As part of their ongoing effort to improve the province’s occupational health and safety (oh&s) record, the Saskatchewan government has developed two new online oh&s training courses.

The courses, which cost $10 each, are designed to be taken by those responsible for conducting inspections and investigations related to health and safety, including members of occupational health and safety committees, health and safety representatives, managers, and supervisors.

The first course, entitled “Saskatchewan Workplace Inspections,” explains how to effectively prepare for and conduct regular inspections to prevent work-related injury and illness.

The second course, entitled “Incident Investigations in Saskatchewan Workplaces,” provides safety and other personnel an overall introduction and a practical approach to conducting proper investigations whenever there has been a workplace accident that causes injury.

Upon completion of either course, participants will receive a certificate. If you’d like to know more about the courses, please click this link.

The relatives of a Nova Scotia worker who died after inhaling a chemical that caused his suffocation say the fine levied against his employer is just a ”slap on the hand” for a giant drug manufacturer Sepracor Canada, and they are very disappointed.

A plea deal between the Crown and Sepracor last week led to the dropping of four of five charges under the province’s Occupational Health and Safety Act in the death of worker Ronald Daigle. The remaining charge, failing to provide venting for a worker who died in a workplace accident, to which Sepracor pleaded guilty, resulted in a fine of $45,000.

The incident in question occurred on October 7, 2008 at the Sepracor factory in Windsor. Daigle was at his workstation, handling the chemical trimethylsilyl diazomethane, a chemical with highly toxic fumes. Due to workplace renovations occurring at the time, the venting hood that was usually in place to suck away such fumes was inoperable. The company had apparently notified employees the vent hood wasn’t working, and they made a list of procedures workers should avoid that day. But there was no notice to employees to avoid working with the chemical and its toxic fumes, and they provided no individual breathing apparatus.

That night, after being exposed to the chemical for an extended time without proper ventilation, Daigle felt ill and began coughing up blood. Within 18 hours of his initial exposure to the chemical, he was in intensive care in a Halifax hospital. According to experts, the fumes of trimethylsilyl diazomethane actually destroy the lungs by filling them with so much fluid that air can’t get into them, which causes the exposed victim to actually smother.

Even though the company had provided no alternative to the venting hood, the court agreed with the Crown and Sepracor’s joint recommendation to dismiss charges that the firm failed to ensure adequate personal protection equipment and that the employee was instructed in the safe use of the chemical. Two other charges – failing to instruct an employee in safe use of a substance in the company’s lab and failing to ensure that no person would disturb the scene of an accident — were also dismissed.

Not only was Daigle’s family upset at what it considered to be the light fine, but the Labour Department investigator who looked into the incident suggested that the fine could have been larger, given that the maximum fine for a failure to provide venting was $250,000 at the time of the incident.

After this incident, the information sheets describing trimethylsilyl diazomethane in Canada have been changed to indicate that its fumes can severely damage lungs.

Alberta labour officials are calling on the provincial government to step up enforcement of child labour laws, based in part on some disturbing findings contained in a new study by Bob Barnetson, Ph.D, associate professor of labour relations with Athabasca University, suggesting that labour malpractice involving children has become widespread in the province.

The study, entitled “Effectiveness of Complaint-Driven Regulation of Child Labour in Alberta,” was based on data resulting from telephone surveys of 1200 homes, which were conducted by the University of Alberta’s Population Research Laboratory. Also included were data from 20 interviews with parents and children participating in the workforce.

Based on their findings, as many as 6.3% of all children aged 9 to 11 were employed in 2008 and 2009. Of that number, 78% were employed in jobs, such as newspaper delivery and janitorial services, which are prohibited by law for children of that age. The study also found that 19.4% of all children aged 12 to 14 were employed, and 21% of them were working in occupations such as janitorial services and golf courses, both of which are also prohibited by law.

In Alberta, there are strong rules in place that forbid young people under 12 from being employed at all, which is why it surprised researchers when they found so many in that age range employed in a “regular job.” “Regular jobs” do not include such limited jobs as babysitting and raking a lawn, because of the lack of intention to establish an ongoing employment relationship.

The study suggests that one of the biggest problems the province has is its tendency to wait until someone complains to begin enforcing child labour laws. This approach is quite ineffective, since many people who are aware of problems don’t complain, due to a variety of factors, such as a lack of knowledge of worker rights and workplace practices, and fear of potential employer retaliation.

Some labour experts suggest the province has added to the problem with its decision to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants. While there are limitations as to
what young workers can do while working in a restaurant, the study found that employers are largely ignoring them. Among the violations found were working too many hours, paying less than minimum wage; working under age; or performing a number of prohibited tasks. Some parents were absolutely shocked to learn that their child “routinely handled box cutters, worked on ladders, lifted heavy boxes and used fryers, slicers and other equipment. Among injuries reported by young workers were burns, cuts and back injuries,” according to the study.

