IRIA

Sep 27, 2011

The report highlighted that the number of occupational diseases went up from 124 in 2010 to 361 in 2011, primarily due to the increased reporting of noise-induced deafness cases.

The first half of this year saw an increase in the number of workplace fatalities and occupational diseases compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Singapore Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) report released by the WSH Council. However, the overall number of workplace injuries fell by 8 percent and permanent disabilities fell by 37 percent.

The report highlighted that the number of occupational diseases went up from 124 in 2010 to 361 in 2011, primarily due to the increased reporting of noise-induced deafness (NID) cases. More NID cases were reported following an island-wide audit exercise by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Of the 315 NID cases reported, one was in the advanced stage. The other 314 cases were in early stages. Excluding NID cases, the number of occupational diseases in the first half of 2011 was 46 compared to 37 over the same period last year.

Between January and June 2011, the number of workplace fatalities increased to 30 from 25 in 2010. Seventy-seven percent of fatalities came from Singapore’s three traditional sectors—marine, construction, and manufacturing. These sectors also accounted for about 78 percent of permanent disablements (TD) and occupational diseases.

Another 43 percent of TD cases were from the new sectors that are covered under the WSH Act from Sept. 1, 2011. Incidents include employees tripping in cluttered work areas and sustaining injuries or being struck by heavy objects while retrieving them from shelves.

“Although the number of workplace injuries has been declining by 5 percent to 8 percent over the last two years, we can see that we cannot afford to relax,” said WSH Council Chairman Lee Tzu Yang. “Despite the drop in overall injuries, workplace fatalities have increased this half year. Any workplace incident has the potential of resulting in an injury or a fatality, so our goal must be to prevent all workplace incidents.”

•Falls rose from 9 cases in 2010 to 13 cases in the first half of 2011.
•Struck-by moving objects incidents, mainly caused by workplace vehicles, accounted for 5 deaths, up from 4 last year.
•Struck-by falling objects accidents accounted for 3 fatalities, caused by a collapse or failure of structure and equipment.

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TORONTO, ONTARIO, Sep 27, 2011

The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Labour Minister attended the gala dinner of the 2011 Canada’s Safest Employers Award. She underlined the importance of workplace safety and spoke about recent accomplishments in the field.

“Our Government remains focused on the economic recovery and on Canadian jobs, this involves promoting a healthy and productive workplace,” said Minister Raitt. “Healthy work environments act as a catalyst to productivity and innovation. Together we can work towards achieving a model for fair, respectful and healthy workplaces that will lead to a strong and prosperous Canada.”

The Canada’s Safest Employers Award was launched in December 2010 by the Canadian Occupational Safety magazine to recognize Canadian organizations for the work they do to keep their workers and workplaces safe.

“I would like to congratulate everyone for their efforts in creating healthy and safe workplace environments,” said Minister Raitt. “Finding ways to prevent injury and illness in the workplace is an integral part of keeping Canada’s labour force strong, healthy and competitive.”

The Labour Program develops, administers and enforces workplace legislation and regulations, such as the Canada Labour Code, which covers industrial relations, health, safety and employment standards for federally regulated workers and employers.

This news release is available in alternative formats upon request.

BACKGROUNDER

The Intervention Model and the Violence Prevention Regulations

The Canada Labour Code, Part II was founded on the basic principle that the workplace parties are in the best position to prevent injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Two recent occupational health and safety initiatives that have been developed according to this principle are the Intervention Model and the Violence Prevention Regulations.

Intervention Model

The Intervention Model (IM), introduced in 2011, is the Labour Program’s preferred method of service delivery for proactive interventions with high-priority industries and employers. The IM is a three-step process that takes a more systematic approach to identifying not only issues of non-compliance, as with the traditional workplace inspection, but systemic weaknesses as well. The IM also aims to involve and strengthen the internal responsibility system through work with health and safety representatives and workplace committees.

The Intervention Model supports the use of internal responsibility to improve a workplace’s health and safety program and is intended to be a positive experience through a collaborative approach between the Labour Program and clients under federal jurisdiction. The ultimate goal of reducing injuries and illnesses to employees is accomplished by ensuring the workplace has systems in place that proactively identify and address health and safety issues. Rather than relying on strict enforcement by the Labour Program and reactive interventions, the IM aims to build capacity in the workplace by engaging management and health and safety representatives or workplace committees. This approach will also serve to reduce the number of complaints and refusals to work.

