Pipeline winter final

C A N A D A’ S O I L A N D G A S S A F E T Y M A G A Z I N E

PIPELINE

WINTER 2014

CREATING A LASTING SAFETY CULTURE IN THE OFFSHORE INDUSTRY

AT A STANDSTILL

Fracking concerns bubbling up

WELL-HEELED

Comfort paramount when selecting footwear

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Keeping lone workers safe

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| CONTENTS

PIPELINE Vol. 2, No. 1 WINTER 2014

DEPARTMENTS

4 Worthy Considerations EDITORIAL

6 9

IN THE NEWS

BY THE NUMBERS

FEATURES

10 Battling Complacency OFFSHORE SAFETY

A safety culture improvement plan can go a long way in helping the offshore oil and gas industry from repeating its sometimes tragic history.

18 Fractured Opposition FRACKING MORATORIUM

Canada’s newest union is calling for a countrywide delay on all new oil and gas fracking until safety, environmental and Aboriginal issues are ironed out.

PRODUCTS

20 Feet First

FOOT PROTECTION Workers who are on their feet all day understand the importance of comfortable footwear. Manufacturers are taking this to heart by offering features like anti-fatigue footbeds and extra-wide toe caps.

26 Staying in Touch

10

10

LONE WORKER DEVICES When time is of the essence, having lone worker devices on hand can help get a worker to a place of safety before it’s too late.

30 Pipe Markers

When oil and gas workers need to know what’s in a pipe at a glance, pipe markers answer the call.

20

AD INDEX

26

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PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 3

EDITORIAL |

WORTHY CONSIDERATIONS

W

elcome to the Winter 2014 issue of Pipeline Maga-

zine, a publication dedicated to occupational health and safety in Canada’s oil and gas industry. This issue will focus on the offshore industry; discuss a proposed fracking moratorium; and take a look at foot protection, lone worker devices and pipe markers.

PIPELINE Vol. 2, No. 1 WINTER 2014 EDITOR

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Hazardous substances

JASON CONTANT jcontant@ohscanada.com JEFF COTTRILL jcottrill@ohscanada.com WILLIAM M. GLENN MARK RYAN

ART DIRECTOR PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER MARKETING SPECIALIST CIRCULATION MANAGER

PHYLLIS WRIGHT GARY WHITE DIMITRY EPELBAUM BARBARA ADELT

badelt@bizinfogroup.ca

“Canada and Canadians would be better off with the Enbridge Northern Gateway project than without it.”

With those words, a joint review panel of the National Energy Board recommended in December that the federal government approve the twin pipeline project, which would run more than 1,100 kilometres from Alberta to British Columbia. The recommendation also ignited a firestorm of protest from environmental groups and some First Nations communities along the pipeline route and at least one lawsuit.

From a popularity standpoint, it seems that the general public is divided on whether or not to support the project. A poll late last year found support for the Northern Gateway project sitting at about 42 per cent. Another Alberta to B.C. pipeline, the Trans Mountain Pipeline, fared slightly better at 48 per cent support, with 43 per cent opposed and the remainder undecided. And the proposed Keystone XL project is still struggling to win U.S. approval and support here at home.

That’s not to say that the concerns, particularly from Aboriginal communities, are entirely unfounded. Obviously, having a pipeline in or near their communities will have ramifications for them.

There is some evidence, however, that the industry is taking certain First Nations’ concerns into account. In the case of the Northern Gateway project, it appears that Enbridge has acted on Aboriginal recommendations by adding $500 million worth of safety enhancements to the project, including provisions for thicker steel valves and 24/7 manning

Jason Contant Editor jcontant@ohscanada.com 4 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

of remote pump stations. First Nations and Métis communities were also offered to become equity partners, providing them with 10 per cent stake in the project at an estimated $1 billion in total longterm benefits for these communities.

The panel, which waded through more than 175,000 pages of evidence and included 47 Aboriginal groups as interveners, found that “the cumulative effects as a result of this project and other projects, activities or actions are likely to be at the low end of the range of possible significance.” It also said that, with the exception of cumulative effects for certain populations of woodland caribou and grizzly bears, “the environmental burdens associated with project construction and routine operation can generally be effectively mitigated.”

Clearly, the panel’s recommendation for approval was not taken lightly — it attached 209 required conditions that had to be met in order to approve the project, including the development of a research program on the behaviour and cleanup of heavy oils.

Other requirements were to conduct pre-operations emergency response exercises and develop an emergency preparedness and response exercise and training program.

With this kind of controversial decision, there will always be some who disagree. However, it was a careful decision, with a great deal of thought and input.

I believe it would be a mistake to dismiss the project. As the panel said, Canada would be better off with this project than without it.

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (OHS CANADA MAGAZINE) PUBLISHER

PRESIDENT, BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP

SHEILA HEMSLEY shemsley@ohscanada.com PETER BOXER pboxer@ohscanada.com BRUCE CREIGHTON

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

DAVID IRETON, Safety Professional, Brampton, Ont. ALLAN JOHNSON, Director of Construction, Hospitality, Oil and Gas, Workers’ Compensation Board of B.C., Vancouver, B.C. JANE LEMKE, Program Manager, OHN Certification Program, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont. DON MITCHELL, Safety Consultant, Mississauga, Ont. MICHELE PARENT, National Manager, Risk Management and Health and Wellness, Standard Life, Montreal, Que. TERRY RYAN, Workers’ Compensation and Safety Consultant, TRC Group Inc., Mississauga, Ont. DON SAYERS, Principal Consultant, Don Sayers & Associates, Hanwell, N.B. DAVID SHANE, National Director, Health and Safety, Canada Post Corporation, Ottawa, Ont. HENRY SKJERVEN, President, The Skjerven Cattle Company Ltd., Wynyard, Sask.

PETER STRAHLENDORF, Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Health, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN TYSON, Association of Canadian Ergonomists/Association canadienne d’ergonomie, North Bay, Ont.

PIPELINE is the magazine for people who make decisions about health and safety in

Canada’s oil and gas industry. It is designed to keep workers, managers and safety professionals informed on issues in the sector, up to date on new developments and in touch with current thinking in the oh&s community.

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

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

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Date of issue: WINTER 2014.

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IN THE NEWS |

>>CEPA LAUNCHES MUTUAL ASSISTANCE ALLIANCE The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) in Calgary has launched a Mutual Emergency Assistance Agreement for its member companies, an agreement aimed at strengthening the existing emergency response process.

CEPA president and CEO Brenda Kenny says that the agreement would formalize an already existing practice whereby member companies share resources during an emergency. “It will allow employees to get the job done by removing legal barriers that can sometimes cause delay,” she says.

The agreement, which came into effect on Jan. 1, means that during an emergency situation, member companies can call upon each other to share additional human resources, specialized response advice, equipment and tools that can increase their existing emergency response capabilities.

Under the agreement, the company that is requesting the assistance would have the primary responsibility of planning and directing the overall emergency response, with secondary responsibility on the assisting company. In addition, member companies have agreed to compensate the assisting company for all reasonable expenses, including travel, lodging, meals, wages, salaries and maintenance. The agreement would be used for major rather than minor incidents, unless specific expertise is required.

CEPA member companies include Access Pipeline Inc., Alliance Pipeline Ltd., ATCO Pipelines, Enbridge Pipelines Inc., Inter Pipeline Ltd., Kinder Morgan Canada, Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Plains Midstream Canada ULC, Spectra Energy Transmission, TransCanada PipeLines Limited, TransGas Limited and Trans-Northern Pipelines Inc.

>>NEW REGS TARGET OFFSHORE HELICOPTERS In response to a 2009 helicopter disaster that claimed the lives of 17 people in Newfoundland, Canada’s Minister of Transport has proposed new regulations for the safety of offshore helicopter operations.

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

In March 2009, a Cougar Helicopters Inc. Sikorsky S-92 helicopter ditched near St. John’s while on its way to a couple of Newfoundland oil fields. Both pilots were killed, as were 15 of the 16 passengers.

Robert Wells, a retired Newfoundland judge who conducted a public inquiry into offshore helicopter safety and made recommendations to Transport Canada following the tragedy, says that he feels that the ministry is on the right track. “I’m 6 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

glad to see that they’re moving on the issue. That’s important,” he says.

Wells initially recommended against offshore helicopter night flights, due to the increased difficulty of rescuing passengers of ditched helicopters at night. But since then, he has seen significant improvements in rescue ability.

“At the time, we didn’t have a dedicated search-and-rescue helicopter,” explains Wells, referring to 2010, when he made his original recommendations. “We didn’t have forward-looking infrared radar, and

OIL WORKERS SEE INCREASED WAGES The average hourly wages of young men in Canada’s oil-producing provinces increased by 21 per cent between 2001 and 2008, shows a newly released Statistics Canada report.

