OHS Canada January/February 2014

C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E J AN UARY / F E BR U ARY 2014

C A N A D A

On Edge Caring at arm’s length

IN THE TRENCHES

Shoring up safety in excavation work

A HELPING HAND

Workforce challenges in the oil and gas sector

ELUSIVE ENEMY

On the defensive against influenza

DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE

Getting a handle on workplace disability

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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

W O RK PLAC E V IOLEN C E 22

CC A A NNA AD DA A

Caring for Caregivers

J A NU A RY/ F E B RU A RY 201 4 Volu m e 3 0 , N u m b e r 1

Healthcare workers and others in caregiving roles are vulnerable to violence from the people to whom they provide care. Are we doing enough to protect them?

BY JEFF COTTRILL

W O RK F OR C E C HALLEN GES 28

Help Wanted

Canada’s oil and gas industry may be booming, but it is also grappling with labour shortages and finding skilled workers to meet the needs of the growing sector.

BY ANN RUPPENSTEIN

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E X CAVATION

22

Going Underground

Digging trenches and engaging in excavation jobs is risky business. Having the proper safeguards can prevent hazards like cave-ins from taking a toll on workers.

BY DANNY KUCHARSKY

DEPARTMENTS L AW F I LE 4 0

28

Keep on Trucking

The definition of disability can be very broad. Employers can stay on the right side of the law by ensuring that they have discharged their duty to accommodate.

BY JEFF COTTRILL

42

H E ALT H WATC H

Fighting Microbes

British Columbia’s move to mandate the flu shot for healthcare workers has sparked controversy and raised questions about the effectiveness of flu vaccines.

BY JEAN LIAN

34 IN THIS ISSUE ED ITORIA L

4

PAN ORAMA

6

LETTERS

8

A Precarious State

OH &S UPD AT E

Employer in British Columbia fined for contempt; Alberta issues Hepatitis A alert; Saskatchewan introduces asbestos registry; officer in Manitoba assaulted; Ontario mandates safety training; Prince Edward Island holds video contest; and more.

D ISPATCHES

Exercise helps stave off depression; smoking hurts productivity; forestry worker meets wolves; and more.

P R ODUC T S HO W C A S E AN N UAL R EA D ER P O L L P R OFESS IO N A L D IR EC T O RY AD IN D EX

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ACCI DE NT P R EV EN TION

Handle with Care

The increasing use of antineoplastics warrants the adoption of safety measures to protect workers who handle and administer these anti-cancer drugs.

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S AF E T Y GEAR

10

Feet First

For those who work in challenging and dangerous environments, keeping hazards at bay starts from the bottom by wearing the proper safety footwear.

BY CARMELLE WOLFSON

TIME OUT

Baiting game; pot-smoking Mountie; puck talk; notes from the underground; snip and strip; painful gains; and more.

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20

49 50 52 53

If safety is a joke, then death is the punchline.

– PAUL LAFOREST

www.ohscanada.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

3

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

A Precarious State

I

t is a sign of the times. Ontario’s introduction of a bill in December that, if passed, would strengthen protections for vulnerable workers, reflects the prevailing situation in the employment market in which precarious work is fast becoming the norm.

The proposed bill eliminates the $10,000 cap on the recovery of unpaid wages, prohibits employers from charging fees and seizing personal documents like passports from temporary foreign workers, and makes temporary help agencies and their clients liable for violations of employment standards.

A report by McMaster University and United Way Toronto, released in February of 2013, reveals that precarious employment is increasing, with only 60 per cent of workers in the Greater Toronto Area having stable, secure jobs. Drawing on data from Statistics Canada and a survey by the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario research group, numbers indicate that precarious employment has gone up by nearly 50 per cent in the last 20 years.

Precarious work is characterized by job instability, lack of benefits, low wages and little control over the employment process. Part-time jobs, self-employment, contract and temporary work are permutations of this non-standard employment.

The Vulnerable Workers and Precarious Work: Final Report, released by the Law Commission of Ontario in December of 2012, cites the increased reliance on contract workers, the decline of the manufacturing industry, the information revolution and technological advances as among the contributing factors.

The rise of precarious work is a global phenomenon. The United States, which has a sizable underground economy comprising those who cannot find full-time or regular work, is estimated to be worth about $2 trillion. The opening of borders in Europe and the creation of a single market through the eurozone, which allows the free movement of people among member countries, have led to an influx of people from Eastern Europe coming in droves to look for work in the more affluent west.

“As the numbers of economically active Europeans have expanded and as labour markets have become more flexible, the numbers who did not have a fixed working week and permanent contracts also grew,” says the 2012 Study on Precarious Work and Social Rights, commissioned by the European Commission.

Immigrants are not the only ones who are susceptible to precarious employment. In China, the awakening of the dragon has led to a significant migration of the local population from rural parts of the country to seek work in cities and booming financial centres like Shanghai.

The growth of the underground economy and precarious employment goes hand in hand, often with health and safety repercussions. The report by the Law Commission of Ontario argues that decentralizing work activities through subcontracting limits investment in health and safety and disrupts coordination, particularly in workplaces where in-house and temporary agency workers are working together. As smaller businesses generally have poorer health and safety records due to limited resources, “the outsourcing of work by larger businesses to smaller businesses causes a health and safety squeeze further down the supply chain,” the report concludes.

Ontario’s latest bid to beef up protection of vulnerable workers is laudable and a step in the right direction. While globalization continues to fuel the rising tide of precarious employment, economic conveniences should not become an excuse to exploit labour and undo the health and safety gains that have taken decades to build.

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Jean Lian

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ohs canada

C A N A D A

Vol. 30, No. 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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: JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

JUNE 10 - 12, 2014 Stampede Park

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panorama 144,865

Number of injuries reported to WorkSafeBC in 2012.

Source: WorkSafeBC

1 2

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Avalanche Safety: WorkSafeBC is seeking feedback on a proposed amendment to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation that will introduce effective avalanche risk-assessment regulations applicable to all workplaces where employees are at risk of an avalanche. The consultation phase lasts until January 31, followed Source: WorkSafeBC by a public hearing in mid-2014.

1.

2. Within

Limits: The Public Sector Services Continuation Act or Bill 45, announced on November 27, will introduce measures that can be applied when an illegal strike, or threat of an illegal strike, occurs in Alberta. Under the proposed legislation, which will apply to more than 100,000 unionized workers prohibited from striking under the province’s Labour Relations Code and Public Service Employee Relations Act, stiffer penalties will hold unions and individuals who break the law accountable and protect taxpayers from the costs of illegal strike action.

$97,500

Highest penalty issued to BC Hydro for four workplace incidents between 2006 and 2010, according to WorkSafeBC’s latest list of 31 administrative penalties imposed on employers, released on November 19.

Source: WorkSafeBC

Source: Alberta Human Services

3. Changes

Underwater: Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has proposed an update to the Regulation for Diving Operations to reflect current technology and work practices. The amendments would align regulatory requirements with Canadian Standards Association standards, shorten non-saturation deep-diving rest periods from 24 hours to 18 hours and increase bottom times for depths between 165 and 195 feet from 30 to 40 minutes. If approved, the amendments would go into force on March 1.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour 4. Pat

on the Back: Two companies in New Brunswick were recognized by WorkSafeNB on November 8 for their workplace health and safety efforts. Steel manufacturer MQM Quality Manufacturing Ltd. in TracadieSheila was acknowledged for its low accident frequency, while Pine Grove Nursing Home in Fredericton was apSource: WorkSafeNB plauded for introducing initiatives that support mental, emotional and physical well-being.

5. Eye on Sharps: The Workers Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island has released a new resource to help employers and employees safely manage sharps and needlestick hazards in the workplace. The Prevention Update on Sharps and Needlestick Hazard Management describes the risk factors and best practices for the use, transfer, storage and disposal of needles, syringes and other sharp objects. Source: Workers Compensation Board of PEI

360° 6

FACTORY FIRE IN FASHION CAPITAL At least seven people died and three were injured when a Chinese-owned clothing factory in the Tuscan city of Prato, Italy burned down on December 1. Eleven workers had reportedly been living in a makeshift dormitory attached to the workshop. The disaster underlined unsafe conditions on the site and in similar workshops operating in the area, which houses a large number of Chinese-owned textile factories.

Source: The Associated Press

$50,000

Fine issued on November 19 to the Town of Bracebridge in Ontario after a young worker was injured while maintaining a hiking trail. A worker driving a tractor down an incline lost control of the equipment, which rolled over and pinned the young worker’s leg in August of 2011.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour

40%

Percentage of employers who reported reduced absenteeism as one of the outcomes resulting from wellness programs.

Source: Sun Life-Buffett National Wellness Survey 2013

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ohs canada

LETTERS

Recent issues of ohs canada and our website, www.ohscanada.com, have provided readers with plenty to chew on.

REVIEW NEEDED: UNION The union representing workers in the armored car industry called for changes following the deaths of three guards. (Canadian Occupational Health and Safety News (cohsn), November 18, 2013) This needs to happen. The safety measures put in place to protect these employees are despicable! They are forced to drive unsafe vehicles and the organization of shifts makes for a stressinduced employee who cannot focus on the job. The issue of dropping to twoperson crews is unacceptable.

No one is brave enough to handle that sort of money in public... Every person has the right to a safe working environment. And the only way a change will come about is to strike.

Ross

SMOKING HURTS PRODUCTIVITY A report from the Conference Board of Canada says employees who smoke have a detrimental effect on their firms’ bottom line. (cohsn, November 11, 2013) I respectfully disagree with some comments made. A quote from the Conference Board of Canada website: “Unsanctioned smoking breaks make up about 90 per cent of the cost to employers at a cost of $3,842 per full-time employee — a 26 per cent increase since the Conference Board estimated the costs of smoking in 2005, published in Smoking and the Bottom Line: Updating the Costs of Smoking in the Workplace.”

The key word for me is “unsanctioned”. Whether it is smoking, grabbing a snack or going to the washroom 20 times throughout the day, these habits all have a significant impact on the bottom line. I believe it is up to the 8

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ohs canada

employer, along with workplace supervisors, to ensure that this type of behaviour is identified and appropriate steps are taken to address the issue at hand.

I agree there are many people who want to quit smoking (lose weight, generally be healthier, et cetera) and I definitely encourage employers to help those who need it. This is part of our ongoing transition into a health and safety-minded culture, and we need as much positive reinforcement as possible to keep the trend going in the right direction!

Safety Guy

Interesting article indeed. “Our” smokers will argue that they are having work meetings while huddled around the outdoor ashtray in the sub-zero weather... Fair enough, but what about us non-smokers, who must wait for them to come back in and resume working in the typical sense? (Not to mention we have no choice but to endure the smell of their stale smoke on their clothes, hands and breath.)

It is ridiculous and I, for one, am pleased to read the financial cost of this behaviour is finally being noticed!

Melanie in Safety

TALKING SAFETY Safety culture in the nursing profession was the focus of a meeting between provincial health ministers and union representatives. (cohsn, October 21, 2013) I find this article interesting because a close relative of mine has just gone on disability from her personal support worker (PSW) job, due to injuries on the job at a long-term care home.

The number of injuries in this setting is grossly under-reported because of a number of reasons, which include employers not allowing PSWs to complete a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) form, non-accommodation policies and fear of being a single source of income in a family.

I believe that the Ministry of Labour and the WSIB are not inspecting and/or investigating these work sites properly.

Mike

TRAPPED MINER RESCUED A worker was rescued after being trapped in a mine in Saskatchewan. (the canadian press, October 21, 2013) I am very happy this worker is recovering from this incident, but wonder why it was an hour before he was discovered.

Why was his partner so far away?

They should have been in the buddyup position and communication relay for call-in after all blasts. The Golden Hour to get a trauma patient to hospital definitely applies to this situation. Let us hope he reaches a full recovery.

Cindee Grant

LABOUR CODE CHANGES Unions oppose proposed changes to the federal labour code, including amendments to work-refusal rights. (cohsn, November 4, 2013) More than 80 per cent of work refusals were found that they were not dangerous, [but that] does not support that the Occupational Health and Safety Act must be changed. Chronic diseases, such as lung cancers and reproductive issues, are way more dangerous than “dangerous unsafe conditions”.

Fanny Feds

MAN’S BEST FRIEND Edmonton police call for stronger laws to protect police dogs after a K9 was killed. (the canadian press, October 7, 2013) If we are going to use dogs and horses as part of law enforcement, then those

animals should be considered as lawenforcement officers and treated as such. There should be harsher penalties than ‘cruelty to animals.’ There are significant financial and emotional investments made when using dogs and horses in law enforcement.

Kris Kiviaho

TOO LOW TO BE TRUE A research institute at the University of Alberta claims the provincial government misrepresented annual workplace injuries. (cohsn, October 7, 2013) What is the value of tracking minor injuries that do not need to be reported?

Is it relevant how many carpenters got a wood sliver or how many sheet-metal workers suffered a minor cut to their finger? The fact is, even the injuries that are reported are often symptoms of a pre-existing condition, rather than the result of poor safety practices.

Many ‘accidents’ are not really accidents, because they are just a progressive condition (like arthritis) that is aggravated from normal work activities.

The general public does not appreciate how often a workers’ compensation claim has nothing to do with safety and prevention, and far more to do with the health of the worker.

Statistics can be very misleading. For example, the majority of work-related fatalities are multi-vehicular accidents (MVAs) and they occur in circumstances that are the same as those MVAs [in which] no one is in the course of their employment. Slippery roads and drunk drivers who cross the centre line are a risk to everyone, whether they are in the course of their employment or not.

In some years, workers’ compensation board (WCB) fatalities increase because a harsh winter produced poor road conditions, which in turn caused more MVAs. Employers did not suddenly become unsafe — the weather was the only factor.

If the WCB was to separately record the sudden events that lead to an injury (such as slips, trips and falls), the accident rate would actually appear quite low. This is because employers have done a lot of work over the past 20 years to improve safety, so many of the accidents they are seeing are simply

a reflection of an aging workforce and a younger generation often not physically prepared for labour intensive work. The WCB could do more to improve the metrics they publish by providing more detail in the information they capture.

Curtis Forbes

Well Curtis, you represent precisely the type of “blame the victim” attitude, which has prevailed throughout the WCB’s history. In fact, your logic is precisely the same one that has been used in the WCB’s repeated attempts to refuse to cover lung cancer as a result of asbestos exposure, simply because it ‘might have had to do with something else during one’s life course.’

The fact is, many of the “injuries” are actually diseases which are not included, because they do not immediately result in loss of work. It is precisely through the manipulation of reporting and lobbying to have injuries de-scheduled that the WCB has been successful in ensuring that workers have zero protection should injuries or illnesses present themselves in later years. That is why it is important that minor injuries be reported, because government and industry have lobbied endlessly to set out what is considered ‘minor’ and what is not.

I am stunned by the statement that the younger generation is “often not physically prepared for labour intensive work” and as a result, are somehow accident-prone. Anyone who has done even a modicum of research into workplace safety practices knows that this model was disproved heartily decades ago...There are dozens of cases (notably amongst car manufacturers) where they have investigated workplaces with high levels of injuries chocked up to ‘poor physical health’ when it has been clearly revealed that it was, in fact, institutionalized unsafe practices that were leading to injury.

currently dealing with the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) and I am somewhat taken aback at their modus operandi.

An MRI report following an ankle fracture sustained at work and which necessitated two surgeries, showed a non-displaced osteochondral fracture, narrowing of the ankle, mortise, torn deep tibiotalar ligament, suspected partially torn tibiofibular ligament, completely torn anterior talofibular ligament [and] significant amount of oedema at the ankle joint and the dorsum of the midfoot. They have refused compression stockings and orthopaedic shoes.

I am currently contesting this decision. As said before, the Commission has left a lot to be desired as to how they operate or carrying out reviews, et cetera. I am not afraid of reprisal, as the truth will always set you free.

Yvonne Sam

TRANSIT SAFETY Bus drivers lobbied for safety at a roundtable meeting on Parliament Hill on August 20. (cohsn, September 2, 2013)

Kyla Sentes

Speaking as a former New Yorker, now a New Jerseyan, I remember that bus drivers were assaulted for the fares back in the 1960s. What bus companies did was to go to exact fares. The money was deposited into fare boxes and into lock boxes at the bottom.

But assaults increased over the years.

Even the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City had to build new token booths for their employees who worked in them, because people would rob them by setting the booths on fire or shoot at them.

I think that bus drivers and others should be placed in booths. And I am sad to say this, but cameras should be placed in them and the people should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

ADMINISTRATIVE INFLEXIBILITY CITED

James Kerner Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Quebec’s ombudsperson criticized the workplace safety board for its “inflexibility”. (cohsn, September 30, 2013) I am not in the least bit surprised. I am

Would you like to share a comment?

Send an email to jlian@ohscanada.com.

Letters may be edited for style, grammar and length.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

9

OH&S UPDATE

MAIL DELIVERY CHANGES IN SIGHT FEDERAL — The union representing Canadian postal workers has approved an interim measure for mail delivery across the country, after a federal arbitrator found that the previous method created an additional risk of slip, trip and fall accidents in the workplace.

The move stems from arbitrator Kevin Burkett’s decision on October 17, which concluded that the so-called two-bundle method — in which a stack of electronically pre-sorted letter mail is held in one hand, with a second bundle of manually sorted “longs and shorts” held horizontally on the forearm — created an additional risk of slip, trip and fall hazards due to the second bundle.

He also noted in the Canada Industrial Relations Board decision that as an employer, Canada Post had “failed to comply with its statutory and contractual obligations by not conducting a thorough workplace risk assessment in

connection with the introduction of the two-bundle delivery method.”

On November 6, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post attended a mediation hearing where Canada Post proposed three interim options, none of which require mail to be carried horizontally across the forearm.

“The arbitrator found that, as an interim measure, the removal of the mail held horizontally across the forearm restores the field of vision and the letter carrier’s balance as it existed under the onebundle delivery method and, as a result, addresses the finding of increased risk of slips, trips and falls,” Philippe Arbour, the CUPW’s national grievance officer wrote in a safety bulletin released on November 14. The three interim methods are as follows: • Carrying both bundles in the left hand; • Carrying both bundles on the left arm and hand, held with the fingers of the hand; and

• C arrying two bundles: the sequenced mail bundle in the left hand and the manual mail bundle in a satchel, similar to the designated United States Postal Service’s delivery method.

“This method is the one that most closely resembles the previous mail delivery method,” Arbour wrote when explaining why the union favoured the last interim method. “However, we do have reservations about this method, because we believe ergonomic risks may appear in the medium term, as submitted to the arbitrator,” he adds.

At the hearing, the CUPW proposed “casing” the pre-sorted letter mail along with the manually sorted longs and shorts to make a single bundle held in the hand — a method that has been used since the implementation of the two-bundle delivery method in 2010 without requiring additional overtime.

Burkett recommended that the union and employer meet to discuss whether or not this is a viable solution.

NEW REGULATIONS FOR OFFSHORE HELICOPTER OPERATIONS FEDERAL — In response to a 2009 helicopter disaster that killed 17 people in Newfoundland, Canada’s Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt proposed new regulations for the safety of offshore helicopter operations on November 16.

Among the proposed changes, operators of offshore choppers would be required to supply emergency underwater breathing apparatuses to all onboard passengers, while crew members would have to wear custom-made, water-immersion survival suits. In addition, offshore helicopter operations in which ditching or crash landing an airplane in the water is unsafe due to water conditions or weather, would be prohibited.

A statement from Raitt’s office says the possible changes resulted from a series of recommendations from Transport Canada, the United States Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency. Another influence was a report on a helicopter crash by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. In March of 2009, a Cougar Helicopters Inc. Sikorsky S-92 helicopter ditched near St. John’s while on its way to a couple of Newfoundland oil fields. Both pilots were killed, as were 15 of the 16 passengers.

Robert Wells, a retired Newfoundland judge who conducted a public inquiry into offshore helicopter safety and made recommendations to Transport Canada following the tragedy, says he feels that the ministry is on the right track.

“I’m glad to see that they’re moving on the issue. That’s im-

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portant,” he notes.

Wells initially recommended against offshore helicopter night flights, due to the increased difficulty of rescuing passengers of ditched choppers at night. But since then, he has seen significant improvements in rescue ability. “At the time, we didn’t have a dedicated search-and-rescue helicopter,” explains Wells, referring to 2010 when he made his original recommendations. “We didn’t have forward-looking infrared radar and we didn’t have auto hover.” Now, a dedicated helicopter can be in the air with a rescue team in 20 minutes, which is well past the standard. “The helicopter is dedicated to search-and-rescue and nothing else, so we’re far better equipped to do a rescue than we were back in 2010.”

Wells praises Raitt’s proposals for taking into account the weather and water conditions. “This is good that they have begun to look at it in that way — that certain conditions are so severe on the ocean that it may not be advisable to fly,” he says, adding that one should always bear in mind that there could be a ditching. He also notes recent improvements in survival suits for both pilots and passengers.

Stakeholders had a 30-day consultation period to comment on the proposed regulations through the Canada Gazette, Part 1 process. “Transport Canada will take into account all comments,” the statement notes.

— By Jeff Cottrill

PLANE CRASH CLAIMS FIVE FEDERAL — The Transportation Safety

Board of Canada (TSB) is investigating the crash of a Bearskin Airlines flight near Red Lake, Ontario that claimed five people on November 10.

According to the North West Region Headquarters of the Ontario Provincial Police, the plane was heading to Red Lake from Sioux Lookout, Ontario. Both pilots were killed, as were three of five passengers. Police confirmed that the three passenger victims had all been based in Red Lake. The two survivors from Winnipeg were both transported from the scene by ambulance with nonlife threatening injuries.

The TSB sent a team of investigators to the crash site the following day. “We have located, and have in our possession, the flight data recorder,” says Peter Hildebrand, manager of central region operations (air) with the TSB. Hildebrand confirms reports that the plane struck hydro poles during its descent. “There was a fire that ensued after the aircraft struck the ground,” he says, adding that the fire made the investigation more complicated because of the degree and amount of destruction of the various systems involved. It remains unclear if the hydro-pole collision had caused or contributed to the fire.

The TSB team plans to examine the entire structure of the aircraft to determine its configuration at the time of the accident and whether there were any problems with the plane’s mechanics and controls.

Solutions (Canada) Inc. guards arrived at the university’s HUB mall to make deliveries. Travis Baumgartner, then 21, fatally shot Michelle Shegelski, Eddie Rejano and Brian Ilesic and critically injured Matthew Schuman. The shootings sparked a massive manhunt, which ended the following day when Baumgartner was apprehended while trying to cross into the United States at the border

crossing southwest of Abbotsford, British Columbia, with about $330,000 in his pick-up truck.

This September, Baumgartner was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years — reportedly the harshest sentence handed down in Canada since execution was abolished in 1976. Benson says in a statement that the union’s armoured car division is look-

UNION CALLS FOR SAFETY REVIEW FEDERAL — The union representing work-

ers in the armoured car industry is calling on the federal government to review the screening of employees, following the deaths of three security guards last year.

Teamsters Canada’s lobbyist Phil Benson says he met with Steven Blaney, federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, at the Conservative Party Convention in Calgary in November to discuss the fatalities of three armoured car security guards and the serious injury to another, after a co-worker shot them in 2012 on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton.

On June 15, 2012, five G4S Cash

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ing at the “hiring practices and how it can ensure the high level of commitment and camaraderie that is needed to work in this industry.”

After Baumgartner’s sentencing, Unifor — Canada’s largest private-sector union — urged the federal government to update regulations in the armoured car industry. Unifor national president Jerry Dias called for a federal task force to look into the industry, consult with stakeholders and develop recommendations for new regulations.

In a letter to Blaney, Dias argues that increased competition in the industry has put both the public and industry workers at risk. “Facing danger has always been the backdrop for this industry, but standards are weakening as new entrants to the industry and established firms are engaging in heightened price competition on the basis of lowered security standards,” Dias writes.

SAWMILL INSPECTIONS CONTINUE RICHMOND — WorkSafeBC has begun

the third round of sawmill inspections in British Columbia as part of its ongoing combustible-dust initiative.

A core team of 10 officers started re-inspecting about 150 operating sawmills in the province on November 1. A statement from WorkSafeBC says this round of inspections, which will end on January 31, 2014, focuses on dust accumulation, ventilation and dust-collection systems, inspections and preventive maintenance of machinery and equipment with potential points of ignition, and ensuring that operating locations have a plan to achieve effective and sustainable compliance.

“We have been into all these mills many times before in the last year-and-ahalf and so we know they are managing wood dust and ensuring that wood dust does not accumulate,” says Al Johnson, vice-president of prevention services with WorkSafeBC in Richmond.

Officers are ensuring that dust-conveyance systems or ventilation systems are operating correctly, properly designed, installed and maintained, not clogging up and installed and working in accordance with ventilation standards, Johnson adds.

With regards to preventive maintenance on equipment, officers are looking to ensure that there is a program in place to inspect various pieces of equipment and

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that they are running optimally.

In past inspections, about 30 safety officers inspected sawmills in the province. This time, for the most part, Johnson reports that the 10 officers are visiting sawmills that they have never been in before. “So a new set of eyes, if you will,” he says. “We think this adds just another layer of diligence to it.”

The combustible-dust inspections, which began in April of 2012, came in the wake of two sawmill explosions in the province in that year. To date, officers have conducted more than 1,100 inspections of sawmills and other woodprocessing operations as part of the combustible-dust safety initiative.

OWNERS FINED FOR CONTEMPT RICHMOND — British Columbia’s highest court has ordered an asbestos-abatement company and its two owners to pay a combined total of $15,000, after finding them in contempt of court for ignoring orders to stop exposing workers to the deadly substance.

On November 5, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered Seattle Environmental Consulting Ltd. and its owner Mike Singh to jointly pay $10,000 to the accident fund for asbestos-related research. Owner Shawn Singh was also ordered to pay $5,000 into the same fund.

The case dates back to September of 2012, when WorkSafeBC issued orders to Seattle Environmental and another one of its companies, Skylite Building Maintenance Ltd., for exposing their workers to asbestos. WorkSafeBC had already fined the parties $370,000 and requested jail time for the owners when it pursued a contempt-of-court action as they did not comply with the orders.

Since the court order was issued in 2012, they have breached the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation many times, resulting in 51 further orders.

ALERT ON HEPATITIS A ISSUED LETHBRIDGE — Alberta Health Services

(AHS) is urging those who have consumed food or beverages at two establishments in Lethbridge to watch for symptoms of Hepatitis A after a food handler contracted the disease.

On December 2, the AHS confirmed

that the employee, who worked at Pasta Fresco and Black Tomato Lounge, had Hepatitis A. Symptoms include tiredness, poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, dark-coloured urine, light-coloured stools and yellowing of the eyes and skin. Illness can occur within 15 to 50 days after exposure, but it usually happens within 28 to 30 days.

The AHS has completed inspections of the two establishments and confirmed that both are in compliance with all public health codes and standards.

FIRM CHARGED FOR FATALITY FORT SASKATCHEWAN — CN Worldwide Distribution Services (Canada) Inc. has been charged with six counts of breaching occupational health and safety regulations that led to the fatal injury of a worker on November 2, 2011. The incident took place at a worksite in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta where a worker was run over by a tractor-trailer unit.

Alberta Human Services in Edmonton reports that the company has been charged with the failures to ensure the health and safety of a worker; to ensure that workers are familiar with work procedures; to control or eliminate hazards identified in hazard assessments; to protect a worker from the hazard of remaining within range of a moving load or part; to ensure that powered mobile equipment has an effective means of warning workers of equipment that may pose a danger; and to ensure that powered mobile equipment has a device that warns operators if the path of travel is obstructed.

LABOURER GUILTY OF FRAUD SWIFT CURRENT — A former labourer in

Swift Current, Saskatchewan has been sentenced for two counts of theft.

The former workers’ compensation board (WCB) claimant pleaded guilty to going back to work while still receiving income-replacement benefits and was sentenced on November 21 to a sixmonth conditional sentence, with the first three months served as 24-hour house arrest, the Saskatchewan WCB says in a statement. He was also ordered to abstain from drugs or alcohol, refrain from attending any licensed establishments and to repay $8,765 to the WCB.

VIOLATIONS NET FINE MOOSE JAW — A company in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan has been fined more than $1,000 for fall-protection violations.

The penalty was issued on November 18, after All Canadian Homes Ltd. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that workers use a fall-protection system at a temporary work area where a worker may fall three metres or more and failing to ensure that workers wear approved industrial protective headwear, notes a statement from the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety in Regina.

The charges stem from an investigation on May 16, 2012 at a worksite where a safety officer noticed two workers on a roof structure without fall protection or approved headwear.

both drivers were taken to the hospital.

The 34-year-old constable was brought to the intensive care unit, where he succumbed to his injuries on December 2.

The other driver was treated for non-lifethreatening injuries.

The death of Constable Zivcic followed that of Constable Michael Pegg, a York Regional Police (YRP) officer who died on November 29 after a training

accident. The 10-year veteran sustained a broken leg during the annual requalification training and underwent surgery three days later, notes a statement from the YRP. The 36-year-old had been hospitalized since that time, but his cause of death had not been determined as of press time.

“The deaths of these officers remind us that our police officers put themselves

TEEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT WINNIPEG — A 16-year-old boy has been charged with assaulting a peace officer with a weapon and numerous other alleged offences, following an incident in Winnipeg on December 5.

The Winnipeg Police Service reports that a black Chevrolet Silverado was stolen from a residence. Police officers observed the truck about 25 minutes later and managed to stop the truck, “at which time the suspect attempted to flee by reversing at a high rate of speed,” the statement says.

One officer ran behind the cruiser to avoid being struck by the suspect. The stolen truck collided with the cruiser, before reversing into a pole.

The young driver was charged with assault with a weapon, flight while being pursued by a peace officer, theft of a motor vehicle and driving without a licence and insurance.

POLICE OFFICER KILLED IN CRASH TORONTO — A police officer has died as the result of serious injuries sustained in a car accident in Toronto.

Constable John Zivcic, a traffic officer with the Toronto Police Service’s (TPS) 22 Division, was responding to an emergency call about an impaired driver on the afternoon of November 30 when his vehicle collided with a car in Etobicoke. A statement from the TPS says

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at risk every day in service to their communities,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says in a statement.

WORKER INJURED AT PLANT WINDSOR — An employer in Cambridge, Ontario was fined $110,000 on December 2 after a worker was injured while dismantling equipment at a General Motors transmission plant.

After a trial, Process Group Inc. was found guilty of failing to prevent the collapse or movement of part or all of a piece of equipment that is being dismantled if its collapse may endanger a worker, a statement from the Ontario Ministry of Labour says.

On October 27, 2010, the plant in Windsor was in the process of being decommissioned. To gain access to a piece of equipment, workers cut and separated a section of a conveyor and began removing the anchoring bolts on the base of the conveyor. As the last bolt loosened, the conveyor section toppled over, striking a worker and causing a broken leg and broken vertebrae. A ministry inspection found that no blocking had been installed to prevent the collapse of the dismantled conveyor section.

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JAILTIME FOR SUPERVISOR BRAMPTON — A supervisor in Ontario has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for knowingly providing a Ministry of Labour (MOL) inspector with false information regarding a workplace fatality.

Paul Markewycz, a supervisor with the Brampton, Ontario-based Roofing Medics Ltd. and the company’s director and owner/operator, was fined $50,000 on November 21 after a worker was killed in a fall from a Toronto residence on August 16, 2011.

Markewycz and three employees were working on a roofing project when one of the workers, who was installing roofing membrane from a ladder, fell about six metres, striking a fence.

The worker was wearing fall-protection equipment at the time, but it was not affixed to anything, the MOL reports.

Markewycz took the employee to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. To identify the deceased worker, the hospital requested the assistance of local police, who contacted the supervisor and were told that the worker had fallen at Markewycz’s home in Brampton while helping to install roof vents.

A week after the fatality, Markewycz

and his counsel met with two inspectors to provide a statement to the MOL, advising that the incident had not occurred at Markewycz’s residence in Brampton, but in Toronto instead. He also revealed that the worker had been employed by his company and was installing waterproofing materials at a company project when the incident occurred.

Roofing Medics Ltd. was fined after pleading guilty to failing to ensure that safety measures were carried out as required and failing to notify an inspector of the occurrence within 48 hours.

Matt Blajer, spokesperson for the labour ministry, adds that Markewycz pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a worker used required protective devices and knowingly furnishing an inspector with false information.

FATALITY SPURS HEFTY FINE TORONTO — A roofing company has

been fined $150,000 three years after a worker was killed when he fell through an unprotected skylight opening in Toronto. The penalty was issued to Crawford Roofing Corporation on November 14, after it pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that employees working around

ASBESTOS REGISTRY BECOMES LAW REGINA — Nearly a year after an advocate died from cancer caused by asbestos exposure, the Saskatchewan government has enacted a law named after him. The Public Health Amendment Act, also known as Howard’s Law, came into effect on November 7. The Act makes it mandatory for public buildings to report any asbestos content in their facilities to the Saskatchewan Asbestos Registry. Saskatchewan is the first Canadian province to enact legislation requiring a public registry of buildings known to contain asbestos.

Don Morgan, Saskatchewan’s minister of labour relations and workplace safety in Regina, says the law currently applies to buildings owned by public-sector entities, such as crown corporations, schools, health facilities and provincial government organizations. “It will be optional for building owners beyond that point,” Morgan adds.

The provincial government passed the act in the legislature after its third reading on April 18 — five months after Saskatchewan launched a voluntary registry and an online information guide about buildings with asbestos. Morgan anticipates that the new law will benefit the public by providing specific information about asbestos content in the province’s buildings and raising public awareness of the general existence of the material.

“It exists in a lot of buildings that were constructed before

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1980,” Morgan says. “In most of them, it’s encased and it’s not a factor. The problem arises when somebody will go in to change plumbing pipes or do electrical work and then will inadvertently disturb the asbestos, and it becomes airborne.”

Howard’s Law is, in part, the legacy of the late Howard Willems, an asbestos-awareness activist who worked for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency while co-chairing local oh&s committees. In 2010, Willems was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer linked to asbestos. He passed away on November 8, 2012.

“We’ve accomplished everything that Howard set out to do,” says Jesse Todd, a health and safety officer in Saskatchewan and chairman of the Saskatchewan Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (SADAO). “We’ve carried on in his name, in his honour, so it’s very gratifying to see this become law.” Willems co-founded SADAO with fellow activist Bob Sass in 2010, out of the former Saskatchewan Ban Asbestos Committee.

Todd suggests that the other provinces — and the federal government, which has jurisdiction over a lot of buildings and facilities under the Canada Labour Code — need to consider adopting similar asbestos registries. “I believe that a registry would benefit those workers as well,” Todd says.

— By Jeff Cottrill

an opening were adequately protected and not posting warning signs.

On May 14, 2010, workers on a single-storey industrial complex in Toronto first removed all of the existing material in the work area of the roof before taking out a skylight and placing a vapour barrier consisting of reinforced paper over the skylight opening. None of the workers were protected by a fallprotection system, the provincial labour ministry reports.

After the workers applied the barrier, a worker proceeded to move towards the opening. A co-worker shouted a warning, but the employee stepped onto the reinforced paper and fell about 20 feet to the concrete floor below. He died from blunt-impact head trauma.

EXCAVATION FIRM FINED OTTAWA — A company that provides ex-

cavation services was fined $125,000 on November 12 following the death of a worker last year in Ottawa.

The incident took place on March 22, 2012, when three workers — one of whom was employed by Digsafe Inc. and two others by another subcontractor — were working on the installation of new hydro poles and wires under existing energized lines. They were excavating a hole when the boom of a vehicle came within three metres of the power lines, located about 20 feet above the hole. All three workers received electrical shocks. One of them succumbed to his injuries in hospital, a statement from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour reports.

Digsafe pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that the boom of the vehicle was not brought within three metres of an energized power line as required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

and proper alignment of beverage product cases when products spill, workers commonly spray the plates with an aerosol silicone spray to resolve the problem, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour reports.

When the worker reached inside and opened a gate to apply the spray without shutting off the production line, a push bar cycled and pinched his arm between the bar and a metal support beam, resulting in a fractured arm.

The company pleaded guilty to failing, as an employer, to ensure that an inrunning nip hazard on the palletizer was equipped with and guarded by a device that prevents access to the pinch point.

SAFETY TRAINING MANDATED TORONTO — A new on-the-job safety awareness training program, mandatory for all companies covered by Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), will come into effect on July 1, 2014.