Violence Prevention Regulations

On May 28, 2008, Part XX of the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, entitled Violence Prevention in the Work Place, came into effect. The regulation defines “workplace violence” to include not only incidents that involve physical violence, but also psychological violence.

The regulation requires employers subject to federal jurisdiction to develop workplace violence prevention policies, to conduct hazard identification and assessments, to implement hazard controls and to provide training for employees. The regulation also contains provisions requiring an employer to respond to, as well as to record and investigate, acts of violence.

In May 2010, the Labour Program published its “Guide to Violence Prevention in the Work Place” to better assist employers, members of a policy or workplace committee, or health and safety representatives. It is available online at http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/labour/ .

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When it comes to common workplace emergencies, being prepared can go a long way toward protecting yourself and your employees. Is your facility prepared to handle a common disaster? Cintas Corporation has identified four commonplace emergencies that your staff should be ready to handle at a moment’s notice:

1) Fire. In 2009, structure fires caused more than $10.8 billion property damage and 2,695 civilian deaths. To combat a fire quickly and limit potential damage, employees need to know how to properly use a fire extinguisher. In addition, employees should understand the five classes of fire, when not to fight a fire and other potential fire prevention methods if a fire extinguisher is not available. Businesses should also be sure extinguishers are regularly serviced and inspected so they are ready for use in an emergency situation.

2) Chemical Spills. Chemical spills can happen anywhere, yet hazard communication violations are frequently cited as a top Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) violation.

Workers who use chemicals must have the proper training to understand the types of chemicals they’re using and proper classifications, including the FACTOR System (Flammable and Corrosive, Toxic or Reactive). In addition to understanding the right procedures for response, workers must have the proper equipment to respond to a chemical spill, including emergency eye wash stations and spill kits.

3) Sudden Cardiac Arrest. OSHA reports that there are 220,000 victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) per year in the United States, and about 10,000 SCA episodes occur at work. To help reduce the opportunity of death surrounding a SCA incident, businesses should have an Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) program in place, ensuring AEDs are accessible throughout common areas in the facility.

4) Blood Spills. In cases of severe lacerations or injuries, businesses should have a protocol in place for cleaning up blood. With heightened awareness of potential exposure to bloodborne disease, it is important that staff members know how to properly cleanup blood and limit the risk for infection or disease.

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New York, NY (PRWEB) September 23, 2011

New York personal injury attorney David Resnick said today that a scaffolding collapse in Harlem that injured 17 people this week has brought attention to a common threat to the safety of construction workers and the public.

“Scaffolding accidents are among the leading causes of construction site injuries, including, as we saw in Harlem this week, injuries to innocent bystanders,” said Resnick of David Resnick & Associates, P.C., a New York City personal injury law firm that represents workers injured by scaffolding and other construction accidents.

“Officials are still learning what caused this accident, but in investigations in cases that our firm has handled, we have found that these structures are often hastily constructed with little regard for safety standards, and that work on standing scaffolds, which is hazardous in itself, often ignores rules and regulations put in place for a safe workplace,” Resnick said.

Seventeen people were injured when a building scaffold collapsed onto a city bus at West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem on September 20, according to the New York Times. Eight of the injured were passengers on the bus. Investigators had not stated a cause of the collapse.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2010,” which was released August 25, cites 44 deaths attributed to falls from scaffolding or staging in 2010 and 54 such deaths in 2009.

Another BLS study found that 72 percent of workers injured in scaffold accidents attributed the accident either to the planking or support giving way, or to the employee slipping or being struck by a falling object. All of these accidents can be controlled by compliance with OSHA standards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration says.

“In many cases, scaffolding accidents are caused by negligence,” Resnick said. “There is often improper supervision, including the lack of a properly trained person to oversee erection of a scaffold, and the simple failure to correct a known defect.”

Resnick said workers injured in scaffolding accidents often face recoveries that are longer, more painful and more expensive than anticipated.

“Scaffolding accidents often result in injuries that are far more severe than can be adequately covered by workers’ compensation,” he said. “In many cases, a personal injury lawsuit or, in the event of a fatal injury on a scaffold, a wrongful death lawsuit by the worker’s family is the only way to obtain necessary funds for an adequate recovery.”