Released on Jan. 13, the report says that the average real hourly wages of men aged 17 to 24 living in the oil-producing provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador increased by 21 per cent, more than five times the four per cent increase observed in other provinces.

The study also found that the wage growth in these provinces led to increases in the employment rates of young men. In the three oil-producing provinces, the employment rate increased by five to six percentage points between 2001 and 2008, while in non-oil-producing provinces, the employment rate of 17- to 24-yearolds increased by two points.

The study can be read at http:// www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/140113/dq140113a-eng.htm

we didn’t have auto hover. So at that time, we were far below and behind where we are now.

“Now we have a dedicated helicopter that can be in the air with a rescue team in 20 minutes, which is well past the standard,” he says. “The helicopter is dedicated to search-and-rescue and nothing else.

So we’re far better equipped to do a rescue than we were back in 2010.”

Wells also praises Raitt’s proposals for taking into account the conditions of the weather and water.

“You always have to bear in mind that there could be a ditching,” he says. “Flying offshore into the Atlantic is rather different from flying over land.” He also notes recent improvements in survival suits for both pilots and passengers.

| IN THE NEWS

>> STUDY FINDS WAY TO REMOVE FRACKING WASTEWATER RADIOACTIVITY Much of the naturally occurring radioactivity in fracking wastewater could be removed by blending it with other wastewater from acid mine drainage, suggests a study from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

“Fracking wastewater and acid mine drainage each pose well-documented environmental and public health risks.

But in laboratory tests, we found that by blending them in the right proportions, we can bind some of the fracking contaminants into solids that can be removed before the water is discharged back into streams and rivers,” Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, says in a statement.

Blending fracking wastewater with acid mine drainage also could help reduce the depletion of local freshwater resources by giving drillers a source of usable recycled water for the hydraulic fracturing process, he adds. “Scarcity of fresh water in dry regions or during periods of drought can severely limit shale gas development in many areas of the United States and in other regions of the world where fracking is about to begin,” Vengosh says.

The peer-reviewed study was published in late December in the journal Environmental Science & Technology (http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es403852h).

In fracking — also known as hydraulic fracturing — millions of tons of water are injected at high pressure down wells to crack open shale deposits buried deep underground and extract natural gas trapped within the rock. Some of the water flows back up through the well, along with natural brines and the natural gas. This “flowback fluid” typically contains high levels of salts, naturally occurring radioactive materials such as radium and metals such as barium and strontium, the university statement says.

A study last year by the Duke team showed that standard treatment processes only partially remove these potentially harmful contaminants from Marcellus shale wastewater before it is discharged back into streams and waterways, causing radioactivity to accumulate in stream sediments near the disposal site.

Vengosh says that their recent analysis “suggested that several ions, including sulphate, iron, barium and strontium, as well as between 60 and 100 percent of the radium, had precipitated within the first 10 hours into newly formed solids composed mainly of strontium barite.” These radioactive solids could then be removed from the

mixtures and safely disposed of at licensed hazardous waste facilities, he says. The overall salinity of the blended fluids was also reduced, making the treated water suitable for re-use at fracking sites.

Vengosh says that field-scale tests are still necessary to confirm the feasibility under operational conditions.

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PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 7

IN THE NEWS |

>> B ILL AMENDS ACTS Late last October, the federal government introduced Bill C-5 to amend the two Atlantic Accord implementation acts in order to fill the “grey area” between process safety and occupational health regulations. Under the current regime, occupational health falls under the jurisdiction of the provinces, while operational safety

is the responsibility of the offshore petroleum boards (OPBs) on behalf of both levels of government.

The ambiguity became apparent following an offshore accident in which a worker was killed due to an improperly installed door. Because it was unclear whether the door’s installation fell under the facility’s operational safety or occupational health provisions, jurisdiction

“HOT JOBS” ANNOUNCED In late November, CareerBuilder.ca and Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) developed a list of “hot jobs” in the oil and gas industry based on occupations with the greatest job increases between 2010 and 2013. The study uses EMSI’s rich labour market database, which draws from a full range of government sources including the census, the Labour Force Survey and the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, says a press release from CareerBuilder.ca.

The hot jobs for the Canadian oil and gas industry, taking into consideration the increase in jobs within the sector between 2010 and 2013 and the median wages for this type of occupation, are as follows: JOB

CHANGE IN JOBS

PERCENTAGE INCREASE

MEDIAN HOURLY EARNINGS

Oil and gas well drillers, servicers, testers, and related workers

(2010–2013): 2,800

24%

$33.78

Oil and gas well drilling workers and services operators

2,741

33%

$27.71

Supervisors, oil and gas drilling and service

1,962

15%

$37.30

Primary production managers (except agriculture)

1,861

45%

$48.53

Oil and gas drilling, servicing and related labourers

1,641

30%

$24.14

Truck drivers

1,448

35%

$20.10

Heavy equipment operators (except cranes)

1,307

39%

$24.60

Inspectors in public and environmental health and occupational health and safety

983

69%

$32.58

Underground production and development

826

19%

$28.78

Administrative officers

713

31%

$21.43

8 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

could not be established and neither the province, the feds nor the OPB could hold any party liable.

Known as the Offshore Health and Safety Act, Bill C-5, which recently passed second reading, would make operators ultimately responsible for all activities related to their authorization. It would also spell out the duties of operators, employers, supervisors, employees, contractors and interest holders; authorize new regulations related to additional safety equipment for workers in transit; and give safety officers new powers to inspect facilities, seize evidence and conduct compliance audits on the vessels used to transport workers. Chief safety officers would also be granted the power to allow regulatory substitutions. PL

— William M. Glenn

HUSKY ENERGY APPROVES TWO NEW PROJECTS Calgary-based Husky Energy has sanctioned two new heavy oil thermal projects in Saskatchewan, which will deliver a total of 20,000 barrels per day (bbls/days) of production.

Engineering is underway with construction of the 10,000 bbls/day Edam East project and the 10,000 bbls/day Vawn project scheduled to begin this year, with first oil expected in 2016, Husky Energy said in a statement on Jan. 9. The projects build on the success that Husky Energy has had in the Lloydminster region in using thermal technology to access longer life heavy oil deposits.

Husky’s growing focus on thermal projects is guided by a rich portfolio of opportunities and a proven template of smaller Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) plants, providing better access to heavy oil reservoirs, the statement says.

The company also has a pipeline of additional thermal projects under evaluation for development. It is further integrating its heavy oil business by taking advantage of its upgrader in Lloydminster, existing pipeline systems and the proposed crude oil flexibility project at its Lima, Ohio refinery.

| BY THE NUMBERS

National Energy Board review panel approves Northern Gateway project The National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project has recommended that the federal government approve the project, subject to 209 required conditions. The report, released on Dec. 19, found that “Canada and Canadians would be better off with the Enbridge Northern Gateway project than without it.”

THE REVIEW PROCESS 180 — Number of hearing days 21 — Number of communities where hearings were held 175,669 — Total number of pages of evidence filed on the record 1,179 — Number of people who provided oral statements 268 — Participants who cross-examined witnesses 9 — Number of First Nations communities where hearings were held

12 — Number of government participants 47 — Number of Aboriginal groups that participated as interveners 884 — Total hours the panel spent hearing oral evidence, oral statements, cross-examination and final arguments

THE PROJECT 1,177.6 kilometres — Total length of the pipelines (with 520 kilometres running through Alberta and 660 kilometres in British Columbia) 83,400 cubic metres — Average amount shipped daily by the petroleum

(525,000 barrels) products pipeline 30,700 cubic metres — Average amount shipped daily by condensate pipeline

(193,000 barrels)

2 — Number of tanker berths to be built at the Kitimat Marine Terminal (KMT) in B.C. 3 — Number of condensate tanks to be built at the KMT 16 — Number of oil storage tanks to be built at the KMT

$7.885 billion — Estimated capital cost for the project

THE REPORT 209 — Number of conditions attached to the panel’s recommendation to approve the project 76 — Number of pages in the first volume of the English report 417 — Number of pages in the second volume of the English report Source: National Energy Board

1.1 million

The estimated barrels of crude oil per day that TransCanada Corporation’s Energy East pipeline is expected to carry.

Source: TransCanada Corporation

70%

By 2020, it is expected that this percentage of Canadian and American natural gas will be from unconventional reservoirs.

Source: Encana Corporation

26%

The estimated increased in the assessed values of homes in the Kitimat, British Columbia area following the prospect of an oil and gas pipeline boom in northern B.C. Source: The Canadian Press

0

Number of workers injured following an explosion and fire at the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina on Dec. 24.

