that OFL officials provided the TPS with details on Bill C-45, Ryan says the ideal would be for the provisions to be considered as part of every police probe of work accidents.

Recounting a story about a friend driving in Michigan over the recent holidays, Ryan notes that as he was nearing a road work project, he saw a sign: Kill a worker, go to jail.

Calling that a powerful message, indeed, Ryan says “if that was the message that was sent out in Ontario, I think we would begin to see a drastic reduction to the number of people killed on the job.”

It is only the appropriate use of the Bill C-45 provision — Ryan argues any work-related death or disabling injury should qualify — that will exact the deterrence and punishment that was intended, he contends.

Ryan notes there has been only one successful prosecution (and far too few pursued). A Quebec court levied a $110,000 fine against Transpavé Inc. in 2008 after it entered a guilty plea of criminal negligence causing death.

There were two other cases in which charges were pursued, notes information from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario. One involved a construction site supervisor who was charged with criminal negligence causing death following a trench cave-in that claimed a worker’s life; the second involved charges against two supervisors after a gate to a hydro electric dam opened, resulting in two deaths.

In the first case, the CCOHS reports that the charge was dropped after the supervisor pleaded guilty to violating

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Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, while the supervisors in the second case were acquitted.

With regard to the police, who Ryan sees as a critical link in ensuring more Bill C-45 cases are pursued, “I think what happens now, police investigate to make certain that foul play hasn’t taken place, but they don’t look at it from the criminal negligence standpoint,” he says.

“Ontario needs a societal change in how we look at death, illness and injury caused by work, and better enforcement of the criminal code,” Ryan noted in the letter.

Encalada Grez says she would support criminal investigations, but there should be A view of the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Horizon Oil Sands project near Fort McKay, more. “We have to also press Alberta. Two temporary foreign workers died, two were seriously injured and others received for measures that prevent minor injuries when a tank’s roof-support structure collapsed in April of 2007. these situations from occurring in the first place.”

Yessy Byl is a TFW advocate for the AFL, who also does client work through the Edmon- er. An AEI bulletin issued last April notes that the charges ton Community Legal Centre. “The biggest problem is that include failing to ensure the following: the health and safety there have been so many people abusing TFWs — employers, of workers; a professional engineer prepared and certified drawings and procedures; the roof-support structure inside recruiters — and nobody gets prosecuted,” Byl says.

Tom Zach, director of the MOL’s communications and the tank was stable during assembly; the U-bolt-type clips marketing branch, says that “it is not up to the province to used for fastening rope wire were properly installed; and the decide whether charges should be laid under federal legisla- rope wire being used was safe.

“The biggest thing we want to hammer through to emtion.” Pointing out several investigations are currently under way, “the [labour] minister is confident that these investiga- ployers is that it’s all the same. It doesn’t matter where [worktions and the inquest will provide answers to the many ques- ers] are from,” says AEI spokesperson Chris Chodan.

Another department spokesperson, Barrie Harrison, adds tions we all have.” that “regardless of who you have in your employ, your resome movement sponsibilities don’t change as an employer.”

The Toronto incident is not the only deadly event involving But one of the three accused, Sinopec Shanghai EngineerTFWs; warts and all have been revealed elsewhere. ing, has since unceremoniously closed up shop. That opens Take the incident in Alberta’s oil patch three years ago, a the door to the question of whether or not the company will time when the economy was booming and the floodgates had ever be held accountable. opened wide to both skilled and unskilled TFWs. The Crown has brought forward an application for a On April 24, 2007, seven temporary workers from China direction by the court deeming that the company has been were injured — two fatally and two seriously — during the served, says Marshall Hopkins, the prosecutor handling the collapse of the roof structure of a steel oil storage tank at the case on behalf of the Alberta Crown. Speaking generally, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) Horizon Oil Sands Hopkins says this is a situation that prosecutors can face, but project near Fort McKay, Alberta. The workers were weld- not just with extraterritorial corporations. ing the wall structure inside the tank when the roof-support Chodan notes, however, that these companies are usually structure collapsed onto them, reports Alberta Employment working for Alberta firms — and that brings everyone back and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton. to the prime contractor. “Someone is going to be held acThe widely reported collapse triggered a fire storm sur- countable,” he emphasizes. rounding TFWs, their protections and employer demands “If a company is going to hire a foreign company to work in for a ready supply of workers. Investigation turned into find- Alberta, that’s fine, but you are still on the hook as the prime ings, and findings into blame in the form of charges against contractor,” Chodan says. “From our standpoint, whether it’s three companies under Alberta’s OH&S Act. a fatality, an injury or a near miss, [there’s] the same investiOverall, CNRL faces 29 charges as the prime contractor, gation, because you still have the same problem. You have an SSEC Canada Ltd. faces 14 as the contractor and Sinopec unsafe work site or unsafe working conditions.”

Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd. faces 10 as the employAsked if there is a need for TFW-specific language in oh&s

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Progress Report An Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) report released last April does little to encourage optimism that the work conditions of some temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are changing for the better. “Entrenching Exploitation” is the second report of the AFL’s TFW advocate.

“The working and living conditions of temporary foreign workers in Alberta have not improved at all in the past couple of years,” AFL president Gil McGowan charged in a statement at the time. As the federal TFW program “continues to expand, it is clear we are entrenching this exploitation for the long term,” McGowan argues.

“Canada’s so-called temporary solution to labour shortages is rapidly becoming a permanent part of our labour market,” says the AFL’s TFW advocate, Yessy Byl. The result is an “underclass of foreign workers with little access to citizenship or full labour rights,” Byl contends.

The report revisits 21 recommendations for improving conditions for TFWs, including the need to revamp the federal program to rid the potential for abuse; allow TFWs currently in the country to receive permanent residency status, if they choose; and provide better and more active enforcement of employment rights.

The first AFL report was released in November of 2007, about six months after the TFW advocate was established in April of the same year. Over that period, Byl took more than 1,400 phone calls and opened files for 123 TFWs. Of those files, 89 dealt with reported problems with “labour brokers,” including paying fees or brokers making promises to lure the workers to Canada. Other concerns voiced included substandard wages and working conditions, jobs disappearing without notice, and lack of enforcement of basic employment protections.

legislation — what with these workers becoming a common thread of Canada’s work force fabric — the MOL’s Zach says “we are very aware that new workers to Ontario may not be aware of their rights and requirements to work safely here, and that there may be language gaps. However, regardless of your immigration status or your linguistic abilities, everyone in Ontario has the right to be safe at work.”

But, says Encalada Grez, migrant workers unlikely know anything about the OH&S Act. “You may have legislation that could be quite empowering and beneficial for workers, but on the ground, with many workers in a very precarious situation and labour market, it doesn’t mean a thing, particularly for temporary workers.”

Says the OFL’s Ryan, “The chances of a worker, and particularly a migrant worker, standing up to a Canadian boss and telling him, ‘I’m not doing this,’ I think they feel they’d be terminated on the spot.”

Following the oil patch deaths in 2007, the Alberta government moved to establish two special advisory offices meant to help bolster TFW protections in the province.

“The steps we are taking today will allow us to be more proactive in our enforcement activities and will ensure these workers have somewhere to go when they need help,” then employment minister Iris Evans noted in a statement.

Four employment standards officers in each of the offices are responsible for investigating complaints and carrying out inspections of companies that employ TFWs. So far this fiscal year (as of the end of December), provincial officers have conducted 259 inspections of these companies, notes information from AEI. Broken down, 50 per cent of the inspections were proactive (companies known to have TFWs), 40 per cent were the result of written complaints, three per cent were spurred by confidential written complaints, six per cent were inquiries from third parties, and 1.5 per cent were through the advisory offices.

In all, AEI reports that 74 per cent of the inspections revealed some contravention. More specifically, 28 per cent related to overtime, 22 per cent to general holiday pay, eight per cent to vacation pay, five per cent apiece to non-payment or

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hours worked, and three per cent to minimum wage.

With the move to establish what amounts to audit teams visiting TFW employers, whether or not based on a complaint, the province “took a huge step forward with respect to labour standards,” says Byl. The problem is that “there isn’t that kind of ability to audit for health and safety.”

Chodan reports that, in Alberta’s southern region, oh&s officers note that the most common safety concerns revolving around TFWs have been as follows: generally unsafe workplaces, a lack of hazard assessments, harassment and poisoning of personal food and improper ventilation.

Harrison points to the number of TFWs coming to Alberta, amounting to a little more than 39,000 in 2008 compared with about 23,000 for January to September of 2009. “Clearly the numbers are going down, so I would imagine that some of these issues will be going down as well,” he says.

Byl is not so sure. The number of TFWs are down now, but she does not expect that will last. “We’ll change our minds as soon as the economy picks up,” she says.

“I have seen a number of people with serious injuries and they don’t get a new LMO. The employer doesn’t apply for one,” Byl says. “They’ve got injuries, they need treatment and they get shipped home.”

AEI information notes that in addition to complying with provincial labour laws, employers are required to provide TFWs in low-skill occupations with transportation to and from Canada, medical coverage until the worker is eligible for the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan, assistance in settling into the community and confirmation of the availability of affordable and suitable accommodation.

But Encalada Grez says her work with agricultural and low-skill workers shows that “if they get out of line — as in argue for their rights or complain — they will be sent home or be fired. And if they get fired, they don’t have the right to work anywhere else legally. Then they have to push themselves further underground and look for work anywhere.”

Hopkins says his personal take is that “we have to be especially conscientious to protect precarious workers, workers who come to Canada from other countries. There may

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be linguistic impediments to being able to know their rights but most were siphoned off by Sinopec. under occupational health and safety law. There may be culBeyond being “exploited financially by the company,” tural impediments. There may be the fear of being removed CLAC argues the health and safety charges being pursued from the country if they lose their jobs.” against Sinopec “demonstrate its lack of concern for the safeIn Canada, the real issue is the TFW program itself, says ty of its workers,” says Prins. “If Sinopec wants to do business Byl. Encalada Grez agrees, saying, at present, through these in Canada, it must comply with all Canadian laws.” programs, the country is creating a labour force “that is highly exploitable, that is flexible, that [consists of] just-in- baby steps time workers for different industries throughout Canada.”

There does seem to be some sun breaking through the clouds.

Workers need real protection, J4MW reports, including Last April, for example, Ontario moved forward to provide permanent resident status on arrival, a right to full protection assistance to live-in care-givers, workers who gain entry under labour legislation, an end to all fees paid by migrant through the federal Live-In Caregiver Program. A new tollworkers and an end to deportations. “We see that these pro- free telephone hotline, an outreach team, and an information grams are replacing the route to permanent residency,” says fact sheet were all released in a bid to address issues regarding Encalada Grez. employment rights, notes a statement from the MOL. The first AFL report on TFWs, released in November of 2007, recommended a number of measures, including the need to create an arms-length provincial TFW advocate that was funded by the provincial government to assist these workers with complaints and concerns free of charge, and to remove employer names from work permits.