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WORKER INJURY NETS PENALTY — Halifax-based CocaCola Bottling Company has been fined $70,000 on November 12, nearly three years after a worker was injured at a plant in Brampton, Ontario.

The worker was operating a palletizer machine at the plant on December 1, 2010, when he noticed that cases of the product were getting stuck on transfer plates. As transfer plates become sticky and interfere with the movement

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places are safe,” says Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Yasir Naqvi, who made the announcement on November 15. The program will be mandatory for all workplaces across the province, except those where workers and supervisors have already received some training.

The program, which will provide a basic understanding of the OHSA, includes workbooks and questionnaires.

Workers and supervisors can take part in the training program through one-hour tutorials individually or in groups. The information will be offered in hard-copy form and via e-learning modules from the Internet, complete with downloadable formats for smartphones. The training will also be available in 10 languages and in formats suitable for the visually impaired and those with limited literacy.

The program is partly the outcome of a report by retired civil servant Tony Dean, who led the Expert Advisory Panel on Occupational Health and Safety after four migrant workers died when their swing stage collapsed from a building in Toronto on Christmas Eve of 2009.

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ONTARIO STEPS UP COVERAGE FOR PRECARIOUS WORKERS TORONTO — Ontario has introduced a bill that, if passed, would bring co-op students, trainees and other unpaid learners under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. On December 4, Ontario labour minister Yasir Naqvi introduced the Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act, aimed at strengthening protections for vulnerable workers. Among other changes, the bill would eliminate the $10,000 cap on the recovery of unpaid wages, prohibit employers from charging fees and seizing personal documents like passports from temporary foreign workers, and make temporary help agencies and their clients liable for employment-standards violations.

“Our proposed changes will help level the playing field for businesses and increase workplace protections to make sure workers are being treated fairly,” Naqvi says.

Eliminating the $10,000 cap under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) on the recovery of unpaid wages owed through a Ministry of Labour (MOL) order to pay means that employees will no longer need to pursue larger wage claims through the courts — saving both employees and businesses time and money, the MOL says in a backgrounder. The bill will also increase the time limit for recovery of wages from six- and 12-month periods to two years to ensure that older claims are settled. In addition, employers will be required to provide an English and French handout containing ESA rights to employees and provide the material, if requested, in one of 23 other languages available from the ministry.

UNION CALLS FOR MORATORIUM TORONTO — Canada’s largest private

sector union is calling for a country-wide moratorium on all new oil and gas hydraulic fracturing over concerns of safety and environmental risks, and the lack of informed consent from First Nations about hydraulic-fracturing activities on traditional lands.

The process, also known as fracking, involves injecting chemicals under high pressure into drilled wells to fracture geological formations below to release large quantities of crude oil and natural gas. Unifor noted in a statement on November 14 that Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador had already introduced moratoriums on fracking.

Nova Scotia has banned fracking while it reviews the process.

Unifor Atlantic director Lana Payne says unconventional fracking is relatively new in Canada, but is quickly taking on the characteristics of a gold rush-like phenomenon. “Our past experience with worker health and safety is that often in these kinds of gold rush-type industries,

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Other provisions of the bill include the following: A proposal to extend the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act to cover all employees who come to Ontario under an immigration or temporary foreign worker program; • An amendment to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act that requires the provincial workers’ compensation board, under its experience-rating programs, to assign workplace injury costs to temporary-help agency clients (rather than agencies) when an employee is injured at work; and • Decreasing the construction industry’s open period — when collective agreements are “open” before expiry — from three to two months to reduce the risk of disruption due to termination or displacement applications.

Jonathan Rose, communications director for the labour minister, adds that the ministry will hire an additional 20 new enforcement officers, which he expects will double the estimated number of inspections each year.

“Internship opportunities can be beneficial, as long as they conform to the rules outlined in the Employment Standards Act,” Naqvi says. “We will be bringing together groups on all sides of this issue, to develop ways to better raise awareness and educate business and youth about our strong rules on internships.” The ministry will follow up this outreach with an enforcement blitz in June of 2014.

— By Jason Contant •

worker safety is not exactly at the top of the list,” she contends. “Rather, it is far after the fact, when rules or laws are put in place around exposures and risks and hazards or acceptable standards.”

Payne notes that recent field studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Washington, D.C. shows that workers may be exposed to dust with high levels of respirable crystalline silica during hydraulic fracturing. Besides the chemicals used in the process, hydraulic fracturing sand contains up to 99 per cent silica.

“We know from the mining industry that exposure to silica, the breathing of it into your lungs, can cause silicosis and lung cancer,” Payne says. She cites Dr. Theo Colborn, a United States-based scientist, who has noted that more than 80 per cent of about 900 chemicals used in fracking have respiratory effects.

In a resolution unanimously passed by the 25-person Unifor national executive board, the union says the moratorium “should stay in place until such time [when] the safety and environmental risks associated with fracking have been adequately addressed, and until First

Nations communities have given full informed consent for fracking activity on their traditional lands.”

FARM WORKERS JOIN UNION MONTREAL — Agricultural workers at Novafruit in Montreal have joined Local 501 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

The union said in a statement on October 23 that about 60 workers joined the union, after Local 501 filed an application for certification under Article 25 of the provincial labour code to represent employees of the company in St-Pauld’Abbotsford near Granby, Quebec.

The new bargaining unit at this vegetable- and fruit-production operation is comprised primarily of farm workers from Guatemala, who contributed to the production of raspberries and three million strawberry plants every year.

“We are happy and very proud to have the Novafruit workers join our great union and thank them for their trust,” Local 501 secretary-treasurer Mario Délisle says.

SIRENS IN PLANTS WITH TOXIC SUBSTANCES TESTED MONTREAL — The Centre de sécurité civile de Montréal (Mon-

treal Civic Security Centre) tested public warning sirens at five company plants in Greater Montreal on November 21. The three-minute-long alarms are designed to alert the population to any release of toxic products, especially ammonia-based products, from factories that work with dangerous substances.

The Labatt Brewery in Montreal sounded the siren, as did plants belonging to Molson Coors, chemical manufacturers Cepsa Chimie Montréal S.E.C. and Chemtrade and dairy company Saputo Inc. “Under federal law, some industries have to declare an emergency plan and, in some cases, install an alert system for the corporation,” says chief of the civic security centre Louise Bradette. “Before, it was mostly in the east end of Montreal, where the petrol industry is.” Now, she says it applies to all industries that fall under Environment Canada’s regulatory requirements, which call for industries storing large supplies of dangerous materials to inform both Environment Canada and the relevant municipalities.

The city distributed notices of the upcoming test to local residents in a handful of Montreal boroughs before testing the sirens. In addition, the five companies circulated information sheets to residents to explain the possible hazards in their areas and what to do in the event of an industrial accident in which toxic substances are released into the air.

Bradette says while Montreal’s siren system has been in existence for almost a decade, it conducted its first test only last year. Although five plants participated in the test, she estimates that about 15 plants in the city are using the system.

“The city is being proactive and working in association with industries to minimize the consequences of a major accident on local communities and to develop a civil security reflex among citizens,” says a statement from the official city portal of Montreal, released on the day of the test. “Although very few major industrial accidents have been reported in Montreal in the past, a risk remains and it is vital that residents know how to react responsibly.”

OVERSIGHT OF VIOLATIONS URGED HALIFAX — A group representing some 130 companies and nearly 2,000 workers in Nova Scotia is calling for changes to the provincial Ombudsman Act to allow both employees and employers to report systemic violations confidentially.

Merit Nova Scotia, which represents non-unionized contractors throughout the province, made the call on November 13 — less than a week after the death of a 21-year-old worker on a construction site in Halifax. Alan Fraser, an employee of Parkland Construction Ltd., was doing clean-up work from a height of more than three metres when he fell at the construction site on November 7, Department of Labour and Advanced Education

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spokesperson Chrissy Matheson reports.

A stop-work order and orders for a safe plan for working at heights and clean-up of the site were issued. Fall protection has also been put in place at the worksite. Matheson says all orders have been complied with and work has resumed.

Michael Kydd, president of Merit Nova Scotia, says the fatality prompted the organization to examine policies currently in place. After a meeting with its board of directors, it decided to urge the government to consider expanding the powers of the provincial ombudsman to oversee systemic violations in the construction industry. Systemic violations are repeat violations that continue to happen on a broad scale within the industry or with a specific employer. Kydd says how these violations are deemed systemic and reported would require further consultation with the labour department.

“When we spoke with the Department of Labour, we agreed that the current 1-800 reporting system was working and that compliance officers were responding to every call,” Kydd says in reference to the government’s 1-800-9-LABOUR confidential reporting phone line. “However, we believe by broadening the powers of the ombudsman, workers and employers might feel more confident in reporting previously unreported workplace violations more confidently and discreetly.”

Kydd says the proposal will help prevent injuries or fatalities.

“We need workers and employers to work together with the department, unions and industry associations like Merit to ensure systemic violations are taken seriously and acted upon swiftly.”

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MOCK-DISASTER EXERCISE DECLARED A SUCCESS CHARLOTTETOWN — Prince Edward Island’s Queen Elizabeth

Hospital (QEH) and the Charlottetown Airport Authority have successfully staged a multi-casualty, mock-disaster exercise to test their emergency- and disaster-response systems.

The exercise, held on October 28, involved a simulated airplane crash with 43 passengers and a crew of five, a statement from Health PEI reports. In accordance with the Canadian Aviation Regulations, the airport must test its emergency systems every four years. The QEH made it a joint exercise by testing its emergency- and disaster-response protocols, as plane-crash casualties would be transported to the hospital for treatment in the event of an incident.

“We are very pleased with how our staff responded quickly once the exercise began,” QEH executive director Rick Adams says in a statement. “As we went through our emergency-response protocols during the mock disaster, we identified certain improvements that could be made to our existing plan.”

Doug Newson, chief executive officer of the Charlottetown Airport Authority, says the exercise gave his organization a chance to test emergency-response procedures in a safe and controlled environment. “Training of our personnel is integral to our emergency-preparedness program and we believe that this exercise was a great learning experience for our team as well as the several partners involved,” he says.

VIDEO CONTEST SEEKS SUBMISSIONS CHARLOTTETOWN — The Workers Compensation Board of P.E.I. (WCB) is providing young workers in the province a chance to showcase workplace safety and worker rights by launching a youth video contest on November 1.

The second annual contest, called It’s Your Job… Workplace Rights, Camera, Action!, is part of a national initiative of labour ministers from across Canada to promote workplace health and safety and young worker rights. An Island high school student who produces an original video on the importance of workplace safety could win $1,000 and another $1,000 for his or her school.

“The contest is a great opportunity to raise awareness about workplace safety among young people,” WCB chair Nancy Guptill says. The contest is open until March 28.

EVALUATION HIGHLIGHTS CONCERNS ST. JOHN’S — An evaluation conducted by Accreditation Canada (AC) has given a healthcare organization in Newfoundland high marks, while highlighting several serious concerns.

Eastern Health (EH), Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest integrated health authority, achieved a compliance rate of 94.2 per cent in AC’s accreditation process, which evaluated the facility for quality, safety and ethics. The report, published on October 28, also points out that EH needs improvement in many areas — from contamination risks in operating rooms and ambulances to the management of medications.

Surveyors from AC evaluated 17 healthcare facilities operated by EH from September 22 to 27, observing 26 of the

INSPECTION PROCESS LACKING: REPORT HALIFAX — The auditor general of Nova Scotia has found that while investigations into serious workplace accidents in the province are adequate, key aspects of the inspection and enforcement process need to be improved.

Auditor General Jacques Lapointe’s report, released on November 20, found that “practices among inspectors, such as preparation of inspection reports, obtaining recipient signoff and collecting evidence of compliance with orders, are not consistent.” He recommends the Department of Labour and Advanced Education use checklists that focus on risk areas an inspector should be examining during an inspection to help ensure that all essential risk areas are addressed.

The report also notes that orders issued by inspectors were not adequately followed up to ensure that corrective action was taken. For example, 1,228 orders issued from April of 2012 to March of 2013 were not complied with by the date required, but inspectors issued only 10 summary offence tickets for violations or non-compliance during that time. “The significant rate of non-compliance is concerning,” the auditor general writes. “Additional guidance on followup and the types of situations and outstanding orders that would warrant a summary offence ticket is needed.”

Lapointe acknowledges that many workplaces in the province are subject to the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act — “many more than practical for department staff to regularly inspect”. As such, improvements in

organization’s programs, including mental and public health, long-term, ambulatory and cancer care and emergency medical services. Overall, EH met 3,092 eligible criteria out of a possible 3,233.

“We are really pleased with the survey that was done,” says Dr. Marilyn Thompson, vice-president responsible for quality and patient safety at EH. Dr. Thompson points out that some of the criteria that the health authority did not meet were standards over which it had no control. For example, the evaluation program requires an organization to establish a mechanism for appointing the chair of its board of trustees. “We don’t do that. The provincial government does that,” she says.

In other cases, the health authority was in the process of rectifying the situation, such as updating its infrastructure and buildings. “We were about to replace a hospital that opened in 1857,” Dr. Thompson says. “However, resources are not infinite and we have a development plan, but that takes a long time.”

The report states that EH has met 96.2 per cent of high-priority criteria.

The strongest area of concern was with public health services. Specific areas that

operational planning and monitoring are needed to ensure that high-risk workplaces are targeted for inspections. The auditor general’s analysis of data on workers’ compensation in 2011 and information relating to inspections conducted between 2012 and 2013 indicates that only 27 of the 100 workplaces with the highest risk rating have been inspected.

In response, the labour department announced in a statement that it would hire more safety inspectors and work with industry to ensure that officers are reaching more high-risk workplaces. The province will also partner with the Nova Scotia Construction Safety Association (NSCSA) to help identify and target companies with poor safety records.

“This is a perfect opportunity for government and industry to lead together, and build on what we’re already doing to make workplaces safer through education and training,” NSCSA’s general manager Bruce Collins says in a statement.

As for compliance orders, the labour department says while it follows up on every order, changes will be made to improve how actions are documented. Other changes the department plans to make include ensuring that companies show evidence of compliance for violations that pose significant health and safety risks; having more consistent timeframes for response; and reviewing its policy around extensions for complying with orders to ensure that approvals are obtained and documented before an extension is granted.

— By Jason Contant

need improvement include insufficient covering of contaminated items on carts from operating rooms; emergency medical services crews working in cramped quarters and having inconsistent cleaning schedules for ambulances; and substandard housing for some clients.

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada Many of the preceding items are based on stories from our sister publication,

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19

DISPATCHES

Report says smokers put a dent in productivity

aids work. And we know that combining them together actually works the best,” Bounajm says.

Jeff Cottrill is editorial assistant of

ohs canada.

By Jeff Cottrill

A

report from the Conference Board of Canada says employees who smoke have a strongly detrimental effect on their companies’ bottom line.

Smoking Cessation and the Workplace: Benefits of Workplace Programs, released on October 29, is the third and last in a series of briefings by the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care (CASHC) — a program run by the Conference Board — on how smoking affects the work environment.

Among the report’s revelations is the finding that a combination of decreased productivity and increased absenteeism resulted in an average yearly loss of $4,256 per daily smoker in Canada in 2012 — up from $3,396 in 2005.

“The research is mostly health-focused, but we also looked at productivity losses, because we were trying to argue that it is in the best interests of the employers to actually do something about this,” says study co-author Fares Bounajm, an economist with CASHC in Ottawa.

The study analyzed four categories of costs attributed to smoking employees, putting dollar values on the losses. Productivity loss — attributed mostly to unsanctioned smoke breaks — accounted for an average loss of $3,842 per daily smoker in 2012, with an additional $414 lost per daily smoker due to absenteeism. Daily smokers also take about two-and-a-half more sick days a year than non-smokers do.

In terms of costs that have an indirect effect on employers, the Canadian economy lost about $7.1 billion in productivity in 2010 due to employees who could not work because of chronic conditions resulting from smoking, including lung and bladder cancer, leukemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease. An additional $4.3 billion in long-term economic losses was due to the calculated 26,681 premature deaths attributable to the habit that same year.

Bounajm says while employers should not be seen as responsible for helping their employees to quit smoking, they do have a strong financial motivation to establish workplace smoking-cessation programs. He suggests that employers could add cessation aids to their company benefit plans. “We know that counselling works. We know that certain cessation

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ohs canada

Moderate exercise helps prevent depression: study

By Jean Lian

I

t is no secret that exercise has many health benefits. A review out of the University of Toronto finds that moderate exercise can also prevent depression in the long term.

The review, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Depression: A Systematic Review of Prospective Studies, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the first longitudinal review to focus exclusively on the role that exercise plays in maintaining good mental health and preventing the onset of depression later in life.

George Mammen, PhD candidate at the health and exercise psychology unit at the University of Toronto (UofT), and co-author Guy Falkner, UofT professor in the faculty of kinesiology and physical education, analyzed more than 26 years’ worth of research. They found that even low levels of physical activity, such as walking and gardening for 20 to 30 minutes a day, can ward off depression in people of all age groups.

To examine whether physical activity is protective against the onset of depression, Mammen and Falkner conducted a comprehensive search in several databases up to December of 2012. Thirty studies were selected for analysis from more than 6,300 citations. Among the 30 studies reviewed, 25 demonstrated that baseline physical activity was negatively associated with a risk of subsequent depression. “From a population health perspective, promoting physical activity may serve as a valuable mental-health promotion strategy in reducing the risk of developing depression,” the review concludes.

A statement from the university says the findings may broaden the approach towards treating depression beyond costly prescription medication. Although Mammen acknowledges that other factors, such as genetic makeup, influence an individual’s likelihood of experiencing depression, “this review shows promising evidence that the impact of being active goes far beyond the physical,” he says.

Jean Lian is editor of

ohs canada.

Forestry worker escapes wolf-pack encounter

By Jason Contant

A

forestry worker in British Columbia escaped unscathed after a pack of wolves approached within three metres of her.

The incident occurred near Merritt, British Columbia on October 15, when an employee of Lawes Forest Management was approached by a pack of aggressive wolves after she had just started a road traverse — a surveying method. The worker called her dogs and reached for her bear spray to protect herself against five wolves, a safety alert from the BC Forest Safety Council (BCFSC) reports.

One of the dogs stayed with her, while the other barked and started fighting with the wolves. The worker went to her truck with the dog and called for help on her handheld radio. Although the worker was not physically injured, the safety alert says the dog that had been defending her had to be put down later, after sustaining major injuries in the attack.

Although encounters with wolves are rare compared to those involving bears, moose or other animals, the BCFSC alert recommends the following preventive actions: • Raise your arms and wave them in the air to make yourself appear large. Use a loud, firm voice and try to convince the animals that you are a threat, not a prey; • Back away slowly and do not turn your back on the wolves; • Make noise and throw sticks and rocks at the wolves; • Use bear mace if the wolves approach close enough; and • Call for help on the radio and identify your location.

Jason Contant is managing editor of

ohs canada.

Broad changes to federal labour code proposed

By Carmelle Wolfson

C

anada’s largest public sector union is raising the alarm over proposed changes to the federal labour code, contending that amendments would set back labour rights by 30 years.

Bill C-4, which passed its second reading in the House of Commons on October 25, comprises more than 50 amendments to the Canada Labour Code, including those relating to occupational health and safety. The omnibus bill propos-

es amendments that would see a change to the definition of “danger” as it relates to the right to refuse unsafe work; a revision of the work-refusal process itself; and the transference of health and safety officers’ rights and responsibilities to the federal Minister of Labour or a delegate.

“By changing the definition of danger and taking all health and safety officer authorities away from them and vesting them in the minister solely, there has been a huge politicization of health and safety,” charges Bob Kingston, president of the Agriculture Union with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) in Ottawa. Kingston, who is also co-chair of the occupational health and safety committee of the National Joint Council, adds that the current version of the code is “the result of 12 years of deliberations by expert participants on a tripartite nature and this undoing of all those improvements was done in secret with no consultation.”

Minister of Labour Kellie Leitch says in a statement that a worker’s right to refuse unsafe work has not been compromised. “Recourse mechanisms will always be available to workers and employers, with health and safety officers available 24/7 to address issues raised by employees and employers,” she says.

Under the revised code, the definition of danger would change to “an imminent or serious threat to the life or health of a person” and would no longer include chronic illness or damage to reproductive organs. Leitch says the proposed changes are meant to improve workplace health and safety outcomes.

“Over a 10-year-period, 2000 to 2010, more than 80 per cent of the refusals to work have been determined to be situations of no danger, even after allowing appeals. These requests have put a strain on resources and have prevented a higher number of proactive interventions by health and safety officers,” Leitch says. “These proposed amendments will address this situation and, at the same time, preserve the fundamental rights of workers.”

Under the revised code, references to “health and safety officers” would also be removed and the labour minister would be expected to exercise those duties or delegate them to another party. The minister would have the discretion not to investigate work-refusal claims if the minister deems them trivial, frivolous or vexatious.

Shane Todd, labour lawyer for employers at Heenan Blaikie in Toronto, says the changes amount to “a reversion to a more restrictive definition of danger that we had in the mid1970s,” but he does not think that they will negatively affect workers’ rights. He welcomes the obligation of employers to investigate and conduct a written report of work refusals.

Carmelle Wolfson is assistant editor of ohs canada.

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

21

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

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ohs canada

Caring for Caregivers

BY JEFF COTTRILL

Part-time social worker Srila Perine has faced violence from developmentally disabled people with whom she works in group homes in Essex County just outside of Windsor, Ontario. Several years ago, one of her charges attacked her, hurting her badly enough that she had to take a week’s leave of absence.

“I asked that I not go back to that home, so they transferred me,” she says. “But since then, I have worked in other places where there have been behavioral challenges. I have had somebody smack me and lay out my nose. My glasses have gone flying.”

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P

erine has learned to expect that there is something different every day. “It has become a part of our job.”

Last June, a nurse was badly beaten and three others injured when a mentally unstable patient turned violent at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. It was not the first time an incident of this nature had taken place at the hospital. Southlake had reportedly ignored its nurses’ requests for additional security and had even taken away their panic buttons for budgetary reasons. Assault charges were filed against the patient, but the hospital escaped criminal prosecution.

Incidents of mentally unstable people attacking their caregivers in Canada are not new or isolated. A Statistics Canada study, released in 2009, found that more than one-third of surveyed nurses providing direct care in Canadian hospitals or long-term care facilities had reported some form of physical assault by a patient over the previous year, while nearly half of them had sustained emotional abuse.

A 2012 publication by the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), Workplace Violence and Harassment: A Guide for ONA Members, cites cases of caregivers being attacked by psychiatric patients and social workers being assaulted — even raped — by clients on home visits. Last year, the ONA reported that 11 per cent of nurses in Ontario had been sexually assaulted on the job, with 36 per cent having experienced some form of verbal abuse.

While patients suffering from dementia or mental-health problems are not always morally responsible for their actions, caregivers, such as nurses, psychiatrists and social workers, need to be reasonably protected when doing their jobs. Are we doing enough to protect caregivers?

BY THE WAYSIDE “People who are working in healthcare, or any kind of delivery system where there is an unstable population, are at much greater risk than anybody else,” says Glenn French, chief executive officer and president of The Canadian Initiative on Workplace Violence in Toronto. “People who are acting outside the facility, going on home visits or community visits, are even more at risk.”

French claims that as one moves from established caregiving institutions, like hospitals and psychiatric clinics, to smaller facilities, such as outpatient clinics, homecare and social work, the level of protocols, procedures, training and overall protection tends to diminish.

Vicki McKenna, the ONA’s first vice-president, says part of the problem is overcrowding and understaffing in hospitals and long-term care facilities. As well, the risk of violence in healthcare institutions is not being taken seriously enough. “If a construction worker says, ‘This is the protective gear I need to climb up the side of that building,’ and an employer doesn’t provide it and the worker is injured, then there are very serious things that happen under the Ministry of Labour,” McKenna cites by way of example.

Yet violence in the healthcare sector does not seem to raise the same level of concern. “Safety standards don’t oc-

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ohs canada

cur just outside of hospitals. There needs to be protections in place for all,” McKenna adds.

Kevin Tyrell, president of Local 1590 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) who works at Providence Healthcare — a long-term care facility for stroke patients, amputees and people who need rehabilitation in Scarborough, Ontario — agrees. “It’s very difficult,” Tyrell says.

“The employer is more worried about customer service and dealing with patients’ families than they are dealing with worker safety. They want to take care of any kind of issues that could arise, like legal action from family members.”

Since the incident in which caregivers at Southlake were assaulted by a patient in June, the ONA has met with the provincial government, including Premier Kathleen Wynne, to discuss ways to improve the work environment. At Southlake, it has particularly been a problem with Form 1 patients — defined as individuals who are dangerous to themselves and possibly to others. While not all Form 1 patients will harm caregivers, they are full of aggression — most of which is directed inwardly.

“We are receiving daily reports about where these situations are getting more serious,” McKenna says, adding that nurses are concerned about working in organizations in which they fear for their personal safety. She stresses that employers, safety organizations, governments and police services should work together to keep everybody safe.

“This isn’t the time to scrimp and save pennies and decrease staffing, thinking it’s okay to put not only other patients and members of the public, but staff, in jeopardy.”

One facility that has seen such belt-tightening is Montreal’s St. Mary’s Hospital Center, which hires private agencies to monitor mental-health patients. A recent report from the hospital, Preventing Aggressive Behaviour in Mental Health: An Integrated Approach, revealed that sitters’ and security agents’ work hours had declined by more than two-thirds from 2007 to 2011.

TO EACH HIS OWN Policies and protocols for dealing with violent or unruly patients vary according to the type of facility. Each facility has its own code processes that alert other employees to dangerous situations or incidents.

“In Ontario, there is now a requirement that organizations have to have a program to deal with workplace violence,” Henrietta Van Hulle, acting senior director of program delivery in the healthcare-sector lead of the Public Services Health and Safety Association in Toronto, says in reference to

Bill 168. The bill, which came into effect in June of 2010, requires employers to assess and develop policies and programs to protect employees from workplace violence and address harassment.

“Almost every province now has legislation specific to having a policy and a program,” she adds.

With the exceptions of Quebec and New Brunswick, all Canadian provinces and federally regulated workplaces have specific workplace violence-prevention legislation. Quebec has laws against the broader category of “psychological harassment”.

In 2011, Accreditation Canada put into effect the new nationwide Required Organizational Practices (ROP) for preventing violence in the workplace. The ROP calls for every employer to have a written workplace-violence policy that conducts risk assessments, documents processes for reporting and responding to incidents, and provides proper training and information to staff.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario advises that a violence-prevention program should define workplace violence in concrete language and illustrate with clear examples, clarify the consequences of threats or violent acts, encourage the reporting of incidents by employees, outline a safe reporting process and commit to supporting victims. Violence-prevention training should be in place, including a confidential assistance program through which employees with personal issues can get help. Such policies should be reviewed and updated, if necessary, on a regular basis.

Van Hulle, who is a former nurse, thinks that a successful safety program necessitates a reporting and investigation system, an emergency-response program and policies and procedures for environmental and security controls. “Security controls will differ from organization to organization and it might depend on the location as well,” she adds.

Tyrell, who is the co-chair of CUPE 1590’s health and safety committee, uses Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act as one of the main governing factors to combat violence against workers. “One of the things we struggle with is our right to refuse unsafe work, just because we are in the healthcare sector,” he says.

“We can’t just readily refuse to do work, because it could jeopardize patient safety.”

With every incident, CUPE members at Providence are expected to inform one of the health and safety representatives, like Tyrell. “We advise our members that they have every right to refuse unsafe work and we educate them on what steps they have to take to be able to exercise

that right,” he says. As initial complaints often do not lead to corrective action from employers, unions have to engage the employer to bring about the necessary changes.

“The employer has to do everything reasonable to provide a safe working environment,” such as providing additional staff to enable employees to work more safely, Tyrell adds.

“That’s always a hard one. It boils down to staffing ratio in most cases. That is where you are starting to talk money.”

Are we doing enough to protect caregivers?

ASSESSING RISKS The important issue is not just whether facilities have systems and protocols to protect employees, but how well they work.

French also questions the methods of assessing potential violence among individual patients, which is often subject to the patient’s condition.

“My experience is that a mental-health assessment does not necessarily assess risk,” he contends. “This is not to suggest that all people who are mentally ill are violent, but you could sit down and do a full mental status on somebody and at the end, that is not going to tell you whether they are risky or not. Whoever does that needs to have considerable experience in terms of assessing risk at the same time.”

Besides the patient, Van Hulle says institutions should also look at other indicators, like statistical information. “We do know that in group homes that service persons with intellectual disabilities and in psychiatric units or in psychiatric hospitals, the incidence of violence is higher. So they would have a heightened awareness, and they might have more controls in place or provide additional training to staff on how to recognize when behaviours are escalating.”

The Institut Philippe-Pinel in Montreal — the only mental institution in Canada for the criminally insane — relies heavily on risk assessment to evaluate the potential for danger.

One tool that Philippe-Pinel uses is the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression, which scores each patient in seven categories: attitude, impulsiveness, irritability, verbal aggression, sensitivity to provocation, likelihood of anger when denied requests and willingness to follow directions.

In addition to evaluating and assessing patients and taking the appropriate measures, Philippe-Pinel teaches employees about prevention, de-escalation and pacification through compulsory Omega training — a crisis-management and pacification program that anticipates danger and plans strategic withdrawals from it.

The Omega training program recommends intervention strategies for incidents ranging from the non-confrontational, which includes emotional tension and resistance to requests or to listening, to the violently confrontational, such as physical contact, threats with weapons and even hostagetaking. Intervention techniques encompass security, negotiation and control strategies, and pacification strategies for po-

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

25

tentially explosive situations.

Despite these precautions, Philippe-Pinel still reports about 20 violent incidents against staff each year. “That is a figure that we are working to decrease,” human-resources director Yann Belzile says.

In the case of an emergency, Philippe-Pinel has a specialized intervention team onsite, ready to respond within 30 to 45 seconds. “If an incident occurs, the priority is to take care of our people,” Belzile says. “Each one is treated with the utmost attention. Each step, each point is examined carefully to understand what happened in order to improve processes and procedures and better prevent incidents. When appropriate, victims of violence are escorted home.”

KEEPING TABS A balance must be struck between keeping caregivers safe and not stigmatizing all mental-health patients or disabled clients as violent or dangerous.

“You wouldn’t flag a patient as high-risk based on a diagnosis,” Van Hulle suggests. “You would flag it based on whether or not there was a history of violence against a healthcare worker or based on behaviours that they were exhibiting, and that is how you would get around that stigmatization.” If the patient has demonstrated a pattern of violent behaviour in the past, “that would increase the risk levels for that particular patient.”

Another issue that needs to be addressed is whether caregivers should have access to patients’ backgrounds and medical files as a preventive measure and use that as an indicator of potential violent behaviour in the future.

Most provinces include clauses in their respective health-information legislation that permit a custodian of health records to disclose the personal information of a patient without permission if he or she believes that it may prevent bodily harm to other people.

But Van Hulle is not convinced that such a measure would help. “That would be very difficult,” she says in reference to doing a background check on every patient or client to which a caregiver has been assigned. “The situation might be irrelevant to the caregiving situation. It might not have anything to do with where that person is in their life.”

French is of the mind that caregivers, especially those going on home visits by themselves, should be sufficiently warned about the risks associated with certain clients, such as their history and past behaviour. “But does that happen?

Probably not as much as it should,” he argues. “The more in-

formation someone has in trying to be helpful to this unstable individual, the better it is for that person. For both people.”

When an assault against a caregiver has taken place, it begs the question of whether caregivers have the right to press criminal charges against their patients. “Technically, an individual has the right to be able to charge someone,” French says. “If a nurse was to charge somebody, sometimes other nurses will look at that and say, ‘If you were a better nurse or if you were following procedures, you would not need to charge somebody.’”

French reports that he has come across medical units where this issue has become so divisive that it has caused a human-relations issue between individuals. “They can charge if they wish, but policies around charging are critically in need,” he notes.

Another common and unpredictable risk relates to patients smuggling weapons into facilities. “It has happened where people have found a gun under the pillow,” French says. “You can’t search patients, but what are the protocols and procedures around if you suspect that somebody has a weapon of some sort, or something that can be used as a weapon? There is a whole series of policies and procedures that are not necessarily mandated, but should be in place.”

Although Bill 168, which strengthened worker protection from violence and harassment, has been law in Ontario for more than three years, French thinks that the bill has had little effect on the province’s healthcare sector. On the contrary, the fatal stabbing in 2005 of Lori Dupont, a nurse at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor by an anesthesiologist with whom she had had a relationship while they worked in the same hospital, had a bigger effect on raising awareness about the devastating impact that violence can have on the workplace.

“We are in a phase now here in Canada where legislation around violence in a workplace is on an evolutionary trajectory,” French says. “What makes a difference is when instances are publicized and steps are taken to close whatever security-risk gaps there are.” And the resulting moral outrage can help bring about much needed changes.

“A mental-health assessment does not necessarily assess risk.”

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MORE, NOT LESS Florence Flynn, a veteran social worker based in the North Cariboo District of British Columbia, says she has not feared for her safety on the job since she began her career in the 1960s. But she understands the need for diligence.

“There are certain situations where people are vulnerable,” Flynn says, noting that workers deserve to be protected. “As social workers, we visit people in their homes. We have people into our offices. We sometimes convey people in our vehicles and we work often within hospitals.”

Flynn believes that deep cuts to Canada’s healthcare in-

dustry over the past several decades, especially in British Columbia, may have contributed to violence in social work.

In the 1960s, responding in part to overcrowding and a growing belief that incarcerating patients was inhumane and stigmatizing, Canada began a de-institutionalization process.

In this process, some of the larger institutions closed down and long-term patient commitments turned into briefer, intermittent stays. Bed capacity in psychiatric institutions decreased more than fourfold by the end of the 1970s and many previously incarcerated people ended up in special community programs.

“They just didn’t put the money in for the services that people could have used and they don’t now,” Flynn charges.

“If there were more mental-health services in the community available to people, there would be fewer people in criminal situations and fewer worries about violence from people with psychiatric illness.”

Perine has witnessed the results of these changes in the social-work sector in Ontario. As a developmental-service worker with Community Living Essex County, she has seen people with developmental disabilities being moved from now-defunct institutions to group homes in recent years.

“The government has said, ‘Oh, let’s integrate these people into society,’ but they haven’t given us the tools and the funding to do so,” she contends. “I’m a true advocate of the philosophy, but it has not been followed through.”

Whereas nurses and other facility workers are sometimes equipped with alarms, panic buttons and security cameras for their personal protection, Perine says she and her colleagues get nothing — not even a device for alerting other workers in an emergency. “Who would come?” she says. “There is no protection for somebody who is working with a violent individual, especially now, because our sector is not really recognized. We are at the bottom of the barrel.”

The only real safeguard that Perine and her colleagues have is that they are not always working by themselves. There are usually two workers in a group home, often a full-timer and a part-timer. But Community Living Essex County has eliminated many full-time positions and reduced hours for part-time positions.

“Our budget gets cut constantly,” Perine says. Last year, her organization cut more than 426 part-time hours. “We work with people who could be autistic and you don’t know sometimes how violent they can get. And if you went from having a second staff member there to help you to being single-staffed, you can’t really call anybody because you’re in a home,” she adds.

While Community Living Essex County does not have a general violence-prevention program, it provides employee crisis-intervention training by Safe Management Group Inc. — an Oakville, Ontario-based company that specializes in a variety of safety-training programs. Certified trainers teach workers tools on de-escalation and physical protection, such as what to do when a charge pulls your hair, bites, kicks, spits or becomes aggressive in other ways. Employees also get to practise safe holds and other protection methods on each

other during training sessions.

Flynn, who has worked with clients with a lot of anger in them, recommends defusing anger with empathy, respect and proper support. If that does not work, “nowadays with technology, we do have cell phones and we can contact people if we need them.”

While the ONA and other stakeholders are working to improve the safety of caregivers, violence against these workers is not likely to abate any time soon. “It is not part of the job to be abused,” French maintains. “In healthcare, you can’t eliminate that. But you can put stuff in place that can prevent it or could minimize the effect on people.”

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Jeff Cottrill is editorial assistant of

ohs canada.

Care with Caution Kevin Tyrell, president of the Local 1590 chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) with long-term care facility Providence Healthcare in Scarborough, Ontario, reports that violence against caregivers from developmentally disabled patients is “a common occurrence.”

While resident-to-resident violence is something that its members deal with on a fairly regular basis, especially in units where people with cognitive impairments reside, he reports that “there is quite a large number of incidents of violence” against workers. The following are some notable incidents involving patients attacking their caregivers in mental institutions: • February 2012: Two workers at Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia were injured during an altercation with a patient following a psychiatric interview. Although the patient was known to the employer and had exhibited similar behaviour in the past in response to the same trigger event, identified as the threat of intramuscular medication, a care plan and codewhite response had not been developed prior to the intervention, WorkSafeBC reports.

• June 2010: At the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre in Ottawa, a schizophrenic patient, who was angry about his medication’s side effects, entered a boardroom and punched the facility’s president in the head. The patient later pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and was put on probation.

• November 2007: A wandering patient at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto punched two nurses before being subdued by security. The following September, a nurse was molested while supervising another patient. The CAMH was fined $35,000 for each of these cases over the lack of safety procedures and protocols.

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WORKFORCE CHALLENGES

HELP

WANTED

By Ann Ruppenstein

Despite Canada’s oil and gas boom, the industry is facing significant shortages in terms of the skills and talent required to meet the workforce needs of the sector. A Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada (PHRC) report released in May, The Decade Ahead: Labour Market Outlook to 2022 for Canada’s Oil and Gas Industry, highlights some of the challenges facing the industry over the next decade.

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C

arla Campbell-Ott, the PHRC’s senior manager of operations and programs, says the report analyzed two potential scenarios: a lowgrowth projection that sees little industry activity, and an expansion scenario that sees Canadian suppliers gaining access to a range of international markets.

“There’s not a crystal ball and there are so many factors that could come into play when trying to forecast the number of workers that are required,” Calgary-based Campbell-Ott says, adding that both scenarios outlined shortfalls in the workforce.

In 2012, roughly 195,200 people were directly employed in the upstream and midstream petroleum sector. Taking industry activity, age-related attrition and a standard three per cent non-retirement turnover rate into consideration, the report shows that the total hiring activity needed for the industry’s direct workforce will range between 125,100 and 149,800 over the next decade.

In a low-growth scenario, the industry would see an additional 18,300 jobs, while an expansion scenario would require an extra 38,700 jobs to be filled.

Throwing a wrench in the plans is an estimated 44,200 to 45,300 vacancies that will be created from age-related attrition alone.

“In either scenario that we looked at, that’s actually the biggest issue for hiring right now — the sheer number of people retiring in the industry,” CampbellOtt says. “It well surpasses industry growth activity in both scenarios and that creates knowledge transfer issues, productivity issues, etc. as we lose knowledge of those who are more experienced leaving the industry.”

FIFTY-FIFTY

Another key challenge is turnover. While those in the professional occupations in the sector generally have a low turnover rate, the rate is much higher in the petroleum services and drilling fields. “[It’s] 50 per cent in many, many petroleum service occupations,” Campbell-Ott says. She adds that the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors indicates that “in the first year of anyone working on a drilling rig, there’s a 400 per cent turnover. That means they have to hire four people to keep one to stay.”

Although all industry sectors are affected, Campbell-Ott describes the pipeline field as the smallest and most stable sector, because aside from construction positions, most of the jobs are operational and people tend to stay in those roles for longer periods of time. But the impact would be greater on a smaller sector as baby boomers continue to retire.

The report says the net hiring requirements by 2022 in the petroleum sector include 3,000 to 3,250 required jobs in the pipeline sector (petroleum, gas

I n the first year of anyone working on a drilling rig, there’s a 400 per cent turnover. That means they have to hire four people to keep one to stay. and chemical process operators); 6,850 to 10,700 positions in conventional exploration and production (petroleum engineers, geologists and geophysicists); 14,900 to 22,200 oil sands roles (power engineers, heavy equipment operators); and at the top of the chart is the oil and gas services sector (oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers and supervisors) at 37,700 to 47,900 positions.

The servicing sector also generally has the youngest demographic. “It’s more of the entry-level positions for field workers or trades,” Campbell-Ott says.

With up to 400 per cent turnover rates in drilling occupations and 50 per cent in the petroleum services industry, Campbell-Ott says turnover is a significant concern that needs to be addressed. It also affects productivity and safety, and increases rehiring and re-staffing costs.

“With every replacement hire, recruiters are tasked with time to search, interview and select individuals,” Campbell-Ott explains. “Employers have an obligation to provide new hires with proper orientation and training to ensure workers are skilled and safely performing the job. All of these factors create significant costs to an organization and, as a result, lower overall productivity.”

For Ken Nickel-Lane, associate director for Canada with Air Energi — a global workforce services provider in the international oil and gas industry — these workforce challenges are nothing new.

Nickel-Lane says he has been aware of the issue since the early 2000s. He believes that a large portion of the shortage is a result of the sheer volume of activity within the marketplace.

For example, if companies were looking to fill several difficult key positions in Newfoundland and Labrador, only a handful of people in the area would have the capabilities of doing the role with the required seniority. And most of them are already on jobs when a new project comes along.

“Here is this project that has a workforce plan that requires these guys at certain time frames,” NickelLane says by way of example. “If they don’t get them, the whole project basically gets hamstrung. So we’re www.ohscanada.com

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MADE IN CANADA?

now in a situation where if you don’t have those people locally, you have to find them from somewhere.”

Even as liquefied natural gas projects increase in Western Canada, particularly on British Columbia’s coastline, there is a lack of experienced employees in that line of work since it is fairly new to the industry in the country, especially on the downstream side.

“You have either got to find people that have got transferable skills or you have got to bring people in from outside, because projects are going to need to move forward in the next two years,” Nickel-Lane says. “You’re not going to have time to bring in somebody out of a university setting. They have to be wellexperienced, ready to go.”

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For example, a civil engineer with five years’ experience is cannot to do the job of a weight-control engineer, who is required to have 20 years of experience in a very specific niche role.

“There [is] such a wide array of specific differences around the roles that are required for particular projects to move forward that you need simply to get that specific experience to be able to get the job done,” Nickel-Lane says. “The approach there is to utilize the immigration system and bring somebody into Canada on a temporary basis to fill that role and basically remove that bottleneck, so that the broader project can move forward.”

Another emerging issue is that the industry has a group of senior individuals, who are retiring and continuing to retire, and junior to intermediate talent, but not necessarily a large volume of intermediate people who can come in and fill these senior roles.

“You have this experience-gap level that’s moving through the system, so that’s also another significant challenge, because now you have got to try and find ways of filling those particular gaps,” Nickel-Lane says. “That means you have got to try and do a lot more to try and skill up the younger workforce to be able to fill up those senior roles.”

Although temporary foreign workers are often a short-term solution, Nickel-Lane says it is key to mentor and train Canadians at more junior levels, so they can take on the senior roles in future.

For Nickel-Lane, the health and safety challenge that can arise from hiring foreign workers does not just lie in the fact that they are unaware of the hazards in the industry — language barrier is also a factor.

“All the training in the world doesn’t necessarily help if you’ve got someone that is acknowledging they understand, but perhaps don’t fully understand,” Nickel-Lane argues. “Or if there is literally an emergency on a site and they don’t follow the instructions, or understand the instructions that are being communicated to them.”

While he notes that the industry is generally aware of this concern, individual workers should also be aware of it, especially those in smaller operations that may not have experienced the challenges it can create.

NOT A QUICK FIX

To fulfill the needs of the oil and gas industry over the years to come, Campbell-Ott says different strategies need to be implemented, such as tapping into various labour supply groups. Extra focus should be placed on the underemployed in all provinces and attracting women and aboriginals. The youth and new-graduate market is also critical to the industry, she stresses.

David Urquhart, team lead of human resources advisory, staffing and development for Encana’s Canadian division, says there is a big push internally within the Calgary-based company to replenish the workforce, as people move to other firms or retire.

“A big source for us is making sure that we have an active summer-student and new-graduate program, especially for our critical and core talent,” Urquhart says. “Every year, we take a really good look and forecast what our future workforce needs are and consciously bring in a fair number of new graduates into our workforce.”

Nickel-Lane agrees that reaching out to young people to get them thinking about other opportunities and providing energy literacy and career awareness are critical.

Since there is a high dropout level in apprenticeship programs, Campbell-Ott believes that effort is needed to capture and retain the people who start, but do not finish the programs. Another way to fill some of these positions is to bring over workers with transferable skills from other industries, such as pulpand paper-plant operators, which she says may meet the requirements for oil operator positions.

Nickel-Lane points out part of the problem is that as projects continue to expand in Newfoundland, East Coast workers currently employed in Alberta are attracted back home, resulting in a shortfall in Alberta.

To help deal with labour shortages, Cameron MacGillivray, president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Enform, the safety association for Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry, says the organization works closely with other agencies and nongovernmental bodies like the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to bring health and safety courses and training to recent immigrants.

TAILOR-MADE

Undoubtedly, workforce shortages and new recruits affect productivity, Urquhart says. In a service environment, an experienced drilling crew not only is more efficient with faster turnaround times, but they also understand safety procedures better. “When you have new workers entering our worksite, there is that risk as well that procedures may not be followed and they’re more at risk of having injuries,” he contends.

In terms of the company’s contractors and service providers, Urquhart says Encana has comprehensive checkpoints to ensure that people are correctly certified before entering a worksite. They also undergo detailed onsite training and learn safety measures to alleviate this concern, including off-highway defensive driving and ground disturbance practices. Fulltime employees receive constant training tailored to

You’re not going to have time to bring in somebody out of a university setting. They have to be well-experienced, ready to go. the specific type of work they do.

“It’s not unusual for a new hire from day one to be assigned up to 70-odd training requirements,” Urquhart notes. “Some of it is just read and check off that you’ve acknowledged, read and understood it; other ones are attending courses.”

PLAY IT SAFE

MacGillivray acknowledges that research has shown new workers are more at risk than those who are more experienced on the job site. As well, “there are significantly more injuries in the first year of employment,” she notes.

Enform is equipped with tools to address this issue. One such newly launched initiative is the electronic general safety orientation or eGSO. Developed specifically for the new, young workforce entering the upstream oil and gas industry, the tool is a free, online general safety-orientation video that supports employers’ existing new worker orientation programs. In September, all six Canadian petroleum industry associations announced that effective June 1, 2014, an eGSO record of completion from Enform would be required as evidence of a worker’s completion of a general safety orientation.

“When you have people working with complex heavy equipment in sometimes unusual working situations and remote locations, keeping workers safe and keeping the processes safe is very important,” MacGillivray emphasizes. “In some cases, if there’s a failure in the system, it could lead to the impact on not only the immediate surroundings, but perhaps the immediate communities involved. So we are emphasizing the systems they’re working on and the engineering controls, like valves and checkpoints, that come into play.”

In addition to safety courses, guidelines and industry recommended practices, Enform also issues a certificate of recognition when companies have a bona fide safety-management system. “We know from statistics that their accidents and injuries and fatality rates are much better than those who don’t have a core certificate,” MacGillivray adds. www.ohscanada.com

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SAFETY CULTURE

Safety compliance and consulting specialist Robin Weatherill of Safety Canada Limited in Calgary says health and safety culture is not solely determined by industry itself; employers are also key to the equation.

“The message is really quite simple: the culture of health and safety is everyone’s responsibility and everyone in every organization must be accountable at all times,” Weatherill says. “There must be a system in place for all safety orientations, safety training and competency tests to all workers prior to starting work to ensure that all preventable occurrences do not happen.”

Weatherill firmly believes the majority of incidents that occur are preventable and senior management must promote professional safety training and safety experience as part of their safety culture. “If all companies have new hire orientations, promote the culture of health and safety and provide safety training and competency tests before allowing any and all workers to start assigned work, there will not be an issue with workers who aren’t as versed in health and safety,” he argues.

For MacGillivray, safety culture is a hot topic and the organization works with chief executive officers and boards of directors to integrate safety standards into the workplace from the top down. For example, an executive summit on safety held in Calgary last year attracted 93 senior executives from all sectors in

MANAGING FATIGUE An understaffed workforce creates a situation in which fatigue comes into play when workers put in extra hours to get the job done. “Most projects have a very specific timeline through which they have got to move through various stages and a lot of it comes down to money,” says Ken Nickel-Lane, associate director for Canada with Air Energi. That means there is increased stress on those individuals who remain within that group and work significant hours, often to the point where fatigue is an issue.

“It’s just a struggle right now because no matter how you look at it, you need to try and get these projects done and if you are short of a worker population, you are always struggling to add more folks into your team,” Nickel-Lane adds. “If it continues to persist on being a challenge, then you have got folks who are unfortunately picking up the slack.”

Cameron MacGillivray, president and chief executive officer of Enform, agrees. “If you don’t have enough workers, you tend to make their shifts a little longer.” Although it has been an ongoing concern for years, Enform focused on the importance of managing workplace fatigue by launching a set of guiding principles for fatigue-risk management in

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September. The guiding principles were approved by six industry associations, including the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

MacGillivray notes that Enform has guidelines and reference cards for employers and employees to help identify when a worker may be affected by fatigue. The cards assess how much sleep an individual has received over the last 24 to 48 hours and the number of hours that have gone by since they last slept. Depending on a worker’s score, the fatigue-likelihood assessment card may suggest that a worker be monitored by a supervisor or not commence a shift until they are fit for work.

Although there has always been a balance between employee efficiencies and working safely, David Urquhart, team lead of human resources advisory, staffing and development for Encana in Calgary, stresses that it is of utmost importance to maintain health and safety standards, even during workforce shortages. “The hardships are sometimes [that] you live and learn by understanding that someone just pulled a 24-hour shift to maintain production,” he says. Not only is this against the law, it is also unsafe. “We need to maintain the health and safety of every employee and every person working around that employee.”

Another factor is commuting time, which can be significant, especially for those who have just completed a 12-hour shift. “It’s important that the worker show up what we call ‘fit for duty’,” MacGillivray says. That means workers should be well rested and free of substances that would affect their performance. “It’s a very important topic and it extends through all sectors of the industry.”

the oil and gas industry. Topics that were discussed include process safety and human factors involved with safety.

Whether it is a trip and fall, a sprain or a lifting incident, Urquhart believes that it is important to analyze and share information when accidents occur to prevent future occurrences. He points to things like safety stand-downs in the event of a critical situation, so that workers can recalibrate and efforts can be made to ensure that they understand the importance of safety and proper work procedures in the workplace.

Ultimately, if a company in the oil and gas industry recruits a worker who has not been properly trained in safety procedures and protocols, they are putting other people at risk as well as themselves, Nickel-Lane cautions.

“The industry as a whole understands it’s a hazardous business and you can’t take shortcuts — not when it comes to workplace health and safety,” Urquhart says. “That always needs to be top of mind.”

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

ON THE RISE Forecasted investment and activity levels in Canada’s oil and gas industry are projected to sustain an annual average of 894,100 to 1,036,100 direct, indirect and induced jobs. This is due to the continued development of the nation’s oil sands, an increase in light- and heavy-oil production and offshore oil projects, and the potential of liquefied natural gas projects. The industry will experience a tight labour market for a number of occupations, including the following: • Engineers: project, mining, electrical/instrumentation, chemical, mechanical, petroleum and civil; • Mechanical and instrumentation engineering technologists, drafting technologists and technicians; • Environmental and non-destructive testers, and inspection technicians; • Power engineers (steam-ticket operators); • Drilling coordinators/production managers; • Oil and gas field workers, labourers and operators; and • Trade workers: instrumentation technicians, heavy-duty equipment mechanics, welders, insulators, crane operators, millwrights and machinists, steamfitters and pipefitters.

Source: Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada (PHRC) report, The Decade Ahead: Labour Market Outlook to 2022 for Canada’s Oil and Gas Industry.

Ann Ruppenstein is a writer in Toronto.

www.ohscanada.com

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EXCAVATION

G O I N G

BY DANNY KUCHARSKY

When Paul Villeneuve was 20, he was buried up to his waist in soil after heavy machinery nearby caused the trench in which he was working to collapse. Fortunately, he got out alive after his brothers, who were working on the job, dug him out with shovels.

Villeneuve of Laval, Quebec was one of the lucky ones. Had the level of soil been a bit higher, he might not have lived to tell the tale.

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“

W

hen you’re buried up to your chest, you’re dead. There’s too much pressure,” Villeneuve says. Some 40 years after his work accident, Villeneuve now works for ASP Construction in Montreal, which teaches compulsory courses in safety and security — including a trenching and excavation component — to construction workers in Quebec.

One of the biggest hazards of trenching and excavation work is the risk of cave-ins. Trenching fatalities are primarily caused by cave-ins, with death occurring by suffocation or crushing when a worker is buried by falling soil, notes information from the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association in Mississauga, Ontario.

Trench stability is affected by a number of factors, such as soil type, moisture content, depth of the trench, length of time during which the trench is left open, previous excavations or soil disturbances and vibration and excessive weight from heavy equipment nearby. Trench-related fatalities can also be caused by falls, exposure to hazardous gases, drowning, falling equipment or materials and electrocution.

“People think they’re invincible. They don’t realize how extremely dangerous trenches and confined spaces can be,” Villeneuve says.

An excavation is a hole made in the ground of at least four feet, with the width of its base exceeding the depth. A trench, which is also at least four feet in depth, has a base that has a width equal to or less than

fort involved 60 firefighters.

But a worker who was installing a sewer service in Toronto last March was not so lucky: he was killed when he fell into a trench and was buried by a concrete slab.

SHIFTING GROUND Most trench and excavation fatalities occur on small, short-duration jobs and involve companies with fewer than 10 employees, notes information from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL). Small-scale projects, such as excavating houses to waterproof basements, typically attract smaller companies that provide little or no training and supervision of workers, says Mike Chappell, provincial coordinator of the construction health and safety program at the labour ministry in Toronto.

“They’re hiring workers from temporary help agencies or workers who don’t have a lot of experience, and they’re loosely supervising them,” he says.

Chappell reports that accidents on small jobs typically involve only a back-hoe operator and the worker in the trench. The recommended shoring or sloping protection for trenches is often not in place. Some companies take the risk that the shallow holes, which are generally two to two-and-a-half metres deep, will not collapse in the day or two during which the job is being done.

“If you’re digging in the top layer of the soil, it will stand up [for] some period of time without falling in,” Chappell says. But vibration and water destabilize the soil, and eventually, it will collapse. “It’s not a question of if, but when.”