Source: Federated Co-operatives Limited

˚ 0 36

EXPLOSION KILLS 62 A November 2013 pipeline explosion in northern China that killed 62 people was caused by sparks from a jackhammer igniting oil that had leaked into the sewage system, government officials said in early January. The massive explosion on Nov. 22 devastated a suburb of the port of Qingdao and injured 132 people. Officials blame human error and say that both municipal workers and state oil company Sinopec, which operated the pipeline, bear responsibility for failing to carry out inspections and for weak emergency response.

Source: The Associated Press

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 9

FEATURE | OFFSHORE SAFETY

Battling

By William M. Glenn

n February 16, 1982, the Ocean Ranger sank during a violent winter storm off the coast of Newfoundland — all 84 crew members were lost.

• On July 6, 1988, a series of explosions and fires wracked the Piper Alpha oil production platform — 165 of the 226 workers on board died.

• On March 12, 2009, Cougar Helicopter Flight 491 was forced to ditch in the Atlantic about 55 kilometres off the Newfoundland coast — only one of the 18 passengers and crew survived.

• On April 20, 2010, escaping gas flooded into the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig operating in the Gulf of Mexico, ignited and exploded — 11 crew members were killed.

10 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

OFFSHORE SAFETY | FEATURE

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 11

FEATURE | OFFSHORE SAFETY

Complacency may be the biggest threat to safety.

Just because a company hasn’t experienced a big accident (yet), “you mustn’t confuse ‘low probability’ with ‘no probability,’” says Dr. Mark Fleming, the CN professor of safety culture at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. When things go wrong in the offshore business, they can go wrong in a big way. A professor of psychology, Dr. Fleming has been studying the human factors at play in major industrial accidents since the Piper Alpha incident 25 years ago.

“Many companies make the assumption that occupational safety correlates directly with process safety,” he says. “It’s true that if lots of employees are getting hurt, it may indicate a facility has a higher than average chance of going ‘boom,’ but the reverse isn’t always the case.”

A company may be focusing its time and resources on worker safety, while skimping on the routine maintenance or equipment upgrades that help reduce the risk of a major incident. “I haven’t crunched the numbers, but it often seems when I investigate a new disaster, I discover that the company had recently won a safety award,” Dr. Fleming says.

CULTURAL FACTORS In a paper published in June 2012, Dr. Fleming looked at 15 major accidents in the offshore oil and gas sector — nine occurring on offshore facilities, five during flights to or from those installations and one involving a support vessel — from 1980 to 2010. His review of the causal factors reveals a disturbing pattern. While weather and technical problems all played a role, in 12 of the 15 incidents, multiple “cultural” causes were cited again and again: •

•

•

Tolerance of inadequate systems and resources devoted to safety or a narrow focus on only those hazards covered by regulation was identified 10 times; Normalization of deviance, essentially cutting corners or straying from accepted practices in the interest of “getting the job done,” was noted nine times; and Complacency was identified eight times, or as Dr. Fleming says, “people forget to be afraid and do not give safety the attention warranted by the risk.”

“People forget to be

12 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

To counter these threats, Dr. Fleming says offshore companies must create a safety culture improvement plan that assigns responsibilities, incorporates specific strategies to manage culture, and is subject to continuous performance evaluations and improvements (see “Tracking the evolving safety culture” sidebar on page 13). If the offshore sector doesn’t learn the obvious cultural lessons from its history, it could be doomed to repeat them, he concludes.

It’s too easy to talk generalities when talking safety culture, Dr. Fleming says. Some managers may routinely insist that safety is a top priority, “but most companies think they are doing a much better job than they actually are,” he contends.

Breakdowns in safety culture are usually manifest through the behaviour of frontline workers, but it is a mistake to concentrate efforts solely on those particular employees. “The focus has to be on improvement and change,” says Dr. Fleming, “and the way we change corporate safety culture is primarily through leadership.”

Those leaders, in turn, authorize new management and reporting systems, inspections, training courses and additional safety equipment.

TAKING THE LEAD Certain industries — aviation, nuclear power generators and offshore oil and gas producers — have been trailblazers in embracing the safety culture concept, says Claudine Bradley, technical leader of safety for the National Energy Board (NEB) in Ottawa. “The genesis of safety culture grew out of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and it’s aimed at preventing that kind of high consequence/low probability event,” Bradley says. Simply put: a stronger safety culture equals safer operations.

On October 31, 2013, the NEB released a discussion paper, Advancing Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry: Draft Safety Culture Framework, for public comment. The framework was pulled together by the NEB, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NSOPB) to promote “learning and a shared understanding” of the emerging safety culture discipline across the oil and gas sector in Canada.

“Safety culture is a complex notion, easily misused,

afraid.”

OFFSHORE SAFETY | FEATURE

if only inadvertently,” Bradley says. “The framework makes it crystal clear what we mean and what our expectations are for the regulated companies.”

According to the draft, safety culture is defined as “the attitudes, values, norms and beliefs, which a particular group of people shares with respect to risk and safety.” The document lays out a series of high-level characteristics, both positive and negative: the contributors include committed safety leadership, vigilance and resiliency, while the threats include complacency, production pressures and a tolerance of inadequate resources. Then for each characteristic, a list of “descriptors” paints a picture of how a safety culture would look and work.

FOR EXAMPLE, A STRONG SAFETY CULTURE IS ONE IN WHICH: • • •

•

•

Leaders demonstrate that safety is their overriding value and priority; Every employee feels empowered and rewarded for making safe decisions; Employees feel encouraged to report safety hazards, even where they have committed an error or introduced a threat themselves; The most junior employee would not hesitate to take action in response to a safety concern without fear of reprisal; and A supervisor does not have to be present for someone to do the right thing.

The NEB expects that regulated companies will use the framework (as well as the implementation and tracking tools still to be developed) to build and sustain a positive safety culture in order to comply with both the onshore pipeline regulations and the offshore drilling and production regulations under the federalprovincial accords that govern the sector.

“The goal of zero accidents can be a reality. It’s something we believe in,” Bradley says. “There are two key ingredients to achieving this: first, effective management systems that are well implemented and, second, a robust culture of safety.” The release of the draft framework is just “the first step in a long journey,” she says.

The next stage will be to refine the framework based on feedback. Then the NEB will create the tools that operators and regulators could use to assess the current state of their safety culture, to reveal the vulnerabilities and show any opportunities for improvement. These assessment metrics will also allow regulators to identify themes and trends, to direct attention towards areas of concern and to identify best practices.

“Safety culture is not really about preventing ‘slips, trips and falls,’ although it could produce positive results in those areas,” Bradley says. “It’s about preventing catastrophic accidents by improving systems safety and environmental protection.”

NO SHORTCUTS “We are pretty close to instilling a safety culture in Suncor Energy, but that ‘journey to zero’ [accidents] will never end. Once you think you’ve arrived, you are fooling yourself,” says Ray Dalton, the company’s environmental health and safety advisor. “Our workers won’t take a shortcut when there is no one around watching. If they can’t do it safely, they don’t do it at all,” he says.

The last lost-time injury on Suncor’s Terra Nova floating, production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel occurred back in 2005. Since then, the rig has

TRACKING THE EVOLVING SAFETY CULTURE To keep safety programs on track, managers need accurate and reliable information. “Management usually has a fairly clouded perception of the actual safety situation,” argues Dr. Mark Fleming, the CN professor of safety culture at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. It’s hard to get accurate feedback with so many filters between the frontline and the upper offices. Management is also getting a lot of “false info,” he says, “and if they are just relying on injury statistics, they are getting nothing.”

Employers need to take a broader, more systematic approach to gauge the company’s commitment to safety. Dr. Fleming and his staff are currently developing a series of metrics that can be collected, rated and compared to data from previous reporting periods to track trends. “The key element in safety culture metrics is to focus on the quality and not just the number of reports,” he says.

• Peer observations reflect workers’ involvement in safety management. Look at the safety cards submitted and track the number of detailed, high quality observations; • Near misses and close calls are great opportunities to learn. Chart the number and quality of these reports; • Worksite visits by managers are vital for showing commitment and gathering feedback. Track the number of high quality visits made by each operations manager; • All employees must comply with the safety rules and procedures. Track the number of non-compliance incidences noted during inspections; and • Project delays and overruns can indicate poor planning and increase production pressures. The number and details of unplanned delays should be tracked.

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 13

FEATURE | OFFSHORE SAFETY

“You try to make it so that when you make a mistake it does not cause operated some 3.5 million person hours without a serious injury.

