OHS Canada December 2013

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 DEC EMBE R 2013

C A N A D A

SILVERY white

Tracing the safety steps of uranium mining

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE Stun guns spark concerns

BEHIND THE WHEEL

Keeping an eye out for cab drivers

ART OF SPEAKING

Teachers at higher risk of speech and language disorders

CRYSTAL GAZING

Benchmarking tool predicts safety performance

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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 CO NDU C TED EN ER GY WEAP ON S 16

CC A A NNA AD DA A

Stunning Divide

D EC EM B E R 2013 Volu m e 2 9 , N u m b e r 8

Tasers have come under the spotlight for causing numerous deaths, but studies suggest these weapons reduce injury to both subjects and the officers wielding them.

BY DONALEE MOULTON

U RANI UM 22

Under the Radar

Safety in uranium mines has come a long way since the early days, when extracting this radioactive substance yielded a high incidence of lung cancer and silicosis.

BY PETER KENTER

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W O RK PLAC E V IOLEN C E

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On the Road

Driving a taxi is a dangerous profession. How far can physical protective measures, such as in-vehicle cameras and shields, enhance the safety of cab drivers?

BY KELLY PUTTER

DEPARTMENTS

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W O RK E RS ’ C OM P EN S ATION

Benchmarking Safety

A new benchmarking tool that can predict a company’s future safety performance has been adopted by New Brunswick to assess employers’ oh&s culture.

BY JEFF COTTRILL

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S AF E T Y GEAR

Hazard at Hand

Regardless of whether one is working with chemicals, extreme temperatures or sharps, donning the right safety glove is key to protecting workers’ prized digits.

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BY CARMELLE WOLFSON

ED ITORIA L

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PAN ORAMA

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OH &S UPD AT E

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Fair is Foul

Mining company in British Columbia cleared of charges; fourth officer fired over strike in Alberta; Manitoba announces new experience rating initiatives; employee in Ontario awarded damages; Nova Scotia worker struck by equipment; and more.

Full Sled Ahead

For workers who use snowmobiles for various work purposes during winter, taking safety precautions can help keep them safe when travelling on snow.

O CCU PATION AL HY GIEN E 4 4

From Thoughts to Words

Recent research from down south finds that teachers are more likely to develop progressive speech and language disorders.

BY JEAN LIAN

TIME OUT

Rights fight; hands-on education; playing blind; dressing down; when in Rome; ice bombs; and more.

D ISPATCHES

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N ATION A L S A FET Y C O N G RE S S 2 0 1 3 P R ODUC T S HO W C A S E AN N UAL IN D EX P R OFESS IO N A L D IR EC T O RY AD IN D EX/ R EA D ER P O L L

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Mice raise concerns in long-term care facility; worker dismissal upheld; and more.

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ACCI DE N T P R EV EN TION

IN THIS ISSUE

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“Safety first” is “safety always”.

– CHARLES M. HAYES

www.ohscanada.com

DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL

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

Fair is Foul T

here is a saying that no publicity is bad publicity. But many Torontonians will be hard-pressed to agree with that adage when Canada’s largest city made international headlines after the chief of police revealed that they had found a video allegedly showing the city’s mayor smoking crack cocaine. After months of repeated denial, Rob Ford finally admitted to having smoked crack cocaine in a “drunken stupor” on November 5.

While we hover through the fog and the filthy air of this political saga, the mayor’s drug and alcohol use raises a workplace safety concern that inevitably begs the question: is the mayor’s job a safety-sensitive position?

According to the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s Policy on Alcohol and Drug Testing, a safety-sensitive position is one in which incapacity due to drug or alcohol impairment could result in direct and significant risk of injury to the employee, others or the environment. A safety-sensitive position is determined by examining the context of the industry, the particular workplace, the employee’s direct involvement in high-risk operations, the role of trained supervisors and the existence of checks and balances in the workplace.

Unlike jobs in the heavy industries, it is clear that a mayor’s duties do not involve operating machinery or equipment that puts his safety and that of other workers in direct jeopardy. However, that does not mean the mayor’s substance use does not pose any workplace safety issues inside the mayor’s office and to those who work in it. According to An Employer’s Guide to Workplace Substance Abuse by the National Business Group on Health in Washington, D.C., substance abuse by employees not only leads to absenteeism and reductions in job productivity and performance.

Often, they also fail to fulfill major role obligations at work and have recurrent substance-related legal or financial problems.

As the head of the city council, the mayor is responsible for promoting and upholding the interests of the city. The amount of resources and energy diverted away from business to managing this fallout has certainly put a dent on workplace productivity — not to mention the undue stress and anxiety inflicted on his colleagues.

Consider the councillors who are subjected to the mental duress of weaving through hordes of media personnel armed with flashing cameras. Councillor Joe Mihevc representing Ward 21 was quoted by CBC News, saying the scandal was “weighing very heavy on everyone” and that many employees were “dispirited” by the adverse publicity generated.

While the mayor maintains that he is not an addict — an implicit suggestion that his substance use is merely recreational — this statement serves only to highlight the insidious effect associated with addiction: blatant denial. The study, Addiction Denial and Cognitive Dysfunction: A Preliminary Investigation, published in 2002, notes that denial is a common feature of addictive disease. Apart from underestimating the amount and duration of the substance consumed, those who struggle with a dependency problem are likely to overestimate their ability to control or quit the addiction without assistance.

“In some cases, their perceptions go against compelling evidence of the severity of their problem,” the study says. “To fully acknowledge addiction-related problems would be so threatening to the individual’s ego that he or she must misconstrue, reinterpret or even forget the facts of the case.” Sounds uncannily familiar?

This scandal, which has reached a turning point with the mayor’s admission, is not just a manifestation of politics at its worst. It is also a story about a public office holder in dire need of help with his dependency problem — and refusing it.

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Jean Lian

DECEMBER 2013

ohs canada

C A N A D A

Vol. 29, No. 8 DECEMBER 2013

EDITOR JEAN LIAN jlian@ohscanada.com MANAGING EDITOR JASON CONTANT jcontant@ohscanada.com CARMELLE WOLFSON ASSISTANT EDITOR cwolfson@ohscanada.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT JEFF COTTRILL jcottrill@ohscanada.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR WILLIAM M. GLENN Hazardous substances ART DIRECTOR PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CIRCULATION MANAGER

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

PUBLISHER

PRESIDENT, BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP

ANNE MIRON PHYLLIS WRIGHT GARY WHITE DIMITRY EPELBAUM BARBARA ADELT badelt@bizinfogroup.ca SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PETER BOXER pboxer@ohscanada.com BRUCE CREIGHTON

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. AL JOHNSON, Vice President, Prevention Services WorksafeBC, Richmond, 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

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Date of issue: DECEMBER 2013

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panorama 2.9 million

Number of days lost from work due to injury in British Columbia in 2012.

Source: WorkSafeBC

1 2 3

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UPPING THE ANTE: With effect from November 1, employers in British Columbia must comply with new policies to minimize and prevent workplace bullying and harassment. The changes follow WorkSafeBC’s approval in March of three policies under the Workers Compensation Act relating to workplace bullying and harassSource: WorkSafeBC ment. The agency also released a toolkit to help employers comply with the new requirements.

1.

HEADING SOUTH: The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board announced on October 21 that it is proposing a 4.4 per cent drop to its 2014 average premium rate from $1.58 to $1.51 per hundred dollars of payroll. If passed, this will be the seventh straight drop to the average premium rate and the lowest rate proposal since 1987.

Source: Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board 2.

3. DAY TO REMEMBER: The Ontario labour ministry has recognized October 1 as the 34th anniversary of the proclamation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1979. Labour minister Yasir Naqvi says this legislation changed the workplace safety landscape by extending three key rights to the majority of workers in the province: the right to know about workplace hazards; the right to participate in matters affecting their health and Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour safety; and the right to refuse unsafe work.

4. GUIDE TO PREVENTION: The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) published a guide to cancer prevention in the workplace on October 3. The brochure helps identify carcinogens in the workplace and recommends preventive measures and best practices for controlling exposure.

Researchers estimate that in 2013, Quebec will see 1,500 to 4,900 new cases of occupational cancer resulting Source: IRSST from exposure decades ago.

5. ON

THE HORIZON: Prince Edward Island announced on October 1 that it will amend the Workers Compensation Act, following a series of consultations and reviews conducted by an advisory committee in 2012. Proposed legislative changes will include maintaining fully-funded status for the board; reducing the wait time for claims from three to two days; and increasing wage-loss benefits to 85 per cent of net insurable earnings from 80 per cent.

Source: Prince Edward Island Department of Environment, Labour and Justice

$115,000

Fine issued to Bunge Canada Holdings 1 ULC of Nova Scotia on October 21 for failing to guard a piece of equipment that led to a worker injury at the company’s plant in Oakville, Ontario. The worker suffered a broken arm after it became trapped in the elevator housing for a conveyor line.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour

289

The number of casualties resulting from car crashes in British Columbia in the month of December over a five-year average from 2007-2011.

This is almost double the 149 casualty crashes in October before winter driving conditions set in.

Source: Winter Driving Safety Alliance

360°

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DEADLY LINK A court in South Korea concluded in late October that a “considerable causal relationship’’ existed between the death of a 29-year-old worker from leukemia in 2009 and her five years of dipping wafers in chemicals at a factory owned by Samsung Electronics Co. The court said studies conducted to evaluate safety at Samsung chip factories, which found no dangerous level of benzene, formaldehyde or other carcinogens, did not evaluate exposure to chemicals during maintenance work, blackouts, gas leaks or other incidents when the level of toxic gas went up sharply. In 2011, the deaths of two workers from leukemia were also associated with their work at the company.

Source: The Associated Press

DECEMBER 2013

ohs canada

30%

Decrease in the number of workplace injuries in Ontario since 2003.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour

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OH&S UPDATE

SPATIAL DISORIENTATION CITED FEDERAL — Spatial disorientation is likely the cause of a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and three passengers two years ago, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) concludes.

The TSB report, released on September 27, finds that the pilot had few outside visual references during the nighttime flight and probably lost control of the aircraft shortly after take-off due to spatial disorientation. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Medical Facts for Pilots document describes spatial disorientation as the natural ability to maintain body orientation and/or posture in relation to the surrounding environment at rest and during motion.

“The three-dimensional environment of flight is unfamiliar to the human body, creating sensory conflicts and illusions that make spatial orientation difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve,” the report notes. “Statistics show that

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between five and 10 per cent of all general aviation accidents can be attributed to spatial disorientation, 90 per cent of which are fatal,” the report says.

In this case, the privately-owned Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter collided with terrain at about 9 p.m. on August 27, 2011 in a wooded area in Saint-Ferdinand, Quebec. The pilot was bound for Saint-Nicolas when the helicopter crashed about 1,215 feet from the end of the runway, destroying the front of the aircraft and damaging trees.

Apart from Saint-Ferdinand and the village of Bernierville, there were few visual references at night. “Night flying in or out of featureless terrain, such as bodies of water or wooded terrain, is difficult,” the report notes.

During turns, fluid in the ear canals moves and continues to move after the turn due to inertia, creating the impression of turning in the opposite direction for 10 to 20 seconds. “That length of time would have been enough for the pilot to lose control of the aircraft, especial-

ly when coupled with the fact that there were few outside visual references,” the report states, noting that the pilot may have tried to control the helicopter with flight instruments. “However, the pilot did not have practical instrument flying experience and had had little exposure to night flying outside metropolitan areas. As a result, the pilot may have become rapidly spatially disoriented.”

The TSB questions whether the minimum requirements for private helicopter pilots to obtain a night rating are sufficient to educate pilots and demonstrate the risks involved, including visual illusions that could lead to spatial disorientation. To obtain a night rating, an applicant needs at least 20 hours of pilot flight time in helicopters. “A pilot may obtain a night rating after having completed only 10 hours of actual night flight time,” the report reads. “An additional five hours may be done in a flight simulator and five hours of dual-instrument time may be completed in flight under a hood during daytime hours.”

PIPELINES RATED HIGH ON SAFETY FEDERAL — A new report has found that transporting oil through pipelines poses fewer safety risks than moving it by train or truck. The 32-page study, Intermodal Safety in the Transport of Oil, released on October 15 by independent research organization The Fraser Institute, concludes that pipeline transport for oil is safer than transportation by road, rail or barge as measured by incidents, injuries and fatalities.

“With a pipeline, you have a fixed route,” says Dr. Kenneth Green, senior director of natural resources with the institute, who co-wrote the study with Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute. “There’s not much that can actually interact with it, whereas when you’re talking about trains and heavy trucks, it’s a non-fixed route and there are lots of other variables that can affect it,” he says, citing weather conditions and more opportunity for human error and mishaps.

The study, which looked at oil spills and other accidents in North America over the past 20 years — particularly in the United States during the latter half of the 2000s — reveals the following data down south: • From 2005 to 2009, there was an average of 19.95 incidents per billion tonnes of petroleum shipped per mile each year for road transportation and 2.08 for rail, compared to only 0.89 for natural gas pipelines and 0.58 for hazardous liquid pipelines; • The same period saw an average rate of nearly one injury

DECEMBER 2013

ohs canada

per billion tonnes per mile per year from road-transported oil and 0.26 from rail-transported oil, compared to 0.13 from natural-gas pipelines and only 0.00068 from hazardous liquid pipelines; and • From 2005 to 2009, 51 fatalities resulted from shipping hazardous material by road and 12 each by railway and hazmat onshore pipeline, with only five resulting from shipping by gas transmission onshore pipeline.

The report acknowledges that pipelines can appear to be prone to accidents. “The issue with pipelines is that when they do spill, they tend to have larger spill values,” Dr. Green says. But he points out that it is a safer mode of transporting oil, considering the overall mass being transported.

“When pipelines are operated and maintained according to the NEB’s requirements, they are inherently safe,” says Rebecca Taylor, senior communications advisor for pipeline operations with the National Energy Board in Calgary. Such requirements include those set out by the National Energy Board Act, the Onshore Pipeline Regulations and the Canadian Standards Association.

“The board also requires pipeline companies to identify any known hazards associated with their pipelines and also identify strategies on how they’re going to prevent those hazards from being realized,” Taylor adds.

— By Jeff Cottrill

STOP-USE ORDERS LIFTED SALMON ARM — A manufacturing plant in British Columbia has resumed full operations more than one month after a young worker was killed at the facility.

The incident took place on August 28, when a worker was operating a power press at Dinoflex Group’s rubber mat manufacturing facility in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, reports WorkSafeBC spokesperson Megan Johnston.

A 19-year-old worker, Shane Gorner, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

WorkSafeBC issued several stop-use orders following the accident, beginning on August 30, all of which were lifted as the company complied with the related orders. “A qualified person has assessed all machinery/equipment for appropriate, effective safeguarding and configuration/location of operators’ controls at this facility to determine appropriate measures required to protect any person from the operating hazards of the machinery, as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation,” WorkSafeBC officer Mark Harper wrote in an inspection report on October 1.

Harper added that the employer had implemented safe work procedures and supervision protocols, and trained workers in the safe operation of the recycled rubber processing machinery.

Previous inspection reports from WorkSafeBC dating back to late August found that seven power presses used for making rubber blocks were not in a safe condition to operate, nor were they safeguarded to prevent injury to an operator or another worker. WorkSafeBC then ordered Dinoflex Group to stop using the equipment, which included hydraulicpowered heat presses, rubber-block cutters, a laser-guided water cutter, rubber compound blender/mixer units and a rubber-block lift and handling unit.

A stop-use order on one press was lifted after the employer-fitted safeguards on it. The remaining power presses were guarded by the time another inspection report was released on September 26.

permitted to expand the capacity and reverse the flow of its pipeline between Montreal and North Westover, Ontario.

Enbridge plans to run diluted bitumen (dilbit) through the pipeline, Line 9B, and increase its capacity from 240,000 to 300,000 barrels per day. The company also plans to change the flow from westbound to eastbound. The NEB gave its approval for Enbridge to reverse the

flow of Line 9A between Sarnia, Ontario and North Westover last July.

“This is the final portion of the public hearing,” NEB communications officer Carole Léger-Kubeczek said during the Montreal hearing. “The initial portion was a written process and now this is the oral portion, which consists of interveners providing their final oral arguments.”

The NEB convened the first half of the

FORUMS ON PIPELINE REVERSAL CALGARY — The National Energy Board (NEB) held public forums in Montreal and Toronto to discuss whether energy corporation Enbridge should be

www.ohscanada.com

DECEMBER 2013

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NO CRIMINAL CHARGES LAID IN FATALITY VICTORIA — British Columbia’s Ministry of Justice has decided not to lay criminal charges in connection with a worker fatality at a mine five years ago.

“After reviewing the investigative report that was submitted to the Criminal Justice Branch by the RCMP, including evidence resulting from an investigation conducted by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the branch has determined that the available evidence does not support a substantial likelihood of conviction for criminal charges in relation to the incident,” the ministry said in a statement on October 4. The file was reviewed by three senior Crown counsel, one of whom had particular expertise in workplace fatality prosecutions.

The possibility of charges was explored after a fatal accident took place at the Craigmont Mine near Merritt, British Columbia. Excavator operator John Wilson drowned on February 28, 2008, when the equipment he was operating overturned into a sump filled with water, the statement notes.

An investigation by the ministry found that the excavator’s cab had a single door. The other exit point in the event of an emergency was a hatch in the roof of the cab or the windows. However, a bush guard protecting the cab from falling objects had a metal pin, which prevented the roof hatch from opening wide enough to be used as a means of exit. Screens had also been placed over the windows.

On the day of the incident, Wilson was moving power poles for installation at different locations in the mine. The sump pond had been dug at one location and Wilson’s supervisor directed him to build a new roadway to avoid an old roadway that had become covered with overflow water oral argument portion from October 8 to 11 in Montréal and continued in Toronto from October 16 to 19.

The debate followed a negative safety report released on August 5 by Accufacts Inc. in Olympia, Washington, which highlighted numerous risks in Enbridge’s plan, including the following: • Line 9B has stress corrosion cracks that are likely to rupture; • The cracks will increase in growth if the type of transported crude is changed to bitumen; • Enbridge’s leak detection would not detect a rupture in time; and • The company’s emergency response plans “are not adequate for a highconsequence area.”

Enbridge spokesperson Graham White denies that the project will pose any danger. “The vast majority of product to be transported on a reversed Line 9 will still be light product,” he says.

“The destination refineries are both light refineries, so their capacity for refining heavies, like dilbit, is limited.”

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from the sump. Some time after receiving this instruction, Wilson was seen washing the track of his excavator in an area of the floodwater — an action contrary to mine policy.

“He was then seen moving his excavator in the direction of the sump. Within a few moments, a co-worker saw Mr. Wilson’s machine overturned in the sump,” the statement says.

Workers tried to extract Wilson from the cab, but the underlying access hatch was blocked by the pin on the exterior guard and workers were unable to break a rear window on the cab. The ministry says it is not clear whether the loss of egress had contributed to Wilson’s death, as he may have drowned before anyone had reached the excavator.

In deciding against criminal charges, the ministry adds that it was not possible to prove that the mine manager was aware of the inability to use the roof hatch and did nothing to correct it. A review of health and safety committee records also indicated no mention of the bush guard being formally raised or considered a safety issue.

The United Steelworkers union says in a statement that an investigation from the Ministry of Energy and Mines determined that Craigmont Mines had violated several provisions of the Mines Act and the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in British Columbia. Among those violations, the investigation found that “the mine manager failed to ensure that the workplace was free of hazardous conditions and specifically failed to ensure that third-party affixments to mobile equipment did not pose a hazard to the operator when working in and near water.” The union says it is considering pursuing a private prosecution in the case.

— By Jason Contant

Enbridge believes that the flow reversal is necessary to make discounted Canadian crude accessible to refineries that “are currently on a diet of expensive, Brent-priced foreign crude,” says White, in reference to the trading classification of the Brent crude sourced from the North Sea. “Also, Suncor has said that without the reversal, they would be forced to close their Montreal refinery, which would directly affect more than 2,500 jobs,” White adds.

Léger-Kubeczek said the oral hearings allowed a variety of people and organizations to voice their concerns about the project. “This proceeding at this point is only for people who are directly affected or who have expertise that would be relevant,” she noted.

FOURTH OFFICER FIRED EDMONTON — A fourth correctional officer has been fired for participating in a wildcat strike at the Fort Saskatchewan

Correctional Centre in late April.

The Alberta Union of Public Employees said in a statement on September 16 that it was grieving all four dismissals and would seek expedited arbitration of the grievances. It would also pursue legal action against the provincial government, which it claims betrayed its promise not to seek retribution for the strike.

On July 5, the Alberta Justice and Solicitor General ministry completed its investigation into the five-day strike, which had begun on April 26. Correctional officers from across the province walked off the job, alleging that the new maximumsecurity Edmonton Remand Centre’s infrastructure did not meet occupational health and safety standards.

Two supervising correctional officers were fired on July 5 and the third supervisor was fired three days later for abandoning their posts and “for their role in leaving the centre virtually unmanned,” a ministry spokesperson says. The province says it will launch a safety review of the remand centre.

WORKER DEATH PROMPTS FINE PRINCE ALBERT — A company in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan was fined $21,000 on October 21 after pleading guilty to failing to provide an effective safeguard where a worker may contact a dangerous part of a moving machine, notes a statement from the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety.

The charge relates to an incident on December 16, 2009, when a worker of Greenspring Ag Services Ltd was killed when his hand got caught between a moving upright auger and the power take-off shaft of an extractor. Three other charges against the firm were stayed.

RATING SYSTEM NEEDS WORK WINNIPEG — The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba (WCB) has announced new initiatives to enhance the fairness of its experience rating system.

The announcement follows the re-

lease of a report into the province’s experience rating system on April 3. The report found problems with claim reporting, claim suppression and overly aggressive return-to-work practices by employers who attempt to play the system to keep their assessment rates low.

Study author Paul Petrie, a WCB systems researcher, interviewed workers who reported being forced into “demeaning and unpleasant” light-duty work, struggling with feelings of punishment and intimidation from supervisors for being unable to perform their regular duties after an accident, and employers offering incentives to departments with the lowest number of claims.

“Mr. Petrie’s report, along with other recent reviews on workplace safety and health in Manitoba, makes it clear that while we have made progress ensuring our system meets the needs of workers and employers, we still have room to improve,” WCB president and chief executive officer Winston Maharaj says.

The WCB adds that the initiatives include a new compliance unit, assess-

ment-rate model changes, worker advisory office changes, a return-to-work review, a claims-reporting campaign and outreach to vulnerable workers.

Jean-Guy Bourgeois, special projects coordinator at the Manitoba Federation of Labour, says the federation released the findings of its own investigation into claims suppression in June of 2010. The investigation found that the provincial experience rating system was flawed.

“More and more employers are hiring claims management specialist firms to come in and help them manage their claims to keep their costs down instead of investing in health and safety,” Bourgeois charges. “When claims are suppressed, injured workers don’t get compensation and the hazards don’t get fixed, and more injuries happen.”

Warren Preece, director of communications with the WCB, says it is difficult to know about a claim that does not come in. “We are really looking through some of our, what we call ‘abandoned claims,’ and seeing if there is anything we can learn by looking at those,” he

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EMPLOYEE COMPENSATED FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT HAMILTON — A transit inspector in Hamilton, Ontario has been awarded a $25,000 settlement, plus pre- and postjudgement interest, from the City of Hamilton for damages resulting from sexual harassment by her former employer.

Arbitrator Kelly Waddingham awarded the sum to the 23-year employee — identified only as “AB” in the decision document — on September 18 in Toronto. The ruling in the case, which pitted the city against Local 107 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU Local 107), found that AB’s ex-supervisor with the Hamilton Street Railway Company (HSR), Bill Richardson, had harassed her from December 2006 to February 2011 in the forms of profane and pornographic emails, unwanted touching and derogatory and sexualized comments.

Eric Tuck, vice-president of ATU Local 107, says the city’s response to AB’s harassment complaints only exacerbated her suffering. While the union initially offered to settle for only $5,000, he says the union later asked for more damages. “This wasn’t about money. It was more about the way she was treated afterwards that caused the request for a higher settlement.”

Waddingham found the city liable for failing to protect employees from harassment and discrimination. The decision document concludes that officials at the HSR did not sufficiently respond to AB’s complaints against Richardson or take them seriously — and even went to great lengths to says in reference to claims that are initiated, but stopped by the claimant.

Other new initiatives include creating a Serious Injury Support Worker position to provide free and confidential services to such workers and their families, and possibly increasing administrative penalties related to claim suppression.

MIGRANT WORKERS COVERED TORONTO — The Health Services Appeal and Review Board (HSARB) has reaffirmed its decision to allow extended healthcare coverage for Ontario’s migrant workers in extreme medical cases, following an appeal by the provincial health ministry.

The initial decision on August 16 resulted from the case of two Jamaican workers who were seriously injured in a road accident while riding in their employer’s van in August of 2012. As both men were working under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, their Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) coverage was slated to expire on December 15 at the end of the agricultural season.

The provincial government appealed

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try to discredit her evidence.

“The employer actually compounded the damages to this individual by hiring an incompetent computer expert, basically accusing her of forging these documents,” Tuck says.

He adds that the union had to engage a computer expert to prove that the inappropriate emails were indeed sent from Richardson’s computer.

The first formal complaint against Richardson was filed

by AB on November 8, 2010 over her allegation that he had called her an “Irish skank” the previous September. The complaint also referred to Richardson’s inappropriate behaviour dating back to 2008.

“Mr. Richardson’s conduct left AB feeling humiliated and powerless,” Waddingham states in her decision, noting that AB resumed smoking and began seeing a therapist. “Her attendance at work slipped to the point that she was put on an attendance management program.” The company fired Richardson last year — not because of his inappropriate behaviour towards AB — but for lying to the company about having sent her pornographic emails.

In addition to granting the compensation to AB for the indignity she suffered, Waddingham also ordered the city to re-evaluate its It Starts with You human-rights training program and post notices about reporting discrimination and harassment in the HSR’s offices.

— By Jeff Cottrill

the HSARB’s decision, arguing that the men failed to meet the requirements for extended coverage, because they did not have work permits. But the board upheld its decision on October 4.

A statement from Justicia for Migrant Workers, a political collective that assisted the two workers, says the employer tried to send the pair back to Jamaica before they could receive sufficient treatment for their injuries. “They needed to stay in Ontario in order to assist in their recovery,” says Maryth Yachnin, staff lawyer with the Toronto-based Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario’s (IAVGO) community legal clinic, who represented the two workers.

Yachnin says the government had broader policy concerns. “Where the board and the government differed was the idea that this was about immigration status,” she says, noting that the government made some broader arguments about how this would extend coverage to visitors generally in Canada. “I don’t think those arguments are valid, because the decision really wasn’t about their immigration status in Canada,” she adds.

“It was a very discreet decision about people in this particular program.”

According to Yachnin, the two workers did get some health coverage from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, but found it difficult to get treatment in the province without OHIP coverage. “The board recognized that essentially, the intention of the law was to cover all the people who are here in Canada on this program, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.”

INJURY SPURS HEFTY PENALTY STRATHROY-CARADOC — A manufacturer of vehicle exhaust systems was fined $110,000 on September 25, after a worker was injured at the company’s plant in Strathroy-Caradoc, Ontario.

The employee of Wescast Industries Inc. was operating an elevating work platform called a Skyjack scissor lift to perform maintenance on a ventilation system on January 11, 2011, when the Skyjack tipped over. The worker suffered an arm fracture and head injuries.

An investigation by the provincial labour ministry found that the machine tipover was caused by a tire on the Skyjack dropping into an opening in a cool-

ant collection trough. The court found the company failed to ensure that the worksite floor was free from the obstruction or hazard of an uncovered opening in the trough and that a grate for the trough was secured.

VALE GETS HIGHEST FINE SUDBURY — Mining giant Vale Canada Ltd. received the highest total fine of $1,050,000 in Ontario on September 17, after pleading guilty to three counts in connection with the deaths of two workers in June of 2011.

Ontario Ministry of Labour spokesperson Matt Blajer says six charges against the company were withdrawn, as were six counts against a supervisor.

The incident that spurred the charges took place at Vale’s underground Stobie Mine in Sudbury on June 8, 2011. Two workers were transferring muck (broken rock and ore) through a transfer gate at an ore pass on the 3,000-foot level of the mine. Although there was a protected area for workers, the two workers had to position themselves so that they were fully exposed in front of the gate to view the movement of muck and use a remote control pendant to control the gate.

While they were standing in front of the transfer gate, a sudden and uncontrolled release of muck, sand and water erupted through the gate, burying one worker and striking the other. Both died from massive crush injuries. The labour ministry’s investigation found that there was a hang-up of wet muck in the ore pass as a result of Vale not dealing with water issues in the mine. Vale pleaded guilty to failing to do the following: • Prevent the movement of material through an ore pass while hazardous conditions (the hang-up) existed; • Maintain the drain holes at the 2,400foot level of the mine, leading to the accumulation of water, which created the hung-up wet muck; and • Ensure that water, slime and other wet material was not dumped into the ore pass at the 2,600-foot level.

2011 at Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.’s metal precipitation plant, where a worker slipped while walking on plastic screening and suffered broken bones, the Ontario Ministry of Labour reports.

The company was fined $60,000 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure that a safe means of access was provided where workers were required to work, operate, maintain or service equipment.

The second incident took place on March 28, 2012, when a crew of three workers was conducting repairs and maintenance on an ore crusher in the mill. A worker, who was washing the crusher when he stepped into a hole containing sodium cyanide and sodium hydroxide, suffered cyanide poisoning and chemical burns to the leg. The hole was covered by a few inches of dirty water.

Wesdome was fined $70,000 for failing to install an alarm to warn workers of the presence of poisonous cyanide gas from overflows and spills.

WORKER STRUCK BY EQUIPMENT SYDNEY MINES — Nova Scotia’s Department of Advanced Education and Labour and the Cape Breton Regional Police (CBRP) are investigating the death of a worker on September 14.

At about 6 p.m., members of the CBRP responded to a residence in Sydney Mines following reports of a workplace fatality, a CBRP statement notes.

A preliminary investigation found that a 60-year-old man, who was hired to remove a tree from the property, was struck by a piece of equipment used to remove the tree, which fell through the windshield of his truck.

STAFF COMPLAINT RESOLVED HALIFAX — A human rights board of inquiry has been adjourned after a complaint made by a Convergys call centre employee was resolved. The two parties have reached an agreement that includes a financial settlement and training for staff, a statement from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (NSHRC) noted on October 15.

In 2009, Clarence Tynes, who has worked for Convergys for a decade, filed a complaint alleging that he was treated unfairly due to his race when he was demoted twice in quick succession.

The company argued that the demotions were not because of his race.

The NSHRC worked with Tynes and Convergys and held meetings chaired by a restorative facilitator. Both parties agreed to a financial settlement and training for management and supervisors in the two provincial centres in New Glasgow and Dartmouth. They also developed a plan to address the issues, the statement reports.

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada Many of the preceding items are based on stories from our sister publication, canadian occupational health & safety news, a weekly newsletter that provides detailed coverage of Canadian oh&s and workers’ compensation issues. For more information, please call (416) 442-2122 or tollfree (800) 668-2374.

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FIRM FINED FOR TWO ACCIDENTS MARATHON — A company in Ontario was fined $130,000 on September 17 after it was convicted in two cases.

The first case occurred on June 2,

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DISPATCHES

Health facility accused of rodent, bed bug infestation

By Jeff Cottrill

A

report released by Protection for Persons in Care on October 18 regarding mouse and bed bug infestations at St. Therese Villa has determined that there is no evidence to support the allegation that a mouse bit the face of a disabled patient in a long-term healthcare facility in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Friends of Medicare (FoM), a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness of healthcare concerns in Alberta, charges in a statement that an employee of St. Therese Villa found the disabled resident with mice nibbling at her face on September 1. “It’s really disgusting,” FoM’s executive director Sandra Azocar says, noting that the alleged victim is in the late stages of dementia.

Azocar adds that staff at the 200-bed designated assisted living facility run by Covenant Health had been reporting instances of mouse and bed bug infestation for at least a year.

“This is not just in this facility,” she charges. “We’ve had many e-mails from patients and staff in other facilities, saying it’s an ongoing issue in this province.”

A statement from Covenant Health claims there is no physical or medical evidence indicating the resident suffered from any wounds caused by animal bites. While it admits that a mouse was spotted in the room of the resident, it maintains that the resident’s symptoms were more consistent with those of a viral condition. Covenant Health says St. Therese Villa is increasing its pest-control measures and cleaning the facility according to established standards.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) is calling for standardized province-wide staff training and enhanced pest-control programs for operators of continuing care and long-term care facilities to ensure that employees are aware of proper protocols for handling infestations.

“While it is reassuring that the infestations of mice and bed bugs have been dealt with by Covenant Health, I am concerned with the finding that staff were not aware of how to prevent infestations, how to properly report the incidents, or their reporting obligations under the Protection for Persons in Care Act,” says AUPE vice-president Glen Scott.

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Azocar says better regulations are needed and this is a major “health and safety issue for both the staff and the patients.”

Jeff Cottrill is editorial assistant of

ohs canada.

Absenteeism tracking needs work, report concludes

By Jason Contant

D

espite a direct absenteeism cost of more than $16 billion last year, only 46 per cent of Canadian companies tracked the number of days or reasons for absences, says a report released on September 23 by the Conference Board of Canada. This number is a slight increase from the 40 per cent in the board’s 2009 survey.

The annual direct cost of absenteeism is based on survey data provided by organizations to the conference board.

Companies estimated that the direct cost of absenteeism averaged 2.4 per cent of gross annual payroll, which translated into a loss of $1.6 billion in 2012, a statement from the board notes. In fact, only 15 per cent of organizations surveyed reported measuring the direct cost of absenteeism. “Absenteeism is more than a human resources issue,” says study author Nicole Stewart. “Unless organizations start proactively addressing absenteeism, this trend will most likely accelerate as the workforce ages.”

Data from Statistics Canada indicates that the average absenteeism rate across the country in 2011 was 9.3 days per full-time employee. The public sector’s absenteeism rate of 12.9 days was higher than the private sector’s 8.2 days. This compared with 13.2 days among unionized workers and 7.5 days for non-unionized employees. Absenteeism rates were highest in the healthcare and social assistance sectors, followed by those in government and public administration.

The conference board notes that the economic losses identified in the study do not take into consideration the indirect costs of absenteeism that include replacement costs for absent workers, administrative expenses or negative effects on other workers or customers.

Paula Allen, vice-president of research and integrative solutions with consulting firm Morneau Shepell, says companies often do not look at absenteeism costs as they do not understand the issue as deeply as other challenges, such as a shortage of skilled workers and increasing disability costs.

“Addressing the costs of absenteeism should be one of the

first steps that organizations take, because absenteeism costs can be reduced and the talent can be retained,” she advises.

Jason Contant is managing editor of

ohs canada.

Electrical work unsafe despite dip in fatalities

By Jean Lian

E

lectrical-related incidents continue to injure and kill people despite a 38 per cent decrease in electrical fatalities in the last five years, a report released on October 2 by the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) found.

“While it appears that Ontarians are slowly getting the message about electrical safety, far too many people are still injured and killed every year, despite knowing the risks,” the ESA’s chief public safety officer Scott Saint says in a statement.

“This isn’t just about awareness. People recognize the hazards, but they think they can beat the odds.”

The report notes that more than 70 per cent of all incidents occur in four areas: contact with overhead powerlines, electrical work, the misuse of electrical products and electrical fires caused by old or faulty electrical wiring. It also notes that a gap exists between actual risk and the perception of risk in these areas.

Electrical workers and those who hire them often do not perceive these jobs as high-risk. Some electricians end up “working live,” which in many cases involve technically improper procedure.

“Electrical workers continue to be injured or killed — in some cases because they do not appreciate or have become complacent about the risk, and in others because they feel pressured by their customer or employer,” Saint adds.

The conviction of an unlicensed electrical contractor in Burlington, Ontario on September 17 is a case in point.

John Marynowycz, operating as Amascott Electric, was fined $2,500 for performing electrical work without an electrical contractor’s license and was charged with one count of failing to apply for an application for inspection. Under Ontario Regulation 570/05, Licensing of Electrical Contractors and Master Electricians, only licensed electrical contractors are permitted to perform electrical work in the province.

“Unfortunately, there are individuals who present themselves as being able to do electrical work when they don’t hold the appropriate licence and they don’t follow the rules and regulations,” says Normand Breton, the ESA’s general manager of harm mitigation, who oversees the electrical contrac-

tor licensing system. He cautions that hiring an unlicensed electrical contractor can result in unsafe electrical wiring and possibly the need to rectify their work. Electrical tradespeople accounted for 29 per cent of electrical-related workplace fatalities from 2003 to 2012, the ESA notes.

Jean Lian is editor of

ohs canada.

Court upholds dismissal of drunk-driving employee

By Jason Contant

O

ntario’s highest court has upheld the termination of a long-time employee for driving a company truck while drunk, despite his unblemished employment record. “We see no error, let alone a palpable and overriding error, which must be demonstrated on appeal in order to interfere with the trial judge’s finding,” the Court of Appeal for Ontario said in its decision released on September 16.

The original decision was issued by Justice Kevin Whitaker of the Superior Court of Justice on March 22, 2012. While Whitaker said a single, isolated incident normally would not be sufficient cause to dismiss a long-service employee — particularly one with a clean disciplinary and performance record — “this single act of drunk driving during this long service is not just bad judgement or inadvertence.”

On April 23, 2007, Jaroslaw Dziecielski, a 23-year employee of Lighting Dimensions, stopped at a restaurant for lunch and drank four beers within an hour after meeting a client in Alliston, Ontario. During the trip back to Toronto, he lost control of the pickup truck, which rolled over. Dziecielski suffered a broken neck and life-threatening injuries, and the vehicle was destroyed.

“The misconduct here is not just intoxication while working, but rather drunk driving on a public highway with the employer’s vehicle,” Whitaker wrote. He added that Dziecielski had not sought permission to use the company truck to travel to Alliston. One month after the incident, he was terminated with cause for driving the company vehicle without authorization, damaging the vehicle, facing the pending criminal charge of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and breaching the corresponding provisions of the company’s employee handbook.

In dismissing Dziecielski’s wrongful dismissal claim, Whitaker noted that his conduct was prejudicial to his employer’s business. In particular, the employer was possibly at risk of being found vicariously liable to third parties “and may be at risk of [Workplace Safety and Insurance Board] claims and premium consequences.” Furthermore, the employer’s reputation and good will may be adversely affected.

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CONDUCTED ENERGY WEAPONS

STUNNING DIVIDE

BY DONALEE MOULTON

While Tasers have been at the heart of a heated debate for causing more than 20 deaths in Canada, studies have found that this type of conducted energy weapon (CEW) is safe to use and poses little threat to the officers wielding them. What safeguards can be put in place to balance the safety of those deploying the weapon and the subjects who are at the receiving end?

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ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL GLENWOOD

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Seizing a Taser from a law enforcement officer is not quite like seizing a knife.

I

n August, Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) removed restrictions from officers carrying CEWs by allowing local police services to decide which officers would be permitted to carry them. In the past, the province restricted the use of these devices to specific positions and police teams such as members of tactical units, hostage-rescue teams, containment teams and frontline supervisors.

The authorization of the expanded deployment of Tasers follows increased scrutiny brought on by the death of Sammy Yatim, who was shot nine times and stunned once by a CEW on a streetcar in Toronto in July. An officer has since been charged in the death of the 18-year-old.

But the ministry’s latest move comes with strings attached. It includes providing officers with guidance relating to when deploying a CEW is appropriate; increasing reporting provisions, including when a CEW is displayed with the intention to achieve behaviour compliance; and enhancing training, including what to do when interacting with people suffering from mental health issues. As well, the ministry expects police services to engage local communities prior to making any decision to expand CEW deployment in their jurisdiction.

The MCSCS says its approach to Tasers is based on evidence showing that use of this device is among the safer use-of-force options. A review of the medical and scientific literature by the MCSCS determined that CEWs result in fewer significant injuries to subjects and officers compared to other options such as pepper spray, batons and physical restraint. “Research also concluded that the overall risk of serious injury associated with use of a CEW is low,” says MCSCS spokesperson Greg Flood.

WHAT IS SAFE

Conducted energy weapons, which are designed to emit electrical currents to incapacitate or ensure compliance through pain, have been around for more than four decades.

The first device was developed in the late 1960s by Jack Cover, an American physicist and NASA researcher.

“Conducted energy weapons, for the past decade, have been used widely by law enforcement agencies in British Columbia, across Canada and internationally,” Thomas Braidwood, Queen’s Counsel and commissioner, wrote in the first phase of his report on the use of CEWs in British Columbia, released in 2009. Braidwood headed the two commissions of the inquiry into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who was fatally stunned by a CEW at the Vancouver International Airport in October of 2007.

Many experts believe that CEWs are among the safest devices — if not the safest — for use by police officers. “We have a lot of confidence in these weapons,” says Joe Couto, director of government relations and communications 18

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with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police in Toronto.

That confidence stems from research indicating that CEWs pose little threat to operators.

Two studies from down south done in the last five years found a 60 to 70 per cent decrease in

injury to citizens and police officers in circumstances in which these devices were used.

The only CEWs authorized for use in Canada are those manufactured by TASER International, Inc. A two-year study by the Regina-based Canadian Police Research Centre, now part of the federal government’s Canadian Safety and Security Program, examined more than 560 uses of weapons including Tasers, choke holds and batons by city police.

CEWs scored “high” in terms of officer safety.

This investigation — the first of its kind in the country — found that even though Tasers were used in almost half of the incidents studied, only one per cent of suspects or officers had to be hospitalized as a result of its deployment. Most of the officers and suspects involved in the altercations — upwards of 90 per cent — sustained no or minor injuries. On the other hand, the use of batons led to injury more than 60 per cent of the time and more than a quarter of individuals required outpatient treatment.

One of the reasons CEWs, which have been in use in Canada since 1999, rank high as a safe weapon has to do with distance. Tasers, which are typically deployed from at least two metres or more, mean that the officer and the subject are not in physical contact. “You are not tackling someone. There are no cuts, bruises or torn ligaments,” says Steve Tuttle, vice-president of communications with TASER International, Inc. in Scottsdale, Arizona.

But at some point, officers will still have to get close to their subjects to arrest or transport them. As with any weapon, CEWs can be used against the officer, although this could prove difficult as seizing a Taser from a law enforcement officer is not quite like seizing a knife, baton or revolver.

“Simply grabbing it and attempting to fire it will not likely work,” Couto says, citing that a CEW will not fire at the press of the trigger. For example, one Taser model has its pushbutton trigger located under a safety cover that must be slid

open before the device can be fired.

And if the officer has already deployed the device, the possibility of it being used by a suspect diminishes further.

“You’d have to know how to reload once discharged,” explains Rob Gordon, director of the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and a member of the expert panel on Medical and Physiological Impacts of Conducted Energy Weapons. This independent, evidence-based assess-

cessful in de-escalating the subject’s behaviour. For armed subjects, the CEW was effective in controlling the subject’s behaviour 86 per cent of the time,” Cox says.

The RCMP has revised its use-of-force training and policies to increase the focus on de-escalation and communication. “RCMP members are trained to continually assess risk, keeping in mind the totality of the circumstances — situational factors, tactical considerations, officer perceptions and

ment of the state of scientific knowledge regarding the medical and physiological impacts of CEWs is scheduled to release its findings this fall.

There is another type of CEW called the push-stun mode, which requires greater physical proximity during deployment.

The end of the weapon is pressed against the target’s body and a pulsed electrical current is transferred to the adjacent muscles. Reports, such as the one issued by the Braidwood Commission, have called into question the use of this up-closeand-personal option by police officers.

Despite the confidence that many police organizations have in CEWs, these weapons can still pose a health and safety risk to officers. The types of incidents in which Tasers are used are often high-risk in nature, notes Sergeant Greg Cox, spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Ottawa. “The likelihood of injury is higher than average,” he says.

subject behaviour — to determine the options available to the officer and assist in determining the safest, most effective means to control the situation,” Cox adds.

HITTING THE BOOKS Reducing that likelihood of injury starts with training. In Ontario, Couto says new users currently receive eight hours of training on CEWs, while those returning for the annual refresher course undergo a four-hour program.

These numbers are set to increase, as the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services will require new users to take a 12-hour program — one-third of which is dedicated to “judgement training” as spelled out in the province’s CEW trainer’s manual. The training also includes essentials such as how to use and load the weapon.

Learning how to use a CEW is not difficult; Tuttle says he can train someone to hit a bullseye with a Taser in 15 seconds. Rather, the challenge is determining when to use the weapon, which is recommended as a last-resort measure.

“De-escalation is the first and best option available to frontline police officers,” Couto says.

The ideal scenario is one in which officers do not have to reach for their weapons at all; the next best option is not having to use it once drawn. However, the most effective weapon in a police officer’s arsenal is training that helps them understand how to transform a volatile and potentially violent situation into one that is safe.

In many situations, simply showing a Taser and threatening its use is effective. “Our statistics show that the CEW draw-and-display alone was effective in controlling the subject’s behaviour 89 per cent of the time and, therefore, suc-

WHEEL OF FORCE At the heart of much of the training across Canada is what is known as the use-of-force model. Often envisioned as a continuum, the model is actually a circle, explains Sergeant Pierre Chamberland, media-relations coordinator for the Ontario Provincial Police in Orillia. “It lays out the application of the use of force, everything from the presence of an officer to lethal force. It provides an aid to the officer to guide their reaction.”

The model relies on a revolving assessment of a situation in which officers identify and select the appropriate force options to obtain control of, or ultimately, de-escalate the event.

“All police officers in Ontario receive use-of-force training as

All Fired Up A study entitled Police Use of Force, Tasers and Other Less-Lethal Weapons, published in 2011 by the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., concluded that conducted energy devices (CEDs) are among the safest options for use by officers.

The report, which looked at six police departments and evaluated the results of 962 “real world” CED uses, found that when officers used force, injury rates to citizens ranged from 17 to 64 per cent, while officer injury rates hover between 10 and 20 per cent. Most injuries involved minor bruises, strains and abrasions. The use of pepper sprays and CEDs can significantly reduce injuries to both suspects and officers, the report notes.

For some, CEDs may be associated with the misuse of force by law enforcers, in part due to the fallout of high-profile incidents involving Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in Vancouver and 18-year-old Sammy Yatim in Toronto. But use-of-force is a relatively rare occurrence, says Greg Flood, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services in Toronto.

“Research has confirmed that force is used in only 0.04 to 0.08 per cent of public-police interactions.”

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recruits and on an annual basis thereafter as part of their inservice training,” Flood says. “A key component of the recruit and in-service training focuses on de-escalation techniques, such as establishing rapport, conflict resolution, mediation and threat management.”

Ontario’s model has gained traction across the country.

The approach, developed in 1993, has served as the foundation for the establishment of a national use-of-force framework. Flood says the use-of-force guideline is contained within the policing standards manual. A country-wide model was first proposed in 1999 to promote consistency in training, practice and standards across Canada.

Consistency is critical to officer safety and the use of CEWs, says Cathy Palmer, president of the Canadian Association of Police Boards in Ottawa. “There needs to be setting of national standards and a consistent or coherent way of sharing best practices,” Palmer notes, adding that putting these standards in place requires more than just paperwork.

Risks to officers can increase if a board does not have a clear policy framework, guidelines, accountability and solid training on the use of force for its officers. “This training needs to include clear roles, responsibilities and authorities, and it needs to be regular, extensive and effective,” she adds.

However, Gordon thinks that such instruction does not currently exist to the extent that is required in Canada. “It could take up to two years to train officers in the use and the non-use of Tasers. It’s a long haul to get everybody to the point where they are trained in de-escalation.”

Gordon adds that currently, there is no police force that has officers trained in a manner consistent with the recom-

mendations contained in the Braidwood report, which calls into question not only the training offered to law enforcers in British Columbia, but also the training materials themselves.

“This review has shown an inappropriately high degree of dependence on the manufacturer’s training materials, not only among the 10 agencies that rely exclusively on the manufacturer’s materials, but also among other agencies that profess to have developed ‘vendor-neutral’ materials,” Braidwood states in his report.

“I do not mean to suggest that the manufacturer’s materials should not be used in training,” Braidwood clarifies, noting that the manufacturer who designed and built the weapon knows how it works and how it should be cared for. “However, it is in my view inappropriate for law enforcement agencies to rely exclusively on the manufacturer’s training materials, when they encroach into policy areas or issues of medical risks that may be under dispute.”

INHERENT RISKS That said, training alone cannot anticipate or address every possible contingency. Sergeant Chamberland points out that there are always risks involved with using stun guns. “You have to have a successful deployment. If it doesn’t work, you need to find Plan B in a hurry.”

The environment in which a CEW is being used should also be considered. Tuttle cautions that Tasers, like any electric device, should not be used near flammable materials, as the electrical spark can ignite flammable substances.

The operating manual for Taser X26C says the device can ignite explosive materials, liquids or vapours, which include

Protests held against expanded Taser use Activists and local citizens protested against Ontario’s plans to expand the use of conducted energy weapons (CEWs) by police in a public board meeting held at Toronto’s City Hall on September 24.