Workers caught in that situation have very little chance to survive. “The popular belief is that if you are buried in a trench, your co-workers can jump in and somehow dig you out in time. That is not the reality,” Chappell notes. “Soil is so heavy that when it collapses, it pushes all of the air out of the lungs of a worker.” One cubic yard of soil can weigh as much as a car and the pressure on the chest can make it impossible for a worker to breathe, even if his or her head is above the level of the collapsed soil.

“You only have four, perhaps five minutes realistically to rescue a worker, and if you are covered by three or four feet of soil and try to dig that out, it’s not going to happen. It becomes a recovery situation,” he adds.

Chappell says such accidents continue to happen even though requirements for trenching and excavation safety have been in place for well over 20 years and employers are required to provide adequate training and supervision to workers.

David Law, partner at Gowling Lafleur Henderson in Ottawa and co-leader of the law firm’s national oh&s practice, says small employers who have

Most trench and excavation fatalities occur on small, short-duration jobs. the depth. Several effective methods that can help prevent accidents include sloping, shoring and using trench boxes. Sloping involves cutting back the trench wall at an angle inclined away from the excavation.

Shoring systems that retain the walls are usually made of wood, aluminum or steel panels held apart by shoring screws or hydraulic jacks. Trench boxes or prefabricated shoring are used more frequently to hold trench walls in place while workers are inside them.

Despite these safeguards, fatalities and injuries still occur. Last September, a worker in Westmount, Quebec was buried in a trench next to a house when the wood retaining wall collapsed on him, as did soil and paving stone. Colleagues got him out in 90 seconds, but he succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards.

That same month, two construction workers in Toronto were pulled out alive from a collapsed trench at a house under construction. The 90-minute rescue ef36

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not joined construction safety associations are more prone to unsafe practices in trenches. Even companies with adequate resources and training may have supervisors who have not bought into the safety program or may direct people to do work in a way that is unsafe, because they are under time pressure.

“A worker who knows they shouldn’t do something they think is dangerous is an employer’s best friend,” says Law, since these workers draw employers’ attention to safety concerns and bring about the opportunity to rectify them. “The missing piece, a lot of the time, is the unwillingness of individuals to say, ‘I’m not comfortable with that.’”

HORSE BEFORE CART A trench accident is like any other non-compliance issue, says Law, who has worked on many cases involving trenches in his 25-year career. “It’s pretty horrifying for a person to be trapped in that way, whether she lives or dies.”

Before digging even begins, Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) requires debris and excavated soil near the excavation site to be removed.

Workers must be protected from falling into an excavation and water-removal plans should be in place.

Apart from locating overhead power lines and underground infrastructure, such as gas and electric power lines, knowing the type of soil and the sloping, shoring or shielding required is critical. Having an emergency plan to deal with any unforeseen incidents is also required, notes information from the MOL. But Chappell says Ontario does not stipulate the need for a full-time supervisor on jobs with fewer than five workers. On the other hand, “the greater the risk, the more the employer has the obligation to provide supervision.” Even for trench jobs with fewer than five workers, Chappell is of the mind that “it would be prudent to do due diligence” and provide full-time supervision.

Kimberley Labrecque, whose husband Fabien Guindon was killed by the collapse of a soil wall in Oka, Quebec in 2007 while repairing a conduit in a trench, says she continues to see trenches that are potentially dangerous. She vowed her husband’s death would not be in vain and agreed to appear in an accident prevention video for the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail.

She believes that had her husband been protected by a trench box, he would not have been killed. “It’s unacceptable. Without trench boxes, trenches can become real coffins for the workers who are inside them.”

Quebec’s guidelines require an experienced person who can detect

faults, earth breaking or any other source of danger to be present at the ground level when employees are working in trenches.

Candice Brown, a safety and injury management advisor at the BC Construction Safety Alliance in New Westminster, British Columbia says employers planning to do trench or excavation work should call onestop services, such as BC One Call in British Columbia and Info-Excavation in Quebec, to determine the location of underground utilities within the area. She adds that British Columbia and other provinces have the Common Ground Alliance, a non-profit organization that develops best practices and coordinates safe excavation activities near underground infrastructure.

Trench walls become less stable the longer they are exposed to rain, snow or dry weather. When trench accidents occur, firefighters are almost always called upon to rescue trapped workers. But only a minority of firefighters in Toronto have taken all three levels of trench-rescue courses available, says firefighter Geoff Boisseau, who sits on the executive of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association. Boisseau is one of 60 firefighters who recently completed the top-tier technician level training, which deals with intersecting

Silt or Sand Understanding the type of soil, which determines the strength and stability of trench walls, can help supervisors and workers plan their protection accordingly. As soil types and conditions can change over very short distances, the Construction Regulation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act sets out soil types into the following categories: • Type 1: Often described as “hard ground to dig”, this type of soil, such as “hardpan”, consolidated clay and some glacial tills, is so hard that it is close to rock.

• Type 2: This type of soil can easily be excavated by a backhoe or it can be hand-excavated with some difficulty.

The sides of a trench will remain vertical for a short period of time. Examples include silty clay and less dense tills.

• Type 3: This type of soil, when dry, flows through fingers and will not stand vertically. Sand, granular materials, silty or wet clays and all backfilled or previously disturbed material fall under this category.

• Type 4: This type of soil must be supported and contained to be excavated to any significant depth. With its high moisture content, soil of this type is very sensitive to vibration and other disturbances. Examples include muskeg, quicksand, clay and silty clay.

Source: Infrastructure Health and Safety Association

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Digging Safe Workers engaged in trenching and excavation works are exposed to risks from both the top, such as caveins, and underground – with electrical utility services as an example. Apart from wearing the proper personal protective equipment, ensuring that workers have received proper training and making first-aid supplies available in the event of an incident, trade guidelines on excavation and trenching from the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba recommends the following safe work practices: • Do not use pointed tools to probe for underground gas and electrical services; • Protective barricades should be installed; • The spoil pile must be placed at least one metre

trenches. The first two levels — awareness and operations — deal with recognizing the general hazards associated with trench and excavation emergencies and understanding the need for protective systems to perform a safe rescue.

The more training firefighters have, the closer they are allowed to get to the trench during rescues, says Boisseau, who was involved in a trench rescue a few years ago. Two men were waterproofing their basement from the outside when soil collapsed and pinned them against a wall. One man was rescued, but the oth-

“Soil is so heavy that when it collapses, it pushes all of the air out of the lungs of a worker.” er had to be dug out — fortunately alive — by crews.

Boisseau says Toronto Fire Services has a specialized trench-rescue truck with the equipment required to respond to accidents, although calls for rescues of this nature are few and far between.

EMPLOYER LIABILITY Cheryl Edwards, partner of Heenan Blaikie and labour and employment lead at the law firm’s oh&s and workers’ compensation practice group in Toronto, points out that employers can be charged with criminal offences in addition to occupational health and safety violations in the wake of a trench accident.

For example, charges were laid against Millennium Crane Rentals of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in connection with a sewer work accident in 2009, when a crane that was being repositioned rolled into an excavation, killing a worker. Five charges were laid against Millennium Crane under the OHSA. The company, the crane owner and the crane operator were also charged with criminal negligence causing death.

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• • • •

away from the edge of the excavation, while work materials and equipment must be at least two metres back from the edge; The trench must have adequate entrance and exit points every eight metres; Ladders must be placed within three metres of

workers, secured and capable of extending at least three rungs above ground; If trench depth is more than one metre in height below the sloped sides, a support structure or adequate shoring must be provided; and No vehicles should be parked within a distance equal to the depth of the excavation or they may jeopardize the stability of the walls.

amendments had been made to the Criminal Code in 2004. While the criminal charges were withdrawn as the Crown could not prove that a lack of maintenance caused the crane to roll into the excavation, the company was fined $70,000 last July for failing to ensure that the crane was maintained in a condition that would not endanger a worker.

“There can be significant liability under occupational health and safety legislation across Canada, under the Criminal Code of Canada, for excavation-related issues to employers, to general contractors, business owners and even workers and supervisors,” Edwards cautions.

She adds the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in September that in appropriate cases, courts can fine a company into bankruptcy for a Criminal Code conviction. In that case, the court increased the fine from $200,000 to $750,000 for Metron Corp. after the company pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal negligence causing death. The case against Metron Corp. stemmed from the deaths of four migrant workers on Christmas Eve of 2009, when the swing stage on which they were working collapsed from a high-rise building in Toronto. Edwards says higher fines are sending a message to employers that “this is not acceptable.”

Chappell notes that Ontario is working on mandatory entry-level training that will make construction workers aware that trenching and working under the soil is inherently dangerous. “Workers often have no idea. They do as they’re told. They want to keep their job and that puts them in a situation of playing the game of chance — when will this collapse? Unfortunately, they don’t know.”

Law observes that compliance with safe practices in trenching and excavation works has improved considerably over the past two decades. That said, “it shocks me to think that we have 10 fatalities a year in this country when we are equipped to deal with this.”

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Danny Kucharsky is a writer in Montreal.

World of Safety Contest 2014 For over 13 years, OHS CANADA has provided the opportunity for our readers to sample products and receive information from the world’s leading manufacturers of health & safety products and services.

Go to http://www.ohscanada.com/world-of-safety/2014/ to see this year’s participants.

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LAW FILE

DISABILITY

Keep on Trucking

By Jeff Cottrill

A

truck driver in Alberta has been awarded $15,000 in damages, plus four years’ worth of interest, from his former employer in a wrongful-dismissal case.

Driver Mark Carriere alleged that Calgary-based Boonstra Trucking Ltd. (BTL) had discriminated against him due to his disability, which resulted from a slip and fall on ice while on the job.

The decision from October 18 by chair Geeta Bharadia of the Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta found that the company had violated sections 7(1)(a) and (b) of the Alberta Human Rights Act, which state that employers cannot refuse to employ people based on The legal their mental or physical disabilities.

Carriere’s former supervisor, BTL definition co-owner Lloyd Boonstra, claimed that the driver had been fired not for any disof disability ability, but because he had tried to steal a stove and detergent container. Boonstra, can be who also accused Carriere of overstating his work hours on time cards and very broad using prescription drugs while at work, within an claimed that he had not been aware that Carriere had not completely recovered. employment Bharadia threw out Boonstra’s allegations of theft and deceit on the grounds context. that they lacked credibility and had been made only after Carriere’s termination.

The chair also determined that Carriere had suffered adverse effects that could be attributed to his disability, including financial strain, severe emotional stress and difficulty in securing new employment.

The legal definition of disability can be very broad within an employment context in Canada, says Bill Armstrong, senior partner at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Canada in Calgary. “Human rights tribunals right across the country have taken an approach of including just about everything in the definition of disability,” he says. “Even if you don’t have a disability, but your employer perceives you have a disability, you’re also protected by human rights law.”

Carriere’s disability claim was based not only on his fall at work, which had taken place in February of 2009 and placed him on worker’s compensation benefits for about eight months. An internal hemorrhoid rupture that sent him to the emergency room shortly after his return to work that October was also cited as a ground for disability. The company later argued in court that Carriere had recovered from the injury at the time of termination and that a hemorrhoid rupture did not count as a disability — an argument that Bharadia rejected.

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ties just as easily as long-term conditions can. “It certainly includes all sorts of permanent kind of things like amputation.”

Armstrong adds that determining an employee’s disability is a factual process that relies on relevant medical reports and other clear evidence. Sometimes, it is strategic to have an independent medical examination conducted on an employee in a case like Carriere’s — regardless of whether one is prosecuting or defending the case. “It is not uncommon to have doctors testify,” he notes.

If a conflict in the medical evidence arises, it is up to the judge or chair to make a determination, says John Batzel, who practises employment and labour law and is a partner with law firm Bennett Jones in Calgary. “Even if an actual disability at the point in time is not established, if it could be shown that the employer was motivated by some sort of animus at the fact that the employee was off work for a period of time — even if the matter is now resolved from a medical standpoint — that could pose a challenge in certain circumstances,” Batzel says.

KEEPING LINES OPEN While Boonstra’s claim that he did not know the extent of Carriere’s incapacity was disproven in court, do workers have an obligation to keep their employers informed? “There is a responsibility that goes both ways,” says Batzel, noting that Bharadia addressed this issue in his decision. “Employees do have an obligation to keep their employer relatively informed. On the other hand, the employer has an obligation as well to make reasonable inquiries as to whether a problem that an employee is having performing their duties might be related to some sort of a disability.”

Armstrong agrees that an employee has to report a disability in order to receive accommodation. “You’ve got to make the employer aware that you fall within one of the protected grounds of human rights,” he says. The employer also has an obligation to inquire about an employee’s medical information if a disability is confirmed or suspected.

Jane Grant, president and senior human-resources consultant with Grant and Associates HR Inc. in Calgary, thinks that many smaller companies get into situations like BTL’s — a small family business owned by Boonstra and his wife — because “they don’t have appropriate systems, processes and policies in place to handle all of the day-to-day human resources issues that come up,” says Grant, who is also a certified management consultant. She adds that many such employers take these issues upon themselves, as Boonstra and his co-owners did, and handle them ineffectively.

The decision states that BTL told Carriere upon his return to work that it could not provide modified duties for him, only modified hours. Heavy lifting was a big part of Carriere’s job, which involved moving appliances weighing up to 350

pounds with the help of co-workers. Boonstra did offer to ease Carriere’s work by giving him lighter loads and having a three-man crew assist him. Bharadia felt that the company had still failed to accommodate Carriere to a proper extent after his hemorrhoid ruptured.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that we have a physically demanding industry,” says Dan Duckering, president and chief executive officer of trucking company Duckering’s Transport.

Duckering, who is also past-president of the Alberta Motor Transport Association in Rocky View, Alberta says the case illustrates the need to clarify whether an employee needs modified work to accommodate a physical impairment.

“There’s a concern that sometimes, employees want to get back to their jobs quickly,” Duckering suggests, noting that they may try to do, or indicate that they can do, more than they can. “Years ago, it was common for employers to feel as though there was no modified work available, but in today’s world, I find that difficult to imagine.”

Jordan Brant, human-resources consultant with Grant and Associates HR Inc. who has studied the Carriere case, believes that employers should try their best to accommodate disabled employees before considering letting them go. If the employer does everything possible to adapt, only to find that the employee’s situation is still a hardship for the company, “then at that point, they can look at possibly providing some kind of exit for the employee. But there still has to be due diligence.”

Brant also suggests that employers should institute disabil-

ity management programs to deal with employees returning from a medical leave of absence with working restrictions, even if that means merely taking a more proactive approach to the situation. “There can be little modifications that can happen,” she advises. “The idea is to get the employee hopefully working back to full capacity as to what they were if they have permanent restrictions, and figuring out if the company can manage around those or not.”

As for the Carriere case, Brant says BTL missed opportunities to adapt sufficiently to his impairments. “There were a few things that the employer probably could have done to help themselves out a little bit with Mr. Carriere.” In addition to the damages and interest, Bharadia ordered BTL to participate in an Alberta Human Rights Commission educational program and develop a written human rights policy revolving around the requirements of the Alberta Human Rights Act. “As employers, we have an obligation towards best practices,” Duckering says, noting that the transport industry has worked hard to improve health and safety through modified programs and policies. In an instance when a working relationship is not going to continue and an employer has made that determination, “you need to properly handle how you terminate that relationship, or it’s going to come around and catch up to you.”

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Announcement - Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals 2014 Governing Board Dan Lyons, Board Chair is President and Senior Consultant of Step Change in Safety Inc. based in Cambridge, Ontario; and has more than 26 years’ experience in health and safety management. Mr. Lyons is the twentieth chair of the BCRSP since the certification body’s incorporation in 1976. Mr. Lyons has several academic achievements, including a Master’s degree in Environmental Health Sciences from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Mr. Lyons has been a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP)® since1995.

Dave Turner, Board Vice-Chair, is the President and Lead OHS Specialist for Turner Safety Systems Ltd in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Mr. Turner graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1973 with a B.Sc.(Hons) in Mining Engineering and holds an MBA from City University of Seattle. Mr. Turner has been a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP)® since 2001.

Ron Durdle, Board Past Chair, is the Safety and Environment Manager for the Department of National Defence at Fleet Maintenance Facility, CFB Esquimalt in Victoria, British Columbia. Mr. Durdle graduated from the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Occupational Health & Safety program in 2000. Mr. Durdle has been a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP)® since 2001.

Paul Andre, Board Secretary-Treasurer is the Vice President Prevention Services for Workplace Safety North, in North Bay, Ontario.

Mr. Andre holds a Forestry Technician and Forestry Technologist Diploma from Sir Sanford Fleming College and an Occupational, Health and Safety Certificate from Ryerson University. Mr. Andre has been a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP)® since 1996.

In addition to the Executive Committee, the 2014 Governing Board includes Governors: Paula Campkin, MBA, CRSP, Brett D. Christie, BSc, CRSP, Kevin J. Dawson, MBA, PEng, CRSP, Andy Felczak, CRSP, Covena Hilford, CRSP, CSP, John Hollohan, BSc, BASc, CRSP, Yvonne O’Reilly, CRSP, Harry Stewart, CRSP, Peter Sturm, CRSP, CHSC, David A. Williamson, CRSP, CHSC, Andrea Cotroneo (Public Member), and the Executive Director is Nicola J. Wright, BA (Hons), CAE. The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is a federally incorporated self-regulating, self-governing, ISO 17024 accredited and ISO 9001 certified organization established in 1976. The Board governs its certificants in order that the public interest may be served and protected.

Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés, 6519-B Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 1A6, www.bcrsp.ca

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

41

HEALTH WATCH

INFLUENZA

Fighting Microbes

By Jean Lian

T

he controversy over mandatory flu shots for healthcare workers has reared its head in British Columbia after an arbitrator upheld a policy that requires healthcare workers in the province either to get vaccinated or to mask up at all times during the flu season, which typically runs from November to April.

The decision by Queen’s Counsel Robert Diebolt, delivered on October 23, 2013, stems from a grievance filed by the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association about the provincial Influenza Control Program Policy. The arbitrator dismissed the grievance by finding the policy a lawful exercise of the employers’ management rights.

Val Avery, president of the Health Sciences Association, which challenged the policy on behalf of its 16,000 health science professionals, says she is “disappointed” with the ruling, but notes that the decision does address some privacy concerns the union had with the policy. The arbitrator has determined that “it was an abuse of the privacy rights of healthcare Studies offer workers” to circulate the immunization status reports of employees at conflicting the workplace, as was done in 2012.