Restructuring of the work permit system is critical, Byl emphasizes. If work permits are being issued, it “must mean jobs are needed in the province, not just with that employer.”

Permits should be issued in line with the type of job a person is allowed to do. “If a particular employer is abusive or the health and safety is poor, then the worker has the ability to say, ‘I’m not staying here.

Outside of the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s annual meeting in May, 2006, unionized I’m going down the road.’”

Encalada Grez characterizes trades people demonstrate about the importing of temporary foreign workers for construction tying work permits to a single projects at oil sands facilities. employer as a “huge trap. That is what completely counters workers’ ability to move from Legislation also called for banning placement fees and beone employer who is not treating them properly to another.”

Workers may feel they have little recourse other than the ginning targeted enforcement of agencies that breach Ontarcourts for redress. As an example, the Christian Labour As- io’s labour laws. Women working in Ontario under the prosociation of Canada (CLAC) is providing support to Huang gram “will now be safer,” Deb Matthews, minister responsible Yungang, a Chinese welder who worked on the Horizon proj- for women’s issues, noted at the time.

“I think we need a rational immigration system that says, ect in 2007, and who is suing the company and a number of its affiliates. The suit, filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench in ‘Yes, we need low-skilled workers to emigrate to Canada as Calgary, seeks $42,900 in wages that the worker asserts were well as skilled workers. Let’s set up a system by which people fraudulently appropriated by Sinopec, notes a CLAC state- can come here with rights, that they’re not tied to employers or tied to a status that makes them very vulnerable,” Byl ment issued in April, 2009.

Wayne Prins, a director with the CLAC office in Fort Mc- recommends.

“We can put a lot of Band-Aids on,” she says, “but it won’t Murray, Alberta, has been appointed by the worker as his attorney in Canada to commence legal proceedings. CLAC make all the problems go away.” reports that wages were paid into the worker’s bank account as per terms of the collective agreement with the association, Angela Stelmakowich is editor of ohs canada.

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Biomechanics

Back to Basics

By Rosie LomBaRdi

Firefighters are among those considered to be

Waterloo and three organizations in and around

“occupational athletes,” working in dangerous Pensacola, Florida — the Andrews Institute for environments where risk can turn to injury, and Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine (AIOSM), volinjury to chronic pain and disability.

unteers from the Pensacola Fire Department, and

A collaborative study launched last April is sports-training company Athlete’s Performance — looking to the sports world for a different take on

the study seeks to shed light on ways to develop

how to reduce firefighter injuries in the first place.

effective injury prevention programs by incorpo-

Involving researchers from Ontario’s University of

rating job-related biomechanics.

“This study will bring more science to this area,” says Russell Orr, a trainer at Athlete’s Performance. “Firefighters and other occupational athletes need to do what’s done in sports: a photo: photos.com

movement-needs analysis where you look at the foundational movements they have and the jobrelated movements they need to strengthen so they’re less susceptible to injury,” Orr suggests.

Art of movement Tyson Beach regards many conventional practices in physical training as misguided. “In their quest to achieve optimum fitness, firefighters and other occupational athletes often destroy themselves in the gym,” says Beach, a researcher with the University of Waterloo’s Department of Kinesiology.

Oftentimes, workers enter a training regimen without considering the biomechanics of their movement systems.

Traditional training typically focuses on measures of fitness — how strong or fast firefighters can get — without taking into account how a person moves in order to achieve those goals. Adopting such an approach can fail to physically prepare occupational athletes, such as firefighters, police officers and military personnel, for the demands of their jobs.

“We want to shed light on the fact that we need to fo-

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mAtter of control There is some indirect evidence to suggest that firefighters who have difficulty controlling their normal body mechanics may be more susceptible to low-back and other musculoskeletal injuries than co-workers who exhibit excellent body control, the AIOSM and Athlete’s Performance noted in a joint statement last September.

The main portion of the new study, says Beach, will be to determine which specific movements and training can help firefighters perform work-related tasks, such as pulling hoses and breaking down doors. “Not all injuries can be prevented, but we think a subcategory can be,” he suggests.

Firefighters from the Pensacola Fire Department were divided into two groups, each training three times weekly for 12 weeks. The first group completed a traditional fitness-

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“There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence about load changes, but it hasn’t been measured precisely,” says Jack Callaghan, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Waterloo. The Department of Kinesiology employs mathematical models of the spine and technology to measure muscle activity through the use of sensors, force plates and 3-D body positioning.

Collection of data for the joint study was recently completed. The University of Waterloo team expects to analyze the information over the next year before releasing its findings.

Frost says he is of the view that “this study has the potential to reach any occupation that has demanding tasks, be it parcel carriers, car manufacturers or the military. People can learn from this paradigm and start looking at how people perform tasks to prevent injuries.”

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cus on movement quality when improving someone’s fit- based program with cardio, running and weights; the secness,” explains David Frost, another University of Waterloo ond movement-based group did a similar program, but with researcher involved in the study. greater emphasis on how participants moved during trainWhile this biomechanical approach is well-established in ing, mimicking how they complete their work tasks. “In this professional sports, it is seldom applied to occupational ath- group, we tried to transfer their training to their occupation, letes. “Coaches say you can’t run to train — you have to train so they’ll use the same approach they used in the gym when to run. If you run to train and do it badly, you’ll hurt your- they climb a ladder or bust a door,” Beach says. self,” cautions Frost.

“Movement is a skill, like throwing a baseball,” Frost of“Injury rates for runners are astronomically higher than fers. “When people are coached a certain way, these moveany other recreational activity. They get shin splints, plantar ments become subconscious over time,” he says. fasciitis and other chronic problems. But if people are preThe study will also screen firefighters before they begin a pared and conditioned properly, they can avoid those inju- training program to determine if aberrant patterns in their ries,” he suggests. movement systems can be identified and corrected early on.

Beach points out that individuals develop particular movement patterns at an early age which may predispose them to health issues later on.

“In their quest “There are many things your body adapts to over time. These adaptations aren’t necessarily anomto achieve alous, but they may create problems when you do optimum fitness, things that are physically challenging,” he goes on to explain. firefighters and Interestingly, movement can play a bigger role than age in the potential for injury. “A 25-yearother occupational old firefighter may be very strong and fast, but he athletes often may activate his muscles in ways that place him at greater risk than a 50-year-old who is less fit, but destroy themselves moves with the proper biomechanics,” Beach rein the gym,” ports. The younger firefighter “may not hurt himself at first, but if he continues for five to 10 years, says Beach. he may get chronic injuries.”

Small, irregular movement patterns accumulate over time and develop into “restrictions” — a catch-all term that captures muscle imbalances, old injuries, trigger points and other factors that limit joint mobility. “Little things build up and people develop compensatory movement patterns,” Beach says.

Imagine donning a pair of ski boots and then trying to walk or bend over. Or what about a person wearing a knee brace? This can change movement and muscle patterns in the opposite leg.

Tightness in the hip area can force people to move their backs and knees more, notes Beach.

“So a firefighter may not be able to use proper biomechanics to pick up an object in a way that doesn’t put him at risk for injury.”

photo: photos.com

A hefty toll “Anything we can do to prevent injuries is a step in the right direction,” suggests Murray McGrath, chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Committee at the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association in Burlington, Ontario. McGrath says WSIB figures indicate approximately 800 to 1,000 firefighters in the province experience lost-time injuries every year.

McGrath further suggests that the Ontario figures, adjusted for population, are fairly representative of the experience in other provinces.

Musculoskeletal injuries make up approximately half of all on-duty injuries in North America, notes information

down in recent years, but most guys are carrying 35 pounds [16 kilograms] of gear even before they pick something up,” says Bruce Burrell, the Calgary-based president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.

Not only does bulky gear produce enormous strain, McGrath says, it also compromises proper biomechanics when firefighters are manoeuvring the equipment. “It throws you off balance when you’re carrying heavy gear,” he explains.

Although most firefighting officials expect that staff will maintain a high level of fitness, McGrath is of the view that few departments have formal programs or directives in place to support that objective. “There’s no requirement now that they do X hours of training in the gym,” he says.

While some fire departments provide exercise rooms for use during off-duty hours, physical fitness training for most firefighters is a personal choice. “It’s left to the individual to decide whether they want to do cardio, running or stretching, and how much of it they do,” says McGrath.

He and counterparts elsewhere in the country are expected to be keenly interested in the results of the new study. “We’re pushing for more sanctioned voluntary fitness programs and trying to establish them within integrated health and wellness programs,” McGrath says.

But, as ever, there is resistance to change. Cashstrapped municipalities are reluctant to spend more taxpayer money on health and wellness programs, something McGrath views as shortsighted. “They see this as an extra cost, but it will be recouped in the future in lower costs to care for injured firefighters,” he contends.

Firefighters themselves may also fear any such change. “Many who have been injured or are older “People can are concerned that it means the end of their career if there’s a physical standard and they don’t meet it,” learn from this says McGrath. paradigm and The introduction of more health and wellness programs would be a step in the right direction, start looking at McGrath says, but he does not necessarily think how people this will translate to fewer injuries. “Even the most fit firefighters experience injuries on the job, so perform tasks to the highest standards of fitness are not enough.”

Proper techniques often fall by the wayside prevent injuries.” when firefighters get down to the task at hand, says McGrath. “Firefighters just try to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible before their limited air supply runs out.” from the Washington-based International Association of Fire Burrell reports that the IAFF is working on another study Fighters (IAFF). to explore the tangible benefits of injury prevention pro“Back injuries account for the majority, followed by knee grams in reducing health care and associated costs. and shoulder injuries,” McGrath reports. “These three are In addition, the Calgary Fire Department is one particithe most expensive musculoskeletal conditions to treat in pant in a 10-city, North American pilot project that will track industrial nations, and a significant number result in perma- the health benefits and financial impact of comprehensive nent disability, alternate employment or early retirement.” health and wellness programs. The findings are scheduled to Despite the many dangers firefighters face on the job, Mc- be published in a year’s time.

Grath notes that most injuries result from performing routine work tasks while wearing or carrying heavy gear: lifting A concerted view and moving equipment, using heavy tools for striking and Many health care providers look at chronic pain in one body prying into buildings, and pulling hoses up stairwells or part without considering how an old injury may have altered the body’s overall biomechanics. “The body compensates, across rooftops.

“We’ve been bringing the weight of protective equipment which creates even more problems. If you only treat subse-

www.ohscanada.com

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43

quent problems and not the original one, injuries won’t heal,” serious problems, they are at greater risk of injury, particuargues Sarah Stevens, a physiotherapist at Plaza Physiothera- larly if they engage in physically demanding activities. py in Vancouver.

