Canadian Occupational Safety

December:January 2018

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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DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 17 Objects that can cut skin and come in contact with bodily fluids, such as needles, syringes, EpiPens or lancets (also known as sharps) should never be disposed of in the garbage or recycling bin. A while back, a waste collection worker for Emterra Group, based in Surrey, B.C., picked up a whole bag of syringes that brushed along his leg, resulting in numer- ous slashes. As a result of that incident, the company put new protocols in place, including wearing long pants and using proper lifting techniques to avoid scraping the bags along the body, says Perry Boudreau, corporate director of health and safety at Emterra, which has 1,100 workers. If the worker believes the bag is unsafe, he is told to tag it, leave it at the curb and the company will make the appro- priate authorities aware. Proper gloves should be worn to reduce needle pricks. Emterra waste collection workers must complete a blood- borne pathogen course and the company offers hepatitis vaccinations to its employees. Hazardous waste can be dangerous to waste collec- tors because it can be corrosive, flammable, poisonous or reactive. Items such bleach, batteries, kerosene, compact flu- orescent light bulbs, gasoline, pool chemicals and propane tanks and cylinders should be taken to a hazardous waste depot, not put in the garbage, according to WorkSafeNB. If improper items are put into the trash, this can cause a fire in the truck and put the waste collectors at risk. "Their truck catches on fire and they want to be fire- men. They want to protect the truck. 'Oh my God, my truck.' It's garbage for heaven's sake. It's a piece of equipment. So we have a very serious training for our fire brigade (a designated person on each site) and the use of fire extinguishers," says Deb- orah Fraser, national health and safety director at GFL Environmental, which has 7,000 employees and is headquartered in Vaughan, Ont. Waste collectors at GFL receive practical training where they are taught how to properly use a fire extinguisher, how to inspect it and when to call 911. When it comes to road safety, Petersