OHS Canada October/November 2011 by Annex Business Media

C A N A D Aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 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 O C T O B ER/NOVEMBER 2011

C A N A D A

Wasted Space The ever-present threat of confined spaces

Battle Weary

Fighting the good fight once home

gender bender

Injury picture for women changing

Below the Surface Digs can unearth surprising hazards

EYE SPY Sussing out visual strain

Name: Test Date: Department: Noise Exposure: Earplug: PAR (Left): PAR (Right):

Brian Perkins January 10, 2011 Press Room 95 dBA SmartFit® 23 27

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Features CC AA NN A AD DA A

suicide

Death in Uniform

O C T O B ER / N O V E M B E R 2011 Vol u m e 2 7 , N u m b e r 7

Soldiers who survive the war may return home to face a whole new battle, one in which the danger they face comes from within. By William M. Glenn

F e m a l e workers

A New Experience More women are breaking into traditionally male-dominated sectors. Is the work force change shaping a new injury experience for female workers? By Astrid Van Den Broek

c o nf i n ed spaces

Close Quarters Workplace parties are supposed to know all about confined space hazards and how to address them by now. So why do they continue to take a toll? By Angela Stelmakowich

departments

Ac c i d e nt Pre vention

Break Point Guarding against severe, perhaps fatal, injuries inflicted by chain shot demands the adoption of protective practices, measures and equipment.

s afe t y gear

Getting Comfy Complaints about the look and comfort of safety gloves threaten compliance. But manufacturers are responding with gear suited to handle any task at hand. By Jason Contant

What Lies Beneath

in this issue Editoria l

Letters

O H&S UPDATE

Social Unrest

Twelve die in Nunavut plane crash; British Columbia worker caught in harvester; Alberta penalty ordered for unpaid fine; Ontario lab quarantined after beryllium leak; thumbs-down to shift change in New Brunswick; asbestos fine in Newfoundland and Labrador; and more. D ispatch e s

Departing worker posts angry face-off; stop-work order follows stage collapse; officer safety goes to the dogs; and more. P rof ess i o n a l d i r e c t o ry produc t sh o wc a s e ad index / r e a d e r s e rv i c e i nf o

LAW F ILE

Reviewing a planned excavation site for its history and former uses before digging in can help avoid potentially costly and dangerous surprises. By Greg Burchell

H EALTH WATC H

Sight for Sore Eyes Sitting at a computer screen for hours on end can produce eyestrain, blurred vision and headaches that combine to make up computer vision syndrome. By Jean Lian

Ti m e Out

Chickened out; bumper cars; sweet treat; bonne anniversaire; lesson from the crypt; sassy salute; just des(s)erts; and more.

54 56 57

Laws without enforcement are just good advice.

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Abraham Lincoln

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

C A N A D A’ S O C C U PAT I O N A L H E A LT H & S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

EDITORIAL

C A N A D A

Vol. 27, No. 7 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

EDITOR ANGELA STELMAKOWIch astelmakowich@ohscanada.com ASSISTANT EDITOR JEAN LIAN jlian@ohscanada.com editorial assistant greg burchell gburchell@ohscanada.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Hazardous substances WILLIAM M. GLENN Safety gear jason contant

Social Unrest O

ART DIRECTOR anne miron

ccupational health and safety is never so complete that it cannot benefit from a reboot. The central message of continuous improvement should remain steadfast, but how that message is delivered need not. In this era of social media, perhaps more than ever, the medium is the message. Of course, reliance on these tools have attracted supporters and H8Rs alike. Does transmission of images of teens abusing alcohol and drugs constitute electronic child abuse? Does spending too much time on Facebook draw out antisocial behaviour? And as only The Atlantic could ask, Is Google Making Us Stoopid? Unfortunately, implicit in the speed of delivery and a near-hysterical desire to instantly consume even the emptiest bits of information, is the potential for messages to be misunderstood or, worse, harm to be orchestrated. That was never so apparent as the recent rioting and looting in England, fanned by tweets, social networking posts and instant messages used, as a senior police official put it, to “organize these levels of greed and criminality.” But the potential for good was never so clear as during recent storms when community-minded oneness served to mobilize something bigger than individual needs, wants and desires. And so it should be for health and safety on the job. Using social media as a vehicle to communicate and gather Perhaps information — an electronic assembly of sorts — offers tremenmore than dous promise. But that only holds true if input is reasoned and relevant; tedious, inane, even divisive griping is less immediately helpful (although it may signal the need for a morale overhaul). ever, the Co-ordination potential may be most clear during disasters, ranging from the work-related (think explosions or chemical medium spills) to more general (consider tornadoes, flooding and fires). Sometimes, the two meet. An employee of a salt operation in is the Goderich, Ontario died after a recent tornado ripped through message. the community, leaving indiscriminate destruction in its wake. The American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. recently released the results of two surveys that found social media is becoming an integral part of disaster response. “During the record-breaking 2011 spring storm season, people across America alerted the Red Cross to their needs via Facebook. We also used Twitter to connect to thousands of people seeking comfort and safety information to help get them through the darkest hours of the storms,” says Wendy Harman, director of social strategy for the organization. When it comes to oh&s, the objective must be improvement — and then more improvement. Inherent in progress, however, is the need to move beyond the current love affair with immediacy to providing useable information that transforms “me” to “we”. Posted input should receive the same care as any e-mail, phone call or letter. The social media medium allows for speed, but not without consequences. Participation is good; participation based mostly on a keeping-up-with-theJoneses mentality around the need to say/text/post something (anything) is less so. Commitment, intent and message must be clear. Consider the circle of play from yesteryear — where a message whispered into one ear, followed by the next and the next — could lead to near-indecipherable goo coming out the end. A garbled message produces little more than noise, threatening to leave oh&s improvements thumbing it at the side of the road, hoping against hope to hitch a ride somewhere that counts. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada Angela Stelmakowich

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

ohs canada

PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CUSTOMER SERVICE

PHYLLIS WRIGHT Cathy Li DIMITRY EPELBAUM Lori thompson-Reid

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PUBLISHER peter boxer pboxer@ohscanada.com PRESIDENT, BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP BRUCE CREIGHTON

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. ALLAN JOHNSON, Director of Construction, Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Workers’

Compensation Board of B.C., Vancouver, B.C. Jane Lemke, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont. DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask. PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont.

OHS CANADA is the magazine for people who make decisions about health and safety in the workplace. It is designed to keep workers, managers and safety professionals informed on oh&s issues, up to date on new developments and in touch with current thinking in the oh&s community. WEBSITE: http://www.ohscanada.com INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS contained in this publication have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and to be representative of the best current opinion on the subject. No warranty, guarantee, nor representation is made by Business Information Group as to the absolute correctness or sufficiency of any representation contained in this publication. OHS CANADA is published eight times per year by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Ltd., a leading Canadian information company with interests in daily and community newspapers and business-to-business information services. The yearly issues include: January/February, March, April/May, June, July/ August, September, October/November, and December. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage Rates is pending at Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14304. U.S. Postmaster, Office of Publication, send address corrections to: OHS Canada, 2424 Niagara Falls Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY 14304-0357. ADDRESS: OHS CANADA MAGAZINE, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2. TELEPHONE: Customer Service: 800/668-2374; Editorial: 416/510-6893; Sales: 416/510-5102; Fax: 416/510-5140. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Canada: $110.50/year; USA: $132.50/Year; foreign: $137.50. (Prices include postage and shipping; applicable taxes are extra.) Single copies: Canada: $13.50; USA: $16.50; foreign $17.00 Bulk subscription rates available on request. Indexed by Canadian Business Periodicals Inc. ISSN 0827-4576 OHS Canada (Print) • ISSN 1923-4279 OHS Canada (Online) Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: (Tel) 1-800-668-2374; (Fax) 416-510-5140; (E-mail) jhunter@ businessinformationgroup.ca; (Mail) Privacy Officer, Business Information Group, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada M3C 4J2. The contents of this magazine are protected by copyright and may be used for your personal, non-commercial purposes only. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material, you must first obtain the permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information, please contact the editor. “We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.”

POSTAL INFORMATION: Publications mail agreement no. 40069240. Postmaster, please forward forms 29B and 67B to Business Information Group 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2. Date of issue: October/N ovember 2011

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LETTERS

Recent editions of ohs canada and the website, www.ohscanada.com, have offered our readers plenty to chew on: oh&s charges in the Yukon; young worker education in Nova Scotia; flagger safety in British Columbia; and court rulings in Ontario. Here is a sample of what they said:

a little Perseverance In the June, 2011 issue of ohs canada, “Growth Experience” explored the complaints raised by some migrant workers in British Columbia’s silviculture sector, how working conditions have changed over the years and recommendations for additional improvements in the future. • I t seems with a little perseverance, retooling and good judgement, perhaps rights will be protected. Arthur (Online) • B ack in the ’70s when I was a student, I worked for the Irving company planting trees in the remote woods of northern New Brunswick right at the peak of black fly season. That experience sure helped me come to appreciate the job I have today. Wayne Wood (Online)

error in judgement The website had a story on the death of a worker at a Yukon mine two years ago. The 20-year-old apprentice mechanic was fatally injured when the Land Cruiser he had exited rolled forward, crushing him between the vehicle and some equipment. His employer was charged. • I t’s always awful when a young life is lost, but how can a company be held responsible for a lad who didn’t have the good common sense to shut off the vehicle first, put in gear or park and apply the hand brake? Had he done that, he would be alive today. Bottom line is, it’s certainly not the company’s fault for someone who had an error in judgment. We’re all responsible for our own actions. Jake Smith (Online)

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

ohs canada

concerted effort The website contained an article from our sister publication, canadian occupational health & safety news, about Nova Scotia’s safety message to employers, parents and students alike. • O h&s training needs to be rolled out in high school — before the young worker has entered the work force. Too many of us in Ontario remember the horrific details surrounding the death of a young worker who was incinerated on his first day on the job because his employer didn’t offer the requisite (and common sense) safety training. Young workers can feel very intimidated while entering the work force. They feel that, because of their lack of experience, questions should be kept to a minimum. I believe the exact opposite should be the case. Workplaces that employ young workers should promote the adage that the only “stupid” question is the one that isn’t asked. Mike Murdoch (Online) here is no shortage of informa• T tion when learning about workplace hazards... We have all heard stories about how prevention and education can help minimize the risk to students and all employees. I strongly recommend a standardized training process in all provinces that includes first aid, handling of dangerous goods and incident history. The stories that go along with accidents should be part of the program. Keith Hesse (Online)

slow down A story first published in canadian occupational health & safety news detailed a campaign in British Columbia to reduce incidents involving roadside workers. • There should be a law that flag persons have the same rights as emergency workers, firefighters, police officers, forest rangers — all drivers

have to slow down to 30 kilometres per hour in a work zone. We get spit on, things are thrown at us, drivers threaten to hit us physically and/or use their vehicles to intimidate us. A flag person’s job is just as important a job as anyone out there… We want to all go home safely to our families. Stella Hubert (Online)

no wiggle room The website offered a story on the fine against an individual convicted of failing to cooperate with an inspector for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL). • T here should be a mandatory jail term for obstructing the MOL. Ryan (Online)

reasoning questioned In both the June issue of ohs canada and in a news story on the website, an Ontario court ruled that a vacation resort had the responsibility to report, as a fatality at a workplace, the death of a guest who drowned at an unsupervised pool. • H ow does a guest swimming in a guest pool at a hotel (resort) become a worker in a work site? I could see it maybe if the pool was under construction at the time, but this is a stretch. What if a guest got an infection from a cut that he got in his room at the hotel, and later he required medical treatment? Would this be a [Workplace Safety and Insurance Board] claim then? Suppose he got a virus or “bug” from the pool. Would this become a workplace disease and be worthy of compensation? Jeff (Online) Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Would you like to comment on an article in ohs canada? Letters to the Editor can be e-mailed to astelmakowich@ ohscanada.com. Comments may be edited for style, grammar and length.

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OH&S UPDATE

separating safety, operations essential FEDERAL — The commissioner of the Offshore Helicopter

Safety Inquiry has reiterated his call for an independent, stand-alone safety regulator for the industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. In his August 15 report, Robert Wells states that “not only should such an independent safety regulator be created, it should also be given a clear and unambiguous safety mandate.” In the alternative, Wells suggests establishing an autonomous safety division at the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), which would be separate from other offshore regulatory activities. Since its inception in 1985, the C-NLOPB “was never given a clear and detailed mandate as to how to regulate, oversee and lead in the aviation safety aspects of the offshore, perhaps because of the overriding role of Transport Canada,” Wells writes in his report. “To express it bluntly, I envisage a safety regulator for the offshore as having a mandate to learn about the background of any equipment being used or to be used in the offshore, including helicopters, and the mandate to set performance goals.” The inquiry was called following the 2009 deaths of 17 people on board a helicopter that crashed while on its way to oilfields offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. Among Wells’s other recommendations are the following: post alert service bulletins on the helicopter operator’s website in the same way that airworthiness directives and inci-

Twelve die in plane crash FEDERAL — All four crew members and

eight passengers on board a charter flight died after their plane crashed on approach to Resolute Bay, Nunavut. At 12:40 pm on August 20, First Air flight 6560, travelling from Yellowknife, crashed less than 10 kilometres from Resolute Bay Airport. In addition to the four crew members — the pilot, the first officer and two flight attendants — the Boeing 737-200 Combi was carrying 11 passengers. Only three people survived. “At this time, the cause of the accident is unknown. The TSB is conducting [its] investigation and First Air is co-operating fully,” Chris Ferris, vice-president of marketing and sales for the company, says in a statement issued on August 21. Federal transport minister Denis Lebel extended his condolences to “the families of those killed in this tragic accident.” The aircraft crashed a few kilometres

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

ohs canada

dent reports are; have Transport Canada and the Canadian General Standards Board carefully consider certifying separate suits, since single suits with both aviation and marine capabilities have buoyancy and bulkiness issues that can hamper efforts to escape a ditched and overturned helicopter; have Transport Canada act on recommendations from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) related to supplemental underwater breathing apparatuses, gearbox lubricant, the gearbox’s “run-dry” requirement, and travel prohibitions in certain seas; and enable the independent regulator to consult with any persons or entities on offshore safety issues and to take any actions necessary. Maryse Durette, senior communications advisor for Transport Canada in Ottawa, says the department has already initiated a comprehensive review of other offshore helicopter operations to determine if additional requirements are needed. Officials remain “committed to continuing the co-operative and collaborative relationship [the department] has with the C-NLOPB on these important safety issues,” Durette says. For its part, the C-NLOPB has accepted recommendations with regard to alert service bulletins and has directed operators to develop a plan for compliance, says Sean Kelly, manager of public relations for the board. The C-NLOPB has also separated safety and operations functions into distinct departments, Kelly adds. — By Jason Contant

from the base camp of Operation Nanook 2011, an annual sovereignty mission conducted by the Canadian Forces in the Canadian Arctic that runs until the end of August. All operations were suspended following the crash, says Daniel Blouin, a communications advisor for the Department of National Defence. Firefighters and a camp medical team responded to the site by land, Blouin reports. Four helicopters, three from the base camp and one from a nearby coast guard ship, were first to arrive on scene and transported survivors to the base camp’s medical centre where they were stabilized, he adds. Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak notes in a statement that three survivors were initially treated at an Iqaluit hospital before two were transferred to Ottawa. “We will continue to co-ordinate crisis counselling for any family members or friends in other communities,” Tagak Curley, the territory’s health and social services minister, adds in the release.

After completing identification and recovery, the site was turned over to the TSB. Federal investigators began “documenting, surveying [and] identifying pieces for further examination,” says board spokesperson Chris Krepski. “We have the black boxes in Ottawa and [on August 22] we began disassembling them,” Krepski reports.

Laser causes vision problems FEDERAL — The Durham Regional Po-

lice Service (DRPS) in southern Ontario has charged six teens with a variety of criminal and federal counts following an incident in which a green laser pointer beam was directed into the cab of a police helicopter. At about 12:30 am on July 29, the DRPS’s Air1 helicopter was patrolling over Oshawa, Ontario when the beam was directed at the cockpit. Although the pilot was not affected, another crew

member “received a direct strike and experienced vision problems,” notes a statement from police. Crew members were able to identify the originating location of the beam and Richard Roughly was arrested that night. Five other young people who were also in the backyard at the time were arrested on August 8. Curtis Lee, Aaron Mountjoy, Andrew Capesky, Dale Branton, Alana Capesky and Roughly, all 18, have been charged with assault with a weapon causing bodily harm, nuisance and mischief endangering life. They also face counts of projecting a bright light source at an aircraft, contrary to the Canadian Aviation Act, as well as interfering with the performance of a crew member’s duties and lessening his ability to perform duties, both in breach of the Aeronautics Act.