Speakers at the meeting, organized by the mental health sub-committee of the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB), included Abby Deshman of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, lawyer Peter Rosenthal, Sakura Saunders of grassroots organization Disarm Toronto Police, TPSB head Alok Mukherjee, mental health workers and patients and victims of Tasers.

The event, which attracted more than 70 people and hosted 47 speakers, followed the provincial government’s decision on August 27 to ease restrictions on the use of Tasers by allowing police departments to decide which frontline officers can carry them.

At the meeting, Saunders asked the audience to raise their hands if they believed that the Toronto G20 summit protests, which resulted in violence, vandalism and mass arrests in June of 2010, would have gone better if the police involved had used Tasers. Nobody raised a hand, she reports.

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Also involved with the conference was the Toronto Police Accountability Association. “Tasers are generally used as a way of controlling situations,” says John Sewell, former Toronto mayor and coordinator of the association. “It doesn’t have to do, as far as we can see, with safety of any sort. It has to do with control. That’s not the way police should be responding. They should be de-escalating situations.”

Sewell suggests that police should focus more on communication than control. “Talking to people helps an awful lot,” he notes. “That’s a skill that police are not taught. They’re taught to command.”

Sewell and Saunders agree that Tasers should be limited only to specially trained officers with Toronto Police Service, such as the Emergency Task Force. They also cite recent cases of abuse in Ontario, including one in which an 80-yearold woman was injured after a Peel Regional Police officer allegedly used a CEW on her in August.

(Jeff Cottrill, Canadian Occupational Health and Safety News, October 7, 2013)

gasoline and gases in sewer lines.

This makes the device hazardous to use in methamphetamine laboratories and situations in which butane-type lighters are present.

Some pepper sprays contain flammable carriers such as alcohol, including some self-defence sprays labelled “non-flammable”, which may ignite when used with Tasers.

The statistics require interpretation as well. There is a body of evidence that suggests simply threatening to reach for, reaching for or brandishing a CEW is enough to de-escalate a dangerous situation. By contrast, if the individual being threatened has a mental illness, such actions may only serve to escalate a situation.

“In many cases, the law enforcement officer is aggressive.

That’s their job to quell the situation,” says Dave Gallson, associate national executive director of the Mood Disorders Society of Canada in Guelph, Ontario. “[But] a person with a mental health issue may see this as a direct threat and they react appropriately.”

And this is where training can play a key role. “Every police force in the country should establish a mental health and addictions advisory committee,” Gallson advises. “They can oversee the proper training of mental health awareness among police officers. They can help guide the local police.”

Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care provides funding for approximately 50 Mobile Crisis Units to assist individuals with serious mental illnesses. The mobile team is made up of a mental health worker and a police officer who respond to crisis calls. Such partnerships are likely to pay off in reducing the use of weapons. “In communities where persons with mental illness are supported with necessary resources and services, the need for police intervention with individuals in crisis to maintain safety may be reduced,” Flood says.

risk of stress and mental health problems.”

But Gordon is not concerned about the psychological impact associated with using CEWs, as police officers have been trained prior to using these devices. “Police officers are physically engaging other people all the time. They wouldn’t suffer PTSD.” However, he notes that there is reservation in British Columbia regarding the use of CEWs since the release of the Braidwood findings. “Police officers are refusing to take them out on patrol because of the fallout,” Gordon says. “There has been an 80 per cent drop in use.”

The RCMP in British Columbia has also tightened its policy regarding the use of stun guns and endorsed the Braidwood report’s recommendation that the weapons should be used only when a suspect is “causing bodily harm or will imminently cause bodily harm.”

By contrast, Ontario’s move to expand the deployment of CEWs after the fatal shooting and stunning of Sammy Yatim seems counter-intuitive to the direction taken by British Columbia following the adverse publicity from the Dziekanski incident. In November, the Toronto Police Services Board voted against equipping more frontline officers with CEWs. Flood says it is difficult to determine if recent developments in Ontario will influence the actions of other jurisdictions. “We are aware that other provinces, with the exception of Quebec, currently allow frontline officers to carry CEWs. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary also restricts frontline officers from carrying CEWs.” The latest model of Tasers, such as the company’s new line of “smart weapons” that includes the X26P, have enhanced features to help ensure greater accuracy and increased safety. The new weaponry also comes with a built-in system that provides three different reports, including a logistics report when the weapon is fired and a self-diagnostic to indicate if the weapon will perform.

Nevertheless, concerns surrounding public and occupational safety issues associated with the use of CEWs are not likely to abate anytime soon. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association in Toronto issued a statement in August in response to the provincial government’s decision to expand the use of CEWs, citing misuse of these devices in the past and the impact on individuals with mental health or addiction problems.

“In our view, resolution through de-escalation should be the goal,” Sukanya Pillay, acting executive director and interim general counsel of the association, said in the statement.

“These should not become default weapons.”

Simply showing a Taser and threatening its use is effective.

DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD It is in the interest of law enforcers to be aware that it is not only the suspect who can be injured by the use of a CEW. Gallson believes that the controversy surrounding the use of and seeing a CEW being deployed against an individual can also take a psychological toll on police officers.

Gallson suggests that if an officer is considering deploying a Taser, the situation is already “very serious”. He cautions that stressful situations like this can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “If you can de-escalate, there is less

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Donalee Moulton is a writer in Halifax.

www.ohscanada.com

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URANIUM

under

RADAR

the

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BY PETER KENTER

Cameco’s Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan offers the world’s second largest high-grade uranium deposit.

In June, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) gave the mine the go-ahead to move from construction phase to full-out production.

Uranium mining and milling, which is one of the most heavily regulated industries in Canada, has come a long way since the uranium boom of the 1930s. Nevertheless, the debate over extracting this radioactive resource has been followed by controversy for as long as it has been mined, due to its impact on the environment and human health. Just how far has safety progressed for those who work in these mines?

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T

his silvery-white metal, considered mildly radioactive, is found in low concentrations everywhere on earth.

Each uranium atom contains 92 protons and 92 electrons. Uranium is naturally found in three different isotopes determined by the number of neutrons they contain. The most common is uranium-238, representing more than 99 per cent of all natural deposits. Uranium-235 represents only about 0.7 per cent of all deposits, while uranium-234 represents only about 55 parts per million of typical raw uranium.

As all uranium isotopes are unstable, they decay slowly by emitting alpha particles. The decay of natural uranium-238 ultimately results in the creation of other elements, including radium, radon and polonium, which are always present where radium concentrations are found. The decay process ends with the creation of lead-207, a stable isotope.

Canada’s first major uranium deposit was discovered in 1930 by a prospector working for the Eldorado Mining Company on the shores of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. The big prize: silver ore and small samples of radium, still considered a miracle cure for cancer, found in the deposits. Eldorado shipped thousands of tonnes of uranium ore from the mine settlement — later named Port Radium — to its new radium refinery in Port Hope, Ontario. That relationship established the Ontario town as the country’s centre for uranium processing and the eventual conversion of uranium pellets into fuel bundles for nuclear reactors.

Uranium mined in Canada continues to be refined in Port Hope, which houses the only facility in North America capable of fulfilling that task. The process starts with mining ores such as uraninite or pitchblende, which are rich in uranium-238. The ore is milled and refined through chemical processes to create a semi-refined substance known as yellowcake. Further processing enhances the content of

“Early uranium miners worked in conditions that were not what they are today.”

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uranium-235, which is the only natural substance capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission.

Following the end of WWII, world powers engaged in an all-out effort to prospect and extract the world’s richest sources of uranium. While some countries sought uranium for peaceful uses, such as fuel for nuclear reactors, others sought it to devise increasingly powerful weapons in an arms buildup that characterized the Cold War between east and west.

“Early uranium miners worked in conditions that were not what they are today,” says Marc Drolet, spokesperson for the CNSC in Ottawa. “Mining methods during those years required close contact with the ore, and there was poor ventilation and dust control. The culprit was the alpha radiation emitted from the radioactive decay of radon gas and its shortlived decay products, radon progeny.”

Radon is an inert gas, which migrates from rock into the breathing zone of workers, where it emits alpha particles that can damage unprotected lung tissue. “Breathing high concentrations of radon gas and its decay products into your lungs over long periods of time can lead to the development of lung cancer,” Drolet cautions. “This effect can be magnified by concurrent exposure to cigarette smoke and radioactive dust. Once the risk of developing lung cancer was recognized in the late 1960s and early 1970s, mining practices were modified by improving ventilation and dust-control practices.”

DAWN OF AWARENESS Concerns over lung cancer were echoed at Port Radium, where First Nations workers from the Dene band in the Déline community transported uranium ore from 1931 to the mine’s closure in 1960. In the 1980s, concerns over an apparent increased local incidence of cancer led to the creation of the Canada-Déline Uranium Table — a group formed by the Deline First Nation and the federal government in part to determine whether uranium mining activities were responsible for the spike in cancer among site workers.

The report’s findings acknowledge that during the period of uranium mining, knowledge of radiation’s health effects — particularly with respect to low-level exposure and long-term effects — was not very advanced, and Canadian and international radiation-protection standards were much lower than they are today. Although the workers carried cloth bags full of uranium ore, they remained on the surface and never entered the mines where radon gas could concentrate. Detailed dose reconstructions estimated that ore transport workers were likely exposed to radiation similar to background radiation doses in the area. So while the workers were exposed to radiation from uranium ore, that level and length of radiation exposure led to little additional risk.

In 1952, Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. was established to develop peaceful applications from nuclear technology. However, Canada continued to mine, refine and export uranium, some of which was used to build nuclear weapons until 1965, when the country placed a moratorium on exporting uranium for use in building weapons.

By 1960, both the Eldorado Mine and Rayrock Mines of the Northwest Territories had closed, leaving uranium mines only in Saskatchewan and Ontario. At its peak, Ontario uranium mining saw more than a dozen uranium mines operat-

IMAGES: NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA

Clockwise from top left: A technician works at the Chalk River Laboratories in the late 1940s. A nurse draws blood from a man in 1947 as part of radiation testing at Chalk River. A soldier stands guard at Chalk River laboratories circa 1940s.

ing simultaneously, mostly around Elliott Lake. In 1974, uranium mine workers at Elliott Lake went on strike over high occupational incidences of lung cancer and silicosis. The Ontario government subsequently struck a Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines under Dr. James M. Ham. The findings of the commission, known unofficially as the Ham Report, were released in 1976. Apart from offering more than 100 recommendations for improving mine health and safety, the report established a worker’s right to know, to refuse unsafe work and to participate in joint health and safety committees. Ham advocated a statutory requirement to establish joint health and safety committees at each mine site and plant, and provided detailed recommendations for their make-up and operation.

Although many of the recommendations involved con-

cepts that were already known, they also represented a formalized approach to uranium mining. “The means to reduce exposure to alpha radiation underground include sealing off, where possible, emanations of radon gas; provision and efficient use of high volumes of [ventilated] air; rigorous adherence to sound work practices; the use in special circumstanc-

New Study Examines Health of Uranium Workers

More than 30,000 miners were employed to extract uranium from mines in Ontario from 1954 to 1996, often under conditions now considered unacceptable. Many of the workers developed silicosis from the inhalation of silica dust, while others developed lung cancer at a mortality rate associated with the inhalation of radon-decay products that has been well documented in uranium miners worldwide.

However, the last time that the health records of the Ontario uranium miner cohort were examined in any great detail occurred more than 20 years ago. An updated study, Ontario Uranium Miner Cohort: Linkage with National Mortality and Cancer Incidence Files, will match the records of former uranium miners against the Canadian Cancer Registry maintained by Statistics Canada. Sources of data will include area measurements in the various mines, employment data collected during routine annual chest X-rays and dosimetry badge readings found in the National Dose Registry for exposures after 1980.

The study is conducted by the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC), housed at Cancer Care Ontario.

“We were asked to conduct the study by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,” says Paul Demers, one of the lead investigators on the research project and director of the

OCRC steering committee.

“While we expect to see continuing incidences of lung cancer, we want to use available exposure data to see what has happened to workers as exposure decreased and regulations lowered occupational exposure to radon and silica,” Demers says. “We want to find out whether those rates of lung cancer went down under lower-dose conditions as the workplace environment improved.”

The study will look at not only lung cancer, but all forms of cancer, cancers with long latency periods and medical conditions reported by the cohort, including cardiovascular diseases. “A growing knowledge of the health effects of exposure to silica and radon showed us over the years that people were affected by exposure levels far lower than anticipated,” Demers says. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see some day that you might find evidence of health effects at exposure levels below current thresholds.”

With workplace exposure levels as low as currently reported, he adds that it becomes more difficult to separate the effects of workplace exposure from background levels of radiation in the environment. “However, I think it’s fair to say that we need to be vigilant and continue to monitor the health of Canadian uranium workers.”

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es of personal protective equipment; and the application of a policy of job rotation and/or job replacement.”

The report also noted that silicosis, a lung condition caused by inhalation of silica fibres, was a problem, although it was not particular to uranium mines. The factor that was specific to mining uranium was the presence of radon. Ham also advocated for more careful tracking of underground mine air quality and a prescreening of mine workers to determine their health, and any effects of background radiation or radiation exposure that might have occurred elsewhere.

On the Horizon In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan, some countries have scaled back reliance on nuclear energy. However, Canada’s uranium mines should remain busy in the coming years, says Alex Carrick, chief economist with Reed Construction Data Canada in Toronto.

Carrick says Canadian nuclear plants, including Ontario’s Darlington and Bruce, will continue to demand fuel, as will New Brunswick’s rebuilt Point Lepreau station. China promises to put 20 to 30 nuclear power stations online by mid-century, while India and France will continue to depend on uranium. Several plant proposals in the United States are also working their way through the approvals process.

“The uranium ore produced at such north Saskatchewan mines as McArthur River and Cigar Lake is among the purest in the world,” Carrick says. “In any list of positives-versus-negatives among means to generate electricity, nuclear should be at or near the top, but we live in an ever-skeptical world and it may still prove difficult to win over public opinion.”

British Columbia has declared a moratorium on the development of its uranium resources, while the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories show some as-yet undeveloped potential for uranium mining. However, Strateco Resources Inc., a Quebec-based company, received a licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) last October, authorizing the excavation of an exploration ramp and construction of surface buildings and facilities to support its Matoush Underground Exploration Project, located in the Otish Basin.

“The plan for the underground mine is complete, down to the health and safety procedures, ventilation system, scoop and tram collection system, shotcrete radiation control — and even the lunchroom,” says Guy Hébert, president and chief executive officer of Strateco.

Strateco is waiting for final approval from Quebec’s Ministre du Développement durable, de l’Environnement, de la Faune et des Parcs, which has placed approvals on hold due to “a lack of sufficient social acceptability.” A court decision may be required to move forward on the project. “As far as safety goes, this will be the Cadillac of uranium mines,” Hébert says. “The CNSC has approved our plans for health and safety and environmental impact, but it seems that isn’t always enough.”

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While many uranium mines sampled overall air quality, the report also recommended that workers carry stateof-the-art dosimetry devices to measure individual levels of radiation exposure and take into account variations in the purity of uranium ore that might produce increased levels of radon.

Although the Ham Commission continues to influence occupational health and safety in Ontario today, all uranium mines in Ontario have long since been closed or decommissioned. The discovery of substantially richer ores in northern Saskatchewan eventually shifted Canadian production to that province.

AT ARM’S LENGTH In 1968, Saskatchewan discovered a bounty of uranium deposits in Rabbit Lake. Uranium deposits in Cluff Lake and Key Lake were also discovered that same year. Provincial crown corporation Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation merged with the federal Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. — descendant of the same company that had staked a claim at Port Radium — to create Cameco Corporation, which became the world’s largest uranium producer. That year also saw Cameco’s discovery of rich uranium deposits in McArthur River, Saskatchewan.

In 1991 the Joint Federal-Provincial Panel on Uranium Mining Developments in Northern Saskatchewan was formed to study the health, safety and environmental impacts of new developments in uranium mining. Given the opportunity to design the new mines based on best practices, uranium mining became significantly safer. Newer mines emphasized remote-control equipment, third-party dosimetry readings and mining techniques such as water jet-boring that minimizes dust.

“At Cameco operations, we are committed to keeping all risks as low as reasonably achievable,” says Scott Bishop, principal mine engineer at Cameco in Saskatoon. “Like many other mining operations, we need to control hazards such as ground conditions, dust and noise, but unlike most mining operations, we also must control the radiological hazards unique to uranium mining.”