Labour activists would like the Alberta Labour Ministry to stop allowing children as young as 12 to work in restaurants, and also to develop a long-term program to inspect workplaces they know to employ underage workers. They would also like to see more highly visible prosecutions.

The provincial government, for its part, plans to perform focused random inspections aimed at young worker safety, and it has started posting legal actions against inappropriate youth employment on its website.

Alberta is promising to hire 30 new occupational health and safety officers over the next three years, in addition to the 16 officers already hired during the 2010-2011 fiscal year, so that by 2014, they will have 132 OHS officers, a 55% increase from the 86 officers they had early last year.

The goal is to improve what many consider to be the province’s woeful record on workplace accidents. The inspectors will conduct on-the-spot inspections of workplaces and investigate serious accidents, as well as educate employers and workers on OH&S legislation.

The ministry will also divide the province into three enforcement regions instead of two. The old regions of north and south, which are currently divided near Red Deer, will become north, central and south, which will allow for a greater focus in northern Alberta, where the province is seeing the greatest industrial growth.

The provincial government also announced a series of focus inspections to take place this year. These inspections will take place in addition to their regular random inspections, and will focus on certain infractions. The first such inspections of forklifts were based on statistics regarding those pieces of equipment. The next focus will be on young and inexperienced workers.

While the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents more than 140,000 workers, welcomed the announcement of additional officers, they note that Alberta is one of the most dangerous places in Canada to work, with its concentration of jobs in hazardous industrial sectors such as petroleum development, construction, processing and manufacturing, and that a lot more needs to be done. They remain skeptical of the promised hires, and they question where the money was coming from to pay for the inspectors, since the latest budget only allowed for a 1.5% increase for inspections.

The Federation has recommended that inspectors be given the power to issue on-site administrative fines and stop-work/stop-use orders when they discover violations. They would also like to see Crown prosecutors pursue charges against more workplaces that violate the Occupational Health and Safety Code. They note that 142 workers were killed on the job from 2006 to 2009, and the province prosecuted less than 3% of the employers involved.

Springside Paving & Construction Limited in Concord, Ontario was assessed a $100,000 fine for an accident that led to the death of a worker on July 13, 2009, after the company pleaded guilty to a violation of Ontario’s Regulations for Construction Projects last month. According to a statement from Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, the company failed, as an employer, to ensure that a signaller assisted a vehicle operator if his view of the intended path of travel is obstructed or if a person may be endangered.

The incident that led to the fine occurred on July 13, 2009, as three workers were replacing an asphalt driveway and re-leveling an interlocking walkway at a residential property in Vaughan, north of Toronto. After disconnecting a trailer from a truck, one worker boarded the vehicle and slowly began reversing the truck toward the work site, and the vehicle ran over and killed another worker.

The company initially faced four charges, but three were dropped when the company pleaded guilty.

According to the MoL, between 2005-2009 a total of 40 workers died after being struck by construction equipment or the material they were handling, the MoL reports. Last summer, the MoL kicked off an enforcement campaign involving construction projects. During that campaign, inspectors issued 2,728 orders, 14.4% of which related to equipment, material handling and general storage. The campaign also led to 158 orders citing equipment maintenance or operation problems, and 76 orders noted improper handling or storage.

In the wake of a report by the Expert Panel on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) is considering amending both the Occupational Health & Safety Act and Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, in order to implement the recommended move of prevention functions to the MOL from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).

For decades, the WSIB has had the legal authority to set up and fund safety associations, and over the last 20 years or so, they have taken steps to coordinate their activities and keep their expenses under control. The latest move to that effect came last year, when the WSIB took much greater control over the safety associations than ever before, by bringing them all together into four ‘divisions’ with one overall policy direction. However, they are still struggling to get the associations to cooperate and coordinate on issues such as regulatory functions, enforcement and prevention. Other provinces have created single agencies to cover enforcement, compensation and prevention.

The proposed regulatory amendments will allow the MOL to establish itself as the chief prevention agency, rather than the WSIB; to appoint a chief prevention officer; and to create a new prevention council charged with representing labour, employers and safety experts. Once all of this has been established, the MOL will begin implementing other Expert Panel recommendations, involving more amendments to the OHS Act.

After concerns were raised over a water filling station at the city of Whitehorse’s public safety building, The Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board (YWCHSB) decided to investigate and has identified short- and long-term occupational health and safety requirements for the city in an area where water delivery trucks pull up to either side of a filling station and use overhead hoses to dump water into tanks on the top of their trucks.

Currently, there is no area for the drivers to easily access the tanks, so water truck drivers are being forced to climb up their truck’s ladders and then walk along the top of the truck and attach the hose onto the spout on top of the tank, causing them to overstretch. There is no guardrail on the top of the trucks, so if there is any overflow of water and it freezes, there is a significant slipping hazard. YWCHSB is concerned that drivers may fall from the top of the truck.