Guilty plea in worker’s death WHITEHORSE — A British Columbia-

based mining company has pleaded guilty to two charges stemming from a

deadly accident at a mine in the Yukon two years ago. On October 19, 2009, Paul Wentzell, a 20-year-old apprentice mechanic employed by Procon Mining and Tunnelling Ltd., was working at Yukon Zinc Corporation’s Wolverine Mine site. Wentzell was driving a 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser down a 15 per cent grade to deliver a part to a co-worker when he came upon another piece of equipment parked on the ramp. He pushed the Land Cruiser’s emergency brake actuation button on the dash (but did not engage the regular parking brake). Leaving the vehicle in neutral, he began walking toward the parked equipment. A preliminary investigation report notes “the emergency brake did not hold and the vehicle rolled down the decline, striking the young worker from behind” and causing serious internal injuries. “The vehicle came to a stop approximately 20 metres from where it was originally parked when it collided with the second piece of equipment,” the report adds. Wentzell later died in hospital. In early August, Procon Mining and

Tunnelling pleaded guilty to two counts under the Yukon’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, confirms Frank Fry, a spokesperson for the Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board in Whitehorse. The charges cite the failure to ensure the emergency brakes on the vehicle were maintained in safe operating condition, and the failure to ensure a worker had demonstrated competence in operating the vehicle to a supervisor or qualified person. Six other charges were stayed relating to the following alleged failures: • ensure the vehicle was properly identified when unsafe for use; • i nspect, repair or maintain a braking system in accordance with good engineering practice; • i nspect the braking system within its 250-hour maintenance schedule; • e nsure a worker had received adequate training in the safe use and operation of the vehicle; • e nsure the worker was under direct supervision while operating mobile equipment; and, • e nsure the emergency brake actua-

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

tion control was identified to indicate the function it served. Yukon Zinc has not been charged. “Only Procon was charged because the safety issues involved with the fatality were related directly to that company’s operations and did not involve any aspects of the mine’s operations,” Fry says. The maximum fine per count for a first offence is $150,000 and $300,000 for a subsequent breach. Sentencing was set for September, Fry says.

curbing domestic violence RICHMOND — British Columbia employ-

ers will soon have access to a toolkit that offers guidance on what to do when domestic violence enters the workplace. Roberta Ellis, senior vice-president of corporate affairs for WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia, which is developing the kit, says the aid will provide information on how to recognize the signs of domestic violence, discuss how to assist potential victims, describe legal

obligations under provincial health and safety law and the Criminal Code of Canada, and spell out the responsibilities of workplace parties. It was anticipated the materials would be presented to an advisory group made up of employers, workers and labour representatives in September, Ellis says. The guide — which will likely be translated into numerous languages, including Punjabi, traditional Chinese, Cantonese and Tagalog — is expected to be released later this fall. WorkSafeBC staff are also working on developing a multi-media training tool that contains a domestic violence scenario and how best to handle the situation, Ellis says. “This is material that we can put in the hands of the workplace parties to assist them with this very, very difficult topic when it impacts a workplace.” She emphasizes that there are no plans for British Columbia to amend provincial requirements, similar to what was done in Ontario last year. Effective June 15, 2010, Ontario’s OH&S Act has required employers “who

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O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 ohs canada

are aware or who ought reasonably to be aware that domestic violence that would likely expose a worker to physical injury may occur in the workplace must take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect a worker,” notes information from the Ministry of Labour (MOL) in Toronto. “How we are looking at this is the existing regulations oblige an employer to protect workers from hazardous workplace conditions or other safety hazards,” Ellis says. “We think that also applies to protecting co-workers from violent acts in the workplace, even if the genesis is in the worker’s private life.” The toolkit is in response to a recommendation from a BC Coroners Service special review panel convened last year. But just this summer, domestic violence found its way into a newsroom in Surrey, British Columbia. On July 28, RCMP received a 9-1-1 call reporting a stabbing in progress at the office building of Sach Di Awaaz, a free weekly Punjabi-English newspaper. By the time responders arrived, 24-year-old Ravinder Bhangu had

died of “multiple stab wounds,” says Sergeant Jennifer Pound, a spokesperson for the British Columbia RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigations Team. Bhangu’s husband, 26, was arrested at the scene. A man who tried to intervene and stop the attack suffered minor injuries, Pound says. Donna Freeman, director of media relations for WorkSafeBC, says that in situations where domestic violence has entered the workplace, board officers may follow up with the employer to determine if oh&s obligations have been met, such as conducting a workplace risk assessment. “But this is a criminal matter first and foremost, so our role is going to be limited,” Freeman emphasizes. “If you become aware of a situation in which there is a threat of violence that could affect other workers,” Ellis advises, “conduct a risk assessment, identify the hazards and take steps.” One challenge is the wall of silence around domestic violence, she says. “An employer doesn’t necessarily know this is happening. Often, the individual is terrified, doesn’t want to talk about it, and sometimes extraordinarily embarrassed.”

is an attempt to remove something from a machine while it is running, notes a 2006 potato harvester safety report from the University of Maine in Orono. The report makes these recommendations: void wearing clothing that is loose, • a dangles or flops; • w ear skid-resistant shoes and tightfitting gloves, and secure long hair; • n ever mount a harvester while the machine is in motion;

• c lean trash out of belts when they are stationary; and, • do not lubricate, adjust or repair the harvester while it is running.

truck crushes crew membER CALGARY — A 24-year-old worker at

the Western Grocers distribution centre in Calgary suffered fatal crushing inju-

worker pulled into harvester DELTA — A worker suffered crushing in-

juries on August 23 after being drawn into a potato harvesting machine at Hothi Farms Inc. in Delta, British Columbia. At about 10 am, the worker was doing maintenance on the potato harvester when he got caught in the machine’s rollers, confirms Donna Freeman, WorkSafeBC’s director of media relations. Acting Sergeant Paul Eisenzimmer, a spokesperson for the Delta Police Department, reports that the 30-year-old worker “slipped” on the machine, resulting in his right leg being drawn into the equipment up to his hip. Responders from Delta Fire & Emergency Services extricated the worker, who was subsequently flown by air ambulance to a hospital in New Westminster. Although no bones were broken, “there is a concern that the damage sustained by the muscles and tissues in his leg may lead to further complications,” Eisenzimmer notes in a statement. The farm worker, a Mexican citizen working in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, remained in hospital overnight for observation. Pull-in injuries can occur anytime there

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Failure to pay prompts new penalty GRAND PRAIRIE — An Alberta company was ordered to pay an additional $10,000 for its failure to remit funds related to an earlier conviction under the province’s OH&S Act. On June 7, Steve’s Oilfield Services (Edson) Ltd. received the penalty for failing to comply with an order made previously under the act. The original creative sentence of $90,000 was in response to a 2003 incident in Grande Prairie, Alberta. A worker sustained serious injuries when he exited a loader and was run over, notes information from Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton. “Has the defendant corporation, on the balance of probabilities, shown due diligence in attempting to comply with the court order?” provincial court Judge John Higgerty asked at a hearing. “I find the defendant corporation has not.” Steve’s Oilfield Services ceased operation and closed its bank account last year. The company has made it a priority to pay other creditors, Judge Higgerty said, but “there has been an element of choice I find in paying nothing” since it remitted $5,000 [of the oh&s penalty] in January, 2008. David Dear, a spokesperson for Alberta Justice, says the

ries when he became pinned between a semi-truck and a loading bay. At 4 am on August 18, Nhial Mulual, a member of the receiving team, was working at the centre, which handles products for Loblaw Companies Limited. Mulual went out onto the pad to remove a glad lock, used to secure the truck’s trailer during unloading, as the semi-truck was approaching to make a delivery. The driver backed up while the worker was still on the pad, pinning him, notes information from AEI. Paramedics got the call at approximately 4:30 am and arrived on scene a few minutes later, says Adam Loria, a public education officer for Calgary’s Emergency Medical Services. “Due to the massive traumatic injuries he sustained, he had no vital signs and obvious signs of death, so the paramedics had to make that tough call to determine him deceased on scene,” Loria reports. In late August, the AEI investigation was continuing and no compliance orders had been issued, confirms spokesperson Barrie Harrison. “We’ll be going through all of the procedures that they have, the training that’s required,” Harrison says of the employer. Loblaw Companies has made grief counsellors available to its employees, Craig Ware, the company’s director of corporate affairs, says in a statement. In Alberta, if a designated signaller is required, the worker must be compe-

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case represents the first time in the province that an additional penalty has been imposed on a company for not meeting its creative sentencing obligations. The payment rate for creative sentence penalties “is actually very good,” Dear reports. Of the more than $5.7 million in fines assessed since 2005, 97 per cent have been paid. Despite the company being out of business, Judge Higgerty emphasizes that “the message does need to go out to other corporate defendants that it is not a free ride.” Crown prosecutor Alison Magill argued that the additional penalty imposed “has to address the potential for noncompliance for other corporations” facing such a charge. “When there’s a failure to live up to the obligations of a creative sentence and fulfill that restitution, we think it’s appropriate to seek a further penalty,” Dear says. The sentence is meant to offer an offender the opportunity to make restitution to society, he adds. Dear says that Alberta Justice will take over the collection of any unpaid fines, which includes the ability to seize assets and freeze bank accounts. — By Jean Lian

tent to perform the task. The Occupational Health and Safety Code notes that, among other things, before giving a signal to proceed, a signaller must ensure that there are no hazards in the vicinity. An operator, for his part, must take signals only from the designated signaller. Truck drivers should always use a spotter when backing up, advises Rob Weston, executive director of the Trucking Safety Council of BC in Langley, British Columbia. It is good practice for the driver to leave the cab and inspect the site before reversing the vehicle, Weston says, further recommending that back-up sensors be installed on vehicles to alert operators of anything in their blind spots. In an alert, WorkSafeBC notes spotters must maintain continuous visual contact with mobile equipment operators.

researcher dies in sinkhole GRAND PRAIRIE — A researcher with the

University of Alberta in Edmonton died after the all-terrain vehicle she was driving fell into a three-metre-deep sinkhole in a remote area of the province. The researcher was operating a quad at about 9:40 am on August 18 when it fell into a washout, a crater-like sinkhole, on a logging road 250 kilometres northwest of Grand Prairie, Alberta, says AEI spokesperson Barrie Harrison. “It’s a very remote location. It took our officers

a while to get there, so the RCMP had secured the site for us,” Harrison says. Sergeant Tom Howell, a spokesperson for the RCMP’s Manning detachment, was among the first responders on scene. Howell reports he did not even notice the five-metre-wide sinkhole until he was fairly close. “It was a very shallow depression and you really couldn’t see it until you were almost on it.” Howell says that Suzanne Abele, a staff member with the university’s Department of Renewable Resources, was driving the front quad, leading four undergraduate researchers along the gravel road. She was “travelling normal speeds” and wearing a helmet, he says. Howell reports the rural area offered no cellphone coverage and very little communication via radio; the only communication would have been through satellite phone. “It was a bush road not used any further for active logging. It was pretty rough getting through there,” he says, noting that paramedics had to be flown in by helicopter. “We couldn’t even get the tow truck out of there. The tow truck had to go out with another quad and manoeuvre the damaged one out of there,” he adds. Ellen Macdonald, the associate dean of research with the university’s Department of Renewable Resources, says that Abele had conducted field work in the region each summer for four years. At the time of the accident, she was leading

a crew of summer employees who were conducting general sampling related to plants, bugs, soils and weather. “On the morning of the accident, they were driving out to sites to re-mark sampling transects so they could be found more easily next summer,” Macdonald says. Although researchers had travelled the road frequently, she says, they had not been that far along for months. Howell says there was a small bridge of logs in the vicinity, but the dangerous conditions were not reported to the owner of the connecting forestry access road, Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd. RCMP members will examine the reporting failure and the force is having the quad undergo a mechanical inspection. “[We] have never seen anything even close to the sinkhole that was the cause of the accident,” Macdonald says.

New layer of protection REGINA — Efforts of whistleblowers in

the Saskatchewan government will be buoyed by new protections from repri-

sal, as long as they follow procedures. The Public Interest Disclosure Act took effect September 1 and creates a system for employees of any provincial ministry to report wrongdoing by submitting a confidential disclosure form to a designated officer within the ministry or to the Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner. The act, first announced in November of 2010, applies to employees at all levels of provincial ministries, Crown and Treasury Board Crown corporations, and a large number of additional government boards and agencies. “I believe this takes the politics out of any type of belief that there could be a wrongdoing,” says June Draud, minister responsible for Saskatchewan’s Public Service Commission. “This is just one more way to make sure government is accountable and people are doing what they are paid to do.” Michael Tochor, a lawyer at MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP in Regina, says the new law removes much of the uncertainty that existed in whistleblower protections under the Labour Standards Act (LSA). Having a clearly defined person

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to report to reduces the chance of a complaint being thrown out because it was made to the wrong person, Tochor says. “There were some issues before in the case law as to who was and who wasn’t an appropriate person of authority,” he says. “This legislation sought to clarify that, and give a little more teeth to it, in terms of the power that the commissioner and the designated officers have.” Under the new whistleblower act, the Public Service Commission will report annually to the legislative assembly the number of complaints received. If the commission acts on a complaint, the report will include both a description of the complaint and the actions taken. The law very tightly defines what issues can be brought forward, Tochor says. Only incidents of gross mismanagement or substantial specific danger to the environment or a person’s health or safety will be investigated, he adds. If a government employee chooses to voice his or her concerns publicly or to an opposition MLA, they will still be covered under the LSA, but will forfeit their protections under the new law.

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“If you have an honest, bonafide complaint you want to make, the system is there for it,” Tochor explains. “If, however, you want to use what information you’ve learned for political points, you don’t have the same protection. That’s the trade-off.”

trenching breach spurs fine REGINA — A Saskatoon-based construc-

tion company received $4,000 in fines on August 10 after pleading guilty to violating Saskatchewan’s OH&S Act. Allan Construction Co. Ltd. was fined $3,200 and must pay an additional $1,200 victim fine surcharge for failure to ensure that a worker in a trench was protected from cave-ins or sliding materials by means of cut back or shoring, reports the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety in Regina. One count originally laid against Allan Construction was stayed, notes the ministry statement. The charges follow a routine inspection of an excavation site in Saskatoon.

amputation in Entrainment WATERLOO — Waterloo Textiles Ltd., a

yarn manufacturer in Cambridge, Ontario, has been fined $75,000 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure a machine was equipped with a guard or other device to prevent access to moving parts. Charges were laid in connection with the injury of a worker on August 17, 2009. After opening the cover of a machine used to create yarn, the worker found excessive fibres gathered inside, notes a statement from the MOL. While trying to remove the fibres, the worker’s finger got caught in the machine, resulting in his arm being drawn in. He sustained a partial amputation.

fallen drum sparks explosion OTTAWA — A worker operating a forklift

at Masterloy Products Company in Ottawa sustained serious burn injuries on August 22 when a drum of chemicals exploded and sparked a fire.