Firefighters, Dr. Schamberger suggests, are a particularly Firefighters often sustain multiple injuries that can have high-risk group. “They’re often in awful situations where a deleterious life-long impact. Burrell says he has injured his they have to twist and torque their bodies to lift heavy things. own spine, ankle and shoulder during his years of active duty. Even if their bodies started out being in alignment, they will “I haven’t done front-line work in the past 12 years since I as- soon go out due to their occupation,” he says. sumed a management position, but I still have to go to physioMany chronic pain conditions could be avoided if people therapy for flare-ups to this day,” he says.

The idea of considering the body’s movement system and correcting anomalies seems Despite the many dangers firefighters to be gaining traction. And incorporating biomechanics is leading to new approaches in face on the job, McGrath notes that how conditions can be treated.

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photo: photos.com

most injuries result from performing

get in line routine work tasks while wearing or Many chronic conditions — such as plantar carrying heavy gear. fasciitis, piriformis and iliotibial band syndromes — are actually manifestations of one fundamental alignment problem in the person’s pelvic infrastructure, explains Dr. Wolf Schamberger, a clinical associate professor of rehabilitation medicine and a consultant at the Allan McGavin Sports Centre, both at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

As a marathon runner, Dr. Schamberger, author of The Malalignment Syndrome, struggled with chronic heel pain for seven years before realizing the source of the problem was in his malaligned hip. Approximately 80 per cent of the population is malaligned, he reports.

Although some such cases are the result of injuries, just why the percentage is so high remains unclear. Dr. Schamberger takes the view that there is a connection to the brain’s wiring, as 70 per cent of the population is left-motor dominant and 15 per cent rightmotor dominant. The propensity to favour one side in movement leads to three main patterns of asymmetric muscle tension, depending on the tilt of the pelvis.

“There’s a shift in weight bearing, which changes the pelvic alignment and the spine’s curves. All sorts of secondary problems develop in the legs and back,” he says.

Dr. Schamberger recommends that in order to successfully tackle malalignment issues, the core must be strengthened and the pelvis stabilized.

One hurdle is that few therapists receive the training necessary to properly assess and treat the fundamental alignment problems.

“Typically, we see patients who have had all sorts of work-ups were treated earlier and taught how to correct their alignment and treatments, but nothing’s worked. Their therapists can’t problems before they escalate, Dr. Schamberger contends. find anything wrong, but they notice their bodies are crooked “Firefighters can do this on their own if they get guidance and send them to us,” says Dr. Schamberger, who has treated on how to check and do some simple corrective exercises.

If they’re done on a daily basis, the body eventually grows many firefighters and other occupational athletes.

Stevens suggests that the pelvis “should be thought of as a accustomed to the new aligned pattern, and it stops the adtable top. If it’s rotated asymmetrically on one side, it causes vancement of problems,” he says. problems in joints above and below it.”

While not all people who are malaligned will experience Rosie Lombardi is a writer in Toronto.

New 2-Day Conference

May 4 – 5, 2010 International Centre Mississauga, Ontario

Ontario’s Prevention System partners have joined forces to present Partners in Prevention 2010 – a new health and safety conference and trade show for all Ontario workplaces.

• Access the collective expertise of the Ontario Prevention System: Over 60 interactive sessions, workshops, professional development courses and keynote speakers.

• One-stop shopping for best practices, compliance advice and business solutions including take-away tools, post conference follow-up and a trade show with over 500 exhibitors.

• Four events under one roof: Network with peers, industry experts, solution providers and make new business contacts.

Co-locating events: Your Workplace 2010 Conference, CANECT 2010, MASC 2010.

ONTARIO’S PREVENTION SYSTEM PARTNERS ESAO MHSA OSACH

CSAO E&USA THSAO

FSA IAPA OSSA

MASHA OFSWA PPHSA

For more information or to request a copy of the Preliminary Guide Tel 1.800.406.4272 or 905.614.4272 Fax 905.614.1420

www. par t ners in pre v e ntionontario .c o m circle number 35 on Reader service card

exhibitor previews 3M

accuforM

3M Occupational Health and Environmental Safety offers a wide array of personal safety solutions for visibility, respiratory, head, hearing, eye, face and fall protection.

You’ll find comfort, style and value, supported by local expertise, because 3M is Health & Safety. www.3MisHealthandSafety.ca

Accuform Signs is a manufacturer of stock, custom and personalized signs, tags, labels, banners and other facility safety identification and motivational products. From lost-time scoreboards to CSAcompliant signage, Accuform Signs manufactures the products that lead the Canadian workforce to safety every day. for more information visit www.accuformsigns.ca or call 1-800-237-1001.

air systems

Air Systems has developed the VentFlow™ alarm system designed specifically to meet the Ontario Confined Space Regulation. The alarm is operated on twin 9-volt batteries – if blower fails before or after the alarm, audible and visual alarms activate, warning the worker of reduced or no flow within the ventilation system. contact air Systems International – 1-800-866-8100 or visit www.airsystems.com

visit us at booth #s 750, 751 For more information circle No. 50

visit us at booth # 820 For more information circle No. 51

braDLeY

cSa

Visit booth 645 for the leader in emergency plumbing fixtures, the Bradley Corporation. Learn about the new Enclosed Safety Shower, perfect for harsh environments. See emergency eyewash units and drench showers featuring the new Spintec™ showerhead. Learn how Bradley makes safety the top priority.

Don’t miss it! call (800) braDLeY or visit www.bradleycorp.com.

CSA Standards’ reputation as a leading standards development organization dates back more than 90 years. As an independent, not-for-profit membership association, we publish over 3,000 standards and standards-related products in a wide range of subject areas. We also offer a full suite of services and solutions that help you understand, interpret and apply standards so you can achieve the most value from employing standards.

CSA Standards is a division of CSA Group, which also consists of CSA International for product testing and certification and OnSpeX for consumer product evaluation services.

visit us at booth # 826 For more information circle No. 52

Deb canaDa

Deb aspires to be the world’s leading away from home skin care system company — the supplier of choice for companies and organizations that value employee and customer well-being.

For over 65 years, we have been establishing skin care regimens for all types of workplace and public environments, including industrial, commercial, healthcare and food sectors. www.debgroup.com

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visit us at booth # 445 For more information circle No. 55

New from Showa-Best Glove is the 380 Ventilus, featuring a full tough and durable Nitrile coating for longer life with the unique waffle pattern palm coating for improved grip.

Ideal for handling wet or oily materials, this glove also provides the wearer with increased comfort because of its seamless knitted liner. The 380 Ventilus benefit from the Showa fit.

visit us at booth #s 560, 561 For more information circle No. 53

DegIL

Degil Safety Products will be displaying a wide assortment of Personal Protective Equipment including: JAZZ Eyewear, MACH Faceshields, ODYSSEY and ODYSSEY 2 Respiratory Protection, FALL PRO Fall Arrest Products, WAVE & HEADGUARD Hard Hats, DEPLUG Disposable & Reusable Earplugs, XP Hearing Protection, CROC BLOC Sunscreens & Insect Repellents, GENVEC Disposable Coveralls, REFLEX-WEAR & SUB-ZERO Hi-Visibility Garments and QUICKICK Electrolyte Thirst Quencher.

Web site: www.degilsafety.com email: degil@degilsafety.com Toll free: (800) 332-1810

for more information please visit www.csa.ca

visit us at booth # 645 For more information circle No. 54

beST gLoveS

visit us at booth #s 440, 444 For more information circle No. 56

visit us at booth # 445 For more information circle No. 57

DenTec

The “cHecker”®

InSPecTIon cHeckLISTS

The “CHECKER” Vehicle and Equipment Inspection Check-List Books for Operators/Drivers, Maintenance, Service – EASY, SIMPLE, QUICK & CONVENIENT to use – identifies defects/problems instantly – Instant Carbonless Copy – 150 check-lists in each book – inspect over 200+ fleet vehicles, er/ems, fire, rescue, police, forklifts, backhoes, wheel loaders, dump trucks and many more. ®

Dentec Safety Specialists Inc. specializes in providing safety solutions to protect the worker. We represent the leading brands such as Sqwincher - Electrolyte Replacement Drink, Decade RSI Products, Elk River Fall Protection, ERB head Protection, Tasco Hearing Protection, DueNorth Traction Aids, Enviroguard Protective Clothing, US Safety Eye, Face and Respiratory Protection products, Speakman emergency shower systems, SkeetSafe insect repellents.

DevTra

DuPonT ProTecTIon TecHnoLogIeS DuPont is a global science company, which develops high performance materials and technologies that make a difference in people’s lives.

DuPont Protection Technologies is a world leader in the area of workplace safety, offering consultation services and some of the best known brands in protective apparel, including:

LevITT SafeTY

Born of the determined and entrepreneurial spirit of our founder, Levitt-Safety has grown over the past 75 years to become the largest specialist supplier of safety equipment and services in Canada. We have earned this position by partnering with our customers to solve their unique safety, fire, and environmental challenges with quality products supported by excellent service from motivated and knowledgeable people.

www.personalprotection.dupont.ca

dentec@dentecsafety.com www.dentecsafety.com 888-533-6832

www.devtra.com www.thechecker.com

visit us at booth # 661 For more information circle No.58

visit us at booth # 860 For more information circle No. 59

visit us at booth # 816 For more information circle No. 60

visit us at booth # 410 For more information circle No. 61

MarTor

MoLDex

MSa

SuPerIor gLove

Martor USA offers the best range of safety knives, blades and cutting tools anywhere, many with unique, patented safety features.

Products include ergonomically designed, spring loaded, concealed blade knives, trimming tools, scrapers and blades. Plus our popular smart knives that sense loss of contact with item being cut, regardless of the position of the slider.

visit us at booth # 660 For more information circle No. 62

Meteors® earplugs now come in a new, small size to fit smaller ear canals. The same exceptional comfort that comes from the unique curved design of Meteors® is now available for women and other workers with smaller ear canals. Regular Meteors® have the highest independently tested NRR available – NRR 33 dB. Meteors®, Small feature a similarly independently tested high NRR 28 dB. Both versions are PVC-Free.

visit us at booth # 613 For more information circle No. 63

The new MSa Workman® Tripod:

Easy to use, durable and versatile.

A simple setup procedure for the Workman® tripod makes the process quick, and promotes correct use. The legs automatically lock in the open position for added safety. Accessories can attach to any leg for faster set up. Aluminum leg and head design reduces weight, improving portability.