The original policy also required evidence on the healthcare workers to report if their colleagues were not complying with effectiveness of the policy, which could create an unnecessary atmosphere of suspiflu vaccines. cion and accusation in the workplace. That requirement has also been removed.

The grievance underscores the fact that protecting healthcare workers from influenza involves more than just fighting microbes. On the research front, studies offer conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of flu vaccines.

In 2009, the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) in Vancouver reported the results of four observational studies, which found that prior vaccination with the 2008-2009 trivalent inactivated influenza (TIV) vaccine was associated with an increased risk of pH1N1 illness during the spring and summer of 2009. However, the study acknowledged that the finding was not conclusive, as the people who had been vaccinated might have shared another unknown characteristic responsible for increasing their risk of developing pH1N1 illness.

Another study, Efficacy and Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, published in October of 2011, found that while flu vaccines provide moderate protection against virologically confirmed influenza, such protection is greatly reduced or absent in some seasons.

“It is about 60 per cent effective every year in protecting

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people from influenza,” says Dr. Bonnie Henry, medical director of communicable disease control with the BCCDC. The effectiveness of flu vaccines varies depending on the season, how well the vaccine is matched to the circulating strains and an individual’s ability to mount a good immune response. As the vaccine works best in healthy people — a category that most healthcare workers fit into — Dr. Henry encourages healthcare workers to take the flu shot.

“Because it is not 100 per cent effective, it’s really important that all of us help keep the susceptible population down,” she says, noting that the measures in the policy adopted by British Columbia help to keep influenza out of healthcare facilities, particularly in long-term care homes where outbreaks occur.

“Every day during flu season, nurses see the very real impact that the flu can have — not just on children and the elderly, but on otherwise perfectly healthy adults,” Julie Fraser, president of the Association of Registered Nurses of British Columbia in Vancouver, said in a statement on November 7 in support of the province’s move.

MORE QUESTIONS Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infection protection and control at the University Health Network in Toronto, takes the flu shot every year. He recommends healthcare workers do the same, but does not think that it should be made mandatory. He remembers 2012 as a particularly bad influenza season, during which healthcare workers who had received the flu shot were getting sick and had to take antivirals.

“Of all the sort of routine vaccinations that we give people, the flu shot is probably the least effective of any of them.

It’s unclear to me why we would be so aggressive with this vaccine to the point of making it mandatory when it really doesn’t work very well,” Dr. Gardam contends.

He adds that one of the main problems with developing vaccines is the virus mutates all the time. “It is always a bit of a moving target,” Dr. Gardam says. “Sometimes, a flu shot does not work very well, because the strains it was made against are not the strains that are actually circulating.”

He also questions how much protection is offered by wearing a mask, which he describes as “a theoretical measure at best”. He points to the growing debate in the occupational health and safety community that airborne-sized droplets are one of the key modes of flu transmission. “Those are not being filtered by these masks,” Dr. Gardam says, “unless you are wearing the respirator.”

A flu vaccine traditionally protects against three strains of viruses: two A strains and one B strain. “We are doing a pretty good job with the influenza A strains,” Dr. Henry says, but not with influenza B strains. “One of the things that is going to help us with that is a quadrivalent vaccine that contains both of the B strains. And that should be available in Canada

WEST TO EAST

It is common knowledge that flu viruses are transmitted by airborne droplets from infected persons who cough, sneeze or talk, or through physical contact with a surface or object contaminated by the flu virus. But what is less well understood is the spatial pattern in which influenza spreads in Canada.

A study, led by DaiHai He while he was a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in August of 2013. It investigated the patterns of laboratory-confirmed influenza A across Canada from October of 1999 to August of 2012. A statistical analysis of the seasonal epidemics in this period established a spatio-temporal pattern indicating that influenza spreads from west to east across the country.

Early emergence in the western provinces is correlated with low temperature and low humidity in the fall.

Transmission rates also appear to be influenced by contact and weather patterns. School closures, which have led to

starting next year.”

A series of laboratories around the world and in Canada monitors how the flu virus is changing — especially near the end of the season — and observes what is happening in the southern hemisphere, where the flu season occurs in a cycle opposite to the northern hemisphere’s. “That helps us predict what circulating strains are going to be in our community and that is how vaccines are developed,” Dr. Henry explains.

Every February, Dr. Gardam says an “intelligent guess” is made as to which strain is going to circulate. “Most of the time, it’s reasonably accurate.” However, mismatches do occur. Even if there is a good match, there is still a chance that the vaccine may not be as effective, “largely because the parts of the virus that the vaccine is made against just aren’t really great sites to make a vaccine.”

Adjuvanted vaccines, which contain pharmacological agents added to boost the body’s immune response to the vaccine, tend to induce superior immune effectiveness than unadjuvanted ones, although that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and from season to season, notes Dr. Andrew Potter, chief executive officer of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization with the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

“The data I have seen on retrospective views of events, such as the H1N1 scare, suggests that they are remarkably effective, although clearly not as effective as some other vaccines,” Dr. Potter says. “However, given the heterologous strains circulating, this is not especially surprising.”

Dr. Potter believes the needle-free flu shot, an intranasal product that can induce mucosal immunity available in some provinces, would encourage uptake. “I am a fan of getting rid of invasive forms of vaccine delivery,” he says. “I do believe that many people simply do not like getting a shot.”

ON THE GROUND Lynn Ronnebeck, a registered nurse and infection-control professional with the Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora, Ontario, says she does not dread the flu season. “As an infection-control professional, I promote the flu shot.”

Ronnebeck cites an editorial by Dr. Ken Flegel, medical

a significant reduction in flu transmission, suggest that it can be considered a measure to control the prevention of infectious diseases. “Overall, our study suggests that better understanding of the factors underlying patterns of spatio-temporal spread will be very useful for designing and prioritizing vaccination and other control efforts,” the study concludes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Washington, D.C. says the elderly, residents in nursing homes, young children, pregnant women and people with certain health conditions such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease are at greater risk of serious complications if they contract the flu. Influenza seasons are unpredictable and its severity can vary widely from season to season. The influencing factors include what flu viruses are spreading, when and how much flu vaccine is available, how many people get vaccinated and how well the vaccine is matched to circulating flu viruses.

doctor and senior associate editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, published in the journal in October of 2012. The editorial refers to findings in four randomized trials, which show a five to 20 per cent reduction in overall seasonal mortality in residents of chronic care institutions where staff vaccination rates were 51 to 70 per cent. A cost-benefit analysis from a health-systems perspective also found that for every US$1,000 spent on vaccination of healthcare workers, US$1,600 was saved, notes the editorial, citing findings from Mandatory Influenza Immunization for Health Care Workers — an Ethical Discussion, published in 2007.

While Dr. Flegel acknowledges that compulsory vaccination may be regarded as ethically questionable, since it violates a person’s autonomy, he argues that in the case of influenza vaccination, the autonomy of healthcare workers conflicts with the best interests of patients.

“To justify compulsory vaccination, there must be an outbreak of serious illness; immunity levels must be low; the vaccine must be effective, safe and available; and vaccine uptake must be low. These conditions appear to be met for annual seasonal influenza,” Dr. Flegel writes.

Like British Columbia, Ontario’s London Health Sciences in London and Bluewater Health in Sarnia have made it mandatory for healthcare workers either to mask up or take the jab. “If you are working in healthcare, you are working with a vulnerable population with compromised immune status, multiple-system involvement and you can become a factor for the flu,” says Rhonda Seidman-Carlson, president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario in Toronto. “There are more people who die of the flu than who have any kind of reaction from the flu shot.”

Besides wearing a mask and getting the vaccination, other protective measures include washing hands regularly with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and avoiding touching one’s face and nose. “The other really important thing is if you are sick, especially if you have a fever,” Dr. Henry advises, “stay home.”

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Jean Lian is editor of

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

43

ACCIDENT PREVENTION

ANTINEOPLASTIC DRUGS

Handle with Care DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: Antineoplastics, commonly used to destroy or control the growth and proliferation of cancer cells by interfering with DNA replication, are increasingly being used in chemotherapy and veterinary medicine and to treat other medical ailments, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. As these drugs can also disrupt healthy cells, protecting healthcare workers from the adverse effects of occupational exposure necessitates safe work practices.

DANGER ZONES: In Canada, a handful of antineoplastic drugs has been approved for use in clinical settings, including Doxorubicin (also known as Adriamycin), Cisplatin, Chlorambucil, Cyclophosphamide and Melphalan. Canadian cancer research project CAREX estimates that about 58,000 employees are currently exposed to antineoplastics at work. Workers who prepare, administer, transport or dispose of antineoplastic drugs could face exposure and risk suffering associated side effects.

Nurses and pharmacists are most likely to be exposed. Other jobs that may involve exposure include pharmacy technicians, physicians and physician assistants, operating-room personnel, home healthcare and long-term care facility workers, veterinarians and veterinary technicians, shipping and receiving personnel, and housekeepers, laundry and maintenance workers who may come into contact with patient waste.

In hospitals, antineoplastic drugs are most commonly used for chemotherapy treatment in oncology wards, but they may also be present in operating rooms, post-anesthesia rooms, inpatient units, neurology units, outpatient urology units and emergency rooms. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Washington, D.C. recommends that every healthcare facility develop and regularly update a site-specific list of hazardous drugs for posting in the workplace.

LONG & SHORT: In the 1970s, evidence showing the negative side effects from antineoplastic drug use began to surface, raising concerns about workplace exposure for healthcare employees. Today, studies indicate that antineoplastic drugs may cause increased genotoxicity, or damage to DNA that could lead to cancer.

Both short- and long-term effects have been linked to exposure to antineoplastic agents. Possible short-term effects include rash, nausea, sore throat, mouth and nasal sores, dizziness, headaches, skin and eye irritation, allergic asthma, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and hair loss. Longterm effects include damage to the liver, kidney, bone marrow, lungs or heart. There have also been reports of increased risk of leukemia among nurses and doctors who are exposed to antineoplastic drugs.

EXPOSURE ROUTES: Clinical and non-clinical workers can be exposed to antineoplastics by creating aerosols, generating dust, cleaning up spills or touching surfaces contaminated by antineoplastics. These exposures may occur in the following occupational settings: • administering antineoplastic drugs through injection; • reconstituting powdered or freeze dried drugs; • counting out uncoated oral doses; • crushing tablets; • touching the external surface of contaminated drug vials and work surfaces; • handling contaminated bodily fluids, clothing, linens and contaminated waste; • removing and throwing away personal protective equipment; and • eating and drinking in contaminated work areas.

Skin contact or absorption and inhalation of antineoplastics are the most common routes of exposure, although contact through ingestion and injection are also possible. Various factors determine the outcome of exposures, including the frequency and duration of exposure, the amount of the drug to which the worker is exposed and safe work practices.

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STAY SAFE: As the possibility of an adverse reaction increases in tandem with the frequency of exposure and the lack of proper work practices, the NIOSH recommends that institutions develop medical surveillance programs for workers who may be exposed to antineoplastic and other hazardous drugs. Information from medical surveillance programs can help identify failures, improve disease prevention and benefit workers by spotting health problems early on. The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) and the NIOSH recommend the following measures to reduce exposure risk to antineoplastic drugs: • Use a class II or III biological safety cabinet (BSC) or an isolator to protect workers during drug preparation.

Ventilated cabinets should have a HEPA filter that exhausts and filters all air to the outside. Do not use ventilation that recirculates air inside the cabinet or exhausts into the room and train workers who use BSCs on safe practices.

• Use closed-system transfer devices, glove bags and needle-less systems when transferring hazardous drugs to dosing equipment.

• Wear proper protective gear when opening drug packaging, handling drugs or drug vials, labelling hazardous drug containers or disposing of waste. Use disposable, powder-free gloves that have been tested with hazardous drugs and wear disposable, lint-free, low permeability fabric gowns with solid front and back closures. Don gowns and double gloves with the outer glove over the cuff when engaging in activities, such as preparation, drug administration and handling contaminated waste.

• Inspect infusion sets and pumps with Luer-lock fittings for leakage. Place a plastic-backed absorbent pad under the tubing during administration.

POST-HANDLING PROCEDURES: Aside from exposure to hazardous agents when preparing and administering antineoplastic drugs, it is important to employ proper cleaning and waste management procedures. The ONA advises cleaning surfaces like countertops, disposing of outer gloves and gowns in the same room inside the designated chemotherapy waste container, and double-bagging the waste before removing inner gloves.

Extra care should be taken when disposing of sharps, which should be placed in the chemotherapy waste container before closing the lid. Do not place sharps that come into contact with antineoplastics in red sharps containers or needle boxes, since this can pose a risk to waste management workers. Harmful gases are emitted if needles collected for disposal are disinfected with heat instead of incinerated, notes information from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

STANDARDS CHECK: Although occupational exposure limits on antineoplastic drugs have yet to be established in Canada or the United States, healthcare workers and employers should check labour regulations in their respective provinces for safety standards related to antineoplastic drugs. In Ontario, the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires all healthcare and residential facilities to “develop, establish and put into effect written measures and procedures to protect workers who may be exposed to antineoplastic agents.”

These measures must include the following elements: • safe procedures for handling, using, transporting and disposing of antineoplastic agents, contaminated materials and equipment; • emergency protocols in the event that a worker is exposed to antineoplastic agents; • measures for the use of engineering controls, work practices, hygiene practices and facilities or personal protective equipment appropriate in the circumstances; and • use of an appropriate biological safety cabinet to prepare antineoplastic agents.

Employers in Ontario must also train workers who are at risk, in consultation with health and safety committees and representatives.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

45

SAFETY GEAR

FOOT PROTECTION

Feet First

By Carmelle Wolfson

F

or workers who operate in challenging environments, wearing shoes that offer both protection and stability enables them to put their best foot forward. Some of the hazards that will necessitate the donning of protective footwear in work environments include slippery surfaces, sharp objects that can puncture the soles and lacerate the feet, electric currents and static shocks, molten-metal infiltration, chemical splashes and extreme cold and heat.

Comfort ranks first when it comes to choosing footwear, notes Jason Carriere, director of sales for Timberland PRO in Montreal. This North American manufacturer specializes in premium-quality, general-purpose work boots. “Otherwise, you will do extensive damage to your body standing all day on your feet in something that is not comfortable. It obviously will affect your posture, your knees, your back.”

Guided by the recognition that comfort is key when selecting safety shoes, Timberland PRO introduced in 2008 an anti-fatigue footbed built into the mid-sole of the work boot.

The footbeds eliminate the need for anti-fatigue mats often used in warehouses and some automotive plants as these mats can pose tripping hazards. “Basically, it acts as a stabilizer and massages your feet as you’re standing in the boots all day,” Carriere says.

In addition to the anti-fatigue feature, Timberland PRO also offers more room at the toe cap of their work boots so that the toes can breathe and move around more freely. “Obviously, if you put on a work boot and there’s a small toe cap, your toes get crunched in the forefoot and it’s not really comfortable,” Carriere says.

Another brand offering the extra-wide toe cap is Oliver Footwear, an Australian company that has been manufacturing mining boots since 1887. Chris Heffernan, general manager of industrial footwear at Honeywell Industrial Footwear in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says Oliver builds the shoe around the toe cap so that the shoe fits without the toe touching the edge of the boot. He points out that metal toe caps can affect fit and wearers often do not like feeling the metal toe caps impinging on their feet.

GENERAL OR SPECIFIC When choosing safety footwear, buyers need to know the type and level of protection required for the specific work environment. For general-purpose safety boots, CSA-approved toe protection and puncture-proof plate protection on the sole are the industry standards. General-purpose boots are commonly used in the construction, maintenance and warehousing sectors, but they are also suitable for some workers in the oil and gas sector. In addition to toe and puncture protection, oil and gas workers generally need boots that are 46

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fully waterproof and provide metatarsal protection.

Depending on the location and type of work, a lace-up leather eight- or 10-inch work boot or a rubber pull-on boot could be suitable. Workers who require rubber boots are those whose feet and, at times, legs would be submerged in oil or other liquids, although the fit for rubber boots will not be as snug as that of leather boots.

A mining boot, such as the Oliver 65-690 10-inch lace-up mining boot, would also serve oil and gas workers well — especially those in the fracking industry where saltwater is present, Heffernan notes. “Pretty much in any direction, water is going to get out or oil is going to get out to the sides, to the front or the back. But there’s still a lot of surface contact of that tread pattern,” he says of Oliver’s mining boot soles.

He cautions that the risk of hydroplaning in work environments where liquids, such as oil, are present should be considered. “The one thing you want to do is make sure whatever you step on can squeeze out from underneath your foot, so you can get down to the surface. If there’s not good channelling, you just kind of hydroplane on top of it, which makes things slippery.”

Workers on offshore oil rigs need soles with tremendous tread abilities, since they are walking on steel. Terra is anothIF THE BOOT FITS If foot protection is required for workers who are at risk of injury, a complete foot safety protection program that includes selection, fit testing, training, maintenance and inspection should be set up. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario says a hazard assessment should consider the following factors: • Materials handled or used by the worker; • Risk of objects falling onto or striking the foot; • Any material or equipment that might roll over the foot; • Any sharp or pointed object that might cut the top of the foot, or may penetrate the bottom or side of the foot; • Possible exposure to corrosive or irritating substances; • Risk of exposure to water or other liquids that may penetrate and cause damage to the foot and the footwear; • Possible explosive atmospheres, including the risk of static electrical discharges; • Risk of coming into contact with energized conductors of low to moderate voltage; • Risk to ankles from walking on uneven or rough surfaces; • Risk of falls from walking on slippery surfaces; • Risk of foot injury from exposure to extreme heat or cold; and • Risk of exposure to rotating or abrasive machinery, such as chainsaws or grinders.

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): SHOES FOR CREWS; OLIVER FOOTWEAR; TERRA.

er brand offering boots with high-grade leather uppers and But not everyone is on the same page when it comes to slip-resistant soles suitable for the oil and gas industry, says footwear. Randy Lubart, executive director of Shoes for Steve Hagarty, vice-president of sales for Terra, Kodiak and Crews in West Palm Beach, Florida, says composite and steel Dickies footwear brands in Cambridge, Ontario. are practically equal in weight if the pieces are of the same Hagarty says rubber soles work well in Canada’s offshore mass size. “There was a fallacy years ago that composite, bedrilling sector because they can withstand the cold weather. ing a polymer substance, was lighter than steel,” he says. “The “Rubber outsoles are definitely dereality is that more composite material is used to accommosirable and are actually specified date the impact protection that steel provides.” He adds that by a lot of the companies,” Hagarboth steel and composite offer the same protection, but ty says. For example, he says the composite will not conduct energy.