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The operator suffered second-degree burns to 30 per cent of his body and third-degree burns to his back. The 46-year-old worker was taken to Ottawa Hospital to check for internal injuries, says Stephanie Logan, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Paramedic Service. “They always consider that because there was an explosion,” Logan explains. The worker had been using a forklift to move some drums when one fell off and exploded, apparently prompting the lift’s propane tank to also explode, reports MOL spokesperson Matt Blajer. The initial cause of the explosion had not been determined in late August, Blajer says. Marc Messier, a public information officer for Ottawa Fire Services, says that firefighters originally believed there might have been a dust explosion in or around the dust collection unit on site as there was fire damage in the collector. “There was mention of some drums containing aluminum powder,” Messier says. “However, there was no indication that these drums were involved.” The company’s website notes the firm is Canada’s only producer of ferrova-

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Lab quarantined after release HAMILTON — A Stern Laboratories Inc. facility was quarantined following a beryllium exposure in late July. Press reports indicated workers were testing a fuel bundle containing beryllium in alloy form, but company president Gordon Hadaller would only confirm “there was a release within a laboratory, the area is quarantined and clean-up is under way.” In mid-August, officials were still trying to determine how many workers were in the area at the time. Company representatives were also working with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE), Hadaller said. “We have things quarantined and sealed off to make sure there’s no additional exposure,” he reports. Among other things, the lab in Hamilton, Ontario conducts safety tests for nuclear reactor and fuel vendors, and manufactures equipment for handling spent fuel rods. Matt Blajer, an MOL spokesperson in Toronto, says that a probe has been launched and inspectors will ensure proper safety procedures for hazardous materials are followed. Testing of dust showed it contained beryllium, and air monitoring and swipe sampling was also being done, Blajer says. Any spill that could impact public health in the natural environment must be reported to the MOE, says ministry spokesperson Jennifer Hall. “We help to make sure they take the appropriate actions to clean up and restore the environ-

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ment,” Hall says, adding that the beryllium exposure had “no impacts to the community or the natural environment.” MOE staff will maintain contact with the company while clean-up continues, she says. Hadaller could not put a timeline on completing that process. “With this thing, you clean, then you sample and you make sure everything comes back clean,” he says. Beryllium becomes a danger when it is heated or worked with to create particles, fumes or mists, notes information from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Washington, D.C. Ontario’s OH&S Act lists the eight-hour exposure limit for beryllium at 0.002 milligrams per cubic metre (mg/m3), but the government is considering lowering the limit, says Lorraine Shaw, manager of the Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton. “If you had acute exposure for a very short period of time, you would have pneumonia-like symptoms. It’s also a carcinogen; it causes lung cancer,” Shaw says of beryllium. The main concern is chronic beryllium disease, which can cause fatal scarring of the lungs and has no cure, she adds. Not everyone exposed to beryllium develops the disease, but some people are “somehow genetically predisposed.” — By Greg Burchell

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nadium and ferromolybdenum, and the only independent converter of the alloys. On August 25, an MOL investigator issued the following orders: • stop handling barrels of re-burn dust until a procedure to prevent a similar hazard has been put in place; • train all workers in the procedure for handling barrels of re-burn dust; • ensure the drums of re-burn dust are lifted, carried or moved in a way that does not endanger the worker; and, • have an engineer assess the existing re-burn dust collection system to ensure it meets applicable standards, and provide a report to the MOL. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario, offers recommendations related to load handling on forklift trucks: • position the load as per the recommended load centre located on the data plate of the lift truck; • keep loads close to the front wheel to keep the forklift stable; and, • ensure loads on pallets are stable, neat, cross-tied if possible, and evenly distributed.

new shift gets thumbs-down FREDERICTON — Many paramedics in New Brunswick saw their work schedules dramatically altered with the move away from 24-hour shifts in August, a decision that some say will benefit worker safety. On August 18, Ambulance New Brunswick (ANB), the company contracted by the province to manage and oversee all emergency medical services operations since 2007, changed all but three of the 70 EMS stations to 12-hour shifts. The three stations remaining on the 24-hour schedule have low call volumes and the paramedics are not required to transfer patients to other facilities. There were 30 stations operating on the 24-hour schedule, which was introduced to address staffing issues and was never meant to be permanent, says Alan Stephen, president and CEO of ANB. “The evidence would show us that long shifts, 24-hour shifts, are not great for the safety of our paramedics, our patients and for public safety, for reasons

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of fatigue, lack of sufficient rest periods, sleep disturbances, medical errors, vehicular errors,” Stephen says. Ralph McBride, national representative for Local 4848 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents about 900 EMS workers in New Brunswick, disagrees with the claimed safety benefits. There have not been any accidents or patient care issues in the province since the 24-hour shifts were introduced, McBride contends. Citing studies conducted by the union and province, he says results showed that a 12-hour shift is no safer than a 24hour shift. “It’s not like they’re working a 24-hour shift in an urban centre, like a city. Our 24-hour stations are more in remote parts, where call volumes are low.” Some union members are upset with the schedule change because it can dramatically increase travel time for those who live far from the stations where they work, McBride says. Some members work in 24-hour stations because they are the closest they could get to their home area. “They were travelling two hours to work and then

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two hours home, and now they’re going to end up travelling four days,” he says. Members of Local 4848 are awaiting an adjudication hearing to challenge the decision, McBride says.

Agency revs up road safety SAINT JOHN — WorkSafeNB is remind-

ing road workers to keep safety top of mind when working in orange zones. Beyond wearing reflective apparel, following signage and setting up pylons and barriers, WorkSafeNB engineer Roland Roy advises that workers should remain alert at all times. Taking scheduled breaks, keeping hydrated and maintaining good energy levels by snacking regularly will help workers to stay vigilant, Roy notes in a board statement. Using traffic controllers is a regulatory requirement wherever workers may be endangered by traffic. “Try not to forget this policy on smaller jobs. When possible, have one team member keep an eye on traffic until supplies are put away and workers are safely inside their vehicles,” Roy adds.

average rate steady for 2012 HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s average work-

ers’ compensation premium will hold firm for the coming year, but employers with work to do on the safety and return-towork (RTW) fronts can expect surcharges for poor performance. Making it eight years in a row, the average rate will be $2.65 per $100 of assessable payroll, notes a statement from the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) in Halifax. One per cent of the 18,000 employers covered by the WCB will have the same rates next year, 36 per cent will see lower premiums, and 63 per cent will witness rate hikes. “Serious workplace injuries in Nova Scotia are at their lowest level in 15 years and rates are holding steady,” Stuart MacLean, the board’s acting CEO, notes in the WCB statement. “By working closely with employers, workers and our safety partners, we will continue to make strides towards making Nova Scotia a safer place to work,” MacLean says. Significant premium decreases are scheduled for fish processing, construction infrastructure, electrical work, electronics manufacturing, storage and warehousing, hospitals and nursing homes,

while larger increases will apply to fishing, exploration and drilling, motor vehicle retail sales, bakeries, ambulance services, dairy farms and carpet manufacturing, the WCB reports. Some employers — those with claims costs that are at least three times their industry average for at least four consecutive years — will receive surcharges, notes a WCB backgrounder. Surcharges are cumulative and will add as much as $6.28 per $100 of assessable payroll. Almost 100 employers will be hit with surcharges in 2012.

fine linked to asbestos threat ST. JOHN’S — Kelloway Construction Limited was ordered to pay $13,000 after pleading guilty to two asbestos-related charges under Newfoundland and Labrador’s OH&S Act. The company failed to take all necessary measures to ensure that worker exposure to airborne asbestos was reduced to the lowest practical level, and failed to ensure that appropriate measures were taken to prevent pollution of the general environment by asbestos dust released from the workplace, notes a statement issued by the Department of Government Services in St. John’s. The penalties relate to activities at the demolition site of the former Janeway Hospital in St. John’s between April and September of 2009. The company was ordered to pay fines of $10,000 and $3,000 to the department for the purpose of public oh&s education. Four additional charges against Kelloway Construction were withdrawn.

worker pinned by vehicle ST. JOHN’S — ERL Enterprises Limited has been fined $6,000 under Newfoundland and Labrador’s OH&S Act following an incident in which a worker suffered serious injuries when he was pinned under a vehicle being repaired. While working at a St. John’s auto repair shop in September of 2010, the worker sustained serious injuries to his back and ribs, notes a statement from the government services department. ERL Enterprises pleaded guilty to failing to provide the information, instruction, training, supervision and facilities necessary to ensure worker safety, and failing to ensure safe work procedures were followed. A $3,000 fine was levied for each count, while a third charge against the company was withdrawn. A company supervisor faces one count of failing to provide proper oral or written instructions regarding necessary precautions. That charge has been set over to November 2. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Many of the preceding items are based on stories from our sister publication, Canadian Occupational Health & Safety News, a weekly newsletter that provides detailed coverage of Canadian oh&s and workers’ compensation issues. For more information, please call (416) 442-2122 or toll-free (800) 668-2374.

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DISPATCHES

Toxic farewell a signal to “face” concerns By Greg Burchell

former employee of Whole Foods Market in Toronto who posted a tirade online blasting his ex-employer was not building the most positive foundation for future job opportunities, workplace health experts suggest. But the 2,000-word manifesto may have a silver lining, at least for Whole Foods, if company officials view the observations, comments and even criticisms as early warnings that may require both review and response. The employee launched the written offensive against what he alleges are numerous hypocrisies between how the greenfriendly grocer presents itself and how it actually conducts business. The attack, which also included barbs aimed at coworkers, went viral shortly after it was posted. Instances of employees taking to the Internet and social media to air their grievances are becoming more common, says Shelly Ptolemy, president of Ptolemy & Associates Inc., a health and wellness consultancy in Calgary. Why? Ptolemy attributes this brazen behaviour to the expectation that there will be no retribution. When an employee waxes venomously online, companies would be well-advised not to convince themselves the angry display is just an isolated incident. These actions should serve as a signal that there could be a general morale problem. “People aren’t walking around with a neon sign on their forehead saying, ‘I’m part of an organization that has poor morale,’” says Ptolemy. Rather than seek retribution after the fact, companies should encourage open dialog with employees to pinpoint what caused the incident in the first place and work toward creating a more positive working environment, Ptolemy says. “The first step is having the individual’s boss or supervisor ask the individual what’s going on,” says Mike Gooley, the Toronto-based regional vice-president of Robert Half Canada, an international staffing firm. “If you have those meetings more regularly, you’ll get more honest feedback because you’ll open a rapport with the employees,” Gooley advises. A 2010 Ipsos survey found that company culture has the greatest impact on morale, 35 per cent; employee productivity, 22 per cent; and job satisfaction, 17 per cent. Employees under 35 are most likely to report that company culture has the biggest impact on job satisfaction. Once a frustrated employee has sounded the proverbial emergency alarm, an exit interview may be too late, Gooley says. But it is not too late, generally, to make use of exit inter-

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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views to identify why people are choosing to leave, he adds. “You want to make sure other valued team members don’t leave the company,” Gooley says, adding that exit interviews can give a worker a private place to vent, hopefully extinguishing any temptation to get fired up on Twitter or Facebook. Whole Foods and the co-workers mentioned by name in the tirade could sue for defamation, says Soma Ray-Ellis, co-chair of the employment and labour group at Himelfarb Proszanski LLP in Toronto. The company could also sue for breach of confidentiality and loyalty, “which an employee owes to an employer even after a resignation or termination.” But lawsuits are not often the preferred course of action. Airing a company’s dirty laundry through a lawsuit can create more damage. “Sometimes it’s better to let something like this die down,” Ray-Ellis advises. In the age of instant information dissemination, a company that cares about its image should be investing in employee satisfaction. “If you’ve got toxicity inside the human capacity, all the rest of it doesn’t matter,” Gooley argues. Greg Burchell is editorial assistant of

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Stage collapse injures concert-goers, order issued By Jean Lian & Jason Contant

stop-work order was issued against the company responsible for installing a stage that collapsed on July 17 during the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. Clean-up was not to begin until a procedure for the safe removal of the collapsed stage was developed and approved by a professional engineer, Matt Blajer, a Toronto-based spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Labour (MOL), said following the incident. The compliance order for Groupe Berger in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec was issued on July 18 and lifted a day later. Stéphane Berger, director of sales for Groupe Berger, reports that three workers who were not employees of his company sustained minor injuries. All were subsequently released from hospital. In late July, Berger reported that bad weather looked to be the only indication of a possible cause. However, there was no damage to four other stages at the music festival despite winds reaching speeds of approximately 90 kilometres per hour (km/h), notes a joint statement from stage owner, Stageline Mobile Stage Inc., and its affiliated company, MSR Mobile Stage Rentals. “The stages were considered to be structurally sound by local authorities and ready to be dismantled. The Stageline Group is not in any way connected to the company that manufactured and installed the collapsed structure.”

Before a product is used, says company president Yvan Miron, it must be field tested “under all kinds of weather conditions so that you can determine if there are modifications that need to be done.” Once completed, “it is extremely important to apply clearly the set-up and tear-down procedures [and] give proper training to all the operators,” Miron says. This necessary instruction also includes what to do in an emergency. Miron reports that mobile hydraulic stages with attached side screens can withstand wind speeds of about 100 km/h, and as much as 140 km/h when the side screens are released. This is the second such incident involving Groupe Berger. On June 30, 2009, a stage at Quebec City’s Grand Rire comedy festival collapsed in high winds and heavy rains. The Ottawa collapse occurred almost two years after a wind squall destroyed the main stage at Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, Alberta. About 75 people, including five workers, were injured; one concert-goer subsequently died. “Owners have a responsibility to ensure that their temporary structures comply with the Alberta Building Code 2006 and apply for permits,” states a 2010 notice from Alberta Municipal Affairs in Edmonton. “Local authorities have a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to issue permits and inspect for compliance. While severe weather events cannot be predicted or controlled, we can all do our part to minimize the risk of harm to the public.” On July 29, almost three dozen charges under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act were announced against Panhandle Productions Ltd., Premier Global Production Company Inc. and 1073732 Alberta Ltd. Sorcha Thomas, a spokesperson for Alberta Employment and Immigration (AEI) in Edmonton, says Panhandle Productions has been charged as an employer and as prime contractor. (One company employee was injured.) As an employer, the company faces six counts of failing to ensure the health and safety of its workers and other workers present on site. As the prime contractor, the company was charged with failing to ensure compliance with the OH&S Act, Thomas says. Premier Global, which supplied the stage for the festival and employed four of the injured workers, faces the same 12 counts. Information from AEI notes the company is also charged with three counts citing failures around equipment size, strength, design and material; use of equipment as intended; and rigging capabilities. Six counts of failing to ensure an employer complied with the OH&S Act have been laid against the numbered company, a contractor that directed the activities of Premier Global. On the day of the deadly incident, Panhandle Productions spokesperson Larry Werner reported that the company only had about a 60-second warning of the approaching plough wind in front of a tornado. “If we get the information in time, we’re set up to clear the concert bowl and protect anybody on or near the stage,” Werner said. For this year’s event, a meteorologist was employed to gauge possible storm activity. Jean Lian is assistant editor of ohs canada; Jason Contant is editor of canadian occupational health & safety news.

Canine cops play crucial role in officer safety By Riva Gold

ome of the hardest-working crime-fighters in the country still drink out of the toilet. Law enforcement dogs track down suspects, find missing persons and sniff out dangerous objects like drugs, firearms or explosives. And by serving on the front lines in high-risk cases, they can save an officer’s life. The mere presence of a dog will usually deter a suspect from getting violent, says Mike Sutherland, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, but if an attack does occur, they are trained to bite on command. “These dogs perform an incredible service in terms of increasing our ability to do our fundamental duty: keep people safe,” Sutherland says. Although Canada’s approximately 1,000 law enforcement dogs lack occupational health and safety protections, they provide a vital form of security for their human partners. This protective role was under siege this summer when a virus that leaves dogs unable to detect odours took 15 of the Winnipeg Police Service’s (WPS) 18 dogs out of commission for almost three weeks. “When you have your entire team down and the dogs are unable to track, the efficacy of the unit is completely undermined,” Sutherland says. The dogs, usually German shepherds or Labrador retrievers, are used in some of the most dangerous situations police deal with, says Sergeant Steve Kaye, president of the Canadian Police Canine Association. “In the majority of cases, the canine unit is the point of contact or first entry tool deployed,” Kaye reports. “In dangerous building searches, the dog is the first into a residence to search for trapped or armed people while the human contingent can remain protected outside,” he adds. Sutherland says in cases where a suspect is lying in wait, “it’s impossible to surprise an officer because the dogs detect the scent first.” Officers usually spend at least 14 hours a day with their dogs, says Sergeant David Bessason, co-ordinator and trainer of the WPS K9 Unit, creating “immeasurable” bonds. Inspector Lawrence Aimoe, officer-in-charge of the Alberta RCMP’s Police Dog Training Centre, jokes that handlers would take their dogs to the vet long before going to the hospital themselves. The dogs repay that care in kind. If threatened, they will attack, Aimoe says. “They’re not trained to do that, it’s by instinct. Protect itself and its owner.” It can take as long as five months and $60,000 to train a canine team. Dogs can begin training as young as three days old, and less than 20 per cent make the cut. Riva Gold is a writer in Toronto.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Plan seeks to transform farm risks into work safety By Jason Contant

epresentatives for Canada’s agricultural sector suggest the seeds have been sown for occupational health and safety improvements through the adoption of a business risk management model. On August 8, the Winnipeg-based Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) released the Canada FarmSafe Plan, which is available in English and French. The guide seeks to help producers develop, implement and establish an effective farm and ranch safety plan by providing best practices recommendations in four areas of oh&s business risk: prosecution, economic loss, commodity loss and human resource loss. “The plan materials are reflective of the best practices recommendations for establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy farm work environment,” notes information from CASA. “These recommendations also take into consideration the general oh&s requirements imposed by regulations across Canada.” Glen Blahey, agricultural safety and health specialist for the association, suggests “the agriculture industry right across Canada lacks the occupational safety and health infrastructure that is present in almost every other sector.” Although producers may be aware of basic oh&s requirements, Blahey says that most “don’t have access to resources.” The plan should include a number of elements: • g eneral policy statement for oh&s that references, among other things, employer commitment and the need for everyone to take responsibility; eans of identifying hazards (such as physical, chemical, • m biological, environmental, ergonomic and psychological/ sociological) through inspections, assessments, document review and job hazard analysis; • s tatement on how to control hazards, taking into account wellness, how personal well-being influences oh&s, safe work procedures, training, record keeping and investigations; • s tatement on how to communicate responsibilities, such as setting out expectations, outlining who is responsible for specific tasks, and describing oh&s performance standards and consequences for not following them; • r eview process to update the plan regularly to reflect current practices, assess the effectiveness of each component and ensure accurate record keeping; and, • p reserve the plan by storing a copy, adding standards that duplicate or cross reference the plan and posting the general oh&s policy statement. The impact of an occupational injury can be significant, suggests Blahey. “Most agricultural operations [are] sole proprietorships. They’re smaller operations and they can’t afford the capital loss that occurs when a serious incident occurs.” For example, Blahey reports that the direct economic impact of a work-related incident requiring hospitalization is

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estimated to be about $10,000. It would require $100,000 to recover the costs at a profit margin of 10 per cent on gross income, he says, characterizing this as “not realistic at all.” Economic loss is even greater for permanent disability ($143,000) or fatality ($275,000), notes the document. Lorne Henry, president of South River Farms Ltd. in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, calls the Canada FarmSafe Plan a “really important” development for the agricultural sector. “Lots of farmers have a safety plan in place, but they don’t have it down in black-and-white, step-by-step,” Henry says. With the CASA document, “they’ll at least have a guideline.”