If a Suncor worker sees a hazard — it might be a patch of ice, somebody who should be tied off or someone not wearing their safety glasses — they point it out right away, then enter the info onto a safety card and put it into a system. “Nobody is concerned about stopping the job,” says Dalton. “You might not get as much work done, but you get it done safely.”

There are also regular “toolbox” meetings, weekly and monthly safety newsletters, safety discussions before any work is started and a review of all safety cards at shift’s end. The FPSO vessel is divided into 12 safety zones and, once a week, a supervisor, the company safety officer and a worker representative inspect one zone. They note any deficiencies, which are documented in the company’s ProAct (Proactive Reporting Organizing Analysis Corrective Actions Tracking) system. A worker rep is also included in the investigation of any “high potential” incident and contributes to the report that goes up to the C-NLOPB. The nuts and bolts of safety are “so embedded in the culture” that when a young worker goes off on the two-day training session required before they join Suncor’s joint health and safety committee, “they know 90 per cent of the course material already,” Dalton says.

REGULATING REGULATIONS Off the coast of Nova Scotia, there are two major players that “understand the importance of safety culture,” says Stuart Pinks, CEO of the C-NSOPB, referring to the Sable Offshore Energy Project operated by Exxon Mobil and the Deep Panuke Offshore Gas Development Project by Encana Corporation.

Offshore workplaces have been in “a state of legal uncertainty for many years,” governed under federalprovincial accords that talk about safety, but not specifically about occupational health and safety, Pinks notes. Ottawa is currently attempting to fill that gap with proposed legislation that essentially inserts an oh&s statute into those accords.

“Bill C-5 really takes the best of what’s in place, recognizing some of the nuances of the industry,” says Pinks. “It’s very good, purpose-built legislation that reflects the ‘state-of-the-art’ in occupational oversight.” Once in effect, offshore workers will enjoy the 14 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

harm.”

same comprehensive legal protections that cover their onshore colleagues.

The bill will address the safety responsibilities of each party working offshore — operators, contractors, service companies and employees — as well as provide certain rights to the workers being transported to, from and between rigs. It will also equip oh&s officers “with a whole suite of enforcement powers to ensure all the parties meet their responsibilities,” Pinks says.

In the interim, the offshore petroleum boards (OPBs) have written a series of detailed oh&s requirements, which impart the same level of rigour found in most provincial statutes and are incorporated as a “condition of authorization.” Prior to launching any exploration, development or production activity, the operator must prepare a safety plan and submit it to the presiding OPB. The board’s chief safety officer (CSO) conducts a pre-authorization assessment to determine whether the plan meets the legal requirements — namely, that it identifies and controls site hazards, establishes management system linkages and a command structure, addresses emergency response planning and covers monitoring, worker training and qualifications.

Once the OPB is satisfied, a company can begin operations, while the CSO and other board safety officers conduct periodic audits and on-site inspections to ensure the plan is being followed and the operator is complying with all the oh&s and operational safety requirements. The CSO and his staff also follow up on any health and safety incident or accident reports to ensure that causes and corrective actions are identified; review the compliance reports submitted by the operator and the minutes of its joint oh&s committee meetings; and investigate any unsafe work refusals that the worker and management have not yet resolved.

If a company is non-compliant, “the first thing one of our officers would do is point out the deficiency to the operator to take corrective action,” says Pinks.

“We’ve found that our operators take safety very seriously and, typically, they will jump right away to fix any shortcomings.” If not, or if the deficiency poses an immediate safety threat, the officer can issue an order, recommend that the OPB revoke an approval or authorization, or even launch a prosecution to ensure safety protocols are being followed.

OFFSHORE SAFETY | FEATURE

BREAK FROM THE NORM This somewhat unorthodox, performance-based approach to occupational safety appears to be getting results. According to statistics compiled by the C-NSOPB, there were just four lost-time accidents (three involving installations and one involving a vessel) reported in 2012/13 — and none the previous year — among a workforce that typically logs approximately one million working hours a year in sometimes very harsh conditions; that’s equivalent to about 500 full-time positions.

The Newfoundland and Labrador numbers are similar. The number of reported injuries has held steady since offshore production ramped up in 1998 — with 28 reportable injuries that year and 27 in 2012.

However, over that same period, the total personhours worked annually have tripled to almost 4.9 million, representing nearly 2,500 full-time workers. Over the last five years, worker injuries in the province’s offshore oil and gas industry were about 80 percent lower than the provincial average.

However, catastrophic accidents, such as the Cougar Helicopter crash in 2009, are still taking a toll. South of the border, transport accidents were responsible for just over half of the 128 fatalities in the offshore oil and gas extraction industry between 2003 and 2010, according to the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

Three-quarters of these involved helicopter transport, while the remainder revolved around employees in the “transportation and material moving” occupations on various vessels. The CDC concludes that in order to reduce fatalities in offshore oil and gas operations, “employers should ensure that the most stringent applicable transportation guidelines are followed.”

TRAINING IMPROVEMENTS Here in Canada, safety training in the country’s offshore industry is already “world class,” says Paul Barnes, manager of Atlantic Canada operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), which represents about 90 per cent of the companies active in Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry. “Our operators provide the best available equipment and training systems for the Atlantic Canada offshore environment.

“Whether you are working onshore or offshore in the oil and gas industry, safety remains the top priority from an industry perspective,” Barnes says. “But in the offshore, you also have a long way to go to get to work, usually by helicopter, although sometimes by supply ships. That requires extra attention be paid to transport safety issues.”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Obesity has been linked to an increased incidence of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain kinds of cancer. From an oh&s perspective, obesity also increases the risk of musculoskeletal problems, injury and stress, in turn affecting absenteeism, sick leave and the related health claims paid by employers.

“Safety is under the microscope in the offshore oil and gas sector,” says Dr. Maureen Carew, an Ottawa-based public health physician. As a result, “a number of very progressive, multifaceted wellness programs have been launched. The sector is probably doing more in this area than most other employers in Canada.” The C-NLOPB contracted Dr. Carew to investigate whether physical fitness goals for workers, such as a healthy body weight, could improve the odds of survival in the event of an offshore emergency or a helicopter ditching.

Her extensive review of the available literature showed that even the most rigorous corporate programs are likely to achieve individual weight losses of just three to five kilograms over periods of 12 to 24 months. Although wellness strategies for the offshore workforce are expected to cut chronic illness and absenteeism, they offer few direct benefits for individuals attempting to evacuate a sinking helicopter, Dr. Carew concludes.

On the upside, a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise a day coupled with a healthier diet will pay safety dividends even without weight loss. “Even if a program achieved a modest average weight loss of just a couple of kilograms,” says Dr. Carew, “because there are so many workers on a rig, you would be making a significant improvement in metabolic health.”

The problem is it’s impossible to hop on a bike for a five kilometre ride or head for the park for some pick-up basketball on a rig 300 kilometres from shore. There are also safety considerations; it’s hard to exercise on the helicopter landing pad in full safety gear. “Creativity and experience have to come into play,” says Dr. Carew. “You have to be very innovative in what you can do.”

Following the Cougar crash, the Canadian offshore sector focused its attention on implementing the 29 recommendations of the Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry (OHSI) report. The document covers everything from the provision of a first-response helicopter (that can hit the air in 20 minutes) to a ban on night flights (currently under review) to research and development in helicopter safety; it also calls for a number of changes to the basic survival training (BST) program.

For many years, everyone who worked offshore has had to complete a BST course, with refresher sessions required every three years afterward, says Barnes. As part of the course, the helicopter underwater escape training (HUET) provided by the Offshore Safety and Survival Centre (OSSC) simulates the experience of ditching in the open seas.

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 15

FEATURE | OFFSHORE SAFETY

OFFSHORE PETROLEUM VITAL TO CANADA’S ECONOMY It’s a huge undertaking with six production platforms (Thebaud, Venture, North Triumph, Alma, South Venture and Deep Panuke) clumped on the Sable Island Bank some 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax, and another four (Terra Nova, White Rose, Hibernia and Hebron), either fixed or floating, scattered across the Grand Banks, 300 to 400 kilometres almost due east of St. John’s.

“It’s certainly an important sector for the province and a vital contributor to the economy,” says Sean Kelly, manager of public relations for the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. “As a result, some people might think these economic benefits are weighed against safety considerations.

But the industry has a very good safety record, and safety certainly doesn’t come second to the bottom line,” he says.

According to the detailed online maps maintained by the Newfoundland & Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association (NOIA), there are also 239 development wells (both producing and abandoned) surrounding and feeding the production platforms and another 280 (and counting) exploration wells stretching down the coast of Labrador, around Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

“It’s a strong and growing field,” says NOIA’s Deborah Inkpen, vice-president of policy and communications. “There’s a lot more [oil and gas] out there.” With more than 600 members, NOIA is the largest it has ever been and Inkpen estimates that there are some 17,000 people working in the operation and servicing of the offshore oil and gas sector.