Skid-resistant feet with built-in leg base support strap that improves stability and strengthens the entire system. The leg base support strap also serves as a convenient carrying strap. Tripod legs feature 4-inch incremental adjustments with easy-toinsert ball detent pins. The unit is also “backwards compatible” with the MSA Lynx® Hoist and Lynx Rescuer. visit us at booth # 911, 913 For more information circle No. 64

Superior Glove™ is one of North America’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of work gloves.

A respected source for thousands of customers, Superior Glove™ has been in business since 1910.

With three manufacturing facilities, we are licensed manufacturers of Kevlar® and Dyneema® products, specializing in cut-resistant gloves in addition to gloves for every industry.

For more information circle No. 65

www.ohscanada.com

MARCH 2010

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ACCIDenT PReVenTIon

excavations

Dig It ’TIs THe seAson: The calendar displays four seasons, each claiming equal time in the spotlight. But this being Canada, winter and construction are the most reliably lasting seasons. With construction comes digging, an act that by its very nature disturbs what lies beneath. And what lies beneath may be lines, cables, wires and pipes for all manner of services.

DAMAge Done: Breaching or breaking water, gas or electricity lines carries the potential for harm. Consider that a busted water line can weaken ground support, a gas leak may demand an evacuation or threaten to spark an explosion, and an electrical contact can kill instantly. The results could be personal injury, loss of essential services, creation of safety risk for others, expensive restoration costs or potential legal actions, notes information posted on Hydro Ottawa’s website.

In April of 2003, for example, seven people died after a backhoe pierced a natural gas line near a strip mall in Toronto’s west end. The breach sparked a powerful explosion that destroyed the mall and damaged nearby apartment buildings.

Full noTICe: A heads-up before breaking ground is required, usually between two and five business days. It may be that a utility will make available locates for all underground services, or it may be that an employer or individual will need to contact all applicable utilities directly.

Alberta1Call Corporation advises callers to have the following ready: dig area information, the type of work to be done and the date when locates need to be completed.

CleAR lInes: As ever, communication is needed both in the planning and execution of work. With digging’s potential for mishap or worse, “call before you dig” is more than a slogan; it is sage advice and, sometimes, a legal requirement. Ontario’s Construction Projects Regulations, revised as of January, outline certain requirements before an excavation begins: the employer carrying out the excavation shall ensure all gas, electrical and other services in and near the area to be excavated are located and marked; the service is shut off or disconnected if it may pose a hazard; if a service cannot be shut off or disconnected, the owner of the service shall be requested to supervise the uncovering of the service during the excavation; and pipes, conduits and cables for gas, electrical and other services in an excavation shall be supported to prevent their failure or breakage.

WHo you gonnA CAll: The list of underground facilities may, indeed, be a long one. Consider this information from Call Before You Dig (Manitoba): for those living in rural areas outside of major cities in the province, contact information is provided for no less than eight services — hydro, telephone, cable, oil and gas among them. “Keep in mind that there may be more companies with underground service in your area. Be sure to contact all your local utilities,” the information advises.

HoMe-WoRk: A dig is a dig. The same cautions apply whether the job is a six-month project to overhaul a strip mall in the centre of town or an individual’s decision to spruce up the family home. Bear in mind that digging is required to install fences, plant trees or excavate for a pool or deck, Hydro Ottawa reports. Alberta-based ATCO Gas seems to concur, the utility noting, “The most common reason a natural gas line is hit is because the homeowner or contractor did not have underground utilities located before they planted trees, dug fence post holes, anchored supports for a deck or removed tree roots.”

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geT A gRIP: Sometimes, a helping hand is in order. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario offers tips to keep in mind before shovelling or digging by hand: • wear proper protective clothing that is suitable for the task and the work environment; • choose the proper tool for the task and make sure it is in good condition; • remember that wet soil is heavy; • keep feet shoulder-width apart to stay balanced and to prevent slipping; • do not twist the body (instead turn the front foot in the direction that a shovel’s load will be deposited); and, • keep a loaded shovel close to the body to maintain balance.

DIReCT HIT: ATCO Gas notes that if a natural gas line is hit, do not try to repair the leak or stop the escaping gas, clear all people from the vicinity of the leak, and shut off or remove any sources of ignition. To these recommendations, SaskEnergy in Regina adds it is best to turn off machinery, shut off vehicle engines, evacuate the area (including buildings), prevent vehicles and bystanders from entering the area, call the local fire department if there is a danger of fire, avoid contact with any escaping natural gas, and notify people in nearby buildings since, depending on where the line break is, gas might enter through drains, fresh air intakes or windows.

Because natural gas is lighter than air, ATCO Gas reports, if a line break occurs in a wide-open area, the gas will escape into the atmosphere, reducing the potential danger of explosion or fire. But if the breach occurs in an enclosed area, “there is great concern for safety and immediate evacuation of the area may be required.”

No matter how minor the damage, ATCO Gas notes this must be immediately reported to the utility. SaskEnergy points out that damage includes nicks to the coating on steel pipe and scratches to plastic pipe.

AlWAys/neVeR: “Always assume that cables will be present when digging in the street, pavement or near buildings,” notes the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the United Kingdom. “Use upto-date service plans, cable avoidance tools and safe digging practice to avoid danger,” the HSE recommends.

Knowing the location of a service is decidedly safer than assuming a line, pipe or wire is buried deep enough not to be dangerous. For natural gas lines, SaskEnergy reports that these are initially installed about a half-metre deep in customers’ yards and one metre deep in lanes or easements.

However, adds ATCO Gas, the actual depth can be mere inches. “As structures are built and topsoil is moved, the cover over gas lines can be changed, resulting in the lines being much closer to the surface.” gooD To knoW: Consider the following tips from ATCO Gas and SaskEnergy: • if a project requires digging within one metre on either side of locate marks, expose the gas line by hand before using any digging equipment; • do not construct buildings, additions, eaves, garages or enclosed patios over gas lines; • plant trees at least one metre away from locate marks (some varieties of trees may require additional clearance); • a gas leak may be indicated by bubbles in wet or flooded areas, distinct patches of dead vegetation, dust blowing from a hole in the ground or flames if the leak has ignited; and, • a hissing or roaring sound (if it is a high-pressure line) could indicate a leak.

LAW FILE stanDarDs

A Firm Footing on Change

By Dan Birch

I

t has been around for more than 40 years and has undergone multiple revisions. But now the Canadian standard for gear at the foot of personal protection, the safety boot, is receiving yet another shine.

“We have been expanding it to cover off more and more different types of protection and safety factors in footwear,” says Dave Shanahan, a project manager for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) in Mississauga, Ontario, referring to the protective footwear standard, CSA-Z195. The initial standard, introduced decades ago, focused only on impact to the foot, but has since been enhanced to account for hazards such as puncture, crushing, electricity and static discharge.

Employers And last November, even more changes were made. Shanahan says may be asking there are some key differences between the 2002 (previously the most curthemselves if rent) and 2009 versions, notably the guidance on slip resistance and pera legal formance requirements for metatarsal obligation guards, which offer protection to the top of the foot.

With the arrival of the updated exists to adopt CSA-Z195, employers may be asking the new bits themselves if a legal obligation exists to adopt the new bits and pieces postand pieces haste — a question that would arise with any new or revised standard. posthaste.

The answer is not immediately obvious and, like other occupational health and safety legal matters, it may boil down to due diligence.

“Standards are voluntary and are taken to represent best practice,” says Jeremy Warning, a senior associate at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto. Unless a standard is referenced in applicable oh&s legislation, says Warning, “there is, strictly speaking, no legal obligation on an employer to ensure that they follow the standard.”

Diligence is best Landon Young, a partner at SBH Management Lawyers in Toronto, agrees, although he offers one “but.” Legislation does not cover “every imaginable workplace safety issue. There are holes and there are areas of interpretation,” Young notes. To fill any gaps, regulators will often rely on a standard both as best practice and as a “benchmark for enforcement,” he says.

“Because the standard can represent best practice,” Warning adds, “the employer may well be required to comply with the standard under its general duty to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of workers.”

For an effective defence, says Young, an employer should

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be able to demonstrate the standard was being followed, not simply that it was referenced in a company safety policy.

In some instances, jurisdictions cite particular standards, but may not stipulate that the newest version must be followed. Warning says some provinces may have interpretive legislation that automatically incorporates the latest versions of any standard.

Absent such legislation, “the employer would not need to immediately strive for the new standard,” he says, although due diligence dictates an employer should consider doing so.

“Anytime a standard increases or ups the safety level, we encourage [construction employers] to look at it,” says Bill Johnson, executive director of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) in Regina. The SCSA notifies its membership about standards-related developments via newsletters and bulletins, Johnson says.

To his mind, Shanahan sees it as sensible to follow the newest edition, noting that each updated version represents an improvement on the past. And while changes in some standards are incremental, in others “we come up with criteria that is totally different than the previous edition.”

Even if employers take the view that they should adhere to the latest guidance, they may not be able to do so immediately. As Shanahan notes, it can take a year or two for products to come into line with the most current versions of standards.

top guarD

One might say the newest version of the Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) protective footwear standard takes care of some unfinished business.

The older, 2002 edition of CSA-Z195 included design demands for metatarsal guards, which protect the top of the foot, but not performance requirements, says Dave Shanahan, a project manager at the CSA in Mississauga, Ontario. Design obligations set out the size and location of the guards, but not the minimum impact threshold.

“In theory, you could have had a piece of tin foil over top the footwear and called that a metatarsal guard,” Shanahan quips. Now, Plasticine in the shape of a foot will be placed inside the footwear and an impact to the metatarsal guard applied. That will allow testers to measure the amount of energy being transmitted to the top of the foot.

Similar to the development of a slip-resistance test, it took time to create an acceptable check for metatarsalimpact measurement, he says, noting that CSA consensus standards must receive buy-in from many stakeholders.

The minimum threshold in the revised standard has, in some instances, resulted in footwear companies enhancing the protective strength of their guards, Shanahan adds.

slip Happy

It has been a “long time coming,” Dave Shanahan, a project manager for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) in Mississauga, Ontario, says of the new slip-resistance criteria now included as part of the CSA’s revised standard on protective footwear.

Shanahan reports that the CSA first received requests to get a grip on slip resistance about 15 years ago. “Although the desire was there from safety professionals and people in the industry, we just did not have the wherewithal to be able to set it out in a standard in a very exacting manner,” he says.

Another motivation was that so many claims were being made in the marketplace about “slip resistance based on all kinds of different test methods,” he says, adding the consumer had no idea as to the basis of the claims.

Before the subject could be addressed, Shanahan says that CSA officials wanted to see further development in the science and testing methods related to slip resistance. Numerous environmental factors — slope degree, type of surface and presence of ice or snow, to name a few — came into play. “All of these things presented different slipping mechanisms that made the whole subject area very complicated,” he says.