Show staff the money… and other goodies By Angela Stelmakowich

t is a new day, a new year and, apparently, a new outlook regarding how best to enhance employee motivation through the use of incentive programs. Canadian executives report expecting to pay more attention to increasing employee motivation in the coming year, notes a survey from Berkeley Payment Solutions in Toronto, a provider of prepaid corporate incentive programs. “This is translating into renewed focus on employee incentive programs as part of their strategy to boost company productivity and bottom-line results,” notes a statement from June. The 2011 Canadian Incentive Trends Survey received input from 429 Canadian executives at marketing services organizations, incentive firms, human resources consultancies and corporations. Eighty-eight per cent of respondents indicated that increasing employee motivation has become a key area of focus. In all, 68 per cent of those polled reported using employee incentive programs. “With employment rates on an upward trend, the need to attract and retain high-performing employees continues to intensify,” says David Eason, CEO of Berkeley Payment Solutions. Recruitment and retention have been identified as the top human resources priorities for 2012, reports Morneau Shepell Inc., based in Toronto. As ever, the caution about making assumptions applies. A study in the 2010 B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy used a lab experiment to probe if workers were more likely to cheat with bonus incentive programs. Different schemes were used: bonus tied to each unit produced or sold; payment linked to a one’s performance in relation to that of others; and compensation only if employees achieved the company’s pre-set goal. “Targetbased compensation produced significantly more cheating,” notes the study abstract. Effective auditing can help keep things on an even keel. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Angela Stelmakowich is editor of

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Suicide

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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UNIFORM By william M. Glenn In July, the last of the Canadian combat troops deployed in Afghanistan were rotated home. They have survived booby traps, rocket attacks and ambush. Now begins the possibly more harrowing task of keeping these battle-hardened veterans safe... from themselves.

images: Y端cel erdogan

heavy losses From 1983 through 2007, suicide stole the lives of 289 men and women in the Canadian Forces — four times as many as died in combat. Eliminate the dramatic increase in deaths that occurred in Kandahar over the last couple of years, and the rate rises to an incredible 30 to one. But it is not panic time; suicide in the Forces has not reached epidemic proportions. Despite what a Department of National Defence fact sheet terms the “high operational tempo over the last decade,” a Statistics Canada/Health Canada report from May confirmed suicide among active personnel is slightly below rates seen in the general population. The Canadian Forces Cancer and Mortality Study: Causes of Death is “ground-breaking research that has never been done before in Canada,” says Janice Summerby, a media relations advisor for Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) in Ottawa. “The results of this study will help us improve the programs and services we provide for veterans and their families, and enable us to better meet their needs,” Summerby suggests. VAC currently provides support to more than 14,000 veterans who are living with mental health conditions. In the recent study, Statistics Canada researchers tracked 188,161 individuals who had enrolled in the Forces after January 1, 1972 through December 31, 2006. This included collecting data (for the first time) on the cause of death for any deceased veteran who left the service during that time. In all, 3,969 active service personnel or veterans died — 294 women and 3,675 men. Data indicates the “healthy soldier effect” — meaning severely ill and disabled would not be part of the population — is still operational. The rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems and mental disorders were all significantly lower than one would expect to see (adjusted for age and other confounding factors) in the general population. The analysis showed a statistically significant lower risk of death — 36 per cent lower for men in the military and 33 per cent lower for women — from all causes. The one glaring exception was suicide. While the suicide rate among active service personnel fell below that expected in the civilian population, for veterans the rate was significantly higher. Age-specific analyses showed male veterans aged 16 to 44 were about one and a half times more likely to commit suicide, while women between 40 and 44 were more than twice as likely to die from suicide as their same-age counterparts in the general population. After taking into account contributing factors — such as sex, rank, years and period of military service and age at release — data indicated that suicide risk was as follows: • almost three and a half times higher for men than women; • two and a half times greater for non-commissioned troops compared with officers;

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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• m ore than two times higher for those with less than 10 years of military service compared with 10-plus years; and, • two times greater for individuals with a medical release and one and a half times higher for those personnel who were released involuntarily. Statistics Canada reports that suicide ranks tenth on the causes of death among the general population, but it is the third most common cause of death in the Canadian military. A 2010 paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine notes the 289 suicide deaths in the Canadian military from 1983 through 2007 accounted for 17 per cent of total deaths. Vehicular accidents (384 lives) led the list, followed by suicide (289), combat (70) and various other events, ranging from drownings to falls, training accidents and homicides. fallen soldiers While statistical compilations may show what is happening, they do not explain why. A paper published last year in the American Journal of Epidemiology is the first to compare the prevalence of suicidal behaviour (and the factors that contribute to that behaviour) between well-matched cohorts of active military personnel and civilians. In addition to socio-demographic factors, researchers investigated the possible links between mental disorders and alcohol dependency to suicide ideation and suicide attempts. Each participant was asked if he or she had seriously thought about committing suicide or taking his or her own life in the past 12 months. Responses showed suicide ideation was about equal between the military and non-military groups. Attempts, however, were a different matter. While the number of suicide attempts among active servicemen was indeed lower, women in the Forces were almost four times more likely to have attempted suicide over the previous 12 months than women in the civilian population. The study’s lead author, Shay-Lee Bolton, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, says she believes that women in the Canadian Forces may experience additional challenges adapting to military life. “Women often find difficulty fitting in with their male peers in the military, they feel they have to work harder to be accepted, and that they need to convince people that they can make it and be tough,” Bolton says. “Higher rates of sexual abuse, rape and harassment experienced by female soldiers while on the job can also increase their vulnerability.” Although the healthy soldier effect remains powerful — a function of stringent selection criteria, tough discipline and strong social bonds within military units — not all soldiers are created equal. The data showed that personnel with depression were more likely to attempt suicide than their depressed counterparts in the civilian population. Suicidal thoughts were also more common among the lower ranks, those who had been deployed three or more times, and those who had seen combat.

Unifor

means to an end

“There are so many important correlates of suicidal behaviour in this population, it is impossible to say which one is most important,” says Bolton. “It can be different for everyone,” she adds. “Suicide rates in the Forces have not increased in the past 10 years or since the onset of the conflict in Afghanistan,” says Colonel Rakesh Jetly, head psychiatrist and advisor to the Canadian Forces’ surgeon general on mental health and psychiatry. “Most [Forces] suicides occur for the same reasons they occur among civilians, and the majority to date have occurred among members who have never deployed on operations,” Dr. Jetly reports. There are several factors that could contribute to this, he suggests, including the age and experience of personnel, the length of deployments and the subsequent “decompression time” scheduled, post-deployment screenings and limited access to firearms. Bolton says that markers of potential suicide, both in the general population and the Canadian Forces, include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or some other anxiety disorder, having experienced a traumatic event of a sexual or interpersonal nature, and lack of social support. “These correlates are strongly related and commonly found among people who have suicidal behaviour. But not everyone with these experiences goes on to suicide.”

risky business Do soldiers react differently to trauma because they are hardwired to suicide? Dr. Cynthia Thomsen and her team from the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego had assumed combat deployment would increase the incidence of risky or self-destructive behaviour in returning troops. But Dr. Thomsen’s paper, to be published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, but posted online this spring, shows the effect is not universal. While it seems combat does increase risky behaviour, up to and including self-harming, that happens only among the subset of troops who were risk-takers before deployment. The team tracked the incidence of five risky behaviours — participating in extreme sports, engaging in unprotected sex with strangers, using illegal drugs, cutting and other forms of self-harming, and attempting suicide — among 2,116 Marines and Navy personnel as they transitioned from civilian life into the military. Following enlistment, 58 per cent of participants served at least one tour of combat duty in either Iraq or Afghanistan and were interviewed pre- and post-deployment. Researchers collected demographic data, information on alcohol consumption and diagnoses of mental disorders. All categories of risky behaviour dropped following enlistment, but began to rise again after returning from combat deployment. Dr. Thomsen found that “deployers” were significantly more likely than non-deployers to engage in risky recreation, illegal drug use and self-harming. There are three competing theories that link combat to self-destructive behaviour: repeated exposure to pain and fear-inducing situations numbs the indi-

It is widely believed that ready access to a lethal form of selfdestruction — nurses have bottles of pills, soldiers have highpowered rifles, truck drivers have the speed of 18 wheels — contributes to higher suicide rates. But otherwise plausible theories do not always go by the numbers. Data assembled by the Canadian Forces’ Lieutenant-Colonel Homer Tien and his team on 289 suicides in the military show that only 22 per cent involved firearms. Tien suggests that Canada’s tighter gun control laws might be responsible. In her May, 2010 paper, published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Keren Skegg found that access to deadly means may be less important in some circumstances because other factors may offer greater protection. “For example, people in the armed forces usually have some physical and psychological screening before entry, and work in an environment with a strong sense of team spirit,” reports Dr. Skegg, a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine, at the University of Otago Medical School in New Zealand. “[Soldiers] also have better access to health care than people in some other occupational groups,” she adds. Colonel Rakesh Jetly, head psychiatrist for the Canadian Forces, says there are stringent controls and restrictions placed on a member’s access to service weapons. However, Dr. Jetly adds, “when an appropriate medical limitation [such as a mental health issue] is identified for a particular member, further individual limitations on access to weapons may be imposed by the Forces.”

vidual, increasing his or her risk tolerances; returned veterans may take ever greater risks in an attempt to recapture the “adrenaline rush” of combat; and the trauma of combat can trigger PTSD, anxiety and depression, precursors to suicide and other self-destructive acts. While suicide attempts did not appear to increase, at least within the time frame of the study, 23 per cent of respondents reported at least one psychiatric problem at some point in their lives, with deployers significantly more likely than nondeployers to suffer mental disorders. The rates of anxiety and depression were roughly equivalent in the two groups, but deployers were more than five times as likely to have been diagnosed with PTSD. Dr. Thomsen says she wonders if researchers could have seen even greater increases in suicidal behaviour. “If PTSD peaks earlier following deployment than does suicidal behaviour, perhaps the timing of our questionnaire administration was better for picking up increases in PTSD.” Dr. Thomsen’s research shows that the military attracts more than its share of risk-takers. However, that kind of bravado may be less practical in civilian life. trauma connection Kate St. Cyr, a research associate at the Parkwood Hospital Operational Stress Injury (OSI) clinic in London, Ontario, says there is a very strong dose-response effect between the trauma of combat and the subsequent emergence of PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, in much of the literature published to date, the ultimate link to suicidal behaviour is less clear. A forthcoming paper in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, written by a team from the clinic, charts the statistical links between the number of traumatic events experienced over

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gold standard If searching for the gold standard, one need only look to the U.S. Air Force’s Suicide Prevention Program. Kerry Knox, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester’s Department of Psychiatry, has gauged the program’s effectiveness over the last decade. The program is the “first long-term, sustained effort of its kind,” says Dr. Knox. It serves “as an example of what communities can accomplish in reducing morbidity and mortality attributable to suicidal behaviours.” In a May, 2010 paper, published online in the American Journal of Public Health, Dr. Knox compares suicide rates in the 16 years before the program’s roll-out in 1997 with 11 years of data following its full implementation. Except for a spike in suicides in 2004 — a blip that might be explained as a case of “operational fatigue,” Dr. Knox suggests — suicides among Air Force personnel dropped by an average of 33 per cent. The program represents a fundamental shift in viewing suicide and mental illness as larger service-wide community problems rather than solely medical problems. Under the program, not only are suicides and attempted suicides rates down, but so too are “rates of accidental death, homicide, arrests for violent offences and domestic violence,” Dr. Knox adds. “By removing the stigma associated with mental health care, the program fosters “help-seeking” behaviour and promotes the development of coping skills.”

the course of a soldier’s lifetime and symptoms of PTSD and/ or MDD. Data was also collected on the subjects’ religious beliefs and social supports, as well as any thoughts of suicide over the previous 12 months. Among the 8,441 active Canadian Force members surveyed, 197 individuals (2.3 per cent) met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, 574 (6.9 per cent) for MDD, and 324 (3.8 per cent) admitted to contemplating suicide in the past year. Because soldiers are imbued with a military culture of resilience and fortitude, it can be tough for them to admit to depression or other signs of “weakness.” As such, the authors note, the numbers must be considered a minimum estimate. Still, a direct link between PTSD and suicide remains elusive. In this sample at least, PTSD alone did not increase chances of actually engaging in suicidal behaviour. “However, we did find that a diagnosis of MDD did mediate the relationship between the number of lifetime traumatic events and suicide ideation,” says St. Cyr. “This may suggest that MDD is a stronger predictor of suicide ideation than PTSD,” she adds. The researchers recommend that a soldier who exhibits symptoms of PTSD and/or MDD be referred for a course of appropriate therapy. “Psychoeducation and working to reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions may help combat the belief that only the weak succumb to such injuries,” St. Cyr says. new battle Since 2005, Dr. Leo Sher, co-director of in-patient psychiatry at the James J. Peters Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in New York, has proposed combining aspects of two separate syndromes — PTSD and MDD — to create a hybrid and much more dangerous third mental disorder: post-traumatic mood disorder or PTMD. Unique both clinically and biologically, those suffering the co-morbid PTMD experience more severe symptoms, have greater difficulties functioning in social and occupational settings, have problems concentrating and suffer from insomnia, Dr. Sher says. They are also at a much greater risk of suicide than individuals battling either PTSD or MDD alone. Is PTMD the possible “missing link” connecting battlefield trauma with suicidal behaviour? “PTSD and MDD are both stress-related disorders,” says Dr. Sher. “Some individuals are very strong and are able to handle stress, but many people, and maybe most, will develop at least some symptoms of