In the last year, the training has been enhanced to make it “a lot more realistic,” says Barnes. The windows and seats in the simulator look and behave exactly like ones in use, even absorbing some of the impact when the machine “hits” the water. The new OSSC environmental theatre also duplicates the range of conditions — darkness, rain, lightning and high waves — that may be experienced during an emergency.

OSSC researchers have also been studying the use of dive masks (designed to keep salt water out of a passenger’s eyes) during HUET training, the difficulty in donning a marine abandonment immersion suit during an emergency or in rough seas, the operational performance of life rafts at sea and the recovery of rafts and personnel using a special scoop mounted on standby vessels.

“The worksites may be isolated, but the safety training is intensive, especially in emergency response drills,” says Barnes.

There are lots of targeted safety drills — how to launch a lifeboat, what to do when the alarm sounds, how to don safety gear and what workers can do if they end up in the water. If workers have to evacuate, they 16 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

are trained and experienced to handle whatever might get thrown at them. “It has instilled a safety culture where workers not only strive to protect themselves, but the other people around them,” Barnes says.

WELLNESS APPROACH Instead of treating the symptoms of safety lapses — industrial illnesses and injuries — a wellness safety program is another consideration, as it addresses some of the cultural roots of the problem. For the past six or seven years, a company called Definitions in St. John’s has been delivering a combination of lifestyle counselling, exercise training, nutritional information and human factors wellness programs to offshore oil and gas operators and their employees.

The company conducts job safety audits and prepares personal health plans for individual offshore workers. “It can be simply a series of small steps — little things like getting the proper sleep, drinking enough water, taking time to stretch and so on — that add up to a healthier lifestyle,” says company controller Tanya O’Neil. “It’s a win-win situation for both the employer and the employees,” she says. Staff also work closely with rig managers, crafting solutions for problems that may arise. “If we don’t have it, we can create it,” O’Neil says.

A 4,000 square foot bay in the company’s training complex mimics job conditions, equipment and even the scaffolding and ladders workers will encounter on the job site. “Before they go offshore, we can teach them the proper lifting, movement and working techniques that will prevent injuries,” says O’Neil. “We can also measure heart rate, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and the other metrics needed to prepare a postoffer/pre-employment fitness assessment.”

Perhaps the biggest risk is obesity, and the best way to improve health is by “getting inches off the bellies of oil field workers,” says O’Neil. Definitions staff work with the kitchens on the big rigs to create meal plans that ensure there are healthy options on every menu, together with the calorie and nutritional information workers can use to keep their health programs on track. “You’ve go to know your numbers,” to say safe, O’Neil says.

PLANNING FOR THE INEVITABLE Terry Kelly, managing director of SMS Aviation Safety in Ottawa, says that the sector is “a pretty hostile environment. It’s not benevolent out there.”

As a result, safety is a “living and breathing” requirement. “They take it personally. You can’t lose people as happened in 2009 and not feel it.” Kelly was part of the expert committee assembled by the C-NLOPB to recommend to the board practical work plans to meet each of the 29 OHSI recommendations on helicopter safety.

OFFSHORE SAFETY | FEATURE

The prescriptive approach traditionally used in drafting safety regulations just sets “the minimum things you have to do,” says Kelly. Performance goals are much more effective. They are “very dynamic and accommodate technological changes,” as well as acknowledge the individual and human factors that contribute to incidents.

He calls for a more proactive, risk-based systems approach. “We need to craft safety systems to understand and oversee the management of the risks in safety critical industries — such as aviation, healthcare and offshore oil and gas — where accidents can result in a potential loss of life.” This is also smarter, more cost effective management, critical at a time when “society has high expectations of regulators and industry, but limited funds are available for such oversight,” he says.

Dr. Mark Fleming from St. Mary’s University in Halifax says that the industry needs to realize that human error will occur. At a safety forum hosted in May 2013 by the C-NLOPB, he told participants: “You try to make it so that when you make a mistake it does not cause harm.”

The offshore sector has implemented multiple redundant systems, double checks and fail-safe mechanisms to accommodate the kinds of mistakes people typically make. Instilling a safety culture involves “thinking about the types of mistakes people are going to make, realizing that those mistakes are caused by a range of [cultural] factors and designing a system that can tolerate those mistakes,” he says. PL William M. Glenn is a writer in Toronto.

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“The worksites may be isolated, but the safety training is

intensive.”

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 17

FEATURE | FRACKING MORATORIUM

FRACTUR OPP U

By Jason Contant

nifor, the country’s newest union, is calling for a countrywide moratorium on all new oil and gas hydraulic fracturing. The process, known as “fracking,” involves injecting chemicals under high pressure into drilled wells to fracture geological formations below and allow for the release of larger quantities of both crude oil and natural gas.

The union, which represents more than 300,000 Canadian workers in total and about 20,000 in the energy sector, is raising concerns over the safety and environmental risks associated with fracking as well as the “lack of informed consent” by First Nations about fracking activities on traditional lands. The provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have already introduced moratoriums on fracking, Unifor notes in a press release, and Nova Scotia has banned fracking while it reviews the process.

And in late November, Prince Edward Island’s Standing Committee on Agriculture, Environment, Energy and Forestry recommended a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the province. Nova Scotia also tabled legislation in early December to stop companies from importing or transporting fracking wastewater into the province.

A statement from Nova Scotia Environment says that the province used to treat wastewater from New Brunswick in the past, but that has already stopped. “The province is continuing to address wastewater from shale gas exploration in Kennetcook six years ago,” the statement says. New Brunswick remains the only Atlantic province that permits fracking to continue.

18 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

“We have a number of concerns on the worker safety front, in addition to concerns regarding the risks to public health and the environment, groundwater and surface water contamination, for starters,” Unifor Atlantic director Lana Payne says, arguing that unconventional fracking is relatively new in Canada, but “is quickly taking on the characteristics of a gold rush-like [phenomenon].

“Our past experience with worker health and safety is that often in these kinds of gold rush-type industries, worker safety is not exactly at the top of the list,” she contends. “Rather, it is far after the fact when rules or laws are put in place around exposures and risks and hazards or acceptable standards.”

Payne notes that recent field studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States show that workers may be exposed to dust with high levels of respirable crystalline silica during hydraulic fracturing. A NIOSH study of 116 air samples at 11 hydraulic fracturing sites in five states (Arkansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas) shows silica levels for workers in and around dust generation points above occupational exposure limits. In fact, 79 per cent of the samples showed exposures greater than the NIOSH-recommended exposure limit of 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre.

Even without the chemicals used in the fracking process, Payne adds, hydraulic fracturing sand contains up to 99 per cent silica. “We know from the mining industry that exposure to silica, the breathing of it into your lungs, can cause silicosis and lung cancer,” she says, adding that Dr. Theo Colborn, a Paonia, Colorado-

FRACKING MORATORIUM | FEATURE

RED POSITION based scientist focusing on chemicals that interfere with development and function, has noted that there are over 900 chemicals used in the fracking process and more than 80 per cent of them have respiratory impacts. “The big issue here is there are still a lot of unknowns in what is not a very regulated industry,” Payne says.

In a resolution unanimously passed by the 25-person Unifor national executive board, the union said that the moratorium “should stay in place until such time as the safety and environmental risks associated with fracking have been adequately addressed and until First Nations communities have given full informed consent for fracking activity on their traditional lands.”

In December, the Council of Canadians, an Ottawabased social action organization, congratulated the Newfoundland and Labrador government on its decision to establish a de facto moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the province. “That said, we believe it is important that you consider a more comprehensive, independent and unbiased review, as opposed to a government-led initiative,” three council members wrote in a letter to then-Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale and Derrick Dalley, the Minister of Natural Resources.

The letter also raises a number of concerns, including exorbitant water use, the potential for water contamination, public health impacts, the lack of safe methods to dispose of fracking wastewater, the potential damage to fisheries as well as greenhouse gas emissions and their impacts on climate change.

Payne argues that more and proper public consulta-

New Brunswick remains the only Atlantic province that permits fracking to continue.

tion, engagement and study are needed. “We cannot merely rely on what the energy companies say about the health and environmental impacts of unconventional fracking,” she contends, noting that there are reasons why jurisdictions like Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Vermont and New York State have called for reviews or moratoriums.

“They are all concerned that we do not have enough information about the impacts this industry will have on the environment and on worker safety,” Payne says. “It is a prudent approach to take, as we all should be seeking to find a balance between economic development and worker safety and environmental protection. These things should not be one or the other.” PL Jason Contant is the editor of Pipeline Magazine.