Resnick said there is often more than one responsible party when a construction accident occurs. The role of other contractors and manufacturers, and of the company that supplied the material or equipment used in conjunction with the scaffold, should be investigated.

“It is a complicated process, so it’s essential to work with an experienced New York construction accident lawyer,” he said. “We are committed to helping injured workers and others who are harmed in construction site accidents, and we’ll see to it that every opportunity to help the injured become whole has been explored.”

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/430712#ixzz1Z0UlQT4S

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TORONTO, Sept. 21, 2011

For the third consecutive year, Holcim (Canada) Inc., a leading producer and supplier of products and services for the construction industry, is dedicating a day to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). Today, all of its 3,000 employees will take part in various activities to help them be more aware of the dangers that surround them in the workplace and work in a safer manner. This initiative complements the safety related activities implemented throughout the year.

“Building a strong safety culture through our ongoing OH&S programs requires time, but since we introduced our Safety Day initiative, we have made tremendous progress,” says Paul Ostrander, President and Chief Executive Officer, Holcim Canada. “When we launched the program, we decided to address the most pressing issue, namely reducing the number of injuries occurring in the last quarter of the year. The following year, we focused on the frequent but less severe types of incidents. And this year, we are addressing incidents that almost cause injuries or equipment damage, also known as ‘near misses’.”

Holcim Canada sees ‘near misses’ as a great opportunity to adapt processes and procedures. These types of incidents do not result in any damage, but because they could have, lessons can and must be learned from them. And this is what the company is focusing on during this year’s Safety Day. Sharing this information across divisions and regions is also a big part of this year’s initiative as it could help prevent similar ‘near misses’ – or even incidents – from occurring at other locations.

Recognizing employee contribution through President’s Awards

As has been the case for the last two years, President’s Awards for OH&S Excellence will be awarded to employees or teams of employees that have made a difference in the management of health and safety at their site. The program, which will be launched today, will encourage employees to submit initiatives they have put in place at their site to help improve safety. “We are looking for simple, easy to implement solutions that make a big difference,” explains Paul Ostrander. “We also want as many of these ideas as possible to be transferable from one business unit to the other,” he concludes.

Safety is Holcim Canada’s number one priority and the company continuously strives to achieve its objective of ZERO HARM TO PEOPLE.

With majority and minority interests in more than 70 countries on all continents, Holcim Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates as well as further construction activities such as ready-mix concrete and construction services.

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Residential construction sites in Alberta are being targeted by occupational health and safety officers for surprise inspections during a month-long inspection blitz.

“We launched a focused campaign on residential construction in September,” said Barrie Harrison, spokesperson for Alberta Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S).

“When we choose the sectors to be targeted for our safety campaigns, we look at specific factors, such as the current state of the industry. The residential construction sector has been on our radar for a number of years.”

As construction activity on residential sites ramps up for the summer, OH&S officers are increasing inspections of single and multi-family projects in Alberta.

“Several officers from each of the three regions in Alberta are dedicated to this campaign, while other officers will participate as able,” said Harrison.

“We know a majority of the orders we write are in relation to a lack of fall protection, which is the number one culprit in residential construction.

“Officers will arrive unannounced at a site to look for everything and anything that contravenes the safety code.”

Almost 1,700 inspections of Alberta’s residential construction sector were undertaken in 2010, which resulted in 1,000 orders being issued.

A lack of proper fall protection topped the list of infractions, followed by issues with hazard assessments, safeguards, and clear entrances, walkways and stairways.

“The campaign is expected to last at least one month,” said Harrison. “Once the results of the inspections are compiled, we will share them with the public.”

This information will include the number of sites visited, the total number of inspections, and the number and types of orders issued.

“Throughout the province, we’re beginning to see an increase in new home construction,” said Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.

“We need to ensure safety on these job sites is a priority. I’ve said all year long that increased attention on residential construction projects was on my to-do list. My message to Alberta’s home builders and their contractors is that we are on our way.”

According to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), the blitz of residential construction sites by inspectors is a welcome step in making worksites safer.

However, the AFL said the campaign is not the solution to the provinces safety problems.

