Canadian Occupational Safety

February/March 2017 3 Mining regulations Ontario made some signi cant amendments to its mining regulations that came into effect Jan. 1. One change requires employers to maintain written hazard control measures. See the rest of the changes here: www.cos-mag.com/miningJan1 The search is on Nominations are open for the 7th annual awards. We are looking for the best of the best from coast to coast. Does your company have what it takes? www.safestemployers.com Webinars The COS webinar library is lled with on-demand topics such as arc ash, safety culture, fall protection, ISO 45001 and psychological safety. The one-hour sessions are delivered by health and safety experts from across Canada. Stay tuned for new live webinars added regularly. www.cos-mag.com/CPDCentre @ twitter.com/cosmagazine Join Canadian Occupational Safety group on Follow us on Culture Shock Shawn Galloway, president of ProAct Safety, presents a monthly video on safety culture. Watch the latest video on the two questions every safety manager needs to ask. Drugs and alcohol The latest Safety Tip video looks at the contentious issue of random drug and alcohol testing. Don't miss these nine tips for making sure your company's in the clear. DIRECTOR, MEDIA SOLUTIONS, CANADA Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9411 PUBLISHER Todd Humber todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com 416-298-5196 EDITOR Amanda Silliker amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com 416-649-9502 ASSISTANT EDITOR - VIDEOGRAPHER Alexia Kapralos ART DIRECTOR Steve Maver PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Pamela Menezes pamela.menezes@thomsonreuters.com 416-649-9298 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Nicholas Cholodny nicholas.cholodny@thomsonreuters.com 647-537-4705 MANAGER, MEDIA PRODUCTION Lisa Drummond lisa.drummond@thomsonreuters.com MARKETING MANAGER Robert Symes rob.symes@thomsonreuters.com CIRCULATION CO-ORDINATOR Keith Fulford keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com 416-649-9585 COLUMNISTS Legal Cheryl A. Edwards and Norm Keith Training Glyn Jones Safety Culture Dave Fennell CUSTOMER SERVICE Tel. 416-609-3800 (Toronto)/ 1-800-387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax 416-298-5082 (Toronto)/ 1-877-750-9041 (outside Toronto) customersupport.legaltaxcanada@tr.com Contents of Canadian Occupational Safety are copyright © 2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited and may not be reproduced in whole or part without written consent. Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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 # 89717 6350 RT0002 QST # 1019064405 TQ0005 Canada Post – Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement 40065782 International Standard Serial Number 0008-4611. Printed in 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 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited, 2075 Kennedy Road, Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 Telephone 416-649-9926 Fax 416-609-5840; www.cos-mag.com Issue dates are February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November, December/January. Subscription price: Canada: $64 including tax ($59.84 + $4.16 GST); US: $64, 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. AMANDA SILLIKER FROM THE EDITOR Canadian Occupational Safety's Editorial Advisory Board 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. Guy Chenard, CRSP, C.E.T. Safety Consultant Carolyn Wisdom, CIH, CRSP Owner, Wisdom Consultants Ron Saunders Director of Knowledge Transfer & Exchange Institute for Work & Health cos-mag.com visit us online More videos at www.cos-mag.com/video.html online exclusives latest videos RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 2075 KENNEDY RD., TORONTO, ONT. M1T 3V4 The silent treatment A s a journalist, when no one wants to talk to you, you know you've got a good story. While working on the feature article about diacetyl — the chemical that causes "popcorn lung" — and it's substitute 2,3-pentanedione, I couldn't get a single company to agree to an interview. I reached out to about 20 food manufacturers and some said they had no one available, three responded with a few sentences via email, but the vast majority just ignored my emails and phone calls. That's how I knew this was a big story (see page 19). Clearly companies are using one of these chemicals and don't want to admit it. While all companies should know diacetyl is dangerous to worker health, its substitute has not received the same fanfare and media attention. Some good news is food giants Nestlé and Conagra both confi rmed they do not use either of these products. But I was disappointed with Pepsico's email response. As the largest snack food manufacturer in Canada, it would be great if they could lead the charge on this. However, they did not agree to be interviewed and their spokesperson simply said "...if we use it, it would be part of seasonings mix that arrives at our facilities and not a standalone ingredient. For proprietary reasons we can't share the composition of the seasonings." The issue here, of course, is that diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione can still cause problems for workers when they are a part of a fl avouring mix. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States recently released recommended exposure limits for both diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione. While Ontario and British Columbia cur- rently have occupational exposure limits for diacetyl, these values are something all provinces should examine. Ideally, companies would stop using these chemicals and substitute them with lower toxicity options, which some food manufacturers have done. Of course changing formulas and processes costs money, but if you save even one worker from developing an incurable lung disease, it's worth it. If you work in food processing or manu- facturing, fi nd out if either of these chemicals are being used and start lobbying your company to make changes. The silent treatment continued while working on this month's cover story about call centre workers (page 16). While Bell and Rogers did respond via email (see article for what they said) no one agreed to be interviewed. I reached out to 23 companies, including big banks, insurance companies, telecommunications giants and airlines. No one would talk. Again, this tells me we have a real problem here. Call centre workers are the victims of verbal abuse at companies all across the country. Sure, we have all had very frustrating conversations with call centre agents (my husband's recent freak out on Rogers for our shoddy Internet service springs to mind) but it should never cross the line to abusive. A United Steelworkers' campaign has revealed upsetting, shocking and, quite frankly, disgusting things people say to call centre workers. This has to stop. They have the right to a safe and healthy work environment and employers need to protect them from inappropriate interactions with callers. I am happy to introduce a brand new column: Dave Fennell will be writing about safety culture (page 12). He is well-known in the safety industry and is a guru on risk tolerance. But this means we are ending the Workers' Compensation column and saying goodbye to longtime columnist, David Marchione of Fasken Martineau. He wrote for COS for nearly 10 years and provided excellent advice for our readers on the workers' compensation queries that graced his desk. His contribution will certainly be missed. We are also tweaking Glyn Jones' column (page 9) to focus specifi cally on professional development — something crucial for every profession. What professional development questions do you have? What keeps you up at night in terms of your personal and professional success and growth? Send me your questions and this will help Jones make sure his columns support your success. And in case you're wondering, we switched to Bell. Amanda Silliker, Editor amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com EMPLOYERS SAFEST Powered by Canadian Occupational Safety 2017 CANADA'S on now

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