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PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 19

EET FFIRST

PRODUCTS | FOOT PROTECTION

By Carmelle Wolfson

F

or workers who operate in challenging environments, wearing footwear that offers both protection and stability enables them to put their best foot forward.

In the industrial market, comfort ranks first when it comes to choosing footwear, notes Jason Carriere, director of sales for Montreal-based Timberland Pro, which specializes in premium quality, general purpose work boots. “Otherwise, you will do extensive damage to your body standing all day on your feet in something that is not comfortable,” he says. “It obviously will affect your posture, your knees, your back. And when you’re tired, you’re just not as focused on your job and you just don’t seem to do as good a job as you can.”

Guided by the recognition that comfort is key when selecting safety footwear, Timberland Pro introduced in 2008 an anti-fatigue footbed built into the midsole of the work boot. Carriere explains that this eliminates the potential tripping hazard posed by

20 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

anti-fatigue mats. “Basically, it acts as a stabilizer and massages your feet as you’re standing in the boots all day,” he says.

In addition to the anti-fatigue feature, Timberland offers more room at the toe cap of its work boots.

Carriere says this provides increased comfort by enabling the toes to breathe and move around more freely. “Obviously, if you put on a work boot and there’s a small toe cap, your toes get crunched in the forefoot and it’s not really comfortable.”

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

FOOT PROTECTION | PRODUCTS

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 21

PRODUCTS | FOOT PROTECTION

LIGHTWEIGHT DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN COMFORTABLE. For example, a size nine boot may fit an individual perfectly, but not if it comes with a steel toe cap, which “usually touches the edge of your toe or the edge of your small toe and people just don’t like it because you definitely feel the metal,” Heffernan says.

GENERAL OR SPECIFIC Before choosing a pair of safety footwear, buyers need to know the type and level of protection required for the work environment.

For general purpose safety boots, CSA Groupapproved toe protection and puncture-proof plate protection on the sole are the industry standard.

General purpose boots are commonly used in the construction, maintenance and warehousing sectors, but they are also suitable for some workers in the oil and gas sector. In addition to toe- and punctureprotection, oil and gas workers will generally need boots that are fully waterproof and provide metatarsal protection.

Depending on the location and type of work, a lace-up leather eight- or 10-inch work boot or a rubber pull-on boot may also be suitable. Workers who require rubber boots are those whose feet, and at times legs, are submerged in oil or gas. However, it is worth noting the major disadvantage of rubber boots is that they will not fit as snugly as leather boots.

A mining boot, such as the Oliver 65-690 10-inch lace-up mining boot, could also serve oil and gas workers well — especially those involved in fracking, in which saltwater is present, Heffernan notes. “Pretty much in any direction, water is going to get out or oil is going to get out to the sides, to the front or the back.

But there’s still a lot of surface contact of that tread pattern,” he says of Honeywell’s mining boot soles.

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

Workers on offshore oil rigs need soles with tremendous tread abilities, since they are walking on steel. Terra is another company offering boots with 22 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

high-grade leather uppers and slip-resistant soles suitable for the oil and gas industry, says Steve Hagarty, vice-president of sales for Terra, Kodiak and Dickies footwear brands in Cambridge, Ontario. Hagarty says rubber soles work well in offshore drilling in Canada because they are capable of withstanding the cold weather. “Rubber outsoles are definitely desirable and are actually specified by a lot of the companies,” Hagarty says. For example, he says the Terra Crossbow felt pack boot can be worn in temperatures as cold as -60 degrees Celsius.

Another option for workers in Alberta’s oilsands is leather boots that are both warm and flexible, Carriere suggests. Timberland Pro offers an eight-inch, fullgrain leather boot called the Boondock with a Vibram® rubber Fire&Ice™ outsole. “The Fire&Ice™ meme comes from the fact that it is a boot that is going to stay flexible in extremely cold temperatures, so it is an outsole that is never going to get really hard. It’s going to stay soft even when it’s really cold,” Carriere says.

“And that’s what these workers need because they’re working in really cold environments.”

For those who toil away in industries like utilities and electronics manufacturing, protection against electrical hazards is critical. “You want to make sure that in some cases, where it’s appropriate, that you’re electrically protected, so you’re not going to get shocked,” Heffernan says. “If you’re working on circuit boards in a factory or anything electronic, you don’t want any sort of charge coming off you.”

Footwear that protects against electrical hazards comes in two types: electrical hazard or EH-graded boots and static dissipating or SD-footwear. The former is designed to significantly reduce the risk of electrocution by reducing the flow of electricity through the shoes to the ground, while SD-footwear minimizes the charge the body creates.

WEIGHING IN Comfortable and lightweight footwear is a growing trend in the safety boot market, notes Hagarty, who reports that Terra manufactures lightweight boots by using composite materials that are more flexible and lighter in weight than steel in the toe cap and puncture-proof plate in the sole of the boot. “We’re using a lot of metal-free components,” Hagarty says. “So we’re

FOOT PROTECTION | PRODUCTS actually moving more in the direction of composite toes versus steel toes, which makes the footwear considerably lighter.”

Another advantage is that “they don’t transmit cold the way that steel does,” he says. “So they tend to be a little warmer.” He adds that the puncture proof plate is more flexible than steel, which limits heel slip.

But not everyone is on the same page when it comes to footwear.

Randy Lubart, executive director of Shoes for Crews in West Palm Beach, Florida, argues that composite and steel are practically equal in weight if the pieces are of the same mass size. “There was a fallacy years ago that composite, being a polymer substance, was lighter than steel. Well, that’s hardly the case. The reality is that more composite material is used to accommodate the impact protection that steel provides,” Lubart explains. He adds that both steel and composite offer the same protection, but composite will not conduct energy.

Carriere points out that lightweight does not necessarily mean comfortable. “We live in a world where the conception is if it’s the lightest boot on the wall, then it’s comfortable. And that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says. “Obviously when you go out and you run, you want to have a light running shoe on your foot. But with work boots, it’s a bit different.”

Carriere advises against choosing a work boot based on its weight, as this can be “extremely dangerous,” since boots that are extremely lightweight will break down more quickly. “I just think there’s not enough built into the boot to make it last.” He adds that Timberland Pro builds construction boots that are both durable and comfortable. “We have boots that are very light, but most of our construction boots and most of our more premium products fall within the mid-weight range.”

INFILTRATION RISK Workers who operate in smelters require boots that are non-magnetic and can be removed quickly in the event of molten metal infiltration, says Jerry Hould, business development manager for L.P. ROYER Inc. in Lac-Drolet, Quebec. The manufacturer, which has been making smelting boots for 36 years and supplies to more than 30 smelters around the world, offers a boot dipped in molten metal. “Of course, the boot should stay in one part. All the stitching should not burn. They should not have any molten metal infiltration inside the footwear. The sole should not melt.”

That, Hould says, is a tough test to pass. “Across the world, it’s a small market.”

Hould adds that ROYER is one of only a few footwear manufacturers that offer a program that involves working with end users and health and safety committees to identify the risk of injury and recommend the appropriate product to suit work conditions.

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

Shoes for Crews has developed different grid patterns for shoe soles to be used in various work environments.

They are especially popular in the fast food service industry, in which grease is a major hazard. Lubart says fryers used in these restaurants are so hot that the grease mixes with oxygen and explodes, sending particles into the atmosphere before collecting on the ground. “And that’s what creates that roller rink, if you will.”

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT — FOOT PROTECTION Terra Footwear in Cambridge, Ontario offers boots with high-grade leather uppers and slip-resistant soles suitable for the oil and gas industry, says Steve Hagarty, vice-president of sales for Terra, Kodiak and Dickies footwear brands.

Hagarty says rubber soles work well in the Canadian offshore industry because they can withstanding extreme temperatures. For example, he says, the Terra Crossbow felt pack boot can be worn in temperatures as cold as -60 degrees Celsius.

Information from the company notes that the Terra Crossbow also features a high-traction rubber outsole with a diamond cleat design; full-grain waterproof leather upper; integrated pull tab and 3M™ reflective piping; a removable four-layer liner, treated with CLEANFEET® odour fighting technology; a moisture capture frost plug; and an ergonomic low-profile composite top cap and composite plate.

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 23

PRODUCTS | FOOT PROTECTION He adds that the slipperiness is exacerbated by Spanish quarry tiles, which are widely used in fast food establishments. “It is remarkably inexpensive, it wears like iron and it’s unbelievably slippery once contaminated,” Lubart says of this tiling material, suggesting that the first two characteristics “outweigh the third in the proprietor’s eye.”