“Employers have been warned inspectors are on their way and have been told how long the blitz will last,” said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL.

“They will make an effort to clean up their acts and follow Occupational Health and Safety rules for a few weeks but, once the blitz is over, they will be free to return to their dangerous ways, knowing that they are unlikely to see more inspectors until another blitz is announced.”

McGowan said regular and random inspections, that come without warning, are needed to encourage permanent change in worksite practices. The Alberta government is implementing a series of changes to its workplace enforcement system after numerous problems were exposed by the auditor general.

In a five month period in 2007-2008, the auditor general identified 63 companies that repeatedly failed to comply with health and safety laws for one year or more.

This group of employers had a Disabling Injury Rate that is three to four times greater than the provincial average

Inspectors don’t have the power to issue fines for infractions, but Lukaszuk is signaling he wants to start ticketing people, who break laws designed to protect workers.

“To make our workplaces safer – to save lives and prevent injuries – blitzes must also be backed up with more concrete action, including hiring more inspectors and giving them increased powers to issue on-site tickets for violations,” said McGowan.

Currently, officers secure jobsites and issue orders or stop work orders when infractions are found

BY RICHARD GILBERT

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Share Inspectors with the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration Sept. 8 were issued a directive on conducting inspections and investigations involving on-the-job violence, the first directive of its kind for inspectors.

A range of issues are covered in CPL 02-01-052, Enforcement Procedures of Investigating or Inspecting Workplace Violence Incidents, from which types of businesses should have their workplace violence prevention policies reviewed to how OSHA should respond if a worker reports being threatened by a co-worker.

The directive was signed by David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, who heads the agency.

Third Leading Cause of Deaths
Assaults and homicide were the third leading cause of on-the-job fatalities in 2010 and have been among the top four causes since at least 1992, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. In 2010, only traffic accidents and falls resulted in more workplace deaths.

Violent acts led to 506 on-the-job deaths in 2010, 18 percent of the 4,547 workplace fatalities. For women, however, violence was the greatest workplace threat, responsible for 26 percent of the 355 deaths. For men, it was 10 percent.

In a Sept. 8 statement, Michaels noted that a recent inspection of a psychiatric hospital had uncovered more than 90 incidents in which employees had been assaulted by patients from 2008 through 2010 and that this year OSHA cited medical facilities in Massachusetts and New York for the deaths of workers. “These incidents and others like them can be avoided or decreased if employers take appropriate precautions to protect their workers,” Michaels said.

Focus on Risky Jobs
The directive lays out two primary reasons to review an employer’s violence prevention efforts. An inspection “shall be considered where there is a complaint, referral, or fatality and/or catastrophic event” involving a violent act at the business, the directive states. Also, a programmed inspection shall be considered when an employer is part of an industry with a recognized potential for workplace violence.

An inspection “generally shall not be considered in response to coworker or personal threats of violence,” the directive advises.

The directive identifies several types of businesses and work environments as “high risk,” among them psychiatric facilities, residential and long-term health care facilities, and convenience stores and liquor stores open late at night.

The directive also encourages inspections of industries and occupations with “known risk factors,” including locations in high-crime areas, jobs guarding valuable property, driving taxi cabs and delivery trucks, handling money in financial institutions, and dealing with volatile people in criminal justice facilities.

Once an inspection starts, the OSHA team should request an employer’s hazard assessments and reviews of violent incidents, according to the directive. Inspectors also should determine whether the employer has a workplace violence prevention program in place and has taken other precautions such as engineering controls and personal protective gear.

Inspectors also are encouraged to review the employer’s OSHA Form 300 injury and illness records for the past five years as well as workers’ compensation and insurance records, police reports, and first-aid records to determine whether the log information is correct.

Several Standards Apply
Because there is no specific workplace violence prevention standard, the directive cites several existing rules as appropriate for inspectors to apply.

The standards are Section 5(a)(1) general duty clause of 29 C.F.R. § 1960.8(a); Executive Order 12196, Section 1-201(a) for federal facilities (the general duty clause for federal agencies); 29 C.F.R. § 1904 Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses; 29 C.F.R. § 1910.151 Medical Services and First Aid; 29 C.F.R. § 1926.23 First Aid and Medical Attention; and 29 C.F.R. § 1926.35 Employee Emergency Action Plans.