He explains that the uranium mining methods used by the company apply the principles of time-distance-shielding — minimizing the time a worker is exposed to the hazard, maximizing the distance between the worker and the hazard, and placing barriers between the worker and the hazard.

At the McArthur River mine, Cameco uses a raise-bore mining method for ore extraction, keeping workers isolated from the active cutting face. The raise-bore method employs remote control mining, ore collection and an underground grinding facility. Crushed ore is thickened into a slurry, which is then pumped to surface tanks. Transport trucks drive the slurry in sealed tanks to processing sites.

“At the Eagle Point Mine, shotcrete [a sprayed concrete coating] is applied in the ore headings to shield the workers from exposure,” Bishop says. “At Cigar Lake, we will be employing a jet-boring mining method that, like at McArthur River, keeps workers isolated from the ore during the mining process.”

UNDER CONTROL While personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided to workers at uranium facilities, it is not considered a substitute for good engineering controls. Typical PPE includes safety glasses, hardhats and gloves. Personnel in uranium mining and milling typically wear regular coveralls while at work.

“They are laundered at the mine site,” says Dale Huffman, vice-president of safety, health, environment and quality with AREVA Resources Canada Inc. in Saskatoon. “This helps ensure that contaminated material doesn’t leave the mine or mill. For some tasks, disposable Tyvek-type coveralls are used to improve cleanliness.”

While respirators are available for specific tasks, “we strive to keep workplaces in a condition such that respirators are not routinely worn,” Huffman adds. “They are used for some jobs as a precaution to avoid dust inhalation.”

In addition to the oversight of federal mine safety inspectors, the province also monitors radiation safety. “We audit uranium mines on a provincial level under our surface leasing agreements with the licensees,” says Megan Hunt, manager of the radiation safety unit with the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety in Regina. “However, we aren’t prescriptive and allow the mining operation to determine their own best practices to achieve the expected outcome regarding radiation safety.”

Staff at the CNSC perform numerous compliance activities for nuclear facilities, including inspections, application requests, reviews of licensee reports and environmental, radiation and conventional health and safety data analysis.

“The CNSC ensures worker health and safety in reducing radon exposure in uranium mines and mills by requiring licensees to have engineering design and control processes to remove radon,” Drolet says. “Radon gas produced during mining and milling is continuously monitored, controlled and safely ventilated away from the workers. Presently, worker exposures to radon in the uranium mining and processing industry are as low as, or only slightly greater than, public exposure from natural radon.”

EYE ON LIMITS The annual regulated dose limit per uranium worker is 50 millisieverts (mSv) and 100 mSv over a five-year period. The CNSC estimates that in 2010, the average annual dose to miners was 1.37 mSv and the maximum dose was 10.7 mSv. The Radiation Safety Institute of Canada (RSIC) is licensed by the CNSC to provide individual monitoring of workers exposed to radiation from radon, thoron and long-lived radioactive dust.

“While uranium ore does present some external radiation hazard, the primary concern is the inhalation or ingestion of radioactive dust,” says Jason Sadowski, scientist and manager with the RSIC in Toronto. “At the mines and milling operations, we provide area monitoring to ensure that radiation levels are maintained below regulatory exposure limits and guidelines. We also provide Personal Alpha Dosimetry using a device attached to the worker’s belt that includes a dosimeter and air sampling unit.”

Sadowski notes that ventilation exchanges the air in the

“It be ex would unus treme some ual to fi ly dosim one w nd eter hose a n o mines converex indica stantly, while radia posure ted filters remove tion to small particulates. .”

Exposed work surfac-

es are misted to prevent dust from becoming airborne.

“Alarm bells would go off before radiation in the air exceeded regulatory levels,” Sadowski says. “It would be extremely unusual to find someone whose dosimeter indicated an overexposure to radiation.”

Sadowski adds that urine tests are conducted to determine whether uranium is accumulating in the kidneys of workers — the most likely place where uranium particles produced in mining collect. Extensive exposure to uranium collected in the kidneys can lead to kidney dysfunction.

“The Canadian nuclear industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world,” says David Shier, president of the Canadian Nuclear Workers Council (CNWC), an organization of workers represented by unions in various sectors of Canada’s nuclear industry, including electric power utilities, uranium mining and processing, radioisotope production for medical and industrial purposes, and nuclear research. “In Saskatchewan, you have regulators from the province, the federal government and the oversight of the CNSC in addition to a considerable number of checks and balances.

Radiation exposure for workers at the Saskatchewan mines are way below the regulatory limit, to the point that it’s often safer to work in a mine than it is to work on the surface.”

The CNWC has adopted the ALARA principle for radiation dosimetry — an acronym for As Low As Reasonably Achievable. Mining operations must currently have their licences renewed every two, five or 10 years, depending on the location and when the facility was established. The CNWC recently presented as an intervenor in favour of licensee Cameco at Key Lake, McArthur River and Rabbit Lake.

“By the time we get to the hearings, we aren’t talking about worker health and safety issues, which are dealt with quickly,” says Shier, noting that the licensee and unions work with the regulator and that worker safety is a top concern. “There is always room for improvement in any enterprise and through continuous improvement, we discover new and better ways of doing things. The operation acts on the inputs of the workers and it shows in the safety performance results.”

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Peter Kenter is a writer in Toronto.

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IMAGE: THINKSTOCK

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

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ON THE

ROAD

BY KELLY PUTTER

Fifty-five-year-old Anwar Sajad works in Canada’s most dangerous occupation. His job does not involve working with poisonous gases or fighting raging forest fires. He is a taxi driver.

In mid-July, Sajad became one of the industry’s latest victims in a savage assault that sent him to hospital with a broken hip, a dislocated shoulder, a cracked elbow and brain and neck injuries. The teenage assailant allegedly beat him up over a $12 fare.

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C

abbie Anwar Sajad from Hamilton, Ontario is one of the lucky ones, because he lived to tell the tale.

Taxi drivers are twice as likely as police to be victims of homicide while working, according to a Statistics Canada study that looked at work-related murders from 2000 to 2010. The review identified taxi drivers are in the riskiest occupation, followed by police officers, jewellers, service station attendants and security guards.

Further contributing to the hazards of the job is a fractured industry fuelled by a decades-old economic model that pushes taxi drivers to take risks for the sake of profit, says Terry Smythe, formerly the general manager of the Manitoba Taxicab Board in Winnipeg. “It has to be the world’s most dangerous occupation by a country mile,” says Smythe, who also founded the Taxi Library, a notfor-profit online educational resource for the taxi industry worldwide. “If I learned my son wanted to become a taxi driver, I would chain him to his bed.”

Whether a driver is paying down $400,000 to own a taxi licence or a few hundred dollars to lease a taxi for a 12-hour shift, Smythe says a driver’s objective is to do “whatever is possible to maximize revenue.” Sometimes, that could mean letting safety precautions take a backseat by accepting fares to and from dodgy neighbourhoods.

EASY TARGETS While driving a cab is a dangerous profession, equipping these mobile workplaces with basic technology can help mitigate the risk.

A study comparing homicide rates in 26 major cities in the United States during a 15-year period, released in June by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Washington, D.C., found that cameras are the security equipment of choice when it comes to reducing driver homicide. Homicide rates were three times lower in cities where taxicabs used security cameras than in the control cities in which neither cameras nor protective plastic partitions were used, and seven times lower when compared to homicide rates before cameras were installed. Homicide statistics showed little change in cities where cabs used shields when compared with control cities.

While homicide rates among the working population down south are declining, the NIOSH study indicates that taxi drivers faced an on-the-job murder rate of 7.4 per 100,000 workers in 2010. By contrast, Canada’s average annual homicide rate for cabbies from 1997 to 2011 was 3.2 per 100,000.

Although cabbies here at home may be at a lower risk of getting killed on the job than their coun-

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terparts in the United States, these numbers still paint a grim picture if you happen to be one of the 50,000 cab drivers in Canada. Of the 123 work-related murders that occurred between 1997 and 2011, 18.7 per cent of the victims were taxi drivers.

Cabbies are easy targets for crimes, both petty and violent. They work alone at night — often in unfamiliar or unsafe locations — carry cash and interact with strangers, some of whom are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Workforce demographics are also a contributing factor. Gerry Manley, a long-time Toronto cabbie, safety advocate and former police officer, notes that 90 per cent of taxi drivers are new Canadians from the Middle East, India and Pakistan. Many taxi drivers have a poor command of English, which can give rise to misunderstandings that escalate into volatile situations — even assaults.

“Language is a formidable barrier and often leads to anger, aggravation and anxiety,” Smythe says.

“Almost all violence in taxis starts with some misunderstanding or verbal issue,” adds Gord Beatty, operations manager with 24-7 Taxi in Edmonton.

THE THIRD EYE Manley, who has fought long and hard for the City of Toronto to make security cameras in cabs mandatory, believes that statistics of crimes against cabbies are just the tip of the iceberg. He estimates that less than 20 per cent of crimes committed against taxi drivers are reported.

“The taxi industry has generally lost faith in its police departments and judicial systems,” Manley charges. “They feel that the appropriate laws and resources are not forthcoming to ensure a safe work environment. They feel that they are viewed as second-class citizens.”

He adds that history has shown the court does not apply serious enough penalties to curb criminal acts perpetrated against cab drivers. “So to lose time and earnings to report the crimes and go to court is in the industry’s opinion, a total waste of time.”

Since 2000, the City of Toronto has ordered emergency light systems and cameras to be installed in all cabs and recommended drivers carry a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. Manley believes the overall crimes perpetrated against taxi drivers in Toronto have since been reduced significantly, perhaps by as much as 70 per cent.

Karen Cameron, executive director of the International Association of Transportation Regulators (IATR), says the taxi industry is increasingly looking to security cameras as a means of keeping drivers safe. “Cameras have been proven to be the most effective deterrent,” says Cameron from St. Catharines, Ontario.

She points out that cameras are effective only if passengers know they are being recorded. “That’s why there tends to be signage on the outside of the cab. You want criminals to know they will be videotaped — that’s the prevention aspect.”

Charles Rathbone, who maintains the Taxi Library, would likely agree. “Cameras keep everybody on their

best behaviour,” he says, describing these devices as a “tremendous disincentive for criminals.” Cameras can also be used as evidence to put drivers in the clear should they be accused of sexually assaulting or shortchanging passengers, argues Rathbone, who manages a taxi company in San Francisco.

But Jaswinder Bedi, who drives a taxi in Toronto, argues that “cameras are good enough to take pictures, but not good enough to prosecute a person” in the event of an assault against a cab driver.

The limitations of in-vehicle cameras aside, these devices are increasingly being mandated. Jan Broocke, director and secretary of the Passenger Transportation Board in Victoria, British Columbia, says Greater Vancouver has instituted a program that requires all cabs to install a camera paid for by the company since 2005.

Victoria has done the same since 2009. The costs of installing these cameras have been partly offset by a fare surcharge.

“There are other things in place that help with driver safety,” Broocke adds, citing the Taxi Bill of Rights in the Lower Mainland that allows drivers to ask passengers for payment upfront. Many companies also provide in-house training regarding violence prevention.

In Alberta, Calgary passed a bylaw in August requiring cab drivers to install invehicle cameras, while Edmonton will likely be addressing the issue over the next year or so. In the meantime, the city mandates that its drivers install shields, an emergency notification system, a GPS device and an inside-trunk release. Drivers in Winnipeg are required to install partitions, while two-way radios or cell phones serve as safety measures in Halifax.

Dave Buffett, interim president of the Halifax Taxi Drivers Owners Association, says Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour tried to make shields or cameras mandatory in taxis, but the move was rejected by the association. “Most of our passengers are good people,” contends Buffet, who also drives a cab in Halifax. “It would put a literal and figurative barrier between us. The conversation and interaction would not be the same.”

THE HUMAN FACTOR While cameras and shields may enhance cabbie safety, they do no eliminate all risks. “If I don’t get paid, I get out and ask for the money and there’s no shield outside the car,” Beatty says.

Partitions in cabs are usually made of plexi-glass that runs straight across behind the seats of the cab driver and the front passenger. But the shields can also create problems by making it difficult for the driver to move the front seat forward or backward. Poor ventilation and glare from the plexi-glass can also present health and safety issues.

Cameron points out that shields can put passengers, who often do not buckle up, at greater risk in the event of a collision or when the driver brakes suddenly.

It is for these reasons that Philip Strong, owner of Yellow Taxi in Edmonton, decided to have his own partition designed, tested and manufactured. The shield he designed, which has been in use for four years, wraps around the driver. This allows room for seat adjustment as well as provides accommodation for a passenger up front beside the driver.

While the NIOSH study does not find a statistically significant difference in driver deaths between cities that install partitions and those which do not, it notes that “partitions could confer a protective effect in combination with additional safety measures.”

Homicide rates were three times lower in cities where taxicabs used security cameras.

But engineering controls work only if there is buy-in from the industry. “I’m personally not in favour of shields, because I think the customer feels like a criminal talking through a cage,” argues Beatty, who notes that many taxi drivers have similar reservations. “As cars become smaller, this reduces the comfort level for passengers.”

Cost is another factor. The price of a camera hovers between $1,000 and $4,000, while shields run from $800 to $1,400. The erection of physical barriers between the cabbie and passengers can also affect how well a driver is tipped.

Another common safety feature is the GPS, which allows dispatchers to track the location of a taxi should the driver need emergency assistance. Drivers can also activate a silent, emergency flashing light system located on the front and the back of a cab to alert those outside the vehicle to call 911. As well, many cabs are equipped with an emergency trunk release button that allows drivers trapped in the trunk to free themselves.

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UNDER REVIEW In Toronto, the city is reviewing its taxi trade and looking at a number of driver-safety recommendations, such as allowing drivers to request prepayment of fares, which is practiced in some cities. For example, Quebec accepts taxi vouchers to discourage those who drink from driving. Cool Taxi tickets, which have no expiry dates and are accepted by every taxi company and cab driver in the province, are not exchangeable for cash.

The review, which started in December of 2011, is conducted by the City of Toronto to determine a list of industry issues and explore how best to resolve them. It includes in-depth research and extensive consultation with stakeholders, related industries, the public and appropriate city divisions. A final report with recommendations for the taxicab industry is expected to be presented to the Licensing and Standards Committee in late 2013.

The review also recommends more authority for the city to investigate incidents of fare jumping, since this often leads to altercations between passengers and drivers. Finally, the review is calling for the existing Passenger Bill of Rights that is posted in cabs to be replaced with a Taxicab Bill of Rights, which specifies health and safety requirements for both passengers and the driver.

A cashless payment system is another option that can

High Stakes A 2009 survey conducted by police in Montreal, La victimisations des chauffeurs de taxi, showed that 25 per cent of cabbies there have been robbed and 97 per cent of drivers have encountered fare jumpers.

Between 2002 and 2012 in Toronto, approximately 400 incidents against drivers — 85 per cent of which were robberies — were reported to police. Robbery, which resulted in driver injury 30 per cent of the time, is the most common, followed by carjacking.

While data on crimes against taxi drivers in Halifax are not available, Dave Buffett, interim president of the Halifax Taxi Drivers Owners Association, says about two assaults occur each month and a taxi driver is killed on the job every two years.

A technical report entitled Fare Game, Fare Cop published in 1996 by Philip Stenning, associate professor of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto, showed that one in 25 cabs were carjacked. Given that 50 per cent of taxi drivers are immigrants, racial slurs and insults are also among the abuses suffered by drivers.

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help to disincentivize robberies. While payment by debit and credit cards is already available in cabs today, Cameron suggests that there could be reluctance from drivers to use these modes of payment to avoid credit card processing fees and maximize non-taxable income.

“It’s a huge underground industry,” she says, noting that the taxi industry has traditionally been a cash-based business. “They don’t just look at it from a safety perspective; they look at it from a financial perspective.”

While most Canadian municipalities govern the taxi industry by issuing licences, Cameron says only the largest municipalities such as Toronto offer adequate driver-safety training. The city’s driver training includes identifying risk factors, role-playing in dangerous situations, teaching defensive strategies and how to get out of harm’s way. In smaller centres, Cameron says driver-safety training does not factor as heavily into the curriculum.

“We do more training than any city in North America,” says Emilio Leonardis, manager of training for municipal licensing and standards with the City of Toronto. Apart from a mandatory 17-day taxicab driver training program, participants are also required to complete a written exam before they are given a licence to drive. Cab drivers also have to undergo a three-day refresher course every four years.

As a vocal critic of the regulatory bodies that oversee the taxi industry, Manley charges that most taxi companies and regulatory bodies do not pay credence to the profession, because it is viewed as a disposable workforce.