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PTSD and/or MDD following a series of traumatic events.” Dr. Sher says 10 to as much as 35 per cent of combat troops develop some form of stress disorder. “There may be a genetic component,” he suggests. “We know suicide runs in families. There may also be some predisposition related to childhood trauma, perhaps neglect or abuse. There are even theories that incorporate various biological mechanisms, such as immune system responses and infectious diseases. Finally, you can never underestimate the influence of psychotropic medications, alcohol use being perhaps the most prominent.” standing guard Scientists continue to build the psychobiological bridge between battlefield trauma and suicidality, especially in light of the recent surge in suicides among United States veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in June, data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs shows that suicide rates are up 26 per cent, from 45 per 100,000 veterans (aged 18 to 29) in 2005 to almost 57 per 100,000 in 2007. And that is not counting the thousands of “accidental” deaths of veterans each year ascribed to car and motorcycle crashes, drug overdose and the like. However, a Canadian Forces backgrounder from June maintains that “no consistent relationship has been discovered between deployment and risk of suicide.” Despite its official skepticism, the Forces have implemented a multi-faceted suicide prevention program. Military personnel must undergo a mental health screening as part of pre-deployment physical assessment, as well as a psychosocial screening by either a chaplain or a mental health professional. They also take part in an interactive training program meant to prepare them for the physiological reaction to stress and to learn prevention and management strategies. Upon their return home, each member participates in the Forces’ five-day “Third Location Decompression” program, where they learn about PTSD and other OSIs and have the opportunity to speak to a mental health professional. If deployed overseas for more than 60 days, personnel are also subject to an “Enhanced Post-deployment Screening Process,” which involves a detailed health questionnaire and an in-depth interview with a mental health professional three to six months following their return to Canada. “The Canadian Forces have a strong suicide prevention program in place,” says Dr. Jetly. An awareness campaign

has been launched that encourages personnel to recognize the signs of PTSD and other mental illnesses, while building “a culture of understanding” and reducing any stigma in asking for help or seeking treatment, he reports. “The Canadian Forces have recognized for some time that stigma is a leadership issue, and leadership has increased its involvement accordingly,” Dr. Jetly says. In 2009, the Chief of the Defence Staff unveiled the “Be the Difference” campaign to emphasize that all personnel can help their colleagues meet and overcome mental health challenges. prevention gaps Although suicide is frequent enough to arouse deep concern within the military, it is still a fairly rare occurrence within individual units, clinics and hospitals, says Peter Mills, Ph.D., director of the U.S. Veterans Affairs National Center for Patient Safety Field Office in Washington, D.C. Reviewing detailed root cause analysis (RCA) reports “can identify trends that could not be identified on the local level.” Only when all the threads are pulled together do patterns begin to emerge. Dr. Mills and his team reviewed the RCAs of 51 U.S. veterans who had survived tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, but were unable to deal with the subsequent pressures of life afterwards. The results, published this past February in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, include the following: • a psychiatric diagnosis was listed in 39 files, including 19 PTSD cases, and in all but three of those, depression, anxiety or substance abuse was diagnosed along with PTSD; • the most common causes were inadequate assessment of suicidal risk, troubles with co-ordinating care, difficulties scheduling patients and problems providing timely access to mental health services; and, • the median time to suicide was 15.5 months, with just three cases of suicide within six months of discharge. The view that after a year, the returning veteran has acclimated and is out of danger is not supported. “Some [health] providers felt that [these] veterans may have a more difficult time accessing and staying involved in treatment, especially with the demands of work and possible re-deployment,” Dr. Mills says. Others have suggested that recently returned veterans may feel increased stigma around disclosing psychiatric symptoms, may have experienced military sexual trauma, or may be more likely to have severe physical wounds or amputations. Dr. Sher says the latency period for PTSD or anxiety disorder can stretch to years until it is fanned back into full force by a traumatic event — the loss of a spouse or child, physical illness, job dismissal or a marriage breakup. By this time, the duty to manage the mental health of former Canadian Forces personnel has passed to VAC. “Veterans Affairs recognizes that suicide prevention is a critical and pressing issue that must be addressed and

included as part of any mental health initiative,” says Summerby. “Last year, we undertook a thorough review of suicide prevention activities. Those activities will now be reviewed in light of the high-risk groups identified in the Canadian Forces Cancer and Mortality Study,” she adds. Among other things, VAC offers veterans 24-hour, tollfree help lines staffed by both counsellors and trained peers. There are also nine OSI clinics set up by VAC, seven Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centres operated by the Canadian Forces, and 26 mental health clinics located on bases across Canada. “Having worked in the field for over a decade, we have learned that fine tuning is probably a critical element of a successful program,” says Kerry Knox, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester’s Department of Psychiatry. “But as much — or even more critical — is that communities keep persistently evaluating their suicide prevention programs,” Dr. Knox suggests. In September of 2009, the Canadian Forces Surgeon General convened the Expert Panel on Suicide Prevention to review and evaluate suicide prevention activities. Panel members concluded that the Forces “already [have] a strong and comprehensive suicide prevention program [that] compares favourably with those of its closest allies, including the U.S. Air Force’s benchmark program.” However, there are some opportunities “to improve [the program’s] ability to systematically improve the quality of mental health care that it delivers.” Since the report was tabled, the Canadian Forces have implemented a patient follow-up protocol for missed mental health appointments; initiatives that promote responsible media reporting of suicides; and a medical professional/technical suicide review process that investigates, reports and makes recommendations immediately following a suspected suicide. “As a next step, the Canadian Forces are planning to evaluate the outcomes of the suicide prevention program, which will involve assessing the program’s impact on factors such as [Forces’] families and barriers to care,” Dr. Jetly reports. This could include ensuring geographical coverage across the country, addressing structural problems and countering the stigma of mental health problems. There is some evidence that initiatives combating stigma are working. “Only seven per cent of 2,500 soldiers asked said they would think less of someone who sought mental health care,” Dr. Jetly reports. “Our collective goal is to get people back to work through confidential and evidence-based treatment, and to help them establish a new sense of normalcy in their lives.” In a recent paper in the International Review of Psychiatry, Dr. Mark Zamorski, a member of the Canadian Forces Directorate of Mental Health, concludes that “military organizations need to take the leadership role in systematically improving the quality of care they deliver — no one else can do this for us.” Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

William M. Glenn is associate editor of hazardous substances for ohs canada.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

female WORKERS

Image: Thinkstock

Messing with Tradition

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By Astrid Van Den Broek It was the summer of 2004 when then-student Jessica Vliegenthart landed a coveted summer job fighting forest fires. One day, Vliegenthart’s crew received word that a large-scale blaze had broken out in the Northwest Territories. They set out for the long trek up north, not knowing if their “tour” would last days or stretch into weeks. “About 10 to 11 days into our tour, we were wondering when we’d get a day off,” recalls Vliegenthart, the only woman on the crew of an estimated 80 to 90 people. The lack of free time soon transformed into something far worse. The beginning of the day promised only mundane tasks for the 21-yearold and her crew mate, three years her senior: they were to patrol the edge of the 90,000-hectare fire. “We were using a back country road as a fire break, so our job, quite literally, was to drive back and forth on this road for 12 hours a day,” Vliegenthart says. Perhaps to combat the monotony, her co-worker set the truck to cruise control. But control was fleeting. Somehow, the vehicle got off course and flipped violently a number of times. Vliegenthart was hurtled out of the truck, breaking her back and paralyzing her for life.

liegenthart’s very inclusion on the otherwise all-male crew shows how the work force is changing. And with more women in so-called nontraditional jobs, their injury experience is changing as well. While some experts point to rising rates of women being injured or developing workrelated disease, many also contend the issue does not receive sufficient attention. “Historically, the health and safety community does not pay attention to women’s work,” argues Katherine Lippel, Canada research chair on occupational health and safety law at the University of Ottawa. “On top of that, the women’s health community also doesn’t pay any attention to women working.” The challenges may be further exacerbated at the physician level. In many cases, doctors still do not ask women “what they do for a living when they come in complaining about symptoms,” Lippel says. Traditionally, some female-dominated jobs include teachers, nurses, health care workers, clerks, cashiers and servers in both accommodation and food services, notes a new report from WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia. “Although there has been an increase recently in the number of women working in transportation, construction and manufacturing, these occupations are still dominated by male workers,” states WorkSafeBC Statistics 2010. That is also the story told elsewhere, with the tale reflected in injury statistics. Consider these figures from Manitoba’s Workers’ Compensation Board: between 2000 and 2003, men reported more than 90 per cent of all accepted claims in mining, forestry, construction and transportation/communication, and more than 80 per cent in manufacturing,

notes the Workplace Injury and Illness Statistics Report for 2000-2003. Women reported more claims than men (greater than 70 per cent) in only the service sector, the report adds. Overall, occupational injuries and diseases have dropped in the past two decades. However, the real story may lie in the gender disparity in that decrease. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in Ottawa offers calculations based on data from the Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada. Between 1993 and 2007, the injury rate per 1,000 employed workers halved from 44.6 to 23.4 for men. For women, the rate over that period decreased from 19.1 to 13.6. In British Columbia, women accounted for 36 per cent of the accepted injury claims last year. Interestingly, the injury rate decreases for men as they age, while it increases slightly for women. The WorkSafeBC report notes that from 2001 to 2010, the board accepted 84 claims for fatal benefits for female workers and 1,456 for male workers. Sectors registering the greatest number of fatality claims among women included health care and social assistance, 15; business services, nine; and accommodation, food and leisure services, eight. For men, industries with high fatality claims included general construction, 304; transportation and related services, 264; and forestry subsectors, 135. The injury rate has been trending downward for both genders in the past decade, the report notes. However, the decrease for female workers “has been less dramatic, comparatively. In fact, since the early 2000s, the injury rates for male and female workers appear to have been converging.”

Women’s Work Things are not as they once were — work force-wise — and that has resulted in increased injuries involving female workers in British Columbia. “Over the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the proportion of claims with time loss accepted by WorkSafeBC for female workers,” notes the 2010 statistics report from the board. In 2010, 36 per cent of the accepted workers’ compensation claims were related to injuries suffered by women, the report states. That is up from 15 per cent in 1980, and more recently, the 30 per cent mark from 1998 to 2005. The increase “was in part due to the gender shift in the labour force. The growth in female participation in the work force increased during the 1980s, but has slowed since the early 1990s,” the report adds. Two occupation groups — health and service — accounted for almost 50 per cent of the accepted claims from female

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workers between 2001 and 2010, WorkSafeBC reports. Those sectors come as little surprise since women make up the biggest chunk of the work force. In terms of injuries, some were more commonly experienced by female workers. For example, women had more accepted claims for needlestick injuries, infectious diseases and tendonitis, as well as a higher proportion of strains (not back strains). And while ergonomic incidents, falls and overexertion accounted for approximately equal parts of the pie for both male and female injuries, women made up a lower proportion of work-related injuries from struck-by or struck-against incidents, the report notes. The differences in the modes of working — hours worked, shift work and type of employment — between male and female workers and the characteristics of the jobs they undertake are becoming more similar over time.” — By Angela Stelmakowich

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Mars v. Venus

Researchers from Yale and Johns Hopkins universities sought to determine if female workers in a heavy manufacturing environment have a higher risk of injury compared with males performing the same job. Results were published in 2008 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Human resources and incident surveillance data for hourly workers at six aluminum smelters were considered and injuries from 1996 through 2005 were analyzed. Separate analyses were conducted for acute injuries (which included burns, contusions, fractures, dislocations, eye injuries, bites and stings, and amputations) and for musculoskeletal disorders (such as strains and sprains, joint pain, non-specific musculoskeletal pain and hernias). The review showed that of the 11,867 injury events reported, 10 per cent involved female employees, although women accounted for only 7.5 per cent of the work force. Of the 414 female workers who reported an injury, 33 per cent reported only one injury, 25 per cent reported two injuries, 14 per cent reported three injuries, and 28 per cent reported more than three injuries. “Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that female workers in this industry have a greater risk of sustaining an injury after adjustment for age, tenure and standardized job category, as well as for sustaining an injury that required medical treatment,” notes the study. “This excess risk for female workers persisted when injuries were dichotomized into acute injuries and musculoskeletal disorder-related injuries,” researchers point out. “As female workers increasingly move into jobs in the heavy manufacturing sector, employers should revisit tool, equipment and work station design to ensure suitability for a broad population of female workers,” the study notes. Taking into consideration potential differences in life experience between new female employees and new male employees, special orientation and/or mentoring programs for females “may be beneficial in making those workplaces more sex-friendly,” reseachers add. — By Angela Stelmakowich

On the job Is this convergence simply the result of more women being employed and more being represented in traditionally maledominated industries? Not exactly. Consider psychosocial and musculoskeletal disorders. A 1998 Quebec Health Survey attracted 11,735 paid work respondents. In all, 7.5 per cent more women than men reported neck pain; 5.7 per cent more women then men reported upper back pain; and 3.4 per cent more women than men reported shoulder pain. “If you take a pan-Canadian perspective, the regulatory authorities have not necessarily been forthcoming in preventing those types of problems,” Lippel contends. “There’s a tradition looking at health and safety as being classic hazards,” she points out. “When you look at Quebec workers’ compensation, for example, over 40 per cent of the compensable injuries are musculoskeletal. And there are no ergonomic regulations. That’s worth a thought.”

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ohs canada

Compounding the problem is that women have a history of underreporting, whether they are doing so intentionally or not. Pain following a fall-related injury — say, a broken leg or arm — can be linked to a single incident, but waking up in the middle of the night with a sore wrist might not be automatically associated with at-work conditions. Women themselves may not make the connection to work, Lippel says, looking to possible non-occupational factors instead. Perhaps, it was the way the woman slept? Maybe she lifted an extra heavy bag of groceries? “There’s a whole systemic problem historically,” she suggests. Sometimes, however, there is a conscious decision to underreport when working in male-dominated industries for fear of possible — or further — marginalization. Vliegenthart says she clearly remembers overhearing some male coworkers openly complaining about her presence on the crew, saying that she should not be there and they felt they needed to cover for her work. “When I was working, I do remember feeling like this is really, really challenging and my body is hurting, but I’m just going to keep going because I’ve already been told I can’t do it, I shouldn’t be here and I’m not going to be the one to say, ‘Hey, I need a break,’” she says. In traditionally male-dominated industries, female workers are making some inroads, but progress is certainly not complete. “Less than four per cent of workers across the construction industry are women,” says Tammy Evans, president of the Toronto-based Canadian Women in Construction. “Although we are making progress through the efforts of organizations such as ours, provincial and federal initiatives and more targeted and gender-neutral educational programs, we still have a long way to go to meet the demands of the industry to address issues such as succession and equal opportunity hiring, while at the same time focusing on the needs of women in the industry facing workplace challenges,” Evans goes on to say. Back in 1999, there was sufficient concern about what women entering construction faced on the job that recommendations around equitable oh&s protection were submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the United States. “The small percentage of women within the construction trades and the serious health and safety problems unique to female construction workers have a circular effect,” the study notes. “Safety and health problems in construction create barriers to women entering and remaining in this field. In turn, the small numbers of women workers on construction work sites foster an environment in which these safety and health problems arise or continue.” Researchers concluded many of the identified problems “are amenable to change through engineering, behavioural or administrative intervention.” New look Sometimes, it is all about how things look. Male workers are often assigned visibly strenuous duties that may, in turn, be perceived as more taxing as well. For example, in a post office

there is both the physically demanding task of lifting mail bags and coding, which is less physical, but highly repetitive. “So when coding people develop tendonitis, there’s going to be huge contestation saying this is a ‘light job,’” Lippel says. Some equipment manufacturers apparently see responding to the needs of female workers as making good business sense. Rather than launch completely separate lines, however, Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) has opted to alter existing product offerings to include smaller, more female-appropriate sizing. That includes air-purifying respirators to better fit smaller facepieces and hard hats available in smaller sizes. Why not create a whole new line for women? “There’s a push to be more cognizant of women in the industrial workplace,” reports Sean Donovan, MSA’s Toronto-based senior product line manager, industrial products. From a manufacturer’s point of view, the reaction to a changing workplace may be slower “because it’s based on economies of scale. So you’ve got one woman and 20 guys and it obviously can take a bit longer.” Lippel agrees. “We’re finding that the large employers who have hired women and have put in a lot of energy determining that safety equipment is inappropriate because it’s been designed with the average man in mind,” she says. “What we don’t know is if it’s driven by the employers, or are they specifically reacting to requests?” Shifting shifts Another factor potentially influencing the injury picture for female workers is the dramatic shift in work schedules — while full-time jobs were once the norm, part-time, flexible and even multiple jobs are much more a part of the employment landscape today. A study published just this year in the Scandanavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health notes that “rotating and night-shift workers appear to have a higher risk of work injury, particularly among women.” Results indicate that the risk of injury was 14.4 per cent for women compared with only 8.2 per cent for men. “A Statistics Canada report found that women are generally the primary caregivers in the household and spend more time per week on household tasks than men,” says Imelda Wong, lead researcher of the study out of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “With the increased demands at home, working at night may

have a detrimental effect on the work-life balance for women and lead to increased fatigue.” The jury is still out on how fatigue influences work-related incidents. “Fatigue levels are not easily measured or quantified; therefore, it is difficult to isolate the effect of sleepiness on accident and injury rates,” notes information from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario. “Of the studies reporting accident rates, some show an increase whereas others found no change in accident rates,” the centre reports. What may be clearer is that, in general, sleepiness is usually regarded as having some impact on work performance. Wong points out that between 1996 and 2006, the number of women in rotating and night shift work almost doubled. For men, it increased by 50 per cent. Over the 10-year period, “the injury rate among women remained the same, but decreased among men,” she reports. “For women in non-daytime shifts, the combination in steady growth plus a constant injury rate suggests that this might be a group that may benefit most from targeted safety policies and programs.” With so many part-time or short-term workers entering and exiting the workplace, the concern is that health and safety training could suffer. Lippel suggests, for example, that local hazards may not be known. “If there’s a loose plank on a floor, you don’t know because you’ve only been in there for one day,” she says. “We’re starting to create a society where that flexibility is the new norm. It’s flexible for the employer, but it’s not flexible for the worker in the sense that someone’s on call and often on call for five or six agencies to be able to cobble together an income. Therefore, every day is your first day on the job,” Lippel adds. So what is the solution? For one, a need exists to raise the profile of the work women perform and the injuries that they experience. “For women in non-traditional roles, we need to revisit all our prevention strategies to ensure that we take into account the different health issues for women in traditionally risky work, ” Lippel says. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Astrid Van Den Broek is a writer in Toronto; Angela Stelmakowich is editor of ohs canada.

www.ohscanada.com

O C T O B E R / N O V EM B E R 2 0 1 1

Confined spaces

Close Quarters By Angela Stelmakowich

As is often the case, numbers alone do not tell the whole story and should not offer assurances of a problem solved. The challenge of confined spaces has not been licked; the hazard continues to take a toll on workers and would-be rescuers. Vigilance is critically important to prevent complacency from creeping in.

