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June/July 2014 7 B.C., Ont. increase protections for fi refi ghters I n March, the government of British Columbia tabled legislation under the Workers Compensation Act to restore heart disease in fi refi ghters as a presumptive disease recognized by WorkSafeBC. The agency had removed heart diseases from the list 15 years ago, based upon research at the time that found there was not a substantially greater incidence of heart disease among fi refi ghters compared to the general population. "Firefi ghters are exposed to a real toxic combination through their work on a daily basis. This, along with the heat and mental stressors faced by the profession, means that heart injuries due to the nature of the job are a reality for fi refi ghters," said Michael Hurley, president, BC Professional Firefi ghters Association. Under the proposed amendment, if a fi refi ghter suffers from heart disease or a heart injury — including a heart attack — it will be presumed to be due to his work unless the contrary is proven. The presumption will be available to local government fi refi ghters as well as forest fi refi ghters, and will support them in receiving workers' compensa- tion. The presumption will apply if the claimant was employed as a fi refi ghter at or immediately before the date of disablement from heart injury or disease. It will apply to eligible fi refi ghters who fi rst become disabled from heart disease or heart injury on or after the day the legislation comes into force on royal assent. "Having heart presumption restored is so important to fi refi ghters because it means that while we are fi ghting to save our own lives, we will not have the added stress of fi ghting a WorkSafeBC claim at the same time," Hurley said. The amended Workers Compensation Act would make B.C. the only jurisdiction in Canada to have a presumption for heart disease embedded in its workers' com- pensation legislation, said Shirley Bond, minister responsible for labour. At the end of April, Ontario announced new protections for fi refi ghters by adding six cancers to the list of those presumed to be related to their work. Breast cancer, multiple myeloma and testicular cancer will be added to the list immediately. Prostate cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer will be phased in by 2017. These changes will make it easier for fi refi ghters to qualify for benefi ts by reversing the burden of proof for those seeking coverage under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. The extension of presumptive status for the six additional cancers will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1960, and apply to full-time, part-time and volunteer fi refi ghters and fi re investigators. Ontario already has eight cancers on the presumed list of diseases for fi re- fi ghters: brain cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, certain types of leukemia, esophageal cancer and ureter cancer. Health care-workers submit most mental health claims in B.C. By Amanda Silliker H ealth care and social services workers in British Colum- bia submit more claims for psychological injury than any other group. From July 1, 2012, to March 31, 2014, WorkSafeBC received 4,085 claims for mental disorders. More than one-quarter (26.29 per cent) of these claims came from health care and social services workers, according to Kathleen Fleming, client ser- vice manager, mental health claims unit, WorkSafeBC. The majority of these workers (30.91 per cent) work in acute care. "Emergency workers may be exposed to traumatic events over time, and these things have par- ticular signifi cance," said Fleming, speaking at the Western Conference on Safety in Vancouver on April 14. "In the mental health industry, you have a full swath of providers for demen- tia patients, psyc nurses, social workers, that type of thing." Transportation workers submitted the second larg- est number of mental health claims (11.68 per cent) and the vast majority of these were bus drivers (62.89 per cent). Retail came in third with 8.59 per cent of mental health claims coming from workerss in this sector. On July 1, 2012, Bill 14 was passed in British Colum- bia which extended coverage for mental health claims to include mental disorders that are caused by one or more traumatic events arising out of and in the course of a worker's employment. Previously, coverage was limited to mental disorders that were caused by a sudden or unex- pected event. "They removed 'sudden or unexpected' because when you're a paramedic, fi refi ghter, police offi cer, you have some expectation that you might be facing traumatic events, so it doesn't have to be unexpected in order for it to be in scope," said Fleming. Bill 14 also extended coverage to mental disorders arising out of a signifi cant work- related stressor, including bullying or harassment, or a cumulative series of signifi cant work-related stressors. "Workplace stressors weren't con- templated before, and it doesn't have to be single workplace stressor, it can be a series of work- place stressors arising in the course of employment," said Fleming. The employer has several obligations under Bill 14 includ- ing developing and implementing bullying and harassment policies and procedures, making sure these are communicated and clearly stated, and that employees are trained on these issues, said Fleming. Workers also have responsibilities under the act to take reasonable care to protect the health and safety of co-workers. They are required to inform their employer if they witness bullying or harassment, monitor their own actions so they are not bullying or harassing others, and comply with the policies. To help employers prevent bullying and harassment in the workplace, WorkSafeBC has provided an online pre- vention tool kit. The kit includes templates for developing policies, training tools, fact sheets and posters. education, in terms of lost-time injuries. Unfortunately, we still have some fatalities." Hopefully, the collaborative approach will help the industry reach its goal of zero harm in the workplace, said Hodgson. "By working collaboratively with labour and management and govern- ment, we hope they keep that model and improve the model in terms of fatalities," he said. "The old confronta- tional approach didn't work — and by collaborating, we've had huge improve- ments to safety in Ontario." Gélinas agrees a collaborative approach is the best one. "There seems to be right now more of a willingness to participate than there was before. So we're hopeful good things (will) come from the review," she said. But she hasn't ruled out the possi- bility of calling for an inquest. "If they run into roadblocks, if they're not able to do their work fully, then we... continue to believe that the power of an inquiry to mandate people to testify under oath, to request papers, to enter premises, etcetera, may still be needed," she said. "Right now, there is quite a bit of goodwill from all involved to try to do better, and to try to make sure we don't have another person die at work. And hopefully the goodwill will continue." Liz Bernier is a news editor at Canadian HR Reporter, a sister publication of COS. the department of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved with the study. But one thing that might help is if workers and supervisors devise special safety signals that don't rely as much on hearing. "You can have visual signals for safety and other ways to make the workplace safer and not make every- thing rely on hearing and you can also fi nd special types of hearing protec- tion or other assistive devices that help a person who has hearing loss function well in a noisy situation," Rabinowitz said. While this new study adds to the evidence on injury risk in an environ- ment with extremely loud noise, more research is needed to also assess the risk at slightly lower levels of noise, said Rabinowitz. "I think we need to do more research (on) noise that's a little more common and slightly less, say between 80 and 90 decibels, and fi nd out more about how that can affect injury." Shereen Jegtvig is a nutritionist who writes for Reuters Health. mental stressors faced by the profession, means that heart injuries due to the nature of the job are a reality for fi refi ghters," Under the proposed amendment, if a fi refi ghter suffers from heart disease or a heart injury — including a heart attack — it will be presumed to be due to his work unless the contrary is proven. The presumption will be available to local government fi refi ghters as well as forest fi refi ghters, and will support them in receiving workers' compensa- tion. The presumption will apply if the claimant was employed as a fi refi ghter at or immediately before the date of disablement from heart injury or disease. It will apply to eligible fi refi ghters who fi rst become disabled from heart disease or heart "Having heart presumption restored is so important to fi refi ghters because it means that while we are fi ghting to save our own lives, we will not have the added stress of The amended Workers Compensation Act would make B.C. the only jurisdiction in Canada to have a presumption for heart disease embedded in its workers' com- At the end of April, Ontario announced new protections for fi refi ghters by adding six cancers to the list of those presumed to be related to their work. Breast cancer, multiple myeloma and testicular cancer will be added to the list immediately. Prostate cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer will be phased in by 2017. These changes will make it easier for fi refi ghters to qualify for benefi ts by reversing the burden of proof for those The extension of presumptive status for the six additional cancers will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 1960, and apply to full-time, part-time and volunteer fi refi ghters and fi re investigators. Ontario already has eight cancers on the presumed list of diseases for fi re- fi ghters: brain cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin's the microscope