“The municipalities charge an annual licensing fee to operate in their jurisdictions, and that makes them both legally and morally responsible to make sure that the workspace is as safe as possible,” Manley contends.

Cameron notes that the sheer demand for taxicab licences in Toronto has created a situation in which drivers’ earnings are squeezed. “The reason taxi drivers won’t make more and why the people who own the cars and charge them so much is because there is a never-ending supply of desperate new immigrants who will take the job — and that’s the dynamic,” Cameron charges. “If we as regulators truly cared about driver safety, we should stop pumping through more new licensed drivers all the time.”

Although further research is needed to better address cabbie safety, Dawn Castillo, director of NIOSH’s division of safety research, says in a statement that findings of the NIOSH study provide an important piece to solving the puzzle. The statement adds that future research is being planned to look at robberies, assaults and road-safety behaviours in relation to cab drivers.

Cameron hopes that the study will serve as an impetus to move the taxicab industry to recognize the role of cameras in safeguarding drivers. “The report is a big deal,” she says, “because it is so hard to effect change in the taxi industry.”

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Kelly Putter is a writer in Beamsville, Ontario.

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

LEADING INDICATORS

Benchmarking Safety

By Jeff Cottrill

N

ew Brunswick is taking a new approach to evaluating workplace safety across the province with WorkSafeNB’s adoption of the Organizational Performance Metric (OPM) questionnaire.

The eight-question survey was developed in 2009 by Toronto’s Institute for Work and Health (IWH) and other stakeholders to measure leading indicators of occupational health and safety performance. The OPM questionnaire was one of six surveys that WorkSafeNB came across when studying similar surveys across the country in an effort to develop a new workplace safety-measurement tool.

Since 2001, the province had been New Brunswick using its own survey to assess health and safety practices. With 22 basic is taking a questions covering five fundamentals to be administered to all employees, new approach supervisors and managers in an organization, “that survey was too comto evaluating plex and cumbersome,” says Anne Lise Albert, assistant director of proworkplace gram development and evaluation at safety.

WorkSafeNB in Saint John.

As a result, WorkSafeNB came up with an 18-item questionnaire called the Internal Responsibility System Questionnaire (IRSQ), which WorkSafeNB asked the IWH to evaluate. The two organizations collaborated on a validation study that saw employers complete both the IRSQ and the OPM. Based on the results of nearly 600 surveys completed by 330 firms, it turned out that among all sectors, results of the eight-question OPM correlated very closely with the respec-

34

tive firms’ historical claim rates — meaning that higher scores coincided with lower compensation claim rates and lower scores with higher claim rates, including both lost-time and no-lost-time claims — whereas the IRSQ results generally did not. “It takes barely any time at all to complete the survey,” Albert says of the OPM’s brevity. “Eight questions is beautiful.”

Dr. Benjamin C. Amick III, the IWH’s scientific director who helped develop the survey, says it is not clear why only the OPM tracked well with compensation claims. “The fact that we see that in two provinces is, of course, encouraging.

It has good reliability.” He adds the OPM was intended not as an audit tool, but to aid decision makers within safety groups.

“It’s a thermometer,” Dr. Amick says. “It’s not going to tell you what to do, but what you need to be thinking about doing.”

HEADS UP New Brunswick is not the only province where safety authorities see the OPM as an applicable safety measurement tool.

Dr. Amick says British Columbia is considering adopting it, while Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Alberta and even the United States have expressed interest.

While no province in Canada has yet established the OPM as a universal tool, WorkSafeNB plans to use it in its Focus Firm Initiatives, which assign consultants to work with firms struggling with safety issues. The organization has also added the OPM questions to its annual client survey, which evaluates safety culture in workplaces.

Albert says the OPM can help WorkSafeNB assess the effectiveness of its programs or services when it intervenes with a company in the future. Apart from indicating whether certain interventions result in safety improvements, “a lack of improvement might lead us to modify a program or strategy.”

The IWH is conducting further research on the OPM.

THE BIG EIGHT The Organizational Performance Metric (OPM) tool requires employers or workers to answer the following questions by quantifying the percentage of the time, in increments of 20 per cent, each question is affirmative in their respective firms: • Are safety audits a regular occurrence?

• Does everyone in the organization value continuous safety improvements?

• Is safety considered as important as, or more so than, the quantity and quality of work?

• Does everybody have all the information required for safe work?

• Do all employees have a say when it comes to decisions about their safety?

• Are employees in charge of safety authorized to make whatever changes they deem necessary?

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• Are employees who work safely recognized?

• Do all employees have the equipment to work safely?

While the Institute for Work and Health recommends the OPM as a safety-benchmarking tool, several limitations have been noted in the assessment report, one of which is a high non-response rate. Nearly 60 per cent of the firms selected to participate in the survey, which includes both the OPM and the Internal Responsibility System Questionnaire, did not respond. As well, one key informant’s assessment of a firm’s performance may not be representative, although 60 per cent of the firm’s employees agreed with their managers who filled out the questionnaire.

The report recommends that WorkSafeNB consider obtaining multiple assessments at different organizational levels until further research is completed.

“We’re doing that science now. And we also hope that what people say and how they score actually reflects what’s going on in their workplace,” Dr. Amick says.

Chris McKean, manager of research, education and specialty consulting with the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association in Mississauga, Ontario and a member of the team that created the OPM, points out a few patterns that the team observed during the survey’s testing phase, in which data was collected in three ways: in person one-on-one, over the phone or in group meetings.

“The ones over the phone tended to score the highest, whereas if you had people in a public meeting, they actually scored a little lower,” McKean reveals. “It’s hard to explain that bias. Maybe in a group meeting, people feel that because they’re not being singled out, they can be a little more honest about it.”

McKean adds that the highest scorers tended to have more senior health and safety professionals answering the questions. “If I’m a health and safety manager or coordinator, I may answer higher, as opposed to a supervisor or worker who has different roles from health and safety. They don’t see it on a daily basis, so they may score lower.” But overall, he says the team found the survey responses authentic.

One of the employers who completed the OPM survey during its initial testing phase was David Hannon, health, safety and environment manager with electrical-utility contractor The K-Line Group of Companies in Stouffville, On-

tario. Hannon thinks that the questionnaire would work well as a tool for auditing or evaluating workplace safety.

But he cautions the survey’s usefulness may be predicated on the people filling it out and how much time they are willing to spare. “I know sometimes people put them on the back burner, and they’ll start them and not finish them, because they don’t allot enough time in the day to do it.”

Dr. Amick acknowledges that involving as many people as possible when measuring an organization’s safety climate is ideal if time and resources permit. “But the advantage to the OPM might be that it’s short, and you may be able to give it to six or seven people if you know who the right people are and to get to triangulate to a pretty reasonable approximation of what’s going on in the organization.”

The IWH is currently using the OPM in another research project. “I think that several health and safety associations have considered it for different types of uses,” Dr. Amick says, “but they respect the need to move the science forward just a teeny bit more before they go ahead.”

Although WorkSafeNB initially preferred the IRSQ, Albert is not losing any sleep wondering why it did not turn out to be as reliable as the OPM. “We wanted a survey that works.

The OPM works in New Brunswick, so we’re going to move forward with it.”

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Jeff Cottrill is editorial assistant of

ohs canada.

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SAFETY GEAR

HAND PROTECTION

Hazard at Hand

By Carmelle Wolfson

O

perating machinery, handling sharps and working with chemicals are among the tasks executed by many workers across industries. Evidence suggests that protecting our most-used limbs from injury at work requires a helping hand. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, D.C. found that 70 per cent of people who suffered hand injuries at work were not wearing safety gloves, while the remaining 30 per cent of injuries were caused by wearing gloves that were inadequate, damaged or misapplied.

Safety gloves can reduce the effects of workplace hazards like skin absorption of harmful substances, lacerations, abrasions, chemical burns, thermal burns and extreme temperatures. Whether one is working in food services, medical industries, manufacturing, mining, construction or agriculture, there is a “You should glove that fits the job at hand.

One recent development in protective hand gear comes from Showa- be able to pick Best Glove in Menlo, Georgia. Last October, the company invented what up a nickel off it claims to be the world’s first biodea desk with a gradable nitrile glove, GREEN-DEX™.

This disposable glove is suited for use good glove.” by those who work with harsh, antibacterial chemicals such as janitors.

“We have a product that we call our ECO BEST TECHNOLOGY™ [EBT] that’s added to the glove,” says Terry Smith, sales manager and product specialist with the Showa-Best Glove branch in Coaticook, Quebec. The EBT is composed of organic materials designed to make GREEN-DEX™ attractive to microbial activity. Micro-organisms, upon consuming the EBT material, excrete enzymes that depolymerize the nitrile, information from the company notes.

Nitrile also works well for abrasion resistance, perforation and oily substances. As such, nitrile gloves are often worn by automotive workers who are exposed to grease and oil. Many Showa-Best nitrile gloves were also used for clean-up efforts following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the recent crude explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. However, workers who use nitrile gloves should avoid contact with solvents containing keytones, oxidizing acids and organic compounds containing nitrogen.

Dana Hammer-Fritzinger, product manager at Honeywell Safety Products in Buffalo, New York, says choosing the wrong glove for chemical applications is a common problem.

“You might be able to use a disposable nitrile if you’re working in a lab, let’s say, and you’re going to put a tiny amount on a spatula.” But if the work involves taking that same chemical 36

DECEMBER 2013

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and moving it in a 55-gallon tub, changing out the bung and pumping it between locations, “there’s a really good probability that you could be splashed by that chemical in larger volumes, then you really need a heavier duty nitrile glove.”

Choosing gloves that are not comfortable to wear is another common mistake, says Joe Geng, vice-president of Superior Glove Works Ltd. in Acton, Ontario. “Sometimes, people choose gloves that are too heavy-duty,” he notes. “So they have to take their gloves off to perform a task and that’s when most injuries occur.”

Knowing some commonly used terms can help when choosing gloves to protect against chemicals. Breakthrough time is the amount of time the glove can be worn before the chemical completely seeps through the material, while permeation rate refers to the speed with which the chemical moves through the material of the glove. Finally, degradation measures the physical deterioration of the glove from contact with the chemical.

Hammer-Fritzinger advises employers and workers to refer to the material safety data sheet and find out the Chemical Abstract Services (CAS) registry number before purchasing gloves for protection against chemical hazards. The CAS registry is the most authoritative collection of disclosed chemical substance information. “It’s really important to understand what chemicals are going to be encountered, because the risk can be very high if you’re working with something nasty and it’s critical to have the correct glove,” she stresses.

SIZING UP RISKS As many factors determine the suitability of a glove for a particular job, it is essential to know the specifics of the job such as the kind of hazards involved, the flexibility and sensitivity needed for the task at hand, the type of potential contact (occasional splash or continuous immersion), the duration of contact, the effects of skin exposure and whether gloves need to be disposed of or cleaned after use.

“The most important thing they need to think about is what is the risk that they are up against,” Hammer-Fritzinger says. If it is not possible to predict the variety of hazards, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario advises that a multi-laminate glove made of layers of different materials can be used.

With advancements in material science and glove manufacturing, those purchasing gloves need not stick to traditional materials like leather simply because they are familiar to them, suggests Hammer-Fritzinger. For general work gloves and cut-resistant gloves, she says the trend is moving away from leather, cut-and-sewn gloves towards seamless knitted ones that have been dipped on the palm, meaning that the palm of the glove is coated with a functional material, such as a polymer, to enhance protection or grip.

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): HONEYWELL SAFETY PRODUCTS; GLOVE GUARD LP; SHOWA-BEST GLOVE LTD.

“People have a lot of false thinking about leather,” HammerFritzinger suggests. Leather dries up, cannot be easily washed and is not cut-resistant. Many treatments, such as those used to enhance leather’s liquid-resistance, can come at the price of using undesirable chemical additives. Most people can relate to last summer’s leather garden glove that sits in the garage until the next summer. By then, “it’s all dried up and crunchy.”

Another trend is the shift towards impact-resistant gloves for the oil and gas industry. “They had been developed a couple of years ago, but their popularity has increased greatly,” Geng says, noting that back-of-the-hand impact fractures are common among oil and gas workers.

“The advent of these gloves, or the increase in popularity, has reduced those back-of-the-hand injuries significantly.”

TOSS OR REUSE Buying the right gloves is one thing; maintaining them to prolong their life span and ensure that they can discharge their protective function is another.

Washing and reusing gloves is a good idea, particularly in the automotive industry where gloves typically cost five dollars or more a pair, Geng suggests. “That brings the cost per use down significantly and kind of lets people buy a glove that has better protection and spend a little bit more money, but over the life of the glove the cost comes down.”

Unlike leather and some specialized gloves, HammerFritzinger says most gloves today are designed specifically to be laundered. “Laundering can extend the life of the glove, keep it performing better and it’s definitely more hygienic.”

Smith of Showa-Best says 90 per cent of the gloves it manufactures can be laundered. He advises workers to refer to the manufacturer’s washing instructions and keep the temperature below 4.4 degrees Celsius when drying the gloves to prevent shrinkage.

He adds that many factors determine how often gloves should be replaced, one of which is whether the user has “hard hands” or “soft hands”. For example, a worker on an assembly line might handle 1,200 parts a day, while another might lay hands on only 400. “Generally speaking, if you can get seven to 10 days with a pair of gloves, you’re doing well.”

Apart from ensuring that gloves are clean, workers who reuse gloves should check to see that there are no holes, thin spots or frayed seams; the gloves do not smell strange (from chemical contamination); and are in good condition for the job. The coating of a dipped glove must not be peeling. Swelling, bubbling or pinholes are all signs that a glove protecting against chemicals is starting to break down.

NICKEL AND DIME While workers in certain jobs such as healthcare might be changing their gloves every shift, gloves used by workers in

other industries could last as long as 10 years.

A pair of work gloves could cost as little as 50 cents or as much as $250. Hammer-Fritzinger says the price tag often rises in tandem with the hazard level the gloves protect against. Lineman gloves used by electrical workers who climb poles and deal with high, live voltage “are going to cost a lot more than a general purpose nylon palm-dipped glove because their lives are on the line.”

Hammer-Fritzinger advises purchasers to prioritize value over price when selecting hand protection. “What you need to consider is that a cheap leather fitters glove might cost you less than a dollar a pair and by the end of the day, it’s going to be torn, wet or it’s going to absorb grease and oil and [you] might not be able to get it properly clean, so it’s thrown away,” she notes. “But you might be able to spend a little bit more by Safety gloves (top choosing something like a seamless left) and glove clip knitted glove with a palm coating that accessories (top works well for that particular applicaright) protect worktion and can be washed, and end up ers against various getting several days of usage for less hazards. Biodegrad- money spent up front.” able gloves (left) Smith points out that many facare friendly to the tories will purchase the glove that is environment. the cheapest glove, but it is not always the best value. Showa-Best has offered free samples to some companies to show that buying a pair of its gloves that cost four dollars will last as long as four pairs of gloves at $1.50 a pair.

Another key consideration is whether the gloves contribute to the danger or create a new one. For instance, wearing gloves while working with moving equipment can create an entanglement hazard.

Those who are tasked with purchasing safety gloves may want to consider getting a glove clip accessory, which prevents workers from losing, sullying or damaging their gloves.

“It has been reported that implementing glove clips has reduced hand injuries by as much as 86 per cent and reduced glove loss by 80 per cent,” says Bradley Vermillion, vice-president of Glove Guard LP in Highlands, Texas.

The company first manufactured the original glove clip in 1996. “In many plants, the Glove Guard glove clip is as common as hard hats and safety glasses,” he says, adding that Glove Guard clips are popular in the industrial sector.

Vermillion cautions that Glove Guard clips should not be used on gloves that cannot tolerate a pinhole, such as high voltage lineman’s gloves or medical gloves. Clips can last many years and different types are available. The Handi Klip with a ball-socket safety breakaway can be reassembled if it comes apart. The Glove Guard clip can go around a belt loop, shirt, pants, one-piece suit or pocket, while the Utility Guard clip can slide over a belt, pocket or heavy waistband.

SHOCK AND VIBRATION When it comes to protecting against impact, both shock and vibration hazards need to be considered. Anti-shock gloves are typically used with striking tools in the construction, mining and fabrication industries. Vibration gloves can be used in a wide range of applications, such as with high-speed

www.ohscanada.com

DECEMBER 2013

37

drills, cutting tools like wheels or chainsaws, jackhammers, hole-making tools, power sanders and other impact tools.

Dentec Safety Specialists Inc. has two types of gloves for these purposes. The Gelpact glove is made of a urethane material formulated to provide shock-impact protection, while the Gelfom glove is made of a combination of gel material and foam liner with air between the two layers to cushion against vibration.