Beyond tight spaces A confined space event three years ago is still being debated today. The deadly incident at a mushroom farm in Langley, British Columbia has elicited an urgent call for a coroner’s inquest from the Vancouver-based BC Federation of Labour. “A coroner’s inquest is the best way for the public to learn what happened that day and what measures need to be introduced to prevent similar incidents,” federation president Jim Sinclair notes in a statement. An independent review is critical to “fix the health and safety abuses that we believe are widespread in the agricultural sector,” Sinclair contends.

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Federation officials argue that the inquiry should start as soon as possible following the sentencing of the farm owner, among the companies and individuals who have pleaded guilty to a total of 10 health and safety charges. Three men were pronounced dead and two others were critically injured on September 5, 2008 after a group entered a confined space to repair a motor that powered a pump system. They collapsed in the dangerous atmosphere created when a flange disconnected from the system. A sentencing hearing was held on September 16 and was to continue later that month. Outside of the hearing, Sinclair

images: thinkstock

reported that the company had received advice to hire professionals to perform the work the individuals were doing when they were overcome. “If you ignore the safety of your workers and send them to their deaths, then you don’t get a fine. You go to jail,” he said. British Columbia is certainly not alone in facing the confined spaces challenge. Consider these incidents elsewhere in the country over the years: • a company was recently fined $30,000 in connection with the death of a worker felled by sour gas; • two workers cleaning a truck tank, through its top hatch,

were injured when a trouble light apparently sparked a flash fire and explosion; and, • a worker died and two others narrowly escaped when the first worker entered a sump to inspect the leachate level in an aeration pond and was overcome. Sumps, tanks and ponds — these are among the familiar environments inspiring a confined space label. There are also access shafts, aircraft wings, boilers, chemical tanks, chutes, hoppers, pipelines, pipes, silos, sewers, ship holds, shipping compartments, truck or rail cars, underground tunnels, utility vaults and vats.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Hazards of which stakeholders should be aware include, but are not limited to, oxygen deficiency/enrichment; flammable, combustible or explosive agents; toxic air contaminants, smoke, fume and dusts; ignition hazards; moving parts; thermal stress; engulfment; electrical shock; residual pressure; and access/egress restrictions, notes information from the University of Waterloo in southwestern Ontario. Hazard upon hazard Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) in Ottawa notes that some toxic gases are especially dangerous in confined spaces: • Hydrogen sulphide: This by-product of sewage treatment, petroleum and other industrial processes is heavier than air. Although it has a distinctive rotten egg smell at low concentrations, it quickly deadens the sense of smell. • Methane: The highly explosive gas — which can originate from a gas line leak, be a by-product of sewage or be found in mines — serves to displace oxygen. • Sulphur dioxide: The strong-smelling gas is poisonous in small amounts. • Carbon monoxide: The colourless, odourless, tasteless gas is a product of incomplete combustion and can be fatal in very low concentrations. But unsafe atmospheres are not the only problems. “A

lot can go wrong in a confined space,” suggests Elizabeth Rankin, project manager at the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) in Mississauga, Ontario. “It is not only a question of hazardous atmospheres, but eliminating or controlling all of the hazards and risks involved with confined spaces,” Rankin points out. Tim Morrison, president of Safetyscope Inc. in Vaughan, Ontario, would likely agree. People forget about “heat, low lighting, trip hazards, a variety of different things,” Morrison says. Understanding that may be enhanced by regarding a confined space not just by its physical dimensions, but by the specific hazard posed. As per its Z1006-10 standard, Management of Work in Confined Spaces, the CSA defines a confined space this way: it is a workspace that is fully or partially enclosed, is not designed or intended for continuous human occupancy and has limited or restricted access, exiting or internal configuration that can complicate provisions of first aid, evacuation, rescue or other emergency response services. “Employers in [Nova Scotia] are developing a better understanding of what constitutes a confined space and are

BCRSP’s Volunteer of the Year The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is pleased to announce that Marc Barré, ROH, CRSP/PSAC, is the recipient of the Board’s 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award. Mr. Barré is an Inspector with the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec. Marc began his OHS career in OHS in 1977 and was the first certified technician in SST (Education Ministry) in Quebec. He holds a Masters degree (MScA) in industrial hygiene and safety from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a Masters degree (DESS) in Ergonomics from the Université du Québec à Montréal. He obtained is ROH designation in 1994. Mr Barré’s OHS experience includes positions with TransCanada Pipeline, Noranda Mines Inc., Ryder Truck Rental, Laidlaw Waste Management and Ocram H.P. In 1995 Mr. Barré joined CSST as an inspector in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. He has been involved with the Association québécoise pour l’hygiène, la santé et la sécurité du travail (AQHSST) from the outset of his career in OHS. He regularly promotes the importance of certification to the OHS community in Québec and the recognition of OHS competencies to government, and industry. A CRSP since 2005, he has served as a member of the Certification and Examination Committee since 2005. The Board’s Volunteer of the Year program was initiated in 2001 in conjunction with its 25 th anniversary and the United Nation’s “Year of the Volunteer”. The Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) is a public interest, ISO 17024:2003 (Personnel Certification Body) and ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) accredited, self-regulating, self-governing organization established in 1976 under The Canada Corporations Act for the purpose of certifying Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP)®. Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6519-B Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5N 1A6, info@bcrsp.ca, www.bcrsp.ca Circle number 28 on Reader Service Card

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generally adhering to the requirements,” says Jim LeBlanc, executive director of the OH&S Division within the province’s Department of Labour and Advanced Education in Halifax. The rules around confined spaces are well-known, but a little guidance never hurts. Rankin recommends these man-

agement system principles as a starting point: plan, do, check and act. A confined space hazard assessment and control program must have certain elements, notes information from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario. These include the following: • advice on how to identify confined spaces; • identification and assessment of all potential hazards that

may exist at the beginning of the work as well as those that may develop because of work activities; • a plan to eliminate or control all identified hazards; • a training program for all workers who will be required to enter into the confined spaces; • establishment of an entry permit system for each entry into a confined space; • development of an emergency plan, complete with training and equipment, in case an unforeseen situation occurs; • an emergency response system; and, • a program review whenever there is a change in circumstances — or at least annually — to identify program weaknesses and to make any necessary changes. Boy scout ready To combat a hazard that is capable of hitting back hard, one needs to be prepared. It is essential to ensure the atmosphere has been tested before entry. “Accident statistics suggest that about 50 per cent of deaths in confined spaces have resulted from oxygen deficiency and that no testing was done in those cases,” notes information from HRSDC. There are two main causes of oxygen deficiency: oxygen is displaced by gases such as nitrogen; and oxygen is used up by combustion of flammable substances like welding, other hot work or chemical reactions (for example,

Circle number 30 on Reader Service Card

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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identifiable Harm It can be difficult to determine if a space, in fact, is a confined space. Sometimes, however, eerily similar hazards are present in areas that technically do not meet the definition. In late August, Rotor Mechanical Services Ltd. was levied a $94,750 penalty in connection with the deaths of two people, including one worker, at a wind farm in Mount Thom, Nova Scotia two summers ago. On July 19, 2009, the bodies of Kyle Elliott and his friend, Mandi Balagot, were discovered in an office area above a workshop housing a running generator. Both individuals had succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. The matter was resolved without a lengthy trial, says Jim LeBlanc, executive director of the Occupational Health and Safety Division of the Department of Labour and Advanced Education in Halifax. “It was certainly part of the evidence that installation of this generator inside an enclosed space was not in compliance with manufacturer’s instructions,” LeBlanc says. “Generally, we find employers more compliant in trying to use equipment the way the manufacturer intended it to be used.” As an employer, the wind farm pleaded guilty to three violations of the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act. It failed to ensure a generator was installed and operated in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications; failed to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to ensure a worker’s health and safety; and failed to take every reasonable precaution to ensure the health and safety of another person on site. A $15,000 fine and a $2,250 victim impact fee was ordered for each count. The company was further directed to pay $43,000 to an as-yet undetermined charity. The company has until February to pay the fine and donation — the latter to be determined jointly by officials for the Crown, Rotor Mechanical Services and the families of the deceased, should they choose to participate, says Kevin Finch, communications advisor for the provincial labour department. Whenever there is a successful prosecution, “we are always hopeful that the courts would look favourably on assigning part of the financial penalty to do more than just be a deterrent to both the individual employer and the employer community generally,” LeBlanc says. In this case, the hope is that the funds provided to the charity will be used “as a multiplier with some of their own resources... to get the message out around workplace health and safety,” he adds.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

Failed Attempt

The asphyxiation death of a sawmill worker in British Columbia seven years ago will not be the subject of a Crown prosecution, despite dogged efforts by the United Steelworkers Canada (USW) to get the matter into court. The USW had earlier launched a private prosecution to answer what officials argue was negligence in the worker’s death. But in late August, the Ministry of Attorney General issued a statement that the charges against Weyerhaeuser Company had been stayed. The case was reviewed in 2006, 2008 and 2010 — each time the ministry’s Criminal Justice Branch (CJB) concluding there was no substantial likelihood of conviction. “The available evidence does not establish that company management knew that entry into the hogs was occurring and did nothing to address the associated risks, such as preventing entry or ensuring that entry was safe,” notes a CJB statement. Although this sort of entry had been common practice under the previous owner of the sawmill, that was not the case under Weyerhaeuser. On November 17, 2004, Lyle Hewer was working at a sawmill when he became entombed in wood waste material consisting of cedar bark, log ends and sawdust. The 55-year-old worker was trying to clear a blockage in the hog — a piece of equipment with a chute to funnel waste onto a pulverizing mechanism. He climbed inside, but when the material dislodged, he was asphyxiated. Richmond, British Columbia-based WorkSafeBC determined the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation had been breached, ordering the company to pay a $297,000 extra assessment, the largest ever ordered. — By Jason Contant

metal rusting), and people breathing air when working in the space. CSA Z1006-10 can help ensure that all checks are properly completed. “This new CSA standard, the first of its kind in Canada, defines what a confined space is and provides guidelines to managers, workers and rescuers for identifying and avoiding potential risks, while not becoming victims themselves,” Suzanne Kiraly, president of CSA Standards, said in a statement last year. Rankin reports that CSA Z1006-10 is expected to be reviewed in 2015 or sooner to determine if any changes are necessary. The CSA is open to receiving requests for supplementary standards or guidance to help users apply the standard, she says. “We are considering development of guidance on fall protection equipment for confined spaces if there is interest and funding,” Rankin adds. Noting that CSA Z1002, Occupational Health and Safety, is expected to be published this winter, she says that the standard will address hazard identification and elimination, risk assessment and control. Rushing in Knowing the hazards is central to being properly prepared. Preparation helps avoid incidents in the first place and can mitigate loss of life should a breakdown occur. Consider that many deaths attributable to confined spaces are would-be

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rescuers simply trying to save a fallen co-worker. One can only imagine how difficult it would be to stop and wait — undoubtedly feeling that each tick of the clock downgrades rescue to recovery — but that is what is required so losses are not ratcheted even higher. “They race in and end up being a second fatality, and that happens about one-third of the time that there’s an incident that takes place,” Morrison says of those only trying to help. “As kids, we’re all trained in the schools what to do in a fire alarm,” he says. “I think what we need to go back to in our training is when the alarm goes off, what do we do?” Kevin Finch, communications advisor for Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour and Advanced Education in Halifax, says that claims related to confined space incidents appear to be improving. “The Workers’ Compensation Board has seen a steady decrease in the number of claims it receives, which we believe is an indicator that progress is being made,” Finch reports. “That said, we know there is still room for improvement and we will continue our efforts.” Bear in mind That may be advice worth taking since, as Morrison sees it, “any improvement is better than what we were doing.” How will improvement be realized? “We need to record better information and we need to have more information at the site. We need to improve our training. This is a handson type of approach,” Morrison says. “There are other issues out there that take a lot more lives than confined spaces. But because it’s such a low-frequency job — but a high-risk job — we need to kind of look at it in a little different light,” he argues. Morrison further recommends enhancing interaction and making better use of current technologies to disseminate, post and use information related to confined spaces. At his company, for example, procedures have been made more interactive through the use of video, pictures and drawings. “I find that the benefits of the digital age help young as well as old,” he says. “It gets information to the site a lot more rapidly and, perhaps, will be able to save a life or two.” There is nothing worse than the thought of dying alone, Morrison suggests. “It has nothing to do with whether it’s by asphyxiation or the bogeymen grabbing them. [Workers] just don’t want to die alone in a cold, damp ugly spot.” Angela Stelmakowich is editor of ohs canada. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

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ACCIDENT PREVENTION

Chain shot

Break Point Chain reaction: As if devices such as chain saws, processing equipment and manual saws were not dangerous enough. Add to the mix chain breaks that send metal links flying at high speed in all directions, called chain shot, and the potential for serious harm ratchets even higher.

Under fire: WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia points to an incident almost a year ago in which the shot was determined to be about 12 times heavier than a bullet from a sporting rifle and travelling just as quickly. A harvester trimming the butt of a log suffered severe abdominal injuries when a chain broke, causing links to smash through the centimetre-thick window of the cab of his equipment. And there have been many other injuries or nearmisses ranging from the Tasmanian operator of an excavator (fitted with a log grab and a hydraulically powered chain saw called a K-saw) who was struck in the neck by a projectile believed to be a chain link that entered the front window, to workers in British Columbia who have escaped being hit by pieces of chain released from equipment as far as 90 metres away.

Step by step: The Mechanical Timber Harvesting Handbook, produced by Oregon Cutting Systems Group in Portland, describes the phenomenon this way: after a chain breaks, the free end whips away from the break; the free end can then speed up rapidly, carrying immense dynamic energy if not contained by a saw box or an energy-absorbing guard; and at the peak of the whip, chain parts may break loose and be ejected.

down the line: Most commonly, chain shot moves along the plane of the saw. An operator using processing equipment may be in harm’s way if the saw plane is facing the cab; for workers using chain saws, the operator’s body may be at risk if the chain fails.

In range: “Risk for chain shot is present during operation of any kind of logging machinery equipment with a guide bar and saw,” reports Washington State’s Department of Labor and Industries. Operators of harvester heads, stroke delimbers and dangle-head processors “are most at risk for serious injury or death,” the information adds. Of course, anyone else working near the equipment — such as operators of other logging machinery, truck drivers and bystanders — can also be struck by flying chain pieces.

High-speed crash: “Chain shot whistling through the air has as much kinetic energy as a bullet fired from a rifle,” notes a January, 2011 alert from the BC Forest Safety Council (BCFSC) in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

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Slip and slide: A loose chain increases wear on drive sprockets, links and the bar, as well as endangers the operator if it climbs out of the track, notes information from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario. Too tight and there will be greater wear on components. With regard to lubrication, the CCOHS recommends always following manufacturer’s instructions, checking that the chain is getting oil, using the correct grade and type of chain saw oil, and checking the oil level whenever the saw requires lubrication.

Cause majeure: There are plenty of reasons why chains go bust, although these events offer scant notice since many chains fail at the instant they are damaged. The BCFSC reports that failures may be the result of the following: improper tension (chain too loose); improper chain maintenance or repair (hammered rivets); damaged sprocket, bar and/or chain; improper bar and chain lubrication; and excessive chain speed. (The last factor contributes to increased wear, shorter service life and increased chance of chain breakage.) “Minimizing the risk for chain shot requires the combined efforts of equipment manufacturers, logging contractors, logging equipment operators and safety professionals,” adds the information from Washington’s labour department.

Close comfort: Equipment enclosures that are truly protective are a must to avoid chain shot injuries. There are standards that address materials for forestry machine enclosures, such as the International Organization for Standardization’s 11839:2010, which specifies test procedures and performance requirements for determining the protective ability of the materials against saw teeth thrown by circular saw components. “This particular type of hazard is specifically defined by the size and velocity of the saw teeth and is unique to these cutting devices,” says the abstract for the standard, which applies to forestry machines that include an integrated or attached circular sawing device, controlled or powered by the primary machine.

Some reminders: While reducing risk to zero is unlikely, there are precautions that can be taken. Oregon Cutting Systems, WorkSafeBC, Washington State and Australia’s Construction & Mining Equipment Industry Group offer these tips: • f ollow the manufacturer’s instructions for chain speed and tension, as well as for maintenance of the chain, bar and sprocket; uring start-up, allow enough time to gradually increase • d chain speed to ensure lubricant reaches the entire chain, especially in winter; • r emove all dull and/or worn chains from service; • r eview both saw speed and maximum pressure to ensure that these are within specifications; • c onsider installing a chain catcher (deflector) and chain shot guard; • n ever operate processing equipment with the saw bar directly in line with the cab or other persons (position the bar at an angle to the window); • d o not repair the chain with used links or hammered rivets (these often contain small fractures that weaken the link and increase the possibility of breakage); • e nsure that windows are a minimum of three centimetres thick polycarbonate; • k eep ground workers at least 70 metres away from a working machine; and, • t rain operators to properly inspect and report specific problems with saw chains, bars, sprockets and other saw head components.

