Canadian Occupational Safety

October/November 2019

Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.

Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/1164813

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Contents of Canadian Occupational Safety are copyright © 2019 HAB Press Limited and may not be reproduced in whole or part without written consent. HAB Press Limited disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. HST/GST # 70318 4911 RT0001 Canada Post – Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement 41261516 International Standard Serial Number 0008-4611. The publishers accept no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, colour transparencies or other materials. Manuscripts or other materials must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Canadian Occupational Safety is published six times yearly by HAB Press Limited, KEY MEDIA and the KEY MEDIA logo are trademarks of Key Media IP Limited, and used under license by HAB Press Limited. CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY is a trademark of HAB Press Limited. 20 Duncan St. 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON. M5H 3G8 www.cos-mag.com Issue dates are February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November, December/January. Subscription price: Canada: $69 plus tax; US: $69,International: $96 Canadian Occupational Safety makes every effort to ensure accuracy in all items reported, but cannot accept responsibility for the representations or claims made by sources used. It is also not responsible for claims made by its advertisers. Safety Leader of the Year Nominations have closed for the 2019 COS Safety Leader of the Year award. Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations for truly exceptional safety professionals. The winner will be revealed in the December/January issue of COS and will star in an exclusive video of their accomplishments. www.cos-mag.com/safety-leader Gala highlights Watch for exclusive coverage of the Canada's Safest Employers awards gala in the December/January issue. If you just can't wait, visit the website below for photos and video highlights of the event. www.safestemployers.com 10 ways to reduce slips, trips and falls Employers across the country are grappling with slips, trips and falls in the workplace — and the consequences can be very serious. Find out the top 10 ways to reduce these incidents on your work site. From stairs, footwear and lighting, there's a lot to consider in controlling the hazards. www.cos-mag.com/10slips Follow us: @cosmagazine Join our group: Canadian Occupational Safety Subscribe: Canadian Occupational Safety The road to zero Peter Sturm, president of Sturm Consulting, discusses why he believes mission zero is an attainable goal. www.cos-mag.com/Sturmzero Canada's Safest Employers videos Want to learn more about the 2019 Canada's Safest Employers? Check out the "winners" tab on the link below for videos showcasing the gold winners in all award categories as well as the four finalists for Canada's Best Health + Safety Culture award. www.safestemployers.com EDITOR Amanda Silliker amanda.silliker@keymedia.com COPY EDITOR Patricia Cancilla ART DIRECTOR Steve Maver PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Jacqueline D'Souza jacqueline.d'souza@keymedia.com ADVERTISING: HEAD OF SALES Paul Burton paul.burton@keymedia.com 647-537-4705 CIRCULATION CO-ORDINATOR Keith Fulford keith.fulford@keymedia.com COLUMNISTS Legal Cheryl A. Edwards Cathy Chandler Professional Development Glyn Jones Safety Culture Dave Fennell CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY'S EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Guy Chenard, CRSP, C.E.T. Safety Consultant Dave Gouthro, CRSP, CHSC, CHSO Occupational Health & Safety Consulting David Johnston, CRSP Director, EHS, Toronto Hydro-Electric System Ltd. Eldeen Pozniak, CHSC, CHSMSA, CRSP, Director, Pozniak Safety Associates Inc. Laura Rourke, CRSP, Peng, TSRP EHSS manager, Tigercat Industries Dan Strand, CRSP, CIH, ROH Director, Prevention Field Services, WorkSafeBC AMANDA SILLIKER FROM THE EDITOR visit us online cos-mag.com CANADIAN OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 ON NOW LATEST VIDEOS Printed in 3 2019 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER COMING UP Safety superheroes I t's a bird, it's a plane, it's Canada's Safest Employers! Congratulations to the winners of our 2019 awards. This group of 30 companies is full of safety superheroes who save their workers from harm all across the land. The awards are now in their ninth year and it is my seventh year of having the pleasure of being involved. This year, there appears to be a concerted effort among the winners to embrace new technologies to further engage workers in safety. It is much easier to snap a photo and fill out a digital form on an app when a hazard is spotted than to fill out the required paperwork later on. If a worker can easily pull up a safe work procedure on their iPad, they are more likely to take a peek at it before starting a task rather than digging up the procedure from a binder back in the office. And if instant feedback on a safe job well done can be provided by supervisors, managers and executives through a mobile recognition program, they are more likely to do this on a regular basis and boost employee morale on the spot. You can read about more trends from this year's award winners in our extensive coverage starting on page 14. Hopefully, you will glean some tips and tricks that you can implement in your own organizations. In his column this month, Dave Fennell explores if the quest for zero is realistic or not. (See page 12). This is something you hear quite often in the safety world. In fact, many of Canada's Safest Employers winners have communications campaigns in their workforce about mission zero. But is it really possible to have zero incidents and fatalities? What about in extremely high-risk jobs? I am very happy to report that, according to Fennell — and the vast majority of passionate safety professionals out there — the answer is unequivo- cally yes. Another Dave featured in this issue — David Irwin — for the My Safety Moment back page would like to see the time where safety professionals are out of a job because zero has been achieved. (See page 34). And in a recent video on cos-mag.com, Peter Sturm reminds us that people used to say it was impossible to go to the moon or find cures for certain diseases, but that didn't stop those goals from being achieved. A new report from Workplace Safety North shines a fresh perspective on substance use in safety-sensitive positions, specifically identifying its root causes in Ontario sawmills. I think it's very important to find solutions to problems, rather than just identifying them, and this report does an excellent job of that. Something that was made very clear to me while interviewing Sujoy Dey from Ontario's Ministry of Labour for this article was the importance of tracking workplace incidents related to substance use. (See page 30). It is a major workplace hazard that no doubt contributes to many injuries and fatalities at work sites across Canada, but no one is tracking this. Whether it be employers, government, workers' compensation boards or safety associations, we just don't have data on how drug or alcohol use contributes to safety incidents. It's high time that this gets formally measured and tracked.

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