For its Gelfom products, only full-grain leather glove material is used because of its ability to withstand wear and tear,

38

while the Gelpact products are made from synthetic leather.

“We put them in a synthetic leather and these materials nowadays have tremendous abrasion capabilities,” says Dentec president Claudio Dente in Newmarket, Ontario.

He points out that thickness and the resulting loss of dexterity are some of the drawbacks associated with these types of gloves. Many companies provide only palm protection, while Dentec offers gloves with ultrathin foam right up to the fingertip. “It won’t be like wearing nothing, but you’ll have significantly improved dexterity than other products on the marketplace at the fingertip in particular,” he says.

A hazard assessment must always be conducted before deciding which type of gloves to purchase, Dente advises.

“Is it cold? Is it hot? Are there chemicals involved? Are you grabbing a tool or device or a piece of equipment that’s got some abrasive qualities that’s going to wear down the palm of the hand?

You have to ask all those questions to determine what is the best product [and the most] suitable material for the application,” he adds.

While Dentec gloves are meant for regular temperature settings and not for chemical or high-heat environments, the anti-vibration gloves can be inserted into another glove. “We have liners in the Gelfom material that are designed to fit under a primary glove,” Dente says, pointing out that each time a glove layer is put on, dexterity is affected.

If extreme heat is an issue, consider using gloves made from Asbestos or Zetex for temperatures above 350 degrees Celsius. For temperatures between 100 to 350 degrees Celsius, Nomex, Kevlar, neoprene-coated asbestos or heat-resistant leather (or heat-resistant leather with a lining for temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius) can all be used. For hot conditions up to 100 degrees Celsius, chrome-tanned leather or terry cloth is appropriate, the CCOHS says.

The fingers, thumb and thumb crotch should fit snugly, and the wrist should not be too loose or tight. If dexterity and nimbleness are critical, Geng recommends choosing a 13- or 18-gauge glove with a good grip and coated palm.

And how does one go about testing whether the glove fits the wearer? “You should be able to pick up a nickel off a desk with a good glove without any difficulty,” Geng says.

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Carmelle Wolfson is assistant editor of ohs canada.

DECEMBER 2013

ohs canada

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Transportation Safety High on Agenda

T

he safety of those whose jobs require them to be on the road — think truckers and first responders like firefighters, law enforcement officers and paramedics — has been identified as a key area for improvement.

“When you look at the issue of transportation fatalities, we are very far from zero,” Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), said at a keynote at the National Safety Council (NSC) Congress and Expo in Chicago on October 1. From 2003 to 2011, 17,000 workers died as a result of motor vehicle accidents, which accounted for 35 per cent of all workplace fatalities in the United States.

The NIOSH Center for Motor Vehicle Safety was established in December of 2010 to coordinate research and prevention activities related to motor vehicle crashes — the leading cause of work-related fatalities among workers in the United States. “The burden of even non-fatal serious injuries that result from motor vehicle crash is significant,” Dr. Howard said. In 2010, 35,490 non-fatal injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents in the private industry resulted in lost work days, of which 60 per cent involved six or more days, and $2 billion in workers’ compensation costs. “The mission of the centre is to make an impact on these numbers.”

Fatigue has also been identified as a key occupational hazard among truckers, as it impairs performance similar to alcohol intoxication. Being awake for 17 hours is tantamount to having a blood alcohol level of 0.05 per cent, and staying up for 24 hours is equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.1 per cent. “A legal limit in many states is 0.08 per cent,” Dr. Howard noted, adding that a fatigue-awareness campaign has been launched to address the issue.

The centre is conducting a geographically-stratified sur-

vey on long haul truck drivers. Apart from gathering data on occupational injuries, it also looks at information relating to near-miss incidents, safety culture, driver training behavior and lifestyle issues. “We hope to be able to generate a baseline national estimate on driver demographics, health status, injuries and hours of work,” Dr. Howard said.

The body anthropometry of the modern truck driver is one of the survey’s focus areas. “We are trying to develop representative body types for vehicle manufacturers of trucks to be able to fit — if you will — the tool, the vehicle to the workers instead of the other way around,” he said. This data can be used by automobile manufacturers to come up with cab designs that better fit the body shape of truck drivers today.

Another transportation safety issue that NIOSH has been working on is the ambulance industry. On top of the regular risk associated with getting on the road, ambulance drivers also face additional hazards such as driving at high speed and going through red lights. “This is a potential serious issue,” Dr. Howard said, noting that reducing injuries in the patient compartment and designing new ways to restrain medical personnel while they tend to the patient has been identified as a major goal. “We have done a lot of work in ambulance crash testing with the manufacturer and we have seen a lot of positive progress in that area.”

And if transportation safety poses a challenge now, think a decade down the road when semi-autonomous vehicles become a reality. “We want to do research in this area; we want to take those frontiers of knowledge that have been happening in transportation and move that into your hands so that we can reduce these injuries,” Dr. Howard said.

Jean Lian is editor of

ohs canada.

FALLS TOP LIST Once again, violation of fall protection standards tops the list of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s most-cited workplace contraventions. “Today’s presentation reminds us that it’s very important to learn from the past and

40

address these top violations to help make our workplaces safer,” says NSC president and chief executive officer Janet Froetscher. Preliminary figures for 2013’s 10 most frequently cited violations are as follows:

8,241

1926.501 – Fall protection

6,156

1910.1200 – Hazard communication

5,423

1926.451 – Scaffolding

3,879

1910.134 – Respiratory protection

3,452

1910.305 – Electrical, wiring methods

3,340

1910.178 – Powered industrial trucks

3,311

1926.1053 – Ladders

3,254

1910.147 – Lockout/tagout

2,745

1910.303 – Electrical, general requirements

2,701

1910.212 – Machine guarding

DECEMBER 2013

ohs canada

Product Highlights Here are some of the new safety products launched at NSC 2013, which showcased products and services related to workplace health and safety from more than 900 companies.

Flame-Resistant Fabric: AMTEX TC

Safety Barrier System: Skipper

Mount Vernon launched AMTEX TC, the latest innovation in the flame-resistant fabric industry. Tencel is a cellulosic fibre similar to cotton, but with added strength to create protective fabrics that withstand demanding work conditions. This collection of cotton and Tencel blends provides both comfort and durability in protective workwear fabrics.

A new safety barrier unit and range of accessories for the facilities management sector makes it quick and easy to cordon off internal environments for building maintenance and management. The Skipper versatile barrier XS unit offers the versatility of the standard unit for use without cones or posts.

Robotic Installer: The Shinglator

Blue Safety Light: Intella The Blue Safety Light by Intella Liftparts Inc., which can be installed on the rear of a forklift, projects a clear blue spot on the ground to alert distracted pedestrians to oncoming forklift traffic and help avoid potential accidents. The light is typically mounted on the overhead guard and can be angled in various positions.

The Campbell Institute and Industrial Scientific sponsored a challenge for students enrolled in the robotics class at Carnegie Mellon University. The award-winning prototype robot is designed to install roofing shingles.

Tethered Tools: Proto Industrial Tools

Fall Protection: Miller SkyORB The new Miller SkyORB Overhead Rotational Boom Anchor by Honeywell provides a safe overhead anchorage designed specifically for use around vehicles. The vehicle’s weight secures the anchor for proper fall arrest and eliminates the need for heavy, custom-engineered fixed overhead anchor systems.

Weighing only 476 kg, its modular design makes it easy to assemble and transport.

The new Proto tethered tool system provides secure tool transfer for those working at heights. The system works with the SkyHook and uses active attachments that are always engaged, even during transfer from hand-to-hand, person-to-person or hand-to-holster.

Tools weighing up to six pounds are designed to break away with significant force should they get stuck in structures or machinery.

GUARDING AGAINST ARC FLASH Change is on the horizon for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) electrical safety standards.

Hugh Hoagland, senior consultant of e-Hazard.com in Louisville, Kentucky said at the NSC Congress and Expo in Chicago that the changes — initially slated to be promulgated in a final rule this past March — will affect electrical safety programs and move them towards compliance with the NFPA 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace and the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC).

Hoagland says most companies following the latest version of NFPA 70E or the NESC will not be affected. While the final rule is yet to be released despite the passing of the March deadline, he expects changes in the following areas: • Training: The existing requirement for employers to certify that employees have been trained would be replaced by a requirement for employers to determine that employees have demonstrated proficiency in the work practices

involved. Additional training would be required if a worker is not complying with safe work practices; new technology, equipment or changes in procedures necessitate the use of different safety-related work practices; or a worker must employ safe work practices not normally used during his or her regular job duties.

• Protective Clothing: Apart from conducting a hazard assessment to determine if a worker could be exposed to flame or electric arc, the employer must make a reasonable estimate of the maximum available heat energy to which the worker would be exposed and ensure that they wear clothing with an arc rating greater than or equal to the estimated heat energy. Arc-rated clothing will be law for generation, transmission and distribution work.

• Fall Protection: Fall distance may be decreased from six feet to two feet, and testing of harnesses for arc flash protection would be required, as per ASTM F887.

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DECEMBER 2013

41

ACCIDENT PREVENTION

SNOWMOBILES

Full Sled Ahead WORK AND PLAY: Snowmobiling may be a fun winter pastime, but these snow vehicles are also used for work, transporting materials and goods and getting around in remote locations. Industries that require their employees to use snowmobiles include forestry, mining, police services, communications technology and hospitality and tourism.

SAFETY FIRST: The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, found that the primary known causes in snowmobiling accidents in Maine between 1991 to 1996 were excessive speed (52 per cent of cases), inattention or careless operation (27 per cent), operating on a public roadway (two per cent), operating on a steep hill or snow bank (two per cent) and crossing unsafe ice (one per cent). The snowmobile safety pocket guide by the International Association of Snowmobile Administrators recommends the following actions when dealing with snowmobile injuries: • S pinal injuries: Look for pain in the neck or back and loss of movement or feeling in the fingers, hands, toes, feet or legs as these could indicate a spinal or neck injury. If spinal injury is suspected, do not remove the helmet or move the victim.

• B roken bones: Immobilize the limb and wait for a medical professional to arrive.

• C uts: If the victim has sustained a serious cut, apply a compress and tightly bandage the wound. Elevate the wound if it continues bleeding.

• F rostbite: Warm the frostbitten area slowly, but do not rub it with your hand, the snow or gasoline.

• Hypothermia: Uncontrolled shivering followed by stumbling, slow movement, mumbling and mental impairment are signs of hypothermia. Warm the victim with blankets, dry clothing, warm non-alcoholic liquids and direct body heat.

• S hock: To treat a person in shock, lay him or her down on the back if possible, cover the victim, provide shelter, raise the feet to improve circulation and seek help as soon as possible.

42

CAUTIONARY TALE: Riding a snowmobile can be a blast, but riders should use caution at every turn. An incident last February involving two employees down south is a case in point. A photographer and a sports editor from a local newspaper in Sheridan, Wyoming were seriously injured in a snowmobiling accident while working on a story about, well, snowmobiling.

A study published in 2008 by Toronto-based ThinkFirst Canada, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of brain and spinal cord injuries, found that in four separate years (1986, 1989, 1992 and 1995), there were a total of 290 catastrophic injuries involving snowmobiles in Ontario, of which 41 per cent resulted in fatality. Of the 290 individuals with catastrophic injuries, 33 per cent sustained head injuries, 30 per cent had chest injuries and 26 per cent suffered from spinal injuries.

PREP TIME: For those whose work requires travelling by snowmobile, taking basic precautions can go a long way in staying safe and sound. As far as possible, bring along a buddy, but never together on one snowmobile unless the model is designed for two. Inform someone of the travel plans and route and bring along a survival kit, which should include the following items: • spark plugs, drive/fan belts; • flares; • an extra ignition key; • a cellular or satellite phone; • a tow rope; • the trail map and a compass; • a screwdriver, wrench and hammer; • waterproof matches or a lighter; and • the owner’s manual; • a flashlight, knife and whistle.

DECEMBER 2013

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SLOW DOWN: As with any type of vehicle, excessive speed is a major contributing factor to accidents. Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) urges snowmobilers to obey speed limits and road trail signs. In Ontario, the speed limit for snowmobiles is 20 km/h on roads and trails where the speed limit is 50 km/h or less, and 50 km/h on trails and roads where the speed limit is above 50 km/h.

Whenever possible, ride on designated marked trails away from roads, waterways, railroads, pedestrians and other snowmobilers. Sled cautiously around turns and hazards such as wires, fences and rugged terrain. Avoid riding after dark when most accidents occur, but if that cannot be avoided, ride slowly during these hours and exercise caution at road and rail crossings.

Operation Lifesaver, an Ottawa-based organization that educates Canadians about railway and train hazards, recommends that sledders should cross train tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings and always expect a train at each highway-rail intersection.

WEATHER WATCH: Snowmobile safety begins before one steps out the door. The MTO recommends checking the weather forecast and current trail conditions before embarking on a trip.

When travelling on a snowmobile, avoid riding on ice, but if that cannot be avoided, wear a buoyant snowmobile suit and carry an ice pick that is easily accessible. Never ride on ice that is slushy, weak, refrozen or near running water.

Riders should dress in layers with a windproof outer shell, wear an insulated helmet and bring an extra set of dry clothes. When riding on slopes that are prone to avalanching, the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations (CCSO) says only one rider should be allowed at a time.

If a rider gets stuck in an area prone to avalanche, do not send a second snowmobiler to the rescue, as it is common for a second rider to turn above the stuck person and trigger an avalanche.

Approximately 33 per cent of snowmobile fatalities occur when a sled is stuck and 34 per cent involve more than one machine on a slope at the time of the avalanche, the CCSO reports. The BC Forest Safety Council advises riders to bring along beacons, shovels and probes in avalanche terrain and always keep tail lights and headlights on for increased visibility.

IN THE KNOW: Snowmobiles should be well maintained. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that employees keep their protective gear on when fueling, loading and unloading the snowmobile to prevent burns and injuries. They should also know the make and model of the snowmobile, and check the manufacturer’s website to see that the snowmobile has not been recalled.

It is in workers’ interests to take training courses in snowmobile riding and safety, avalanche avoidance and first aid. These courses provide important safety information, such as understanding snowmobile road signs and hand signals. The CCSO provides a comprehensive list of avalanche skills training resources available in Canada.

www.ohscanada.com

DECEMBER 2013

43

OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DISORDERS

From Thoughts to Words

By Jean Lian

A

study from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has found that people who develop progressive speech and language disorders (SLDs) are more than three times more likely to be teachers than patients with Alzheimer’s dementia.

Although the study did not identify why teaching is linked to the development of progressive SLDs, Dr. Keith Josephs, neurologist with the Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study released on October 15, notes that teachers have Speech and more opportunity to observe changes in their speech and language and are therelanguage fore more sensitive to the development of speech and language impairments. disorder “The study has important implications for early detection of progressive speech patients were and language disorders,” says Dr. Jo3.6 times sephs, adding that a large cohort study on teachers may identify the risk factors.

The study’s genesis dates back to sev- more likely to eral years ago, when researchers were rebe teachers. cruiting adult patients with progressive aphasia and/or apraxia of speech due to a progressive neurological disorder for a study funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. In the course of the study, researchers observed many patients were current or former teachers. A study to determine if the development of SLDs is associated with teaching was then commissioned.

VOICING CONCERNS About 100 patients who were treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for progressive SLDs between July 1, 2010 and December 3, 2012 participated in the study. Apart from documenting their occupation, they underwent a neurological examination, a detailed speech and language examination and magnetic resonance imaging to rule out any structural or post-traumatic lesions, such as strokes or tumours, which could account for the development of progressive SLDs. To weed out the possibility of institutional bias, researchers compared SLD patients to 404 patients suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia recruited between January 1996 and January 2006. Results of the SLD cohort were also compared to occupation data from the 2008 United States census.

Findings indicate that more than one-fifth (22 per cent) of the SLD cohort were teachers. In fact, SLD patients were 3.6 times more likely to be teachers than patients with Alzheimer’s dementia. Half (53 per cent) of the SLD patients were women with an average age of 65 at the onset of communication difficulties. “This finding suggests that there may be an 44

DECEMBER 2013

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association between progressive speech and language disorders and the occupation of teaching,” the study concludes.

“Teachers are unfortunately at risk of a double whammy,” says Dr. Lee Akst, assistant professor and director of John Hopkins Voice Centre in Baltimore. He cites a study published in 2004 by the University of Utah, which looked at the frequency and adverse effects of voice disorders on job performance and attendance among teachers and the general population.

