Canadian Occupational Safety

16 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com "So that doesn't mean a person (needs to have) a tiny little waist and six-pack abs and a great Face- book picture. It just means that they're not at risk for metabolic disease. They're lean enough to be healthy so that that extra weight doesn't lead to co-morbid conditions," says Wahl, who is based in St. John's. N.L. Fitness levels and nutrition habits are related to the development of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), says Pam Dempster, founder and senior health/well- ness specialist at Dempster Wellness in Halifax. "When we have a high population of our employ- ees that are struggling with weight, dealing with a chronic disease, maybe not making the healthiest lifestyle choices, that's going to impact their risk factors for developing those types of injuries," she says. "So, if their fitness levels and their nutrition levels go down, their risk of getting musculoskeletal disorders go up." Overexertion injuries account for about one- quarter of all reported occupational injuries in North America, says Wahl. Of that, two-thirds are involved in lifting loads and one-fifth involved in pushing or pulling. Workers need to be exercising and eating properly to strengthen their bodies and avoid MSDs, he says. "When you're doing the same lift over and over again, your body eventually either gets tired acutely or chronically, it starts to wear down. People will bend over to pick up a piece of paper and their back will go." In Nova Scotia, workers' compensation claims for MSDs can run up to $14,000 in direct costs per injury. Indirect costs, such as training new employees, sick day coverage, replacement equipment et cetera, can bump this up to $30,000 per injury, Dempster says. The overall costs of MSDs in Nova Scotia is esti- mated between $100 million and $1 billion per year. "The cost of these injuries is absolutely stag- gering. I bring these (statistics) to company heads when I'm called on site because it's mind-blowing actually," she says. Wahl recalls one company that was seeing a lot of injuries to rotator cuffs, knees and backs. While the firm was focusing on the "safety" aspects of OHS, it was ignoring the health side, which was certainly impacting the injury statistics. "You couldn't catch your desk on fire. It's intrinsi- cally safe and eyeglasses and hard hats and all the stuff that's inherent to safety. But there they were feeding them garbage food for 20 years. Non-stop French fries and they weren't warming them up." Physical inactivity is strongly associated with the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes can be problematic for worker safety. Wahl recalls a crane operator on a oil rig offshore whose vision was changing constantly but he didn't know why. "He was unloading massive containers onto a moving vessel from a moving vessel with all of his colleagues working down below him. His pre- scription was changing faster than they could send glasses out to the rig, so we tested his blood sugars and he was massively diabetic. He had little sugar particles stuck in his eyes," Wahl says. "Once he controlled his diabetes, he was able to see again but he was actually operating a heavy crane half blind and it would have been another two years before he had another medical that would have picked it up." Diabetes can have an impact on motor vehicle accidents because becoming hypoglycemic while driving is a "hazardous condition and may lead to a greater incidence of driving mishaps," according to research by DJ Cox of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Va. If work- ers are diabetic, it's important to educate them on blood sugar. In one study, Cox found diabetic driv- ers who were able to control their blood sugar had three times lower crash rates. Sleep is another topic area that is highly personal but that affects workers' ability to do their job safely. Over-tired employees face heightened safety risks. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, fatigue is a "recipe for shoddy, unsafe work" and affects judgment, concentra- tion, hand-eye co-ordination, visual perception, communication skills, pro- ductivity, performance, decision-making and stress. A 2013 study by K. Uehli and col- leagues at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that workers with sleep problems had a 1.62 times higher risk of being injured. The study also stated that 13 per cent of work injuries could be attributed to sleep problems. Fatigue costs employers big time. The National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill., reports fatigued workers cost about US$1,200 to $3,100 per employee in declining job performance each year. Mental health (or psychological safety) should also be of high concern to safety professionals because individu- als cannot operate at peak performance if they are struggling with their mental health. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, one in five Canadians will experience a mental health issue in any given year. SOLUTIONS One potential solution is the Total Worker Health approach. Developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Washing- ton, D.C., Total Worker Health integrates workplace interventions that protect safety and health with activities that advance the overall well- being of workers. "(Employers) that understand the value of this Total Worker Health approach, they send their workers home at the end of the day with more health than they arrived that morning. Of course, that's good for the worker, it's good for their fam- ilies, it helps keep them on the job longer," says Casey Chosewood, director of the office for Total Worker Health at NIOSH. "That translates into better outcomes, better customer service, higher levels of engagement, less turnover, better retention… All in all, everybody wins." To achieve this highly sought-after state, safety and human resources must work more closely together. "It's not separate. There's no wellness commit- tee over here and no OHS committee over there. If you're going to do it, you're going to have one committee in your organization tackling both occu- pational health and safety and wellness at the same time," Dempster says. Traditionally, the HR and safety departments have operated separately. While safety covers things like personal protective equipment, fall protection systems and confined space, HR takes the lead on wellness programming, office ergonomics and mental health. "There's a gap and that gap is where the injuries are still occurring. We need to get these departments closer together and closer aligned," says Dempster. "I think we're all in agreement that both occupa- tional health and safety and wellness departments in our companies have one common goal: We want to protect and improve our worker health. It's a common goal, but we're still working independent from one another." Many wellness programs today are seen as exter- nal and not core to the company, which contributes to their sometimes-lackluster success. "That's where the lack of support becomes appar- ent to the workers and they see it as an outsider," says Wahl. "But when it's seen as part of the safety management system, it's part of the culture and people adopt it more readily." About a decade ago, General Mills in the U.S. merged its wellness and OHS programing under the vice-president of occupational health and safety. It now has one employee newsletter from the depart- ment that combines health, safety and wellness information. The company found certain injuries and illnesses were easily predictable and avoidable under the combined program. "The health improvements of our employees simply will lead to safety improvements as well," Dempster says. "And that's by thinking about and maybe starting to open up discussion about OHS and wellness within organizations to start com- municating together." Of course, bringing the HR and safety depart- ments together can seem like a large endeavour for most organizations. The first step is forming a cross-functional team that would include safety and HR (including those responsible for disability management, return-to-work procedures, work- ers' compensation and the employee assistance program), employee wellness champions and occupational health nurses. All these individuals would work together on integrated interventions that collectively address worker health, safety and well-being. Ultimately, senior leaders need to drive this. "Someone in control of both HR and safety, that senior level of leadership, says, 'This is the new

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