Terra Crossbow felt pack boot Carriere points out that lightweight does not necescan be worn in temperatures as sarily mean comfortable. “We live in a world where the cold as -60 degrees Celsius. conception is if it’s the lightest Workers in Alberta’s oil sands boot on the wall, then it’s comneed a leather boot that is both warm fortable. And that couldn’t be and flexible, Carriere suggests. Timfurther from the truth,” Carberland PRO offers an eight-inch, riere contends. “Obviously full-grain leather boot called the when you go out and you run, Boondock with a Vibram® rubber you want to have a light runFire&Ice™ outsole. ning shoe on your foot,” he “The Fire&Ice™ meme comes illustrates. “But with work from the fact that it is a boot that is boots, it’s a bit different.” going to stay flexible in extremely Carriere advises against cold temperatures, so it is an outsole choosing a work boot based that is never going to get really hard,” on its weight, as boots that are extremely Carriere says. “And that’s what these lightweight will break down more quickly. workers need, because they’re work“I just think there’s not enough built into the ing in really cold environments.” boot to make it last.” He adds that Timberland For employees in industries like PRO builds construction boots that are electronics manufacturing and both durable and comfortable. “We have utilities, protecting against electri- Shoes for Crews (top left) has developed boots that are very light, but most of our cal hazards is critical. “You want to different grid patterns on shoe soles construction boots and most of our more make sure that in some cases, where to guard against hydroplaning. Oliver premium products fall within the midit’s appropriate, that you’re electri- Footwear (top right) offers boots suitable weight range.” cally protected so you’re not going for oil and gas workers, while the Terra HIGH ON PROTECTION to get shocked,” Heffernan says. “If Crossbow (bottom left) shields feet from In the mining sector, Heffernan says you’re working on circuit boards in cold temperatures. workers need a tall boot that is watera factory or anything electronic, you proof and made of chemical-resistant leather. “Mining boots don’t want any sort of charge coming off you.”

Footwear that protects against electrical hazards comes in are usually a lot higher on the leg. There’s a lot more to scrape two types: electrical hazard or EH-graded boots and static up against or cut yourself, so 10-inch, 14-inch boots are not dissipating or SD-footwear. The former is designed to signifi- uncommon,” he says.

Oliver offers a line of boots that uses thin polyurethane cantly reduce the risk of electrocution by reducing the flow of electricity through the shoes to the ground, while the latter made of PORON® for the midsole and PORON® XRD™ for the metatarsal guard. “It just makes the boot so much more minimizes the charge the body creates. comfortable to wear, because the boot bends and flexes with WEIGHING IN your foot instead of a rigid piece of plastic that doesn’t really,” Comfortable and lightweight footwear is a growing trend in Heffernan says, adding that the soft and flexible material used the market for safety work boots, notes Hagarty. He reports in their boots hardens upon impact so that it can pass the that Terra manufactures lightweight boots by using compos- metatarsal test. ite materials that are more flexible and lighter than steel in Workers who operate in smelters require boots that are the toe cap and a puncture-proof plate in the sole of the boot. non-magnetic and can be removed quickly in the event of “It’s a laminated ceramic fibre material that uses the same molten-metal infiltration, says Jerry Hould, business develprincipals as bulletproof vests,” Hagarty explains. “We’re us- opment manager for L.P. ROYER Inc. in Lac-Drolet, Quebec. ing a lot of metal-free components. So we’re actually mov- The manufacturer, which has been making smelting boots ing more in the direction of composite toes versus steel toes, for 36 years and supplies more than 30 smelters around the which makes the footwear considerably lighter.” world, offers a boot dipped in molten metal. “Of course, the Another advantage is that they do not transmit cold the boot should stay in one part. All the stitching should not way steel does. “So they tend to be a little warmer,” Hagarty burn. They should not have any molten-metal infiltration insays. He adds that the puncture-proof plate is more flexible side the footwear. The sole should not melt.” That, Hould says, than steel, which limits heel slip. is a tough test to pass. “Across the world, it’s a small market.”

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ROYER also manufactures boots for other specialized industries to protect against hazards, such as chemicals and chainsaws. A client working with chemicals went through a pair of regular leather work boots in three days, so ROYER developed a leather boot that can be worn for about eight months. The company has also developed a boot for forestry workers that will stop a chainsaw on contact.

Hould says ROYER offers a program called Programme d’analyse de Protection des Pieds à l’Industrie or Industry Protection Analysis Program. It involves working with end users and health and safety committees to identify the risk of injury and recommend the appropriate product to suit various work conditions.

Aside from cold temperatures, workers like road pavers operate in extreme heat conditions. Heffernan says Oliver offers boots with rubber that not only is highly resistant to abrasion and oil, but can also withstand temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius. “It’s nice to know if you are on a hot surface, or if you’re paving on a hot summer day, it usually means it’s not going to come up through the boot and your feet aren’t going to get extremely warm. So it’s a little bit of an insulative effect there,” he explains.

ON THE SURFACE When it comes to slip resistance, Lubart of Shoes for Crews says his company is one of the leaders in this type of footwear. “The goal of our footwear is to eradicate the phenomenon of hydroplane,” Lubart says. “That phenomenon doesn’t just apply to tires Comfort is and boats; it applies to humans.” Hydroplane occurs when liquid gets between key when the tire of a car and the road, causing the selecting wheel to lose traction.

Shoes for Crews has developed differsafety ent grid patterns for shoe soles to be used in various work environments. They are shoes. especially popular in the fast-food service industry, in which grease is a major hazard. Lubart says fryers used in these restaurants are so hot that the grease mixes with oxygen and explodes, sending particles into the atmosphere before collecting on the ground.

“And that’s what creates that roller rink, if you will.”

He adds that the slipperiness is exacerbated by Spanish quarry tiles, which are widely used in fast-food establishments. “It is remarkably inexpensive, it wears like iron and it’s unbelievably slippery once contaminated,” Lubart says of the tiling material.

In the United States, Lubart claims that there is no adequate standard for slip resistance. Contaminants — anything that hits the floor and does not belong there — include oil, grease, butter, chicken fat, tomato droppings and lubricants in a machine shop. Lubart advises buyers looking for slipresistant footwear to get shoes that are specifically advertised as slip-resistant and able to substantiate that claim through independent studies. “We use a third-party laboratory that tests our products against all others,” he says of slip-resistant footwear manufactured by Shoes for Crews.

To ensure that a pair of safety shoes has the right fit, workers should check that the heel is at the back of the shoe or boot and not sliding forward, and that the toes are not crunched.

If the footwear is too big, it can pose a tripping hazard, while 48

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shoes that are too small can lead to sore feet.

The time of the day during which one tries on footwear also matters. Hould says the best time to try on a pair of shoes is at the end of the day. “Our foot is a little bit bigger at the end of the day than in the morning. So if you buy your shoes in the morning and you’re too tight, in the afternoon you will be uncomfortable in your shoes, because your foot is just getting a little bit bigger.”

Lubart recommends selecting footwear that is comfortable at the time it is tried on. “Avoid the adage that things will break in and they will become more comfortable in time,” he cautions. “If something doesn’t feel comfortable right away, chances are it won’t improve.”

CARING FOR FOOTWEAR While safety shoes protect workers’ feet, Carriere is of the mind that most people doing heavy industry work do not look after their work boots. “You can buy all these products to make it shiny and to make it look new, but it’s really hard because the guy, at the end of the day, he’s not going to worry about dirtying or wrecking his boots. He’s really working in harsh conditions.”

That said, workers should air their boots whenever possible and keep them in a place that is not too damp and away from direct sunlight. If the boots are leather, oil should be applied on the footwear from time to time to prevent it from drying out and to resist water better. “Leather is a skin, so when it’s exposed to the elements, it loses its oil content and the leather becomes less flexible and can crack,” Hagarty says.

Lubart recommends alternating work boots or shoes to give them time to air out properly. “Most humans perspire inside of their footwear. And if you’re working 10 or 12 hours in a particular shoe or boot, chances are not only are your socks or your hosiery damp, but so is the inside of the boot.”

Whenever safety shoes are exposed to anything that could be detrimental to the leather or material with which it is made, Heffernan advises workers to wipe it off. “The good news about Oliver is with the chemical-resistant leather, there’s not too much you need to worry about.” He adds that Oliver footwear uses Kevlar stitching, which can withstand a lot more abrasion than regular cotton thread.

Shoes that are no longer comfortable to wear should be replaced. Other signs of wear and tear to look out for include exposed steel on the toe, holes in the exterior, worn down soles or interiors and cracked or compromised leather.

Manufacturers generally do not guarantee how long a pair of footwear will last, as this is determined by factors such as the environment, the weight of the worker, how much wear and tear the footwear sustains and the frequency with which the shoes are worn. “You can tell just by looking at it if you need a new pair, if it’s starting to get really trashed,” Carriere says.

Depending on the level of hazard the footwear protects against, the price can range from $40 to $500. Hould suggests that while many customers have no qualms forking out $200 for a pair of fashion or running shoes that they wear only on weekends, the same cannot be said of safety shoes. “On safety footwear that you wear eight, 10, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for a lot of people, they don’t want to pay.”

Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Carmelle Wolfson is assistant editor of

ohs canada.

an advertising feature

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

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JUST ASKING Over the course of 2013, OHS CANADA has kept our readers apprised of developments in workplace health and safety across industries. Topics that are pertinent to both employers and employees include the challenge of ensuring safety in diverse workplaces, the role of refuge stations in keeping underground miners safe and changes that give mandatory coverage to Ontario’s construction workers.

But the road to safe workplaces is a long journey.

Keeping the weight in check for employees who hold sedentary jobs, preventing workplace violence and outsourcing employers’ obligations to the safety of overseas workers are all issues that need to be addressed.

In our online reader poll, the results of which are published in every issue, we asked for your thoughts on the good, the bad and all things in between. Here is a summary of what you had to say:

WORKPLACE BULLYING Is $1.5 million in compensation to an employee who was bullied at work over the top?

OIL AND GAS Do you think Canada’s oil and gas sector has a good safety record?

49% 51% 111

Yes No Total voters:

Yes 68% No 32% Total voters: 241

WELL-BEING Would you try yoga as an alternative therapy for chronic neck pain?

Yes 85% No 15% Total voters: 138

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WORKPLACE VIOLENCE Does arming employees offer better protection or introduce risk of violence on the job?

Offers better protection 17% Introduces risk of violence 77% Undecided 6% Total voters: 117

YOUNG WORKERS Should interns enjoy the same workplace safety protections as regular employees?

Yes 96%

No 4% Total voters: 103

OUTSOURCING Should companies that outsource their work be responsible for worker safety in overseas factories?

Yes 63% No 26% Undecided 11% Total voters: 100

NOISE EXPOSURE Do you think the noise level to which workers in sports arenas are exposed is under-recognized?

Yes No Total voters:

82% 18% 89

ORGANIZED LABOUR Do unions help reduce workplace injury and fatality?

Yes 36% No 50% Undecided 14% Total voters: 139

Go on — have your say.

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

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J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 14

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PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY

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

Occupational Health & Safety

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

WESA, a division of BluMetric Environmental Inc. Headquarters: 3108 Carp Road, Ottawa (Carp), Ontario K0A 1L0 613-839-3053 www.blumetric.ca

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

3M

Global Petroleum

www.3M.ca/Safety For ad see page 56

Showa Best

www.globalpetoleumshow.com For ad see page 5

www.showabestglove.com For ad see page 33

Glove Guard

BCRSP www.bcrsp.ca For ad see page 41

Dentec Safety www.dentecsafety.com For ad see page 15,18

Yow Canada

www.gloveguard.com For ad see page 11

www.yowcanada.com For ad see page 17

Martor USA

Workplace Safety & Prevention Services

www.martorusa.com For ad see page 17

Nasco

ADVERTISING DIRECTORY

www.PartnersinPreventionConference.com For ad see page 39

www.nascoinc.com For ad see page 13

DuPont Personal Protection many safety hazards – one solution provider

How do you select protective clothing and gloves?

Search with the most powerful tool from DuPont 1-800-387-9326 www.SafeSpec.com Copyright © 2012 DuPont. All rights reserved. The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont™, The miracles of science™ and all products denoted with ® or ™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates.

So, what’s on your mind?

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 Are conducted energy weapons like Tasers safe for use?

DECEMBER 2013 Do unions help reduce workplace injury and fatality?

Yes

34%

Yes 36%

No

53%

No 50%

Undecided

13%

Not Sure

14%

Total Votes

68

Total Votes

139

Go on — have your say.

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

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

53

TIME OUT PHONY FEMMES: The marketing strategy of a dating REBEL BARBER: What do haircuts and topless shows have

website for cheaters backfired when an employee alleged that she had injured her wrist in 2011 after her employer asked her to create 1,000 fake profiles of women in three weeks to lure men into signing up, The Canadian Press reported on November 11. She claims that the company denied her an arm rest for the work and worker’s compensation after the injury. She is seeking $20 million and an additional $1 million in punitive damages. For its part, the company says in a statement that the lawsuit is “frivolous” and accuses the employee of blackmail. The company claims that photos on social media sites depict the employee on vacations around the world.

One photo shows her on a jet ski — an unlikely activity for someone with damaged wrists.

POT COP: Feeling stressed out? Get a prescription for marijuana, but do not smoke it in uniform if you happen to be a Mountie. An RCMP officer, who was prescribed medical marijuana, learned this lesson the hard way when his uniform was seized by fellow Mounties who turned up at his home, after the corporal was photographed on national news smoking marijuana in his red serge uniform. The cop in New Brunswick was prescribed nine to 15 joints a day to mellow his post-traumatic stress disorder — a result of his 20 years of serving on the force, CBC News reported on November 28.

The corporal went public about the incident after RCMP officials told him that he could not smoke weed in his uniform despite the prescription because, well, it looked bad. For now, the officer, who is on medical leave, can light up without occupational restrictions.

POLITICS MEETS ICE: If the prime minister had it his

way, hockey might look a little different. For one, physical violence would likely not be part of the game. Stephen Harper, who recently came out with a book about the early days of Canada’s favourite pastime, says the NHL needs to deal with violence and injuries on the ice, CBC News reports. Perhaps that explains why the politician chose a career in which he can steer clear of flying pucks and knocks to the head. Harper reportedly says the game has always been physical, even in the early days when players were “clobbering each other with sticks while wearing virtually no equipment”. Nonetheless, even the authority and clout of a prime minister may not be enough to change that aspect of the sport.

GHOST DOLLARS: While some workers may find get-

ting money from workers’ compensation boards as difficult as getting blood out of stone, one woman in Mississauga, Ontario found out that defrauding the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) could be a great way to get rich quick. A 68-year-old woman allegedly defrauded the WSIB of $190,000 by withdrawing cash from her deceased mother’s account, QMI Agency reported on November 27. When police arrested the woman, they found stolen goods believed to be exchanged for fentanyl — a drug 100 times stronger than morphine. It is unclear how the WSIB missed the fact that the fraudster’s mother was deceased, but police hope to recover the funds.

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in common? Apparently enough for a 46-year-old woman in Longmont, Colorado to open a topless hair salon. The trailblazing salon owner, who allegedly marketed her business online under the name “Rebel Barber” and “Rebel Beauty” in Craigslist advertisements offering topless haircuts for $45, is accused of practising barbering and cosmetology without a licence, Longmont Times-Call reported on November 29.

The woman’s ex-husband reportedly told police that she had applied for a nude licence for hairstylists, which police confirmed does not exist.

STUN FUN: A shrinking budget has led a small-town police chief in Knightstown, Indiana to come up with a stunning way to raise funds to buy a new squad car for the police department: getting shot by a stun gun. The police chief, who has been in law enforcement for 35 years, describes the sensation of getting stunned as “being punched about 20 times a second in the back of the head for five seconds”, The Associated Press reported on November 28. The chief ’s gambit not only made him the talk of Knightstown, but also helped him surpass his goal of $9,000, netting $800 in cash and $25,000 in pledges.

PYRO PLAY: Schools may be overlooking a dangerous fire

hazard in classrooms: students. At a high school in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 15-year-old student allegedly set his teacher’s hair and shirt ablaze with a lighter while the teacher had her back turned, Huffington Post reported on November 25.

The teen then threw the weapon out of the window and fled when the cops were called. Fortunately, the teacher was not hurt and the student was taken to a juvenile detention centre.

Workplace hazards certainly come in all forms.

GUT-WRENCHING: A marine biologist in the Faroe

Islands, Denmark had a nasty surprise when he was tasked with cutting up the carcass of a beached whale. When he began cutting along the dorsal part of the humongous sperm whale, it exploded with a loud bang and its guts spewed out in all directions, The Huffington Post reported on November 27. The marine biologist in orange coveralls can be seen running away from flying particles in a video that has since gone viral. It may not be the highlight of this marine biologist’s career, but it has certainly made him famous.

MUSICAL CHAIRS: Flight attendants know firsthand

just how hard it is to get passengers to watch the pre-flight safety video. But Virgin America has come up with a novel idea to get around that problem: turning the usually mindnumbing instructional video into one that features flight attendants singing and dancing down the aisles of the plane.

Not only are passengers sitting up; even those who are not on a plane are watching the video, which was uploaded onto YouTube. The video shows passengers break-dancing, a little girl rapping, and a young boy in sunglasses and a suit lipsynching. Maybe Virgin should next train its pilots to sing the weather forecast over the loudspeaker. Just a thought.

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Š 2011, 3M. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. 3M is a trademark of 3M. Used under license in Canada. 1302-00560-E

It is the most pervasive environmental pollutant on the planet. Virtually everything we do makes noise, and the more we do it, the faster we do it, and the more of us there are – the more noise is made. Noise does not have to be uncomfortably loud, or even painful, to be damaging. Health and safety professionals are dedicated to protecting their workers and 3M safety solutions support health and safety professionals with innovative ideas to make a lasting impact on workplace safety.

3M Personal Safety wants to help provide the right safety solution and our experts are available for on-site consultation, training, and helping you with customized options. Connecting the dots is a highly regarded practice at 3M that helps us develop the 3M safety solutions you need and the power to help them protect their world.

Find out more at: 3M.ca/Safety

The power to protect your world.

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