The Utah study found that teachers were significantly more likely than non-teachers to report multiple voice symptoms including hoarseness, discomfort and increased effort while using their voices. They experienced a change in voice quality after short use; had difficulty projecting their voices or speaking or singing softly; and reported a loss of singing range. Teachers also missed more work days over the preceding year due to voice problems and were more likely to consider changing occupations because of their voices. The study concludes that occupationally-related voice dysfunction in teachers can have significant adverse effects on job performance, attendance and future career choices.

The environment plays a part. “Music teachers have higher rates of voice handicap than other teachers do, even though all teachers are at risk,” Dr. Akst says, adding that chemistry teachers also have high rates of voice handicap. “That perhaps relates to the occupational issues of chemical fumes.”

Carla Di Gironimo, director of speech language pathology with the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists in Ottawa, says there are different types of SLDs, which can develop in childhood or later in life. If an adult develops a SLD, “it’s most likely related to a neurological event or a stroke, a brain tumour or a head injury.”

Symptoms of a SLD include the inability to find words, speaking around a word or having difficulty producing the correct sounds. Unlike Alzheimer’s dementia, which is characterized by memory loss, SLDs are degenerative.

Gironimo says a speech disorder is more physical in nature since it involves the production of sounds. On the other hand, a language disorder deals with the cognitive faculty and the ability to put thoughts into words. “You definitely want to distinguish between the two, because the treatment is not the same,” she notes.

Dr. Akst recommends maintaining good vocal hygiene such as ensuring adequate hydration, avoiding the drying effects of over-the-counter medicine and not consuming too much caffeine and alcohol, can reduce the strain on vocal chords. He also advises teachers to avoid developing a musclestrain pattern, which can reduce voice quality. “If you feel like you are pushing too hard with your voice and have the opportunity to rest it, that’s when you should rest your voice.”

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Jean Lian is editor of

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DECEMBER 2013

45

ANNUAL INDEX 2013 Accident Prevention Full Sled Ahead

December................................42

Guardians of Safety

April/May................................52

Pins and Needles

July/August.............................48

Slow Burn

June..........................................44

Taking the Lead

October/November................48

Too Tall to Fall

September...............................30

Under Current

January/February...................52

Under Pressure

March.......................................64

Bullying and Harassment Above and Beyond

By Samuel Dunsiger January/February...................44

Domino effect found in bullying at work

By Jean Lian April/May................................22

Deadly Mimicry

By Sabrina Nanji March.......................................34

Hauntings from Ground Zero

By Jason Contant April/May................................48

Certification

In the Air

Health facility accused of rodent, bed bug infestation

Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Injuries

By Jean Lian December................................15

By Jeff Cottrill December................................14

Lack of guarding in pasta machine claims worker

By Brian Moskowitz September...............................18

By Danny Kucharsky January/February...................32

Combustible Materials Picking up the Pieces

By Jason Contant September...............................34

Cybercrime Dangerous Access

By Donalee Moulton September...............................46

Dispatches Absenteeism tracking needs work, report concludes

By Jason Contant December................................14

ohs canada

By Ann Ruppenstein October/November................36

Change from Inside Out

By Sabrina Nanji July/August.............................44

Different by Design

By Jean Lian October/November................50

Look before drinking: toxic fluid in vodka bottle nets fine

Tackling Chronic Pain

Santa sleighs on a garbage truck in the Yukon

Fatigue

By Sabrina Nanji April/May................................21

By Jason Contant January/February...................21

Trees left out in the cold when nursery roof collapses

By Sabrina Nanji June..........................................21

University designs new oil and gas safety gear

By Greg Burchell April/May................................22

By Jason Contant June..........................................21

Diversity/Safety Culture Crossing Cultures

By Danny Kucharsky September...............................40

Cultural fit first, then skills: study

Work in Progress

DECEMBER 2013

Electrical work unsafe despite dip in fatalities

WorkSafeNB provides update on West Nile virus

Carcinogens

46

C A N A D A

By Jean Lian January/February...................20

Forest fire lessons go cross-cultural

By Greg Burchell January/February...................21

Immigrants in precarious employment after layoffs

By Jean Lian September...............................19

Nova Scotia focuses on cultivating a safety culture

By Greg Burchell June..........................................18

Entertainment

Acrobat killed in fall during live performance

By Sabrina Nanji September...............................19

By Jason Contant March.......................................62

Connectivity to work cited for burnout, fatigue

By Jean Lian January/February...................22

Sweet Repose

By Ann Ruppenstein January/February...................38

Fish Harvesting Rough Waters

By Samuel Dunsiger April/May................................38

Foreign Workers Foot in the Door

By Carmelle Wolfson October/November................46

Magazine launched for Mexican foreign workers

By Greg Burchell June..........................................20

Manitoba’s seasonal farm workers get healthcare

By Greg Burchell July/August.............................20

Silence on the Floor

By Jean Lian January/February...................26

Hazardous Exposures Fibre Optics

By Peter Kenter June..........................................22

Plant in Quebec reopens after ammonia leak

By Jeff Cottrill October/November................20

Safe around Silica

By David Gambrill October/November................24

Health and Well-Being A pat on the back for efforts to improve worker health

By Jason Contant March.......................................24

Attendance and feel-good go hand in hand

By Jean Lian July/August.............................19

Measuring Wellness

By Brian Moskowitz September...............................22

Seeing red is good for mood: study concludes

By Jean Lian October/November................20

Work, like wine, gets finer with age

By Jean Lian April/May................................23

Institutional Kitchens What’s Cooking?

By William M. Glenn March.......................................40

Legal Matters Court upholds dismissal of drunkdriving employee

By Jason Contant December................................15

Ontario clarifies use of due diligence defence

By Greg Burchell March.......................................25

Redefining the Workplace

By Jean Lian June..........................................46

Meatpacking Hazards Silence on the Floor

By Jean Lian January/February...................26

Mental Health College certifies staff in mental-health first aid

By Jason Contant April/May................................21

Moves to Mental Health

By Kim Toews July/August.............................46

Rookie first responders at risk of mental trauma

By Jean Lian April/May................................20

Treatment of mental injuries in the military goes high-tech

y Sabrina Nanji and B Greg Burchell July/August.............................20

Mining Going Underground

By Greg Burchell March.......................................56

Study probes cost of work-related injuries in mining

By Jason Contant June..........................................19

Taking Refuge

By Riva Gold June..........................................34

Under the Radar

By Peter Kenter December................................22

Mobile Devices Connectivity to work cited for burnout, fatigue

By Jean Lian January/February...................22

New app helps track down farmers in tractor rollovers

By Jean Lian September...............................20

New safety app blows into construction worksites

By Jason Contant June..........................................18

Noise Exposure

Safety Gear

For Whom the Decibel Tolls

All Eyes on Eyes

Hear Today, Hear Tomorrow

Arc of Safety

By Greg Burchell September...............................24

By Sabrina Nanji July/August.............................40

Obesity A healthy weight can ward off risk of migraine: study

By Jean Lian October/November................22

Tips on surviving driving in winter conditions

By Greg Burchell January/February...................48

By Jason Contant March.......................................58

Forbidden Grounds

By Sabrina Nanji April/May................................44

Easy as ABC

By Greg Burchell June..........................................40

Firms dangle cash rewards to workers who lose weight

Hazard at Hand

When Size Matters

Hear Today, Hear Tomorrow

By Jean Lian March.......................................24

By Greg Burchell April/May................................24

Occupational Hygiene From Thoughts to Words

By Jean Lian December................................44

Hauntings from Ground Zero

By Jason Contant April/May................................48

Shades of Beauty

By Sabrina Nanji January/February...................46

Organized Labour Safety in Numbers

By Carmelle Wolfson October/November................30

Postal Workers Prevention week takes a bite out of dog attacks

By Jason Contant July/August.............................19

Shine a little safety light for postal workers

By Greg Burchell January/February...................20

Professional SportsRelated Injuries Call for change in hockey culture to reduce injury risk

By Sabrina Nanji March.......................................25

For Whom the Decibel Tolls

By Greg Burchell September...............................24

Grey Matter

By Jason Contant March.......................................28

Productivity/Spatial Design A Healing Space

By Jean Lian April/May................................50

By Carmelle Wolfson December................................36

By Sabrina Nanji July/August.............................40

Learning from Remote

By Jean Lian September...............................30

By Jean Lian January/February...................22

Transportation board takes safety to Twitter, YouTube

By Sabrina Nanji April/May................................20

Truck with oversized load brought down bridge

By Sabrina Nanji July/August.............................18

Use of Force Stunning Divide

By Donalee Moulton December................................16

Use-of-force policy in law enforcement scrutinized

By Jason Contant October/November................21

Workers’ Compensation

Staying in Touch

Above and Beyond

Training

Benchmarking Safety

By Jeff Cottrill October/November................42

Going Underground

By Greg Burchell March.......................................56

Learning from Remote

By Jean Lian September...............................30

Mountain resort workers get slope safety training

By Sabrina Nanji January/February...................24

New flight training centre opens doors in Ontario

By Sabrina Nanji July/August.............................20

Young worker blitz points to training, knowledge gaps

By Greg Burchell June..........................................20

Yukon firefighters get new mobile training unit

By Jason Contant October/November................23

Transportation Excess baggage, too little fuel cited in helicopter crash

By Jean Lian June..........................................19

Road rage a major safety risk for drivers: study

By Jean Lian March.......................................26

See-and-avoid cited as cause of crash

By Jeff Cottrill October/November................23

By Samuel Dunsiger January/February...................44

By Jeff Cottrill December................................34

Changing the Landscape

By Sabrina Nanji June..........................................48

Work-Life Balance Guilty of time off? Verdict: You are a workaholic

By Jean Lian July/August.............................18

Thoughts on family more stressful for working moms

By Jean Lian October/November................21

Workplace Violence Code of silence in jails leads to violence: ombudsman

By Sabrina Nanji September...............................18

On the Road

By Kelly Putter December................................28

Up in Arms

By Ann Ruppenstein April/May................................32

Young Workers Passing the Torch

By Sabrina Nanji June..........................................28

Young worker blitz points to training, knowledge gaps

By Greg Burchell June..........................................20

www.ohscanada.com

DECEMBER 2013

47

PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY occupational health and safety

SLANSKY LAW Professional Corporation

CRIMINAL AND REGULATORY LAW TRIAL AND APPEAL LAWYER (over 27 years of experience) FORMER O.H.S.A. PROSECUTOR (2004-2007): • Prosecuted Industrial, Construction and Mining cases, primarily fatalities and some critical injury cases (including Inco, Cementation Skanska, EllisDon, Shiu Pong, Enbridge, Great West Life, Lee Valley Tools & Clean Harbors) • Prosecuted the only O.H.S.A. case in Ontario that was also prosecuted under the Criminal Code; Industrial Hygiene

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Drinking Water Resources, Environmental Management Systems Environmental Permits and Approvals, Geomatics and Data Management Hydrogeology and Hydrology, Site Assessment and Remediation Waste Management, Water and Wastewater Treatment Water Control and Power Generation

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

VISIT OUR WEBSITE:

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• Founding member of the Ministry of Labour, Legal Services Branch, Appeal and Division of Powers (Federal vs. Provincial jurisdiction) Committees.

Paul Slansky phone: (416) 536-1220 Barrister and Solicitor fax: (416) 536-8842 B.A (McMaster), LL.B. (Windsor) & J.D. (Detroit) 1062 College St., Lower Level Toronto, Ontario, M6H 1A9 paul.slansky@bellnet.ca

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So, what’s on your mind?

DECEMBER 2013

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013

Do unions help reduce workplace injury and fatality?

Yes 36% No 50% Not Sure

14%

Total Votes

139

Is the noise level to which workers in sports arenas are exposed underrecognized?

Yes 82% No 18% Total Votes

89

Go on — have your say.

Check out www.ohscanada.com to vote in our latest poll.

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DECEMBER 2013

49

TIME OUT NINJA TURTLE: In a tiff between the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association and the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, a turtle has come out on top. Yertle the Turtle, a children’s book about a turtle trying to assert its rights, proved a tad too political for some school districts, which banned classroom displays of union posters, buttons and T-shirts — including a poster of Yertle — in the midst of a teachers’ contract dispute, The Canadian Press reports.

The teachers’ federation charged that this was an example of employers stifling freedom of expression in the workplace.

Following the settlement of a freedom-of-expression grievance between the teachers’ federation and the association in October, the story book is no longer verboten in the province’s public schools. Yertle, for his part, says he will continue fighting the good fight.

DIRTY JOBS: Along with fetching coffees and operating Xerox machines, Canadian students can add scrubbing toilets, making beds and wiping tables to the list of skills they have acquired as unpaid interns. Over the summer, a swanky hotel in Vancouver solicited an unpaid intern to clear tables, The Toronto Star reports. The duties carried out by interns at another hotel in Toronto involved discarding used condoms and picking up balls of hair. The coordinator of Humber College’s internship program reportedly defended the practice, saying, “No job is too small.” Free labour or not, one thing is clear: gaining work experience for those fresh out of school certainly comes at a cost.

GREENER PASTURE: If one wants to rob a bank and get

away with it, crossing the border and playing cross-gender dress-up may just be enough to throw police off track. This was what a man from Florida did when he disguised himself as a female clown — complete with a pair of Nerf balls as breasts, no less — and robbed a credit union in Winnipeg last December. A teller handed over thousands of dollars in traceable “bait” money to the man who fled, The Globe and Mail reports. But the robber was found and sentenced to eight years in prison on October 15. No word on what made the man from down south pull off this harebrained act up north.

RESTIVE SHUTEYE: The jobs of a city worker and a man-

ager may be on the line after a photograph of a worker sleeping at a desk in the weight room of a community centre in Toronto surfaced. The photograph was released by councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who charged that his office had been receiving complaints about this employee and his tendency to put his head down while people are working on the weights, CBC News reported on October 17. The president of CUPE Local 79 says the city is looking into the matter and the employee is innocent until proven guilty.

BLIND CHEATS: Ever wish you were afforded the privi-

leges of a person with disabilities? Dog owners in the United States have been faking disabilities by playing doggy dress-up with their pets and strapping “service animal” signs on them, the Associated Press reported on October 10. While faking a

50

DECEMBER 2013

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service pet is a crime down south, lax laws mean owners have been getting away with sneaking imposter pets into stores where animals are banned. In one alleged case, a phony service dog peed all over a couple of pricey Indian rugs in a furniture store. Authorities in the United States are considering implementing stricter laws and enforcement.

JACK-IN-THE-BOX: Slips, trips and burns are not the only workplace hazards that fast-food employees need to look out for these days. It seems that unruly customers might prove just as injurious to these workers. On October 15, a customer at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Washington became furious when he was asked to pay 25 cents for the third packet of ranch dressing after getting two packets for free, The Huffington Post reports. A 68-year-old customer tried to mediate the altercation but was shoved to the ground by the irate customer, who stormed off. While condiments like ranch dressing can enhance the flavour of food, the man who made a ruckus at the restaurant would be well advised to take things with a pinch of salt.

COP OUT: A former Israeli top cop has been charged with

workplace sexual harassment. His defence? Everyone else was doing it! The district commander who has since resigned from his post was indicted in October for fraud, breach of trust, indecent acts and sexual harassment of lower-ranking women police officers, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports. At his disciplinary hearing, the former commander of the Jerusalem District Police and his lawyers argued that in Israel, it is the norm for high-ranking male officers to have sexual relations with female subordinates. He is also charged with committing sexual offenses during work in his office, his car and a police installation — on top of (no innuendoes intended) performing sexual acts in other places, like his mother’s home.

QUESTIONABLE MOTIVES: A baggage handler, who was accused of using an abandoned container of dry ice to fashion bombs at the Los Angeles International Airport, may have given the sublimating qualities of dry ice a whole new meaning. A plastic bottle packed with dry ice exploded in a bathroom and another blew up on the airport’s tarmac, while a third unexploded plastic bottle was also found on the tarmac on October 13, The Associated Press reports. The 28-yearold worker was arrested in connection with the incident.

NO CHILD’S PLAY: Workers in Bangladesh have yet another reason to feel that employers are playing a game with their rights. A local foundation that seeks to empower readymade garment workers in the country has helped popularize a board game about workers’ rights by opening a small office in a Dhaka neighbourhood where female factory workers congregate after work, The Toronto Star reported in October.

The board game teaches workers about issues like compassion pay, maternity leave and overtime. While playing games about labour law might not sound like fun, these workers play for scraps of soap as a reward. Roll the dice, baby.

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