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

CARING FOR FOOTWEAR While protective footwear is essential in keeping workers’ feet unscathed, Carriere believes that most people doing heavy industry work do not look after their work boots, which are used just like any other piece of equipment. “You can buy all these products to make it shiny and to make it look new, but it’s really hard because the guy, at the end of the day, he’s not going to worry about dirtying or wrecking his boots.

He’s really working in harsh conditions.”

That said, workers should air their boots if possible and keep them in a place that is not too damp and away from direct sunlight. If the boots are leather, oil should be applied on the footwear from time to time to prevent it from drying out and to resist water better.

“Leather is a skin, so when it’s exposed to the elements, it loses its oil content and the leather becomes less flexible and can crack,” Hagarty says.

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

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

And shoes that are no longer comfortable to wear should be replaced. Signs of wear and tear to look out for include exposed steel on the toe, holes in the exterior, worn-down soles or interiors and cracked or compromised leather. Manufacturers generally do not guarantee how long a pair of footwear will last, as this is determined by various factors, such as the environment, the weight of the worker, how much wear and tear the footwear sustains and the frequency that shoes are worn. “You can tell just by looking at it if you need a new pair if it’s starting to get really trashed,” Carriere says.

Depending on the level of hazard protection offered, the price of safety shoes can range from $40 to $500.

Hould suggests that while many customers have no qualms forking out $200 for a pair of fashion or running shoes that they wear only on weekends, the same cannot be said of safety footwear. “On safety footwear that you wear eight, 10, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for a lot of people, they don’t want to pay.” PL Carmelle Wolfson is the assistant editor of OHS Canada.

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT — FOOT PROTECTION Oliver Footwear, which is based in Victoria, Australia but serves international markets, has a mining boot — the 65-690 — that could also serve oil and gas industry workers well, especially those in the fracking sector in which saltwater is present, says Chris Heffernan, general manager of industrial footwear at Honeywell Industrial Footwear in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Information from the company notes that the boot has a long-wearing, all-terrain rubber outsole designed for superior grip and durability; a PORON®

24 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

XRD™ extreme impact protection metatarsal guard; Nomex thread on critical seams; superior abrasion and slip resistance; a shock-absorbing polyurethane midsole; performance cushioning for all-day underfoot comfort; breathable fullgrain leather; a wide-profile safety toecap with latex comfort liner under the cap to eliminate toe discomfort and a unique sole cleaning tread pattern to ensure cleats do not retain rocks and dirt.

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PRODUCTS | LONE WORKER DEVICES

STAYING IN TOUCH

By Jeff Cottrill

26 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

T

hose who work in offices, factories and other environments where co-workers are present may take it for granted that help is almost always at hand. But what about employees who work alone, out of sight and out of mind?

Many workers fall under this category. They include not only oil and gas workers, but security guards, technicians in remote sites, gas station attendants, retail staff in convenience stores, taxi drivers, door-to-door salespeople and inspectors who make house calls.

From an oil and gas workplace safety standpoint, working alone is of particular concern when the job involves high-risk activities, such as handling hazardous materials or equipment, working at heights or operating in confined spaces.

Brendan Cook, chief technology officer and cofounder of Blackline GPS in Calgary, identifies three key dangers associated with working alone: physical injury; health issues (especially with an aging workforce); and physical confrontation with a member of the public or a fellow colleague. These situations become more dangerous and even potentially lifethreatening when an employee is left to his or her own devices for a lengthy period of time.

“You’ve got to be aware of the hazards you’re working with and take all the precautions you possibly can, but you don’t want to get yourself in a position where you can be injured and there’s no one there to help you,” cautions Ross Humphry, president of Canadian Safety Equipment in Mississauga, Ontario. He notes that there have been incidents in which a worker who was seriously injured in a fall was not found until much later. “They could have been saved had someone been there to respond.”

ON THE MOVE As lone workers often do not have easy access to help when they need it, providing the ability to establish contact with outside parties is paramount.

“As an employer, if you have an employee who is working in isolation, it is your responsibility to minimize or eliminate those risks,” stresses Lindsay Ryerson, chief executive officer and president of Contigo in Vancouver. “In a lot of work environments, you can’t really eliminate them. So what you must do is implement controls to minimize the risk,” he adds, noting that the need to protect the safety of lone workers is a serious obligation.

When it comes to selecting the appropriate monitoring device, comfort and compliance with the required CSA Group standards are key, says Drew McCallum, marketing operations manager with 3M’s personal safety division in London, Ontario. “It’s making sure that you have the right personal protective equipment (PPE), that you have done the right

LONE WORKER DEVICES | PRODUCTS

CHECK-IN PROCEDURES The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Hamilton, Ontario has some advice for those who work alone and how to do so safely. It recommends having a check-in procedure through verbal or visual means, which should also include the following measures: • Preparing a daily work plan specifying where the worker will be at what times; • Designating a main contact person and back-up at the office; • Having the contact person check in on the lone worker periodically through either phone calls or physical visits; • Clarifying how often and under what circumstances a lone employee is required to check in; • Keeping a written log of contact established; • Deciding on a code word for emergency communications; and • Creating an emergency plan for when a lone worker fails to check in at the designated time.

While the above measures are useful, “anything can happen from that point to the next call — assuming the person remembers to make it,” cautions Ross Humphry, president of Canadian Safety Equipment in Mississauga, Ontario. As such, he advises that manual check-in procedures should be supplemented with instant communication devices or phone applications tailored to lone workers.

safety checks and that you are using all the right PPE to help you.”

To enable supervisors or employers to monitor the safety of lone workers more effectively, Canadian Safety Equipment offers a series of motion monitoring devices that sets off alarms if no physical movement is detected from workers for a set length of time.

The motion detector, which has a built-in radio transmitter and, in some cases, a transceiver that can both transmit and receive communications, will go into pre-alert mode after a preset period of time has elapsed, typically 50 seconds. If no motion is detected, an audio alarm will be triggered for 10 seconds and beep increasingly louder before going into a 95 decibel audio alarm.

A radio signal will then be sent out to the central monitoring receiver. This closes a relay in the receiver that will turn on the lights, sirens and an automatic telephone dialing system or remote alarms.

But what if a worker has fallen down the stairs and broken his hip? “You’re not going to lay there completely frozen and motionless waiting for that device to count up to 60 seconds,” Humphry says. “You’re going to be moaning and rolling around in great pain. So these devices have a panic button, which bypasses the whole time sequence and goes directly into alarm.”

T-PASS Transmitting Pass alarms, or T-Passes, are based on the same concept, but take it one step further. These PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 27

PRODUCTS | LONE WORKER DEVICES

AN ALL-ROUNDED VIEW When determining the type of monitoring device to adopt to ensure lone worker safety, it is important to consider if a worker is operating in a populated or remote area.

While check-in technologies like call-in systems and panic alarm devices work well in areas where the employers’ monitoring stations are within relatively easy reach, workers in remote locations face particular challenges. Land-based telephone lines and security services are typically unavailable in inaccessible locations, while cellphone coverage may be limited or non-existent, WorkSafeBC notes.

Factors that should be taken into account include the following: • The specific workplace layout, including furniture design and placement and the locations of entrances and exits; • The location of the workplace and the response time needed to get there in the event of an emergency; • Tasks that may put workers at higher risk, such as operating machinery, working from heights or activities during which serious accidents or injuries have occurred in the past; • The climate of the work environment, including whether or not a worker may be exposed to extreme weather conditions or temperatures; • How physically demanding the work is; • Age, experience and training of workers at risk; • Activities that may take a worker out of a safe environment; and • Staff deployment and scheduling.

co-monitoring pass alarms, which come in pairs worn by employees working in close proximity but in separate locations (such as two wings of a large building or a pair of adjoining structures), enable them to remain in constant contact. If one alarm goes off, it automatically activates the other alarm so that the co-worker will be alerted and can respond to his distressed colleague, whose name will be indicated on the crystal liquid display.

Humphry says this device enables workers to work in facilities of any size, as the receiver can have remote antennae to provide more coverage. Some of the models even have the ability to warn other workers of danger with the push of a button. “You can call a spe28 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

cific person, you can call a number of people,” Humphry says. “There is no relying on people to remember to call or any of that. It’s a constant, 100 per cent monitoring device.”

Blackline GPS’ Loner series of remote safety monitoring devices also offers motion detection and emergency alerting services similar to those provided by Canadian Safety Equipment. These devices can also provide the precise location of the employee in distress through the global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking function and enable monitoring personnel to dispatch assistance for a pinpoint response.

The tracking function is particularly helpful if a lone worker moves to another space or location where he or she would not normally go. “When things are performed that are out of the norm, that’s when sometimes unexpected variables can creep in,” Cook cautions, adding that complacency is an influencing factor. “People get too much into the rhythm of things.