The general duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to provide workplaces that are “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” OSHA has been using the general duty clause to cover on-the-job violence issues since at least 2009.

By Bruce Rolfsen

Text of the workplace violence directive can be accessed at http://op.bna.com/dlrcases.nsf/r?Open=czon-8lhule

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By Cole Latimer on 12 September 2011

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has attended the 16th annual memorial service at the Jim Comerford Memorial Wall at Cessnock to remember miners who have lost their lives.

Reflecting on the miners killed in the Hunter, she described the wall as a fitting place for us to gather and reflect’’ on those who have lost their lives, according to the Newcastle Herald.

More than 1800 miners have been killed since mining first started in the Hunter Valley, “more than all the soldiers killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined,” Gillard said.

The oldest was 73, the youngest only 11.

Prior to 2001, there was not a single year where a miner was not killed.

Gillard also acknowledged the family of coal miner Peter Jones, who was killed earlier this year when a mine wall collapsed underground.

She labelled the ongoing deaths in the industry as a contemporary reality in this valley and in this industry,” adding that it is “not enough to be sorry after the fact.

“Every employee has the right to leave for their job in the expectation they will return safe home, they will be there for their family and friends when the working day is done.

“It is as fundamental a right as there can be in our workplaces and in our laws.”

She went on to say mine safety is a priority, and that the Federal Government has recently decided to ratify an International Labor Organisation convention, known as Convention 176, which will help other countries to increase their OH&S levels in mines.

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) district president Peter Jordan said safety should always remain in focus.

“We only have to remember the Pike River mine disaster in November last year, where it appears that both regulation and enforcement were found wanting,” Jordan said.

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Independent Contractors Australia have called for harmonised occupational health and safety laws to be revised before they come into law next year, arguing the proposed changes are confusing, strip employers of their right to silence and allow OH&S authorities to seize businesses and their property without court oversight.

The contractors’ association argues the proposed laws will make workplaces less safe, rather than improve safety. It also says the laws will mean employers will unfairly assume responsibility for the behaviour of their employers, rather than leaving individuals responsible for their own conduct.

But Macpherson + Kelly principal and OH&S expert Andrew Douglas says the new laws don’t change the normal position that there is concurrent responsibility on a worksite.

“It has never been the case that a person on a site has no responsibility. It has always been the case that each person has a responsibility,” Douglas says.

Douglas agrees that the new laws will “heighten the level of responsibility for employers”, but says changing safety into a mainstream corporate activity will benefit us all.

He agrees that stripping employers of their right to silence is a problematic one. Under the new legislation, individuals will not be able to sign a certificate to ensure their comments can’t be used against them.

“The idea behind that is it’s become too difficult to prosecute,” Douglas says.

“I agree that’s going too far, but that’s a Parliamentary issue and we also need to balance individual rights versus the social good.”

Under the new laws, dangerous workplaces and objects are able to be seized without court permission but subject to court review.

Douglas says this is “broader than a prohibition notice that stops something”.

The ICA argues harmonised laws will “create confusion in workplaces about who is responsible for safety, thereby undoing much of the clarity that currently exists.”

In particular, it says the laws:

Create confusion over who controls workplaces and hence who has safety responsibilities.
Remove the right to silence and the protection from self-incrimination – key rights under criminal law.
Enable OHS authorities to seize businesses and their property without court oversight.
“Given these shortcomings, the laws should be rejected until fixed,” the ICA says.

But Douglas says the new laws won’t have a great impact on contractors’ day-to-day lives.

“As a contractor how will this change my life? Not greatly,” he says.

“As an employer, it will increase my exposure to risk if I do not have a safety management I enforce.”

“And as an officer of any employer, I need a governance structure that tells me: what are the business risks and how are they addressed, do I have a safety management system with integrity, and do I have way of measuring that?”

“If have those things, it doesn’t matter if there are contractors or employees on site. The place will be safe and I will be protected from legislation.”

Monday, 12 September 2011 11:46
Madeleine Heffernan

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Book review of Safe by Accident, identifies seven safety practices that are a waste of time and money.

By DeAnna Stephens Baker

Is Your Company Safe by Accident: Developing a Behavior-Based Safety Approach

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