In the last decade, the CSA has encouraged research on the topic and has worked with partners in the United States and Europe, Shanahan says. The efforts came to fruition with last November’s release of the 2009 version of CSA-Z195.

Rather than using a pass/fail system, the standard’s slip-resistance criteria provides for six separate ratings of resistance. The rating is expressed as a coefficient of friction — the higher the number, the better the resistance. The values are broken down as follows: performance on wet stainless steel, wet quarry tile and dry quarry tile. A rating is provided for both the footwear’s heel-contact area and plate-strike area.

The CSA opted for a rating system for a couple of reasons, Shanahan says. One, the testing criteria is not representative of all the possible slipping surfaces. Two, “different situations demanded different levels of slip resistance,” he says.

In the interim, employers should not make the mistake of equating adherence to a standard with legislative compliance. Pointing to the example of machine guarding, Warning says that meeting the relevant standard “will not necessarily mean that the employer has not breached the applicable oh&s guarding requirements.”

Visit us at Partners in Prevention 2010 at booth #445

In Ontario, for instance, “the courts have held that a machine is guarded if both advertent and inadvertent access to moving parts and pinch points is prevented — not if a particular standard has been [met],” he says.

Dan Birch is assistant editor of

ohs canada.

Circle number 36 on Reader Service Card www.ohscanada.com

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SAFETY GEAR SECURITY

Lock Down on Safety

By Jason Contant

I

t’s fair to say many, if not most, people have heard of the so-called “Tylenol murders” in Chicago that claimed several lives three decades ago.

It was the fall of 1982 when seven unsuspecting people purchased and consumed what they believed to be extrastrength pain medication, but which turned out to be capsules laced with cyanide. Investigators later determined someone had purchased bottles of pills, laced the contents and returned the containers to pharmacy and food-store shelves in the Chicago area. What the Federal Bureau of Investigation described as “the largest product-tampering investigation in the history of modern law enforcement” spurred stringent regulaWhatever tions in the United States. The person or persons responsible were never found. form it takes,

Hardware, software access is Intentional tampering may be rare, but it still highlights the need for security to be access — top of mind, whatever the circumstances.

And security brings to mind products, and that may procedures, measures and personnel, all working together in a bid to keep people be bad news safe and businesses protected. for security.

While security may trigger images of hardware — think locks, fences and cameras — a fuller view includes everything from physical barriers and mirrors to safety awareness training and facility access. Also on the list are sturdy exterior doors and door frames, good lighting, emergency telephones, security personnel, watchdogs, alarms and panic buttons.

The Tylenol incident was an example of what could play out in any workplace. “Even in the most tight military base or nuclear facility, if you have the resources and will and knowledge, you can beat almost any system,” cautions Dick Sem,

president of SEM Security Management in Trevor, Wisconsin, who has almost 40 years of experience in the field. “What security is about is managing most risks as reasonably as you can,” Sem suggests.

In industrial work environments, oftentimes that comes down to controlling access. While high-level security may be a no-brainer at a nuclear facility, “must-haves” at entry and exit points in an average workplace setting — say, a manufacturing plant, warehouse or food-processing facility — may not be as obvious.

“Almost every food plant I’ve been in has had very loose security,” Sem reports. “All they need is one person to contaminate a small batch [and] they could be put out of business just from the bad press.”

Bruce Gibson, president of Express Entry Exit in Mississauga, Ontario, is seeing some progress — not only in food processing, but also in the pharmaceutical industry and all levels of government. “They want to become more and more aware of how to handle all the traffic that is coming through the front doors,” says Gibson.

Whatever form it takes, access is access — and that may be bad news for security. Consider loading docks or unmonitored entry ways. “Oftentimes, loading docks are very accessible,” says Sem. “I’ll walk by employees and they’ll look at me like, ‘I wonder who he is,’ but nobody will say anything or report me,” he says.

“It really behooves these businesses to control who’s coming and going,” Sem comments. “Obviously, you could come in and steal things, assault [and] in food and beverage facilities, you can come in and contaminate or tamper with product,” he says.

But unauthorized access seems not to receive the same attention as other areas of risk. “If you’re not wearing a hard hat, safety glasses or safety shoes, somebody might say something, but on the other hand, if you’re a complete stranger, you might not be stopped,” Sem offers.

For example, he suggests that non-company truck drivers

Hard CHoiCes on software

Bruce Gibson, president of Express Entry Exit, a provider of visitor management system software based in Mississauga, Ontario, recommends that any such system offer the following features: • all required languages (more than one language may be needed for those companies that have business operations in multiple countries); • capability to identify returning visitors (such as contractors, consultants, expected visitors and visitors on a watch list) and to notify the host employee of a visitor’s arrival; • ability of employers to register visitors through a remote self-serve kiosk when employee entrances and remote entries are used; • compatibility with common computer systems, bar code and proximity card scanners; and, • ability to easily and quickly generate detailed reports of visitor traffic by employee, department or building. This may prove particularly helpful in emergency situations.

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pHoToS: Top - novA CoATInG TECHnoLoGIES; CEnTRE, boTToM - RALSTon CAnSAFE

can prove a “weak point” in workplace security if they are given the freedom to roam around. in full view So how should employers track third parties, including contractors and visitors? One option is a visitor management system (VMS), software that scans and uses information from a piece of personal identification, such as a driver’s licence, to record data onto a badge. This “electronic secure record” can then be used to identify “everybody who has walked through the door from a non-employee perspective,” says Gibson.

Tripped by a bar code scanner, the badges can be used as one-time or multiple-use options that feature the visitor’s name, affiliation, host name, authorized areas of access and expiration time. “You build it into your system that at eight at night, every one of those visitor badges is dead. You can never use it again,” says Gibson.

A similar option is a card-reader type of system for employees and other authorized persons. These systems allow employers to track and control entry into specific areas of the facility, and which doors are used. Most important, the card can be removed from the system once the person leaves the premises, Sem says.

A higher-level reader can also come in handy during emergency management situations by incorporating the number of visitors on site.

In the event of an emergency such as a fire or chemical spill, Sem says, “you can just hit a button and it will print out who is on property at this moment.”

With a VMS, Gibson points out, a visitor or contractor can provide a cellphone number — if permitted to carry one on the site — that can be called should an emergency occur.

Gibson suggests one of the biggest advantages of a VMS is its enhanced security compared with traditional sign-in logbooks. Calling logbooks “antiquated,” he notes that a visitor can simply write down any name or company, and rarely does anybody check to confirm the identity of the person. Furthermore, he argues that if a security incident or emergency does occur, “when they come back and look in that logbook, way too high a percentage of time, they can’t make out a person’s name, time [or] date, [and] pages go missing.”

Competitors, hackers and suppliers can also read a logbook to gain confidential information about the business, or visitors can neglect or forget to sign out and return badges. This means unauthorized visitors can use unreturned badges to breach the facility and possibly gain access to employees, restricted areas, equipment, compounds

A wide variety of workplaces use mirrors to suit their security needs. These mirrors can take the forms of a full dome (top), interior convex or quarter dome (centre), or an inspection mirror (bottom).

or proprietary data.

Privacy concerns from both visitor and employer standpoints — especially the option to include photographs in some VMS databases — are an obvious issue, says Gibson. While still a grey area, “what companies are telling us is that if you are coming to do business with us as our visitor, we can demand a certain level of information from you or you don’t have to come and do business with us,” he relays.

Work settings that typically use or consider using a VMS include, for example, pharmaceutical facilities, chemical-processing plants, government buildings (municipal, provincial or federal), health care facilities, casinos, and banks and financial institutions, Gibson says.

For high-security workplaces, however, VMSs and card reader systems may be considered too rudimentary to provide adequate protection. That may be where a biometric system comes into play.

Using a feature unique to an individual — such as the retina, fingerprint, voice or even geometry of the hands — these systems are clearly at the higher level of security options, but tend to be expensive.

Sem breaks down access control systems, from the lowest to the highest security, into four categories: electronic keypads, mechanical locks and keys, card reader systems, and biometric systems.

The lowest level, an electronic keypad, only “gives the illusion of security,” he comments.

That’s because someone can easily see someone else punching in the code, the code can be shared with unauthorized staff, and codes are infrequently, if ever, changed.

Mechanical locks and keys, he adds, may be viewed as less secure because these can deteriorate over time. mirror image But mechanical and electronic systems are only part of a potentially advantageous security mix; there are also options like barriers and mirrors.

The latter includes quarter-, half- and full-dome mirrors, which provide everything from a straight, one-way sight line to “every angle on a four-way intersection,” says Jayson Johnson, a sales representative for Ralston CanSafe, an industrial safety equipment distributor in Fergus, Ontario.

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A CleAr PiCture

For something like violence, which can occur from within or without, options for determining security needs include performing a security survey, a risk assessment and/or a security vulnerability assessment.

Why would an organization conduct a survey or an assessment? Information from SEM Security Management in Trevor, Wisconsin points to, among others, the following reasons: • there is a need to understand the real risk, threats and vulnerabilities and to evaluate the effectiveness of existing and planned security measures; • a security loss incident, violence, theft, threat, attack or other compromise has occurred, and there is a need to prevent or mitigate recurrence; • a significant change is occurring, such as a new process or construction of a new building, significant hiring or layoffs, acquisition or merger, potential strike or work stoppage; • there is an industry- or government-driven requirement to perform assessments; and, • the organization wishes to evaluate, benchmark, validate and/or test existing security programs or assessment/audit methodologies.

A properly conducted assessment can, indeed, offer peace of mind by letting an organization know whether or not its security program properly and cost effectively addresses real risks and threats, increases awareness and appreciation of security and loss prevention, mitigates security-related liabilities, and reduces security expenditures while maintaining or increasing levels of protection.

Mirrors are just about everywhere: in convenience stores, distribution centres, pharmacies, hospitals, industrial kitchens, farm operations and manufacturing facilities, just to name a few.

However, selecting the right mirror demands looking at a workplace’s specific needs and design. The general rule, says Johnson, is that “for every foot you

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want to see, you need roughly an inch of mirror. So if you want to see 25 feet away, you go with a 26-inch mirror.”

Of course, the needs of a convenience store will differ from those of a distribution centre. “If you want to see if somebody is putting something in their pocket, maybe you need a bit bigger mirror,” Johnson says. “But if you just

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want to know if there’s a machine coming down the aisle or someone coming around the corner, then one inch for every foot is a good rule to go by.”

Frank Dawood, president of Nova Coating Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of mirror-grade products in Mississauga, Ontario, says he has heard estimates of one inch for two or three feet

of required viewing distance. “If they want a wider viewing distance, they would buy a bigger dome,” Dawood says. His company offers mirrors in 18, 26, 29, 36 and 48 inches, but customized units are also available.