When there isn’t a certain level of assessment that’s appropriate on a consistent basis — perhaps if attention is lost — then that lets in the opportunity for something to occur.”

Communication gadgets aside, Cook suggests that taking extra precautionary measures is always recommended. “We manufacture employee safety monitoring products that you essentially wear at all times. But that shouldn’t stop somebody from making a check-in to say, ‘Look, I’m going into this environment, I’m going to perform this activity.’ Then there’s that prior knowledge that could be helpful in managing an emergency response,” he says.

OUT OF THE BOX Purchasing communication devices for use by lone workers can be expensive. But alternative devices offering the same protective function at a fraction of the price are available. Apps or programs that function as tracking and monitoring devices can be downloaded onto cell phones carried by lone workers at all times.

For example, Lindsay Ryerson from Contigo has teamed up with TELUS to develop Alert and Assist, a lone worker application that works with smartphones, Blackberrys, Androids and other mobile devices, as well as traditional landlines. Users conduct check-ins and send out panic alerts through an interactive voiceresponse system. There is also a downloadable app that automates similar procedures. “One of the benefits is that you can start the app and log out of the app at the end of the day,” Ryerson says, noting that user privacy is not compromised during non-work hours.

Ryerson adds that Alert and Assist has been widely adopted in law enforcement, home care and social services. “People who make home visits — this device gives protection to them. They’re going to individual residences and into an uncertain environment,” he suggests. “It’s a great solution because when they

LONE WORKER DEVICES | PRODUCTS arrive at that address, they can just check in and say, ‘Please check back in 15 minutes,’ before going in.”

There is also buy-in from industries such as the oil and gas sector, in which workers operate in environments that may contain or give rise to noxious fumes.

“One of the key things in that environment is, should anything happen, your time for recovery is very important,” Ryerson notes. “Finding someone who headed into it 12 hours ago can be fatal; finding someone after it happened can save their lives.”

Another effective, low-cost option is Checkmate, designed by ProTELEC. This automated system checks in on lone workers based on schedules tailored specifically to their needs. “You create the schedule for your worker and Checkmate will automatically call the worker when they answer their phone,” says Mark Nieman, a manager with ProTELEC in Winnipeg.

“They just enter a four-digit PIN number and press pound, and then we know that they’re okay.”

Checkmate also offers a free phone app, Checkmate Plus, which allows the user to send out a distress signal.

“When it goes into alarm, it will update its GPS coordinates to us every minute until the alarm is resolved,” Nieman says. It includes a man-down alarm feature so that if the phone remains in a horizontal position for a given period of time, it issues an alarm to the monitoring station. “As long as you have access to a phone, the system will work.”

TWO-WAY TRAFFIC For lone workers who need to maintain verbal communication with others, having a two-way radio — in addition to an alarm and/or a tracking system for emergencies — is essential. While a portable radio or a walkie-talkie can perform that function, carrying these devices can be cumbersome, especially for workers who have to free up their hands to do their jobs.

3M Canada resolves these issues with the Peltor Lite Com Pro II — a wireless, hands-free, voice-activated radio headset through which a worker can stay

in contact with others while being physically cut off from the world at large. Gwen MacDonald, a sales specialist with 3M in Barrie, Ontario, calls it an “all-inone device.” As the earmuffs fully cover the ears, this headset also serves as hearing protection for workers who operate in noisy environments.

The muffs come with external ambient microphones that enable the wearer to hear sounds in the environment. “The radio is actually self-contained right within the muff,” MacDonald says. The radio headset can be programmed to frequencies anywhere in the range of ultra-high frequencies (UHF) or connect to a portable or mobile radio on UHF. “You’re always aware of your surroundings, so if somebody is coming up to try to have a conversation with you, no more lifting up your muff to talk,” MacDonald says. It is recommended that the ear seal be replaced every six months, “but that cost is pretty low,” she notes, adding that the Lite Com Pro device has a range of approximately three kilometres.

MacDonald says the device is often used in the oil and gas industry, police training, manufacturing plants and other work environments. “Sometimes, certain plants won’t have external radios, but they like the muff idea and then they still need hearing protection on top of that.”

HELPING HAND While the ability to seek help promptly can make a difference between life and death for those who work alone under challenging conditions or in remote locations, the ability to help oneself may be one’s best insurance, McCallum says. “Should a fall occur, the workers are left either to wait for a rescue team or to figure out how to get themselves down on their own.”

The Personal Rescue Device (PRD) is another 3M product designed specifically for lone workers operating at heights. This lightweight harness is attached to a nylon backpack worn by workers on the job. The harness is hooked onto something secure so that the

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT LONE WORKER DEVICES Transmitting Pass alarms, or T-Passes, are co-monitoring pass alarms that come in pairs, worn by employees working in close proximity, but in separate locations, says Ross Humphry, president of Canadian Safety Equipment in Mississauga, Ontario.

These devices enable workers to remain in constant contact and if one alarm goes off, it automatically activates the other alarm so that the co-worker will be alerted and can respond to his distressed colleague, whose name will be indicated on the crystal liquid display.

Humphry says that some T-Pass models even have the ability to warn other workers of danger with the push of a button. “You can call a specific person, you can call a number of people,” Humphry says. “There is no relying on people to remember to call or any of that.

It’s a constant, 100 per cent monitoring device.”

PIPELINE WINTER 2014 | 29

PRODUCTS | LONE WORKER DEVICES/PIPE MARKERS

The ability to help oneself may be one’s best insurance. worker can pull the release cord to bring himself or herself down slowly and safely without assistance in the event of a fall.

“The PRD provides a safe and simple rescue plan,” McCallum says. “Workers can simply look down to confirm it’s a safe landing and then pull on a release cord to activate it. It actually lowers the worker to the ground 65 feet within 30 seconds, basically solving the problem of self-rescue.”

The PRD must be inspected before use and it has to be either replaced or recertified by the Canada Safety Centre in Brockville, Ontario after each deployment. While every company needs to have a rescue plan, McCallum says the beauty of the PRD is that it “removes the need for standby or outsourced rescue teams, which can be very costly.”

While working alone will always involve an element of risk, lone workers can take heart that they are

better protected from the hazards posed by their work environments than ever before, because of the wide range of equipment and communication systems available today — many of which are simple to use.

Identifying employees who work alone or in remote locations is the first step in developing a communication plan. This can be tricky in some cases, considering that the situations in which employees work alone can come in many forms.

“What the legislation says is, if you’re working alone or you’re the only worker for the employer in the workplace at a time, or if you’re not directly supervised by your employer or another person designated by the employer, then you should be using a work alone system,” Nieman says. PL Jeff Cottrill is the editorial assistant of OHS Canada.

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT PIPE MARKERS

1

2

K-Sun Corporation, based in Somerset, Wisconsin, introduced a new pipe marker software program last November.

The PipeMarker V8™ for Microsoft Windows® 8, 7 and XP is bundled with the K-Sun® PEARLabel® 400iXL, a new 300-dpi, wide-format thermal transfer printer. The one- to four-inch capacity printer and software make it easy for safety and facility professionals to design and print custom ANSI/ASME A13.1-compliant pipe markers, tags and labels on all-weather adhesive supplies quickly and inexpensively, in-house and on-demand, the company says in a statement.

PipeMarker V8™ contains hundreds of pipe marker templates in English, Spanish and bilingual formats, organized into easy-to-access categories. Users can create custom pipe markers and add QR, DataMatrix and other bar codes for maintenance record access, plus add additional text, sequence numbers, company logos or symbols to help enhance communication on any pipe marker, tag

Creative Safety Supply in Beaverton, Oregon announced on Dec. 31 that it is now offering pipe marking supplies that will help businesses comply with ANSI standards. The supplies help identify a pipe’s content and direction of flow.

The supplier offers a large selection of pre-printed pipe labels as well as pipe marking supplies, including industrial-

30 | WINTER 2014 PIPELINE

or label. The software can instantly convert pipe marker formats into tag formats that are ready to print, and users can also design and print custom arrow, diagonal stripe and checkered tape in lengths up to 90 inches long.

The company says that the software and printer combination offers a significant cost saving. For example, a user can select and print a compliant pipe marker for a two-and-a-half- to six-inch diameter pipe for less than $2 in fewer than five minutes using the software and printer combination.

grade LabelTac markers, which can print labels that resist extreme temperatures, water, chemicals and UV exposure.

Creative Safety Supply says on its website that the extratough pipe marking labels, which could indicate the presence of ammonia, acid waste or propane gas, for example, are durable for five to seven years outdoors.

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