workers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic

NUTRIEN DEPLOYS INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TO HELP KEEP WORKERS SAFE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Nutrien’s Vanscoy mine, home to the pilot site for the potash network.

Proximity monitoring and contact tracing technology is one way Nutrien is keeping employees safe.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nutrien was deemed an essential service in its core markets for its role in the agriculture and mining industries. To help track and mitigate the spread of the virus at its sites, Nutrien implemented a proximity monitoring and contact tracing technology, Proximity Trace™ from Triax Technologies. To date, more than 8,000 Nutrien employees across the globe are using the technology, with an additional 6,500 expected to be part of the expansion in the coming months.

The lightweight but robust Proximity Trace tags attach to workers’ clothing and produce an audio and visual alert to those who come within six feet of one another. These wearable sensors also automatically log data for leaders to quickly perform contact tracing if a positive case of COVID-19 arises, thereby preventing further spread at the site and reassuring those who are not at risk.

Originally deployed at Nutrien’s nitrogen and phosphate sites in the United States, Proximity Trace is now being rolled out at the organization’s corporate offices in Alberta, Colorado, Illinois, and Saskatchewan, and Nutrien’s Vanscoy mine, located near Saskatoon, Sask., was selected as the pilot site for the potash network.

The team at Vanscoy saw the Triax system as a solution to protect the health and safety of employees and contractors. In mid-February of this year, the technology was implemented at the site and the tags became part of workers’ mandatory personal protective equipment (PPE), just like safety glasses and hard hats.

Before introducing the technology, the team engaged local occupational health and safety committees and communicated with employees frequently and often, educating them about the devices and their benefits. General manager John Sundquist says that employees have been receptive and understand that the tool is part of Nutrien’s COVID-19 protocols to help protect its workers.

If there is a contact-tracing requirement, the site nurse can quickly run a report that tells them who qualifies as a close contact. tact-tracing requirement included performing interviews to determine close contacts, a cumbersome process that left employees worried about being missed or forgotten,” says Sundquist. “The Triax system streamlines contact tracing and relies on technology rather than memory.”

The tags are not used for location tracking – they do not track where employees are or what they are doing. They are used to communicate with other tags for proximity monitoring and contact tracing purposes.

Ideally, the proactive element of proximity monitoring – a gentle beeping when employees’ tags come within six feet of one another – will render the contact tracing element largely unnecessary.

“Our main concern is our employees’ safety,” says Sundquist. “Social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, and staying home if you aren’t feeling well are key pillars in our approach to caring for one another. The Triax system complements these efforts with proximity monitoring to help employees remain a safe distance apart and providing a robust solution to contact tracing.” l