As for the best material, Johnson says mirror-grade acrylic is preferable to glass because, “believe it or not,” it provides a better and clearer reflection.

A good complement to a mirror is a closed-circuit television (CCTV), says Dawood. “What happens is the CCTV camera can only cover a certain amount of space. So what [his customers] do is they bounce a camera off the mirror to get into the hidden spots.”

Sem suggests that a video camera system can serve three functions: deterrence (its very presence may help prevent theft or robbery), real-time monitoring and as an investigative or forensic tool (for example, following a crime or security incident).

“One thing you definitely shouldn’t do is have dummy cameras. That creates a false sense of security,” Sem cautions. “If you have cameras, they should be real ones doing real work.” get PHysiCal In workplaces such as gas stations and transit vehicles, cameras may be used in combination with physical barriers or protective shields. Ron Gabruck, director of safety and security for the Edmonton Transit System (ETS), says the service has been experimenting with safety shield prototypes. “It’s a sense of security. It’s not going to stop everything, but it may, in fact, prevent them from being spat upon, for example,” Gabruck says of transit operators.

But it is also critical to ensure that worker buy-in has been achieved if a security option is to function as effectively as intended. “Our operators have been clear they don’t want to be caged in at all times. They want the ability to remove the shields,” Gabruck says.

The ETS is considering other security options, including a new radio system, scheduled to be rolled out this spring. There is also the possibility of tracking both transit operators and vehicles through GPSs. Protecting personnel is one benefit of a physical barrier; another is preventing damage to a facility, suggests John Weber, president of Omega Industrial Products in Saukville, Wisconsin. Physical barriers are effective in high-traffic

areas at workplaces where vehicles and people frequently mix, such as in distribution centres, says Weber.

Whether a company or organization decides to go with a VMS, mirror, barrier or a combination of numerous security options, choices will ultimately depend on the application and the level of security required.

Needless to say, security products, procedures and measures are of little

use if employees are not trained how to properly handle them. As such, it is “critical” that there be some underlying awareness of the safety issues, Sem suggests.

“That’s probably the most powerful, the least costly and the most neglected security measure of all,” he says.

Jason Contant is editor of canadian & safety news.

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WORKERS’ COMPENSATION MesotheLioMa

A Deadly Peak

By Jean Lian

A

lberta can expect to see the provincial mesothelioma rate reach its peak sometime over the next decade.

Primarily driven by pleural mesothelioma in older men, a review of Alberta Cancer Registry data for 1980 through 2004 indicates that the aforementioned maximum will occur between 2015 and 2019.

The 2009 study, “Explaining Alberta’s Rising Mesothelioma Rates,” notes that pleural mesothelioma has claimed or will claim an estimated 1,393 Alberta males 40 or older between 1980 and 2025. The fatality figure is “likely a conservative estimate, considering asbestos-related illnesses are typically underreported,” the review adds.

The cancer, Alberta researchers note, “is a tumour of the mesothelium, the ‘thin lining on the surface of the body cavities and of the organs that are contained within them.’”

A dramatic increase in cancer rates for men 70 and older is suggesThe fatality tive of asbestos exposure sometime from the beginning of the 1940s figure is “likely through the mid-1970s, a time when the fibre was commonly used. The a conservative study further found the rate of mesothelioma in women remains low and estimate, constant, and excess rates in men are occupationally related. considering From 2000 to 2003, mesothelioma asbestosdeaths in Canada climbed 17 per cent to 343. Authors note, however, that “given the long latency period, ban- related illnesses ning asbestos now would not reduce are typically the high number of cases expected in the next 15 to 20 years.”

Despite the anticipated increase in underreported.” disease, individuals filing for workers’ comp benefits remain low. Less than half of the study subjects in Alberta did so. “Those who did were commonly employed in the construction and automotive industries, typical sources of asbestos exposure between 1940 and 1970,” the review adds.

New proviNce, old results British Columbia offers a similar picture. While an estimated 80 to 85 per cent of cases are work-related, less than half were the subject of claims before WorkSafeBC, based in Richmond, British Columbia, hinting that both patients and doctors may not be considering the possibility of work-relatedness.

To get a clearer picture, WorkSafeBC partnered with the Vancouver-based Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) to examine why the submission rate for mesothelioma claims is so low. Their study considered mesothelioma patterns and trends from 1970 to 2002.

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“The sharp increase in mesothelioma rates over the past two decades has led to tens of millions of dollars in [claims],” says a synopsis of the WorkSafeBC-CHSPR report. On average, each claim costs $154,000 to $200,000.

As with the Alberta review, the British Columbia study suggests the true burden of mesothelioma is “likely seriously underestimated.” Citing another asbestos-related disease, asbestosis, researchers found that only three per cent of new asbestosis cases were identified in workers’ compensation, medical services and hospitalization records.

Paul Demers, Ph.D., associate director of the School of Environmental Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, describes the low filing rates for mesothelioma as “disappointing” and unfair. “If our compensation systems were operating the way [they] should,” says Dr. Demers, who leads the WorkSafeBC-CHSPR study, “we should be compensating all the mesothelioma [cases] that are work-related, or at least the great majority of them.”

Part of the difficulty in diagnosing mesothelioma, necessary to ensure any work-related claims can be filed, lies in the nature of the disease. “These kinds of long-latency cancers are particularly challenging,” says Dr. Demers. “Most people only survive a year or two after [the disease] has been diagnosed.”

Anywhere from 15 to 50 years can pass between a worker’s first asbestos exposure and the appearance of signs of the disease, although these usually surface after 35 to 40 years. trackiNg exposure With the long latency period, establishing the source of exposure decades later further complicates the task of cementing a work association. “It can be difficult to go back that many years and determine exactly how the exposure took place,” says Michael Riley, a lawyer at Martin & Jones in Raleigh, North Carolina, who represents clients with asbestos-related diseases. If the worker is deceased, Riley says, “you have a death claim and it’s even harder to determine what happened.”

Jurisdictional issues also come into play, says Terrance Bogyo, director of corporate planning and development at WorkSafeBC. “In some cases, the exposure may well have occurred outside the province of British Columbia, in which case there won’t be a claim here,” says Bogyo.

In light of the long latency period, Riley emphasizes the importance of considering any exposure to asbestos that individuals have had over the course of their working lives. “If someone wants to know the cause of the disease, then you have to look to the work history,” he says.

An article in the March, 2008 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that medical practitioners should record workplace-exposure history for all patients who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma to determine if they may have been exposed to asbestos. If so, patients should be encouraged to investigate their eligibility for compensation, and

counselled to quit smoking to reduce lung cancer risk.

Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board notes that asbestos is commonly found in building materials, friction goods and insulation. Those at highest risk include construction workers who work in demolition, pipe fitters, insulation workers, boilermakers and repairers, asbestos and talc miners, shipyard workers, power plant personnel, brake mechanics, workers who make asbestos-containing products, firefighters and other emergency rescue personnel.

In fact, asbestos “found its way, at one point, to 3,000 products,” reports Bob Sass, chair of the Ban Asbestos Saskatchewan Committee within the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour in Regina. The committee actually came across a hair dryer lined with asbestos, meant to prevent the plastic from burning, Sass says.

Bogyo suggests one way to mitigate the potentially hazardous effects on workers who come in contact with asbestos is to identify areas and equipment where exposure could occur and, if need be, encapsulate or remove the substance in a safe and controlled way. With that approach, “we don’t expose workers today to a disease that will hit them 20, 30 or 40 years from now,” he says.

Another piece of the puzzle is to educate physicians in a bid to remedy the low filing rate for worker’s compensation.

“The diagnostician may be in the best position to make the link that this is perhaps related to the work,” Bogyo suggests.

Several years ago, WorkSafeBC joined forces with the BC Cancer Agency to send letters to all physicians of newly diagnosed mesothelioma patients, informing them that the disease is compensable. Since the letter campaign began in No-

vember of 2004, Bogyo says the filing rate for patients whose physicians received a letter increased 15 per cent.

Sass says more needs to be done at the public policy level, meaning government must adopt a more “aggressive policy” to deal with cancers in the workplace.

More reporting could lead to an increase in the number of claims being “If someone filed — even if the absolute number wants to know of people being diagnosed with mesothelioma goes down, Bogyo says.

And that, he suggests, “is a good thing” the cause of because it indicates “the costs of these injuries are being reflected and carried the disease, by the industry through premiums as then you have opposed [to] through the taxpayers.”

The financial impact of more meto look to the sothelioma claims, though, is not expected to be significant, as Workwork history.” SafeBC has reserves to deal with those claims. As well, costs associated with long-term wage loss benefits may be low as a result of the high mortality rate shortly after diagnosis. “I think the bigger thing is that we all recognize this is a huge human cost,” says Bogyo.

Dr. Demers, too, says he hopes more work-related claims are filed. “It’s a failure of the workers’ compensation system that [it] is not paying for those and giving some additional benefits to workers who have been diagnosed with this very nasty cancer,” he says.

Jean Lian is assistant editor of

ohs canada.

Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals’ Announcement The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is pleased to announce the appointment of Howard J. McGraw, CRSP, to the position of Board Chair for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2010.

Employed as the Director Occupational Health and Safety with Maple Leaf Foods Inc. in Mississauga, Ontario, Mr. McGraw is the eighteenth Chair of the BCRSP since the certification body’s incorporation in 1976.

He graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1986 with a Diploma of Technology in OH&S. He is a member of the Food Products Accident Prevention Association of Ontario and sits on both the OH&S Committee and WSIB Committee with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters of Ontario.

Mr. McGraw resides in Brampton with his wife Jill. He has been a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP)® since 1988.

In addition to Mr. McGraw, the 2010 Governing Board includes executive officers Ron Durdle, CRSP (Vice Chair); Dave Turner, MBA, PEng, CMSP, CRSP, (Secretary-Treasurer); Edward Miller, BSc, MPA, CRSP (Past Chair) and Governors Paul Andre, CRSP; Brett Christie, BSc, CRSP; Mulford Clark, CRSP, CHSC; Kevin Dawson, MBA, PEng, CRSP; Andy Felczak, CRSP; Daniel Lyons, MPH, CSP, CMIOSH, CHRP, CRSP; Gregory McInnes, CET, CCEP, CRSP; Yvonne O’Reilly, CRSP; John Sammut, BA, CRSP and Peter Sturm, CRSP, CHSC. The Board’s Public Member is Barbara Nytko, BSc, MSc, and the Executive Director is Peter Fletcher, CRSP. The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is a self-regulating, self-governing, ISO 17024:2003 and ISO 9001:2008 accredited organization established in 1976 under The Canada Corporations Act. The Board governs its members in order that the public interest may be served and protected.

Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6519-B Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 1A6, www.bcrsp.ca Circle number 39 on Reader Service Card www.ohscanada.com

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OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE BIRTH DEFECTS

Workplace to Cradle

By Jean Lian

T

he possibility that work conditions can negatively affect the health of expectant mothers — and that of their offspring — cannot help but be an unnerving prospect.

A study released last December by the New York State Department of Health in Troy, New York concludes that work as janitors/cleaners, scientists and electronic equipment operators was positively associated with one or more birth defects, while a negative association was found for teachers and women who work in the health care sector.

Researchers considered the association between a spectrum of 24 maternal occupations — including janitors/cleaners, scientists, health care workers, teachers, artists, office workers, hairdressers and cosmetologists, construction workers, electronic equipment operators and dry cleaners — and 45 birth defects involving nine physiological systems: amniotic band, central nervous system, ears, eyes, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and orofacial.

“This analysis is intended to give an overall picture of the relationships between It draws on maternal occupation and 45 specific birth defects to guide future analyses (hypothedata from sis generation) and more in-depth studies of specific birth defects and specific oc- the National cupations or exposures,” the study notes.

It draws on data from the National Birth Defects Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), Prevention with estimated delivery dates from October 1, 1997 through December 31, 2003.

Study.

Containing data collected from 10 birthdefects centres across the United States, the NBDPS is a case-control study of birth defects that is now being carried out south of the border to pinpoint any associations between specific birth defects and environmental and genetic factors.

Cause and effeCt Michele Herdt-Losavio, Ph.D., a research scientist for the New York State Department of Health, encourages expectant women or women planning to get pregnant to consult with their physicians to mitigate health risks from work exposures.

Because factors such as the number of hours/days worked and possible chemical exposures were not within the scope of the New York State study, the review did not identify specific occupational factors that might predispose women to having a child with one or multiple birth defects. “We only used job title as a surrogate for exposure, which is a very crude exposure assessment. Thus, we stress the hypothesis-generating nature of the study,” says Dr. Herdt-Losavio.

The review notes that a separate project being conducted within the NBDPS will involve a more detailed exposure as-

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sessment for pesticides, solvents and metals.

The New York State study determined that women working as janitors have a significantly higher risk of giving birth to a child with the following birth defects: • amniotic bands — a congenital disorder caused by entrapment of fetal parts, usually a limb or digits, in fibrous amniotic bands while in utero; • anotia/microtia — absence of the external ear or a congenitally small external ear; • anorectal atresia — a congenital malformation where the anal opening is obstructed; • anophthalmia/microphthalmia — absence of an eye or an abnormally small eye; • glaucoma — an optic-nerve disease that causes cloudy vision and deterioration of sight; • bladder exstrophy — the bladder and related structures are turned inside out; or, • clefts — a split or fissure between two parts.

“Cleaners and housekeepers have previously been positively associated with neural tube defects (incomplete closure of the neural tube which gives rise to the central nervous system), spina bifida (the spinal cord lacks its usual protective skeletal and soft-tissue coverings) and oral clefts in three separate studies,” researchers report.

For women working as scientists, there is an increased risk of offspring having conotruncal heart defects (improper blood circulation from the lower heart chamber), atrioventricular septal defect (a hole in the wall between the heart’s left and right chambers, and abnormalities with the valves that regulate blood flow between the atria and ventricles), anorectal atresia, bladder exstrophy or sacral agenesis (developmental disorders of the lower portions of the spinal column and pelvis).

On the other hand, women who work as teachers have a significantly reduced risk of giving birth to a child with gastroschisis (a hole in the abdominal wall where intestines usually protrude), neural tube defects, spina bifida or septal heart defects (a hole in the heart).

Occupational exposure for expectant mothers can be a “huge concern,” says Dr. Gideon Koren, a professor at the University of Toronto and director of the Motherisk program at The Hospital for Sick Children, also in Toronto. Consider that many women today work outside the home and within workplaces traditionally occupied by men, such as the automotive industry and laboratories, Dr. Koren points out.

“I think it’s important to say that most occupations are not associated with known risk,” he adds.

An issue, though, is that databases such as the NBDPS often do not provide sufficient information to prove causation.

“Just knowing someone’s profession cannot be equated with chemical exposure,” Dr. Koren advises.

“Professions and occupations are associated with many

other things — education level, socio-economic class, smoking, drinking, health-related behaviours. Most of the studies don’t have knowledge about those factors, so they cannot easily correct for them,” he says.

As the principal investigator for The Hospital for Sick Children study involving 250 pregnant women counselled by the Motherisk program between 1987 and 1996, Dr. Koren reports that half of participants had been exposed to organic solvents on the job.

The study’s results, published in 1999, showed that pregnant women who were occupationally exposed to organic solvents — these include vinyl chloride, acetone, phenols and aromatic hydrocarbons — faced 13 times greater risk of giving birth to babies with major malformations. Exposed women also had an increased risk of miscarriage compared with their non-exposed counterparts.

That study indicates the risk of having a baby with birth defects was highest among those also reporting symptoms associated with solvent exposure, such as eye irritation, respiratory irritation, headache and difficulty breathing. Organic solvent exposure is most common in health care and the clothing and textile industries, sectors populated mostly by female workers, the study notes.

The first trimester, during which the fetus’s major organs are formed, is typically the most vulnerable period. The brain continues to develop and evolve throughout the pregnancy.

An expectant mother’s health is the decisive factor, as birthdefect risk is directly influenced by her exposure level, not the sperm, says Dr. Koren. Men exposed to organic solvents often have low sperm counts, which diminishes reproductive capability, he says. “But there is no evidence today that sperm can be affected by those things to create malformed kids.”

It is key to identify the types of chemicals with which an expectant mother works, followed by developing steps to minimize exposure, Dr. Koren emphasizes. But pinpointing just how much exposure is not hazardous to a pregnant worker’s health raises another set of considerations. neCessary adjustments Occupational exposure limits (OELs) are set at levels which, if not exceeded, are expected not to cause adverse health effects. Commonly used limits, sometimes cited in legislation here at home, reflect the threshold limit values (TLVs) from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists in Cincinnati. However, says Dr. Koren, these levels are for adult exposures. “I have no doubt that fetal toxicity occurs at lower levels in many cases.”

Exposure limits are often based on the experience of a healthy male, working eight hours a day at an even exposure at a moderate exertion of energy, says John Elias, director of OHG Consulting Inc. in Winnipeg. “The TLVs were never written as a pass/fail test. They are guidelines only,” notes Elias, who in late 2009 completed a guideline, “Establishing Occupational Exposure Limits in Your Workplace,” for the Workers’ Compensation Board of Manitoba.

“If your workplace is different from this standard workplace, then you must review the exposure limits to determine if there is a possible problem,” the guideline states. TLVs assume an eight-hour day and a 40-hour week, meaning if there is overtime or extra workdays, adjustments are necessary. Other factors, such as length of exertion and exposure to multiple chemicals, would also need to be taken into account.

In addition, individual reactions to similar exposures vary significantly, subject to factors such as genetics, age, health and reproductive status, the guideline states. In accommodating pregnant workers, it is necessary to ensure they are “going to be properly protected because their pregnancies may or may not be covered in the TLV itself,” Elias offers.

That means that when adjusting potential exposures to accommodate expectant workers, an employer should first review TLVs to determine if reproductive effects were among the factors considered when setting the limit. If so, the Manitoba guideline notes the TLV can be used as written.

A review of toxicological information is necessary to determine if there could be specific issues to pregnancies, and if workThe guideline related place concentrations are higher or lower than the TLV. If no such information advises is available, the guideline advises rereducing the ducing the TLV by 30 per cent to account for the increased respiratory rate of pregnant workers.

TLV by 30 Overestimating an employee’s tolerance to on-the-job chemicals could per cent to result in work-related illness by underestimating risk, the guideline cautions. account for

the increased

ProteCtive measures Of course, there are other preventive respiratory measures that can be taken, such as moving the expectant worker to a difrate of ferent type of work or substituting chemicals with less-hazardous alterpregnant natives. If isolation or substitution is not possible, Dr. Koren says exposureworkers. reducing measures include wearing appropriate personal protective equipment, having good ventilation systems available, and routinely measuring the levels of chemicals in the environment.

One big issue, he observes, is that expectant mothers with concerns about workplace exposures are often reluctant to have Motherisk contact their workplaces. “We are in a very grim reality of economics.”

Another challenge, adds Elias, is that unlike a workplace injury, exposure occurs over a period of time, rendering the task of tracking causation more problematic.

But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Redesigning engineering controls or modifying plants, processes and equipment, beefing up hygiene practices and improving administrative controls like job rotation schedules and work-rest cycles can help limit exposure time to a hazard, notes information from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.

Dr. Koren says new chemicals are regularly introduced into the marketplace. Data about toxicity may be available, although this is unlikely to be the case with pregnancy. “So, we have very big holes here that make it more difficult to make associations,” he says.

At its heart, healthy workers for the future must begin with healthy mothers. The New York State research notes, “future studies looking at specific outcomes and exposures should include other confounders applicable to those analyses, such as medication use, diet and home exposures.”

Jean Lian is assistant editor of

ohs canada.

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HEALTH WATCH sitting

A Dire Sit-uation

By Emily Landau

Y

ou might not want to sit down for this. New research suggests that too much sitting, at work or elsewhere, may be responsible for more than just back pain and musculoskeletal complications — it could be deadly.

Add the voices of Elin Ekblom-Bak and her fellow researchers at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm to the growing chorus of scientists who advise that too much sitting can be harmful. Ekblom-Bak’s editorial in a recent on-line issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine cites research, including a Canadian investigation, which suggests too much time spent sitting is associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death. For those whose jobs demand eight to 10 hours of mostly uninterrupted sitting, the news may be especially worrisome.

“When Even more alarming is Ekblom-Bak’s view that mortality linked to prolonged you’re sitting sitting is “independent of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity.” down, these Peter Katzmarzyk, Ph.D., associate muscles go executive director for population science at the Pennington Biomedical Research completely Center (PBRC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was among the researchers involved inactive.” in the studies reviewed by Ekblom-Bak. Dr. Katzmarzyk concurs that those who sit for long periods are “at risk compared to somebody who sits less, regardless of the amount of exercise they do.”

In May of 2009, he and a team of researchers from PBRC and the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute in Ottawa released a study examining the relationship between sedentary behaviour and mortality. The investigation tracked the death rates of approximately 17,000 Canadian adults from 1981 through 1993, and found a strong association between increased time spent sitting and elevated risks of mortality from all causes — specifically, cardiovascular disease.

Noting that legs represent a large part of a person’s muscle mass, Dr. Katzmarzyk says, “When you’re sitting down, these muscles go completely inactive.” There is no EMG (electromyographic) activity, no blood flow to the area and no muscle contraction, he explains.