In early March, while the YWCHSB acknowledged that it might take some time to design engineered control system, they ordered the city to put into place an interim solution in which they put together a basic fall restraint system. The Board hopes to have a timeline in place for a permanent solution very soon.

This was a relatively new issue when it was brought to the Board’s attention. Before the opening of the new Public Safety Building in late January, drivers had been able to pull trucks up to an area and climb stairs to work off a platform with guardrails around it, which greatly reduced the hazard of falling.

The City of Whitehorse has printed signs and notices have been placed at the filling station informing workers of the specific Occupational Health and Safety travel restraint requirements, and they are hoping to announce a long-term solution very soon.

On March 7, Contractor Aecon Construction Group Inc. was hit with a fine of $225,000 as a result of a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, stemming from a September 2008 explosion that killed a homeowner.

Union Gas Ltd. was preparing to provide natural gas service to residential neighborhoods outside of Owen Sound in the summer and fall of 2008, and they contracted Aecon to install natural gas lines. At least one of the homes being serviced had a private propane service on the property, including a storage tank and buried supply lines.

Aecon went to the home to begin installation of the natural gas line, even though the propane line had not been marked and was still in service that morning. As they attempted to install the natural gas line, the blade of an underground plough severed the unmarked propane line, causing the propane to leak through the soil and foundation of the house into the basement.

The next day, one of the homeowners went into the basement and lit a candle, causing the propane that had accumulated in the basement to ignite, resulting in an explosion and fire. The homeowner was blown out of the house and suffered third-degree burns, and died shortly thereafter.

A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the Aecon supervisor on site was aware of the propane service, but assumed the propane line would not be in the path of the natural gas line. The homeowners had not been present to supervise the location and excavation of the existing service lines.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the owner of the propane service was requested to locate and mark the service prior to the excavation. In addition to the fine, Judge Gary F. Hearn imposed a 25% victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Provincial investigators are working to determine whether high winds may have played a role in an accident that took the life of a 27-year-old construction worker in northwest Toronto on the afternoon of February 15.

The worker died as he stood on a ladder, attempting to install a steel beam over the door of a double garage at the site of a new housing development under construction near the corner of Weston Road and Sheppard Avenue West. At the time of the accident, at about 1 p.m., the wind was blowing nearly 60 km per hour with gusts of up to 78 km per hour. It’s believed the worker may have tried to use the beam to steady himself in the high winds, and it fell on top of him. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The investigators were on the scene the very next day, but the worker’s death has re-started a discussion of workplace safety, with some officials complaining that the province has been far too slow in implementing an expert panel’s recommendations that called for major changes to workplace safety in Ontario, including mandatory safety training for all construction workers and stiffer fines for companies that break safety rules. Those recommendations came after the Christmas Eve 2009 deaths of four workers, when a swing stage they were working on collapsed, and they all fell 14 storeys to their deaths.

The Labour Ministry said it will take some time to investigate exactly how the worker died in the February 15 accident. It could be months before it’s known whether any charges will be laid.

This is a cautionary tale of what can happen when drivers become impatient while driving in winter.During a single 24-hour period, between 10 a.m February 2 and 10 a.m. February 3, the Moncton metropolitan area in New Brunswick experienced a total of 23 accidents, including 15 with injuries.  Codiac Regional RCMP reported that all of the accidents could have been prevented.

Most of the accidents coincided with a strong storm that dumped more than 20 centimetres of snow onto the already snowbound streets and roads around Metro Moncton.

Among the accidents reported was a two-vehicle accident that closed Route 114 just past Riverview, in which a small pickup truck collided with a front-end loader.  In another, a truck with a plow struck a pedestrian.  Three separate collisions occurred on Highway 2 between the Magnetic Hill and Gorge Road exits. District 11 RCMP reported responding to seven collisions in the morning of February 3 alone in the Caledonia region.

Thankfully, despite the high number of collisions, only one person was transported to hospital with unreported injuries. No other injuries were reported.  But body shops had to be happy about all of that extra work.

It is believed that all of the accidents were related to slippery winter road conditions, especially at intersections, where the snow tends to get packed down and ice over. Many intersections also have high snowbanks, which may block the view of oncoming traffic. Officials report that city crews were working hard to clear streets, and they hoped to get to cutting down snow banks as soon as possible.

But officials also blame impatient drivers, and have tried to remind them to slow down and drive according to conditions.  If you think you’re in a hurry and that slowing down will make you late for whatever you have to do, consider how much time an accident will take you, not to mention the money it will take to fix the damage.

Then there are the insurance payments. The Insurance Bureau of Canada suggested that the number of accidents could result in higher insurance premiums for everyone. They advise all drivers to check their policy and be aware of their deductible, to get their vehicle off the road quickly in case of an accident, to get insurance information from all drivers in the accident, and to take photos, if possible, from various angles, as they could be useful in verifying an insurance claim later.