Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian occupational safety www.cos-mag.com By COS staff N ew safety requirements took eff ect on April 1 for operators of private trucks working on New Brunswick highway projects and contracts, the province's department of transportation and infrastruc- ture announced. Operators of private trucks working on highway projects and contracts will be required to complete the following basic training: • occupational health and safety orientation; • workplace hazardous materials information system training; • work area traffi c control manual awareness training. The contractors' role will be to confi rm the operators have taken the required training. Operators will also be required to perform a daily pre-trip inspection on their trucks, the depart- ment said. "Training and awareness pro- grams are necessary steps to make construction sites safer," said Trans- portation and Infrastructure Minister Claude Williams. " ese measures will improve safety for private truckers, department employees, contractors and the public on highway contracts and projects." e work area traffi c control manual awareness training is free and available on the department of transportation and infrastructure's website. e other two programs, which require a half-day or a day to complete, are available from several providers, the department said. updAtes from the world of heAlth & sAfety Safety F irst Western Canada workers have higher risk of injury: study By Mari-Len De Guzman f urther study needs to be done to understand the reason why work- ers from Western Canada have a higher risk of work-related injury than their counterparts in the East, according to one scientist from the Institute of Work and Health (IWH). A recent IWH study revealed work- ers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia have a 30 to 50 per cent higher risk of work injury than Ontario workers. e result is true even a er controlling for risk factors such as demographics and work characteristics, said Curtis Breslin, the IWH scientist who led the study. Breslin said the research did not delve into the possible reasons for the geographical injury rate diff erences, but that this should be a subject for further study. " e basic next step would be to do research to fi gure out the reasons. Spec- ulating on the reasons and suggesting policy based on speculation we don't think is a good idea," said Breslin. IWH looked at data from the 2003 and 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), which looked at 89,541 Canadians (ages 15 to 75 years) who had worked in the past year. rough the CCHS, respondents were asked if they had been injured at work (exclud- ing repetitive strain injuries) in the last 12 months seriously enough to limit their normal activities. IWH researchers looked at work injuries by personal and work-related factors, as well as area-level factors — such as labour market, workplace characteristics and socio-economic status by area — and then looked to see how these factors were associated with work injury risk in the provinces in which respondents worked. e IWH study found provincial diff erences in work risk, even a er taking individual and area-level factors into account, including industry mix, according to a statement from the IWH. Specifi cally, Saskatchewan showed 27 per cent higher risk compared with Ontario; Alberta, 28 per cent; and Brit- ish Columbia, 49 per cent. Workers in Manitoba and Quebec were at compa- rable risk of work injury; and those in Atlantic Canada at slightly lower risk (by eight per cent), the IWH said. e IWH study has been submitted to the journal Annals of Epidemiology. "Given that, in Canada, primary responsibility for occupational health and safety falls on the provinces, the fi nding that important determinants of work injury are potentially operat- ing at a provincial level may be useful to provincial governments in plan- ning prevention strategies," says IWH research operations co-ordinator Sara Morassaei, lead author of the submitted journal article. Although the study did not pinpoint those determinants, Breslin off ers some possible factors. "I could speculate on some things that would be worthy of future research or to explore further," said Breslin. "One of them is things related to the diff erent types of legislation that are in those provinces — how the legislation is enforced — those are possible reasons why you see provincial diff erences." Other probable explanations could be unrelated to leg- islation but more around workplace characteristics, such as fi rm size, Breslin added. "We know from the labour force survey that, on average, fi rms in the W estern provinces tend to be smaller than fi rms in Ontario. And we know that small businesses tend to have higher work injuries. at's another potential factor to look at," he said. New safety training requirements for New Brunswick highway projects ning prevention strategies," says IWH research operations co-ordinator Sara Morassaei, lead author of the submitted journal article. Although the study did not pinpoint those determinants, Breslin off ers some possible factors. "I could speculate on some things that would be worthy of future research or to explore further," said Breslin. "One of them is things related to the diff erent types of legislation that are in those provinces — how the legislation is enforced — those are possible reasons why you see provincial diff erences." Other probable explanations could be unrelated to leg- islation but more around workplace characteristics, such as fi rm size, Breslin added. "We know from the labour force survey that, on average, fi rms in the W estern provinces tend to be higher work injuries. at's another potential factor to look at," he said. New safety training requirements for New Brunswick highway projects

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