SAFETY GEAR

gloves

Getting Comfy By Jason Contant

et another survey; yet another disappointing result. In July, Kimberly-Clark Professional in Roswell, Georgia released findings from an online survey on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Of the 119 people taking part, 89 per cent reported having observed workers not wearing required safety equipment. The most common reason for non-compliance was the belief that PPE was not needed, but there were others: gear was too inaccessible, too unattractive or too uncomfortable. The importance of comfort when selecting safety gloves, for example, cannot be overstated. “For years when you did market research, the worker always talked about wanting a bare-hand feel,” says Martin Shamis, a senior research scientist at Kimberly-Clark Professional. The closer the industry gets to achieving that Simply put, feel, “the more workers will accept the gloves, and the more compliance you’ll “it has to be have,” Shamis argues. Glove manufacturers have responded something by ensuring that equipment offerings are increasingly lighter, more comfortable, the worker thinner and provide greater dexterity. Simply put, “it has to be something the is willing to worker is willing to wear,” Shamis says. wear.” “What we can demonstrate with studies is that some of these lighter, more dexterous gloves actually improve the rate at which the worker can work, allowing for increased productivity for the worker and speeding up of production lines,” he reports. “The right glove can actually pay for itself through productivity improvements,” he adds. Combining materials, often high-molecular polyethylenes, “can really start driving that thinness, that comfort and

that protection to places that were unheard of 20 years ago,” Shamis says. For example, spun Dyneema, which he says “has a great feel against the hand,” is being used on the inside of gloves with fibres that provide cut protection on the outside. Typically, a material such as fibreglass serves as the core of the yarn and is wrapped with a more comfortable material, explains Michael Everett, general manager of Showa Best Glove, Inc. in Coaticook, Quebec. a cut above The market demand for lightweight gloves was such that DuPont Protection Technologies launched a facility this October that uses Kevlar fibre technology to produce a fine, thin and comfortable lightweight yarn for cut-resistant gloves, says Melissa Helpinstill, global marketing manager for cut protection at DuPont Protection in Richmond, Virginia. “This will allow us to work on joint innovations with our partners on blending the finer, lightweight Kevlar yarns with other materials and see what constructions we can come up with to help support the market needs,” Helpinstill reports. Joe Geng, vice-president of Superior Glove Works Ltd. in Acton, Ontario, points to the marriage of Kevlar and fibreglass. “That improves cut resistance without impacting the comfort,” Geng suggests. In addition, the effective twosome “can bring the cost of the glove down a little bit too.” Depending on price points and the level of cut protection needed, Helpinstill says purchasers have a range of gloves from which to choose. She points out that 100-per-cent Kevlar gloves offer a mid-range level of cut protection, with that increasing when Kevlar is blended with steel or fibreglass. Mostly cotton or nylon blends, with a bit of Kevlar, offer minimal protection. Cut hazards are present in many work environments, but some misinformation around protection persists, Geng says. Helpinstill notes “there’s a fallacy in that you can wear a

test pattern

Equipment buyers should understand there are different performance standards for hand protection. Two of these employ distinctly different test methods, advises Joe Geng, vice-president of Superior Glove Works Ltd. in Acton, Ontario. With the American National Standards Institute/International Safety Equipment Association’s standard (ANSI/ISEA 105), Geng reports that a swath of the glove is cut and taped to a piece of metal curved in the shape of a hand. A razor blade is put to the fabric, using different loads. The higher the load applied without cutting the fabric, the better the cut resistance. A chart in the standard rates performance levels from 0 to 5 based on the weight, in grams (g), needed to cut through with 25 millimetres of blade travel: 0 — less than 199 g; 1 — 200 to 499 g; 2 — 500 to 999 g; 3 — 1,000 to 1,499 g; 4 — 1,500 to 3,499 g; and 5 — greater than 3,500 g. The European Committee for Standardization’s EN 388 standard uses a round blade — “kind of like a pizza cutter,” Geng says — to measure resistance to abrasion, blade cut, tears and punctures, again based on a 0 to 5 scale. The blade is used to apply circles until it cuts through the fabric. Results are then compared using a “standard” piece of cotton. “There’s a huge difference between the two,” Geng says of the standards. The confusing part for an end-user is that “they are testing to one or the other, so a lot of people are picking the wrong glove.”

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heat advisory

photos: clockwise from top - Kimberly-Clark professional; Watson gloves; Superior Glove works

For certain types of work and work environments, heatresistant gloves will be essential. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) in Hamilton, Ontario offers some guidance on how to select the best product for the conditions: • Zetex or asbestos gloves for temperatures of 350-plus degrees Celsius; • Nomex, Kevlar, neoprene-coated asbestos and heatresistant leather with linings for medium-high temperatures (as much as 350 C); • Nomex, Kevlar, heat-resistant leather and terry cloth for warm temperatures (as high as 200 C); and, • chrome-tanned leather or terry cloth for temperatures of as much as 100 C.

cotton or leather glove and have some level of cut protection, which really isn’t true.” Geng says customers in North America can look to the American National Standards Institute/International Safety Equipment Association’s ANSI/ISEA 105 standard, which includes a chart that rates material performance. There is also a standard from the European Committee for Standardization, namely EN 388, he adds. Emphasizing the “huge difference between the two,” Geng notes that imported gloves may be certified to EN 388, but manufacturers in North America may present the products as though they were certified to ANSI/ ISEA 105. To address any confusion over ratings, which may be jurisdiction-specific, DuPont plans to lobby standard committees in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to create one global, cut protection standard. “We want to make sure the end-user is wearing the right stuff and to do that, they need to be Safety gloves provide educated and they need to have a range of protections one standard they can point to from cut resistance (top) to back-of-hand and use,” Helpinstill contends. protection (right),

cold resistance job at hand “We can build a glove that is (bottom) and good extremely cut resistant,” says dexterity (above). Shamis, but adds that these “may be so cumbersome that the worker can’t perform his job. In cases of a minor level of hazard, that cut protection would be overkill.” Recent advancements related to dexterity and comfort have helped. “Where you used to have to take off your gloves to loosen nuts and bolts, you can now leave them on and do that task effectively,” Shamis notes.

Geng says it is amazing to him “how many people wear gloves that are really uncomfortable just because that’s what they’ve always been wearing and they haven’t really looked at different options.” Those hand protection options are as numerous and varied as the work-related hazards gloves are meant to guard against. Information from Edmonton-based Bob Dale Gloves & Imports Ltd. cites various factors to bear in mind when choosing hand protection, including the following: • type of work — glove dexterity may be an essential feature for the duties performed; • weather and outdoor temperature — gear should suit the warmth and breathability level required; • type of liquids that may be involved; and, • specific hazards — such as metal, glass, machinery, abrasive materials, heat, flame or sparks. Polymer-coated gloves for chemical and splash resistance should be used in places like petroleum facilities and plant maintenance operations, the information advises. For work settings such as sheet metal plants and bottle and glass handling, cut- and slash-resistant gloves would be necessary. If a cut-chemical combo is the issue, there are cut-resistant gloves with various chemical-resistant coatings for use in automotive manufacturing, fabrication facilities and injection moulding operations, the information adds. To address both cut and chemical hazards, Everett says that Showa Best Glove is working on a liquid-proof polyvinyl chloride (PVC) glove with Kevlar on the inside that can be used by workers who refuel or deliver fuel for airplanes or households. The glove will feature electrostatic dissipative properties, also useful for the oil industry, he notes. “They’ve got a concern about sparks, so there are gloves out there that will not burn,” Everett says. “In this case, this glove will not create the spark at all,” he adds. Many jobs demand protection against chemicals — think janitors who work with many cleaners, maintenance workers who use solvents to loosen bolts, and pharmaceutical laboratory workers who mix and prepare chemical substances. Shamis reports that the most commonly used materials include natural rubber, nitrile, PVC, polyvinyl acetate or alcohol, butyl and Viton — each of these offering protection against different families of chemicals. While difficult to generalize, Geng cites as one example that PVC gloves are often used around acids and bases; nitrile could protect against oils or fuels.

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“The higher the hazard, the easier it is to convince the worker to wear protective gloves,” Shamis says. “Where we see more of an issue is with the less hazardous chemicals.” However, things seem to be changing for the better. “We are seeing the work force come to grips with the understanding that even the mid-tier and lower-tier chemicals require chemical protection,” Shamis reports.

specific, general Sometimes hazards are specific, demanding a specialty glove; other times, needs are less defined, with general purpose gloves that provide some protection against heat or cold, vibration, sparks and impact nicely fitting the bill. Martin Moore, president of Watson Gloves in Burnaby, British Columbia, says one of the company’s offerings is a glove he calls the “Drill Sergeant.”

Offering back-of-the-hand protection, glove features include heavy-duty rubber on the fingers and knuckles, hooded fingertips, a PVC-reinforced patch in the thumb crotch area and a soft deerskin-reinforced palm, notes a product information sheet. Moore says the gear is well-suited for oil and tar extraction, road work and forestry, where drill bits, chains and swinging booms may be present, as well as in steel plants and machine shops. “The general labour guys have to have protection on the back of the hand, so we’ve incorporated the heavy plastics and different polyurethane foams,” he reports. “A lot of times on gloves, the only protective part is the palm area.” get a grip Grip is another area of hand protection that continues to progress, Shamis says, which can help boost both productivity and safety. “The better grip you have on the knife, and the more secure it is, the less chance you have of getting cut in the first place,” he says. Geng says sandy grip is one new type that is becoming increasingly popular. By infusing a nitrile coating with millions of tiny pores, oils and liquids get displaced when pressed against smooth surfaces, creating a kind of suction with minimum effort, notes a product sheet from Superior Gloves. This micropore nitrile technology offers good grip in oil and good abrasion resistance compared with foam nitrile coating, Geng says. The company is also working to identify the best blend to achieve “the optimal level of flame resistance and cut resistance” in a glove for the oil and gas sector. “Sometimes it’s a trade-off,” Geng says. “When you add this yarn, it goes down in cut resistance, but increases in flame. It’s almost like you are cooking with different ingredients.” Many PPE manufacturers are also looking to fashion and sports apparel for cues on the latest styles, which can be adapted for the PPE market, Shamis says. “When people are content with their appearance in PPE, it follows that they will be more likely to wear it. Driving compliance is crucial, because workers can’t be protected if they don’t use the proper PPE,” he adds. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Jason Contant is editor of occupational health

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buried hazards

What Lies Beneath By Greg Burchell

xcavating and trench work can be like diving into murky water: no one knows exactly what lies below the surface and will never know without getting wet. But unlike swimmers, equipment operators and workers with a job to do cannot opt out of taking the plunge. Call-before-you-dig services should be employed to locate gas, utility and electrical lines in a work-related digging area. But potential finds dredged up by what lies beneath the earth’s surface can go beyond that. Last year, workers in Edmonton discovered dinosaur bones while digging a sewer tunnel, just about the same time that workers at Ground Zero were recoverHowever, ing the ruins of an 18th-century ship. However, what gets unearthed is not alwhat gets ways benign. In August, workers in Vancouver dug out two artillery shell casings, one unearthed rusted out, but the other still live with the potential to explode. Weeks later, a Maniis not toba man was tilling the land on his rural property when he came across a live hand always grenade, again rusty but ready to go off. “If you come across something unexbenign. pected, there are not many precautions you can take, unless you know the history of the area,” says Jim LaFontaine, health, safety and environmental manager for Toronto-based Dufferin Construction Company. The onus is on the site owner to inform contractors of any hazards of which they are aware, LaFontaine says. Full disclosure about how the land has been used not only serves worker safety, he suggests, but business interests as well, since unexpected discoveries could result in project delays. Peter Eastwood, a labour and employment lawyer at Borden Ladner Gervais in Vancouver, would likely concur. “If there is something that isn’t to be assumed, like an underground utility,” Eastwood says, owners “have a legal obligation to share that information with all those who are working on their property as a workplace.” He notes “the main legal issues in any case where you’re doing any excavation work is whether or not the owner of the property and the employers working on the property were aware of any hazards. Did they exercise due diligence in considering whether there were any hazards and taking adequate safeguards for the protection of workers?” Dufferin Construction has strict policies that require all work sites to obtain locates for underground services and utilities before digging, LaFontaine says. There will be a record of where and how deep utility lines are buried. However, that may not be the case for other potentially hazardous objects that can be unearthed.

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If something is “five, 10 feet [three metres] below grade, there’s no technology I’m aware of that can sweep the ground and pick up anything,” LaFontaine says. He recommends completing background checks, which may include a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. As part of that, engineers carry out checks for what could be dangerous, based on the history of the site, previous operations and materials that may have been present. Appropriate checks could show, for example, that a site was previously a petrochemical area where underground tanks may still be present, LaFontaine says. If that is the case, “you could take some precautions, such as probing.” Failing to check may mean not knowing if it “was a former munitions site or if it was used as a bombing range,” he cautions. “We’re not Superman. We don’t have X-ray vision.” That may have come in handy at Spring Valley, a 1,600home community in Washington, D.C., complete with a university and several embassies. The site had previously been used for testing chemical agents, equipment and munitions during the First World War, notes a project summary from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, released this summer. A probe in the late 1990s found burial pits with almost 300 ordnance-related items, 14 of those containing a chemical warfare agent. The Army Corps of Engineers is progressing with plans to resume clean-up activities in 2012. Safety burden John Agioritis is a lawyer for MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP in Saskatoon who specializes in occupational health and safety issues. “Certainly, the idea of ‘buyer beware’ would apply,” Agioritis says of those contemplating purchasing property. It is up to the buyer “to do the diligence to ensure that what you’re buying is what you want,” he adds. Under Saskatchewan’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, it is an employer’s duty to ensure the work environment is safe, Agioritis says. The description of the duty is broad, but if an employer knows the site where employees are working could be hazardous, precautions must be taken. In Ontario, the OH&S Act states that employers must ensure that all gas, electrical and other services are located and marked before beginning an excavation. British Columbia’s rules “require that, before excavating or drilling with any power tools or equipment, the location of all utility power services in the area are accurately determined and any danger to workers from those utilities must be controlled,” says Don Schouten, construction manager for industry and labour services at WorkSafeBC in Richmond, British Columbia. Although digging up an unexpected danger is relatively rare, that does not mean employers are absolved of the responsibility to ensure protections are in place.

