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.
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6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com HEALTH & SAFETY NEWS Ontario's asbestos registry contains gaps in reporting D espite wide recognition of asbestos as a cause of mesothelioma as well as cancers of the lung and larynx (and to a lesser extent, ovarian cancer in women), the fi bre is still present in some products and building materials across Canada, according to the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC). The OCRC, in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL), recently conducted an analysis of the Ontario Asbestos Workers Registry (OAWR) — the fi rst since its creation in 1985. The OAWR is updated weekly, and all employers in the construction industries are required to report exposure at least once per year for each eligible worker. The registry currently has more than 87,000 entries for a total of 33,011 workers of all ages who were exposed from 1934 to June 2012. The review found occupational exposure to asbestos remains a concern. A signifi cant number of workers have been exposed for decades and may be at increased risk for asbestos-related disease. Although the incidence of exposure began to decrease in 1990, around 2,000 workers per year were still exposed until 2006, when the incidence decreased again. Workers in the construction industries are the most exposed — both in number of workers and hours of exposure. Unexpectedly, some workers from industries such as manufacturing and educational services also reported many hours of N.L. overhauls workers' compensation system By Sabrina Nanji N ewfoundland and Labrador's workers' compensation system is about to see some signifi cant changes. In February, Service NL released a report from the statutory review committee that looked at the workers' compensa- tion system and the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act. The report, Working Together – Safe, Accountable, Sustainable, included 42 policy recommendations and an additional 90 recommendations. On the docket for the review committee were maximum compensable assessable earnings, fi nancial sustainability, labour market re-entry, medi- cal management, occupational disease and prevention, and the role of stakeholders. As well, the consultation process focused on other issues affecting the work- ers' compensation system, such as the importance of effi cient internal and external review processes and the value of effective, transparent governance. As part of its recommendations around prevention, Service NL's review committee named the implementation of additional training certifi cation standards as one means to improve training and workplace health and safety. It also recommended increasing the collaboration between the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC) and the provin- cial occupational health and safety branch. More broadly engaging safety sector councils and improving the effective- ness of the OHS committee program were also recommended. Under claims management, the committee suggested increasing education and awareness around the use of disability management guidelines and the initiatives to prevent occupational disease in the workplace. Early and safe return to work was also a focus. Increasing planning and collaboration between employers and workers in the program will help ease the transition, said the committee. Similarly, it recommended labour market re-entry programs provide infor- mation about regionally relevant occupational classifi cations to workers and improve key indicators for those labour market programs. Taking a balanced, long-term planned approach to reducing assessment rates and increasing workers' benefi ts, a path towards fi nancial sustainability would be paved, according to the review committee. Finally, the committee said enhancing the statutory review process would improve overall governance of Newfoundland and Labrador's workers' com- pensation system. "The statutory review is an important component of the workplace health, safety and compensation system as it brings together the views of the prov- ince's workers, employers and other interested parties to identify potential improvements to the system," said Dan Crummell, minister of Service NL and minister responsible for the WHSCC. "These recommendations affect workers and employers so it is important that we provide members of the public with an opportunity to respond to these recommendations." The government is currently reviewing the report and is opening the fl oor for public input before implementing the suggestions. A review of Newfoundland and Labrador's workers' compensation system and Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act takes place by a statu- tory review committee every fi ve years. Sabrina Nanji writes for Canadian Safety Reporter, a sister publication of COS. Control banding model for aerosols proposed A committee of experts from the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) in Montreal is proposing a control banding model for facilitating the selection of appropriate respiratory protection against aerosols. The model is used to compensate for the lack of occupational exposure values and toxicological data, as well as the limitations of current sampling techniques, said IRSST. The proposed model consists of the four risk groups used in biosafety: • low risk for individuals and communities • moderate risk for individuals, low for communities • high risk for individuals, low for communities • high risk for individuals and communities. It also looks at fi ve exposure levels (very low, low, medium, high and very high). A model like this is important to protect against the great diversity of infectious and non-infectious bioaerosols present in workplaces, said IRSST. By cross-tabulating data, an assigned protection factor (APF) can be deter- mined to help occupational health and safety practitioners select the appropriate respiratory protective equipment. This model, which is based on control banding approaches applying to chemi- cal pollutants and nanoparticles, has been validated by case studies that involve comparing the model's proposed protection factors with existing recommenda- tions for various risks, such as SARS, tuberculosis, anthrax and legionellosis, said IRSST. Control banding is a technique used to guide the assessment and management of workplace risks. This technique is used to match a control measure (such as ventilation, engineering controls, containment and PPE) to a range or "band" of hazards and exposures (such as skin/eye irritation, very toxic or carcinogenic). It was originally developed by the pharmaceutical industry as a way to work safely with new chemi- cals that had little or no toxicity information. While it requires a certain level of knowledge and cannot be used for environmental monitoring, control banding allows practitioners to focus their efforts on the choice of control strategies rather than on measuring bioaerosol exposure. According to the research- ers, this approach increases worker protection and reduces the effects of contaminants on workers' health.