While researchers have yet to pin down the link between sitting and mortality, Dr. Katzmarzyk characterizes the relationship as “fairly robust.” The study sample was stratified by several different health factors, such as weight, smoking status, gender and level of physical activity, with the results remaining the same, he reports.

The findings indicate that even if accompanied by exercise and a healthy lifestyle, people who sit for long, consecutive periods are more likely to develop serious health complications.

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If that’s not enough, prolonged sitting can also result in long-term damage to the back. “When a worker flexes forward in a sitting task, the spine discs bend,” says Stuart McGill, Ph.D., a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. This forward flexion is the mechanism that initiates disc damage, explains Dr. McGill.

“There’s not much merit [in] sitting all day,” he cautions.

Still, members of today’s work force sit more now than ever before. “The way that we work has changed a lot over the past 20 years,” says Pam Grills, an ergonomist with ErgoPrime Inc. in Ottawa. “We do a lot more computer-intensive work, which has required us to stay sitting relatively immobile for long periods of time,” Grills says.

In her editorial, Ekblom-Bak writes that sedentary behaviour should be recognized as “a distinct class of behaviour with specific determinants and effects on disease risk, separate from the behaviour of leisure-time exercise.”

Rising to action Fortunately, more options are becoming available to relieve workers who would otherwise be sitting all day long.

Some employers are taking action to redesign the workplace and work flow to accommodate breaks for standing.

Take the City of Toronto, which employs almost 40,000 people, including phone dispatchers and administrative workers.

Alison Anderson, director of occupational health and safety for the city, says the municipality’s prevention program for musculoskeletal disorders is well-equipped to help protect sitting workers from the long-term damage. For example, work flow has been redesigned and employee training provided to allow staff to do much of their work standing. It is made clear that some standing is expected, not optional.

It may be best to embrace ways to avoid sitting while doing computer work, says Diane Stinson, an ergonomist with HealthWorks Inc. in Calgary. “There are all kinds of manufacturers now who make workstations that adjust from sitting to standing,” Stinson says.

Indeed, Anderson notes, the City of Toronto has installed a percentage of its workstations with sit-stand technology.

Grills argues that 50 or 60 minutes is the most uninterrupted time that anyone should sit.

Having now demonstrated an epidemiological relationship among sitting, disease and mortality, Dr. Katzmarzyk says he and his colleagues are looking to delve even deeper and uncover some nitty-gritty details. “How long should people sit? What’s the longest duration they should sit for one time?” he asks.

Answers to those questions can help with the development of occupational physical-activity programs that will reduce sitting as much as possible, Dr. Katzmarzyk adds.

Emily Landau is editorial assistant of

ohs canada.

Combustible Dust Explosions Are you at Risk?

Across a broad spectrum of industrial processes, dust can become the fuel for explosions resulting in multiple deaths and extensive damage to property. Investigation of such accidents has revealed that the material safety data sheets (MSDSs), which are regulated by the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), inadequately describe dust hazards for those substances implicated in these explosions and that there is a general lack of awareness of this hazard amongst company workforces.

How can it happen?

Combustible materials that have been implicated in dust explosions include coal, chemicals, wood dust, rubber, grain dust, sugar, flour, and a number of metals such as, aluminium.

When combustible dust is dispersed in a confined area and exposed to a source of ignition it can burn very rapidly and secondary explosions can propagate throughout the plant, often with catastrophic results.

What are the supplier obligations?

Although the WHMIS Controlled Products Regulations do not set out specific classification criteria for the “explosibility” of dusts, this does not preclude a supplier’s obligation to disclose information relating to this hazard as a condition of sale and importation.

As such, where applicable, MSDSs are to identify this hazard and disclose information on the use of appropriate engineering controls to prevent these explosions.

For further information, please visit the Government of Canada Web site › whmis.gc.ca

Workplace Système d’information sur Hazardous Materials les matières dangereuses Information System utilisées au travail

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LOOkIng TO gROW yOUR BUSInESS? ohs canada magazine can help you. ask how.

Call

Sheila Hemsley , ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Tel: 416-510-5105 Fax: 416-510-5140 Email: shemsley@ohscanada.com

VISIT OUR WEBSITE:

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C A N A D A

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an advertising feature PRODUCT SHOWCASE

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ErgocEntric SEating SyStEmS The ergonomic seating specialists, ergoCentric Seating Systems is committed to fitting 100% of today’s increasingly diverse workforce. Our patented chair designs provide the widest range of adjustability and can be customized to support individual needs. Contact us to find out how we can help you with your most difficult cases.

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caPital SafEty Lad-Saf® Climb Assist Ladder Safety System provides both climbing assistance and fall protection to workers ascending a fixed ladder system. This system does not require a separate or secondary fall protection system. The Climb Assist system is designed to lift between 45 to 120 pounds, effectively reducing the climber’s weight by that amount. To use, Lad-Saf® Ladder Safety Sleeve attached to the cable system and to the front D-ring of the harness, the motor activates and the climber begins climbing. The 220V motor is deactivated if the user stops climbing. If the user slips while climbing, the system will lock and arrest the fall, allowing the user to regain his or her footing and handhold. www.capitalsafety.com CAPiTAl SAfETy For more information, circle No. 102

Wind EnErgy SafEty ProductS The Wind Energy Safety at Height Solutions Products & Services brochure from Miller Fall Protection is now available. It includes a complete line of fall arrest & restraint systems, climbing products, emergency evacuation equipment and engineered safety at height & rescue services. Professional training safety courses for the Wind Energy market are also detailed.

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TIME OUT

PARIsH THE THOUgHT: A Winnipeg priest may be

looking to repent for comments that recently landed him before a labour arbitration hearing. In charge of the chaplains at a Winnipeg hospital, the priest likened its spiritual care department to “a kindergarten” — a comment that inspired a heated response from three employees, The Canadian Press reported in December. The complainants accused the priest of harassment, verbal abuse and bullying — the “kindergarten” comment being one example. The priest testified that he meant no harm, believing the comment to be light-hearted.

But the chaplains seem not to be in a forgiving mood, arguing the priest’s management style includes playing favourites and labelling people troublemakers for raising concerns.

FAsT FOOd FlIP: It’s best not to play “chicken” with a

hungry customer. A worker at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Toledo, Ohio recently learned this the hard way, notes a story posted on www.toledoonthemove.com. Apparently, Chicken McNuggets were the only acceptable option for the 24-yearold woman. After being told no such tasty morsels were available (only breakfast was being served), she reached through the window and punched a worker in the face. A manager grabbed the woman, but once free, she punched through the glass window. The suspect, who later pleaded not guilty to a vandalism charge, was directed to stay clear of the restaurant.

MUM’s THE wORd: The life of a thief can be taxing — the planning, the timing... the wardrobe? A Saskatchewan robber took great pains to remain incognito in November when he donned the traditional hooded sweatshirt, but also wrapped his entire head (only his eyes were visible) in medical bandages, CBC News reports. The armed man entered the business, flashed his gun and demanded cash. Receiving an undisclosed amount of money, he then fled on foot. sTAR TREk: One may question the judgement, but cer-

tainly not the dedication, of a restaurant supervisor who trekked 23 kilometres to get to work. A big snowfall had left the 28-year-old worker’s car, well, snowed in, The Press Association reports. She was unable to dig out the vehicle and no taxi was available. Not having missed a day’s work in two years, she was up at 5 am to prepare for the four-hour journey to the restaurant in Durham City, North Carolina. Donning a thermal vest and three layers of clothing, she set out at 6:15 am. Fortunately, she did not have to make the return trip by foot, getting a lift home from a co-worker.

FInAnCIAl sTRAIn: Need to relax and release worry

over battered markets? Some bankers in the United Kingdom seem to view infidelity as an excellent fix. IllicitEncounters. com is seeing a healthy increase in the number of financial workers signing up for a bit on the side, Reuters reported in November. The website notes more than 20,000 of its approximately 380,000 members across Britain work in “financial services.” A deeper look at what ails them, through a survey of 600 men and women in the sector, reveals a Top 10 list

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of reasons for straying, including to feel loved, for the thrill, to escape the mundane, for an ego boost, to lavish attention on someone, because they feel entitled and peer pressure. Ick.

Ask nOT, wAnT nOT: A grocery store clerk in Princ-

eton, British Columbia avoided a whole lot of hoopla with her composed response to a would-be thief. At about 8:15 pm on November 6, a man entered the Golden Hills Grocery & Deli carrying a black cloth grocery bag, says a statement from the Princeton RCMP. The suspect demanded money from the cashier, prompting her to calmly suggest that “he ask police for some money as well, seeing that they had just pulled up to the store,” the statement says. Without looking for verification’s sake, the clearly unnerved thief turned on his heels and fled. Police arrived minutes after a 9-1-1 call, but were unable to locate the suspect.

nO FUn, nO gAMEs: A Quebec woman says she was simply following doctor’s orders. The worker, off the job for a year because of depression, had her benefits cut off last fall because photos on her Facebook page showed her looking a little too happy. Metro reported in November that the worker had been receiving monthly sick-leave payments, but these are no longer. Phoning to find out why she had been cut off, she was told by the insurance company that the posted “happy” photos — out of step with the major depression for which she had been receiving benefits — seemed to indicate she was fit to work. But the employee claims her doctor told her to have fun, including spending nights out at the local pub and taking a short getaway to sunnier climes. The worker, 29, has consulted lawyers in a bid to get benefits rolling again. nAUgHTy lIsT: There’s no confusion about which of

Santa’s lists this guy is on. A 45-year-old man in Georgia faces charges for un-holiday-like cheer delivered at Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta. After dressing as an elf and lining up for a picture with the mall Santa, the man reached the front of the queue and informed a not-so-jolly Saint Nick that he had dynamite stowed in his bag, The Associated Press reported recently. Santa responded by calling mall security, and the man was arrested. The mall was evacuated, but no explosives were found. The man faces several charges, including making terrorist threats.

COP OUT: Suspension looked to be the only option for a German police officer suspected of having sex at a Catholic church while service of a more appropriate kind was under way. The 26-year-old officer could face disciplinary measures and a criminal complaint for allegedly disturbing religious activities, The Canadian Press reported in January. The wrong-headed ardour was revealed when a visitor happened by the wrong place at the wrong time. The couple fled the scene, but to no avail. A church employee recognized the officer, who was suspended the following day. The discipline is no joke — disturbing religious activities carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Different Faces, Different Places, Universal Fit A NEW MEMBER OF MSA’S ADVANTAGE RESPIRATOR FAMILY! The breakthrough design of the Advantage 420 Respirator provides exceptional comfort and fit that users have been demanding. Rigorous testing ensures that it meets the newly proposed NIOSH fit test panel.

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