“Coming across an unexploded shell is certainly unusual,” Schouten points out. “But employers should make their employees aware that there’s always the potential for there to be something in the ground when they’re digging,” he adds. duly diligent “If, for whatever reason, an employer was aware that they were excavating an area where there used to be live artillery shells or underground mines, it would be safe to assume that proper due diligence would involve taking at least a few steps to make sure that you’re not going to be endangering any workers by the work you’re doing,” Eastwood advises. Employers are also required to properly train their workers, Schouten emphasizes, “not just tell them, ‘Go dig that trench there.’ They have to understand that before they stick any shovel in the ground, certain steps need to be taken to try to locate anything that is possible.” LaFontaine says that Dufferin Construction has done work on land previously used for fire training. Soil testing needed to be done, conditions monitored and workers equipped with personal protective equipment, he says. “It’s in a general ventilated area, but once you open it up, it can be quite hazardous as far as toxic fumes or volatile organics and hydrocarbons in the ground,” says LaFontaine. “Other than underground utilities and the usual things you’re concerned with, it’s really going to be primarily based on whether or not the owner or employer could have reasonably anticipated that you have any other types of hazards

under the ground,” Eastwood explains. “If someone was injured as a result of some excavation or some dig,” he advises, “you always have an obligation to do an investigation and look into the causes and contributing factors of the incident.” Once every four years or so, a crew at Dufferin Construction will unearth some“Coming thing unexpected that brings work to a full stop and requires calling in the authoriacross an ties or experts to handle the situation, Launexploded Fontaine says. Most commonly the find is bones, usually from a dead animal, he shell is notes, but not always. Once, a work crew in Toronto excavated certainly a cylinder of chlorine gas and a hazardous materials team had to be called in to deal unusual,” with disposal, LaFontaine says. “It was probably around the World War Schouten II time. How it got there we don’t know.” Dufferin Construction had to use a vacpoints out. uum truck to blast away and suck up the soil, LaFontaine adds. “It was slow; it’s like dental work at that point,” he reports. “But it’s the only way we could go and maintain the workers’ and public’s safety.” Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Greg Burchell is editorial assistant of

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HEALTH WATCH computer vision syndrome

Sight for Sore Eyes By Jean Lian

“

esterday, I saw my ophthalmologist for the second time in 2.5 years,” Craig M. lamented last year on the blog for the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Optometrists. “I tried to discuss how my computer-related symptoms have worsened and how it is affecting my vision for reading and distance after working all day.” Craig M. is not alone. If eyestrain, blurred vision, dry eyes, headaches and neck and shoulder pain have become routine, the culprit may be computer vision syndrome (CVS), the product of long stints viewing a computer screen. Inadequate lighting, glare, improper viewing distances, poor seating posture and uncorrected vision problems are among the factors that contribute to the syndrome, notes the American Optometric Association in St. Louis.

computer programmed Researchers from the University of Albany in New York and the Wenzhou Medical College in China teamed to conduct a joint study on CVS in 2007. The resulting paper characterizes the syndrome as “a Optometrists widely spreading, but largely unknown, epidemic among professional and ordireported nary computer users.” Some eye specialists in Canada, how- seeing more ever, balk at defining CVS as an “epipatients demic,” either at home or abroad. Dr. Langis Michaud, an associate professor in the Université de Montréal’s School complaining of Optometry, acknowledges that CVS is of CVS. now more prevalent because of the widespread use of electronic devices. That said, Dr. Michaud notes, “the computer itself does not trigger anything; it’s the visual demand related to the computer work that is creating the problem.” Anyone who does a high degree of up-close tasks is at risk of developing CVS-type symptoms, he suggests. Dr. Paula Gaudet, an optometrist at the Doctors Eye Clinic in Halifax, concurs. “The syndrome is actually very, very similar for anyone who does close work, whether it’s related to a computer or not.” Results of a 2009 survey conducted by the Canadian research firm, Leger Marketing, indicate that polled optometrists reported seeing more patients complaining of CVSrelated symptoms compared with five years earlier. Some 40 per cent of patients aged 45 to 54 who spend 7.5 hours a day in front of potentially eye-straining devices like computers, televisions, cellphones and BlackBerrys associate their eye and vision complaints with lengthy screen time. In Alberta, CVS is not viewed as a compensable workrelated condition. “There isn’t anything that’s in existence

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in our system that actually recognizes that as an actual syndrome,” says Jennifer Dagsvik, media relations specialist for the Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta in Edmonton. A review of WorkSafeBC’s database also failed to retrieve any “accepted claims in which computer screens were the alleged causal agent,” board spokesperson Megan Johnston says from Richmond, British Columbia. To determine work-relatedness, Johnston says there must be a causative connection between work activities and the diagnosed condition. “The worker’s exposure must have played a significant role in causing the disease,” she adds. “Using a computer is probably the hardest job your eyes are going to be doing,” opines Dr. Dawn Reinders, an optometrist at Vancouver’s The Eyecare Specialists on the Block. “The image is always moving, your eyes are constantly focusing and refocusing,” Dr. Reinders explains. “And like any muscle that becomes strained because of constant use, you’re going to get some symptoms of stress or fatigue,” she says. Focusing one’s vision is essentially a muscular action, explains Dr. Gaudet, with muscles inside the eye pulling and flexing the crystalline lens to change from one focal point to another. “When you focus at the same plane for a long period of time, those muscles basically spasm in place.” CVS can trigger symptoms from discomfort to pain, impairing concentration. While headaches may suggest that a person is experiencing computer vision syndrome, it is not a reliable diagnostic symptom. “The problem with headaches is headaches never had one source,” says Dr. Gaudet. Doctors go through a process of elimination to figure out if the headache arises from a muscle strain which could be the result of poor posture, a migraine headache or a symptom of CVS. Blurred vision and eyes that sting or burn do not, in most cases, cause permanent damage, but they can certainly influence worker comfort, work quality and the time needed to complete tasks. “They might take longer to do the same amount of work,” Dr. Gaudet says of those with CVS. Symptoms typically surface following a visually straining activity, like reading, which causes inner eye muscles to tighten. “Some patients can’t work more than four hours a day because of that, so that certainly has an economic impact on businesses across Canada,” Dr. Michaud notes. “All that energy that’s used up to keep the image clear could be used for comprehension and efficiency of reading,” Dr. Reinders suggests. anatomy lesson So what makes reading from a computer screen such heavy work compared with text on a printed page? The Chinese study notes several differences: the screen is self-illuminated while a paper relies on external light sources; the screen

refreshes at a certain rate while a paper is steady; words on screens are pixel-based dots with decreasing brightness on the outer edges, while text on paper uses solid ink; and a screen demands a much higher viewing angle than paper, increasing susceptibility to dry eyes and neck pain. Anatomically, the human eye has evolved to view objects at a distance of more than 20 feet [six metres] in daylight, the study notes. The eye must exert significantly more muscles to focus on objects that are far closer, say in the range of about 25 centimetres. Eyes can also become dehydrated, often “to a point that can actually be a bit dangerous because we are blinking far, far less if we are concentrating on the computer than we are when we are looking about,” Dr. Gaudet cautions. Researchers in the study point out that the front surface of human eyes is covered with tears used to preserve moisture for normal eye functions. Viewing a screen alters tear dynamics in two ways: the spontaneous eye blink rate is significantly reduced and the eye opening increases, resulting in greater tear evaporation. “When you are staring at your computer for hours on end,” Dr. Reinders points out, “your blink rate drops to onefifth of what it normally would be.” Poor indoor air quality can make eyes even drier, she says. And there is also a cumulative side to the development of CVS. “Length of time [looking at a screen] is the biggest correlating factor of vision stress,” Dr. Reinders says. A worker who is in front of a computer screen for eight hours a day at work and then goes home to spend two more hours at another screen has a higher risk of developing CVS than the occasional Internet surfer, she suggests. Individual differences also need to be taken into account. “Not everyone’s visual system is going to be the same,” Dr. Reinders says. A less robust visual system and other fatigue issues may make it more difficult for a person to spend a lot of time at a computer screen. The loss of elasticity in the eyes and their ability to focus — a natural function of aging — is another compounding factor in fatigue, adds Dr. Gaudet. good habits While many workers use electronic devices daily, good habits can help mitigate the risk of developing CVS. Visiting the optometrist annually is a solid start, thereby allowing for the earliest possible identification of any underlying problems

that can be corrected with visual aids. In addition, workers must ensure they take frequent visual breaks, use eye drops to regularly lubricate their eyes and wear necessary prescriptive glasses, advises Dr. Gaudet. Consider the 20/20/20 rule as a guide: After 20 minutes of working on the computer, one should look at something 20 feet (six metres) away for 20 seconds. Apart from preventing eyestrain, “regular small breaks improved work efficiency and compensated for time lost on breaks,” the Chinese study notes. Dr. Michaud says employers can also “Length of do their part by installing larger computer screens, setting up work stations so time is the there is no glare from windows or lighting, and covering eye exams as part of biggest employee benefits. correlating Some costs may be incurred, he acknowledges, but argues that “if you look factor of at the effect on workers and the loss of efficiency in their work, it is certainly a vision good investment.” Dr. Gaudet further recommends adstress.” justing screen brightness and font size to suit an individual’s specific visual needs, and ensuring that the screen is a proper distance away. The Chinese study advises that any luminous source within the user’s field of view should not exceed three times the mean screen luminance, and monitors should be placed at least 50 centimetres away from the user (distances of 85 to 100 centimetres may help to reduce the number of visual strain complaints). In addition, computer monitors should be adjusted to a viewing angle of about 15 degrees lower than horizontal. Just like a stiff back, eyes can benefit from massage. Workers who spend more than three hours a day in front of a computer screen should adopt a warm eyelid massage daily to help stimulate the tear glands, increase blood circulation within the eyes and reduce the chance of developing dry eyes, the study recommends. “As soon as your working environment is not appropriate, certainly you’ll have problems — visually speaking or in other parts of the system,” notes Dr. Michaud. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

Jean Lian is assistant editor of

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For more information, contact Terry Becker, P.Eng. at ESPS. ESPS Electrical Safety Program Solutions INC. E-mail: terry.becker@espsi.ca Telephone: 403.532.9050 www.esps.ca Circle number 37 on Reader Service Card

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The leading source of expertise on occupational health and safety law in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Each title in this series provides quick, reliable access to the law plus the expert insight that helps you interpret the law. Powerful safety tools for you and your employees! Handi-Guide to British Columbia’s OH&S Regulation, 2011 Edition - $45.95

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3M™ Escape Only Mouthpiece Respirators Designed for emergency escape from industrial accidents involving known chemicals, the 3M™ Escape Only Mouthpiece Respirators provide health and safety professionals a respiratory protection option for their organizations’ emergency escape plans. With the incorporation of 3M technologies, these NIOSH-approved single cartridge escape, mouthpiece style respirators provide respiratory protection for emergency escape from atmospheres containing certain levels of acid gases and certain non-oil based particles.

To request a free demonstration visit www.3mishealthandsafety.ca or call 3M at 1-800-267-4414 For more information, circle No. 51

NASCO: Understanding FlasH Fire Rain wear Work in the Gas & Oil industry? Required to wear FR clothing? Do you know if the rain suit you wear meets the new ASTM F2733 standard? For an overview of the standard and to see test video of several commonly used products, request a copy of our Flash Fire Burn video and test your FR rainwear IQ. NASCO Contact us at sales@nascoinc.com or 800-767-4288. www.nascoinc.com For more information, circle No. 52

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

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THE HATSCAN HANDI-GUIDE SERIES

NOW AVAILABLE FROM CARSWELL

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The HATSCAN Handi-Guide Series

A D V E R T I S I N G D I R E C T O RY 3M www.3MisHealthandsafety.ca For ad see page 39,60 3M www.3M.ca/ergo For ad see page 17 BCRSP www.bcrsp.ca For ad see page 38 Carswell www.carswell.com For ad see page 9 Concept Controls www.conceptcontrols.com For ad see page 13 Debolt www.deboltdata.com For ad see page 18 Dentec www.dentecsafety.com For ad see page 14 Draeger www.draeger.ca For ad see page 15

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ESPS www.esps.com For ad see page 55 Glove Guard www.gloveguard.com For ad see page 48 Grace Industries www.graceindustries.com For ad see page 40 Haws www.hawsco.com For ad see page 33 Honeywell Safety www.honeywellsafety.com For ad see page 59 Howard Leight by Honeywell www.howardleight.com For ad see page 2 Internet Based Learning www.whmis.net For ad see page 16

Kimberly Clark www.TheDirtOnShopTowels.com/ OHSCA911 For ad see page 49 Kinecor www.kinecor.com For ad see page 23 Miller Fall Protection/ Honeywell www.millerfallprotection.com For ad see page 5 MSA www.msanet.com For ad see page 43 Mul-t-Mat www.mul-t-mat.com For ad see page 13 Nasco www.nascoinc.com For ad see page 11

North by Honeywell www.northsafety.com For ad see page 7 Occupational Safety Group www.osg.ca For ad see page 10 Power Pusher www.powerpusher.com For ad see page 18 Unique Products www.ezeelockouts.com For ad see page 16 Upstream Oil & Gas Safety Assoc For ad see page 41 Yow Canada www.yowcanada.com For ad see page 51

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TIME OUT

Pecking order: A game of “chicken” recently went

sideways for a letter carrier in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The postal employee was delivering mail to a residence where some chickens were milling about the front yard when he came upon a bird with a bad attitude, QMI Agency reported in August. As the worker approached the front door, one chicken apparently took umbrage, emerging from beneath the porch and unleashing an authoritative wing-slapping on the intruder. No word on the letter carrier’s injuries, if any; he had chickened out by the time police arrived.

Wheel deal: A British Columbia woman has learned

that not all fender benders are the same. Getting tanked and taking to the road is bad enough, but rear end a police cruiser too, and one can expect a whole peck of trouble. Police were speaking with witnesses to an unrelated incident when the woman’s costly contact involving a parked cruiser, with one officer inside, occurred at about 1 am on July 2. A breath sample was taken from the driver and a “fail” promptly registered, notes a statement from the Sunshine Coast RCMP. The 41-year-old woman received a 90-day immediate roadside prohibition, was ticketed for driving without due care and attention, and had her vehicle impounded for 30 days.

bad trip: It is unclear who, but some worker had to clean up the “business” left by an inebriated passenger prior to a flight from Paris to Dublin. Unable to “hold on,” The Associated Press reports that Gerard Depardieu has been accused of taking relief in the plane’s cabin. The flight crew directed him to remain seated while preparing for take-off, but to no avail. The celebrated French actor is said to have urinated then and there. The man, his companions and their luggage were escorted off the plane, and the flight was delayed for two hours. An airline spokesperson has confirmed the incident took place, but declined to name names.

Shark bait: A great white shark hitched a ride on a boat

patrolling the waters off Mossel Bay, South Africa in July, notes the Toronto edition of Metro. The crew of marine biologists, including a 21-year-old intern from the University of Guelph, had been on the lookout for, well, sharks, when the unannounced caller launched itself onto the deck of the boat. The visit allowed an up-close view of the 450-kilogram shark, but crew members were unable to push the big fish back into the water. They kept the shark’s gills watered and called for a tow back to harbour. Eventually, with some help, the confused shark got going and headed back out to sea.

Cuffs with that: Getting topped up took on a whole

new meaning at a Dunkin’ Donuts in northern New Jersey. The late shift offered a little extra, courtesy of a 29-year-old employee who had an odd interpretation of break time. As part of its “extra sugar” investigation, police in Rockaway Township allege the woman used her down time to provide sex in exchange for money, The Associated Press reported in August. Suspicions were raised when the woman was seen visiting customers in their cars for about 10 to 15 minutes

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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at a time. But break time became at-stake time when the employee got a little too friendly with a “customer” who turned out to be an undercover officer.

Stone cold: It may have been that unresolved feelings were at play when the mayor of St.-Theodore-d’Acton, east of Montreal, delivered the “big rock” his ex-wife had always wanted… right on her front lawn. The mayor unloaded an 18-tonne boulder — a “gift,” complete with a pink ribbon and a spray-painted birthday message — to celebrate his ex’s special day, The Canadian Press reported. Opting for an exchange, the woman called police the next morning to file a complaint. The bit of fun may carry a heavy price for the mayor, since police were considering charges of harassment or mischief, as well as those under Quebec’s highway code. Bone-chilling: Things got real — too real — for a teacher who was preparing an anatomy lesson at the Totara North elementary school in New Zealand, The Associated Press reported in August. The teacher was examining what she thought was a replica plastic skeleton stored in a box at the 159-year-old school when she noticed it was, in fact, authentic. The school’s principal was informed and called off the lesson before handing over the remains to police. Experts say the bones are likely more than a century old. Tune out: Feel like moseying along, taking it slow? Per-

haps, it would be best not to do so at a convenience store in Columbus, Ohio. Employees of the United Dairy Farmers location say cranking up the classical tunes is keeping loitering down, The Associated Press reported in August. The blaring bit of culture, meant as a store upgrade, has had the added benefit of discouraging people from loitering in front of the store and asking those coming and going for spare change.

birds of a feather: A little anger management may be in order for an Ontario driver who found himself on the wrong side of the law, twice. The man received a speeding ticket after clocking in at 35 kilometres more than the posted speed limit, The Canadian Press reported in August. The motorist opted to show his displeasure while driving away by sticking his arm out the window and flipping the bird. None too impressed with the sassy salute, the officer responded by stopping the driver again and making his own statement — issuing a $110 ticket for using an improper hand signal. just deserts: Until recently, the dough available in the doughnut vendor business on Greece’s Paliouri beach made for some tough working conditions. But no more, thanks to a police sting that has blown a hole in a doughnut-selling monopoly that was none too shy about using violence to squeeze out the competition, The Associated Press reported this summer. The alleged crooks got their comeuppance after an undercover officer posed as a vendor and was attacked by three very aggressive doughnut sellers. Blackmail, fraud and food safety charges have been laid. Follow us on Twitter @OHSCanada

for every breath

SPERIAN No matter your respiratory application, Honeywell Safety Products offers a solution. North and Sperian respiratory products have been protecting workers against a wide range of hazards around the world for more than 100 years. Honeywell Safety Products has brought these leading brands together to offer a total respiratory solution, from dust mask to SCBA. With world class comfort, fit and reliability to keep workers safe and productive, and with training and educational material to help workers make safer choices on their own, Honeywell Safety Products provides protection for every breath you take.

Sperian is now Honeywell.

3M is Fall Protection

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Committed To Meeting Your Specific Protection Needs 3M offers a wide range of fall protection solutions which includes equipment for confined space applications, positioning devices, harnesses, lanyards and self retracting lifelines. The Reload™ SRL offers its patented technology as it is field serviceable, therefore limiting the downtime and cost associated with maintaining your equipment. 3M is committed to meeting your specific fall protection needs and understands there is no room for second best equipment, knowledge, or technical support. When you are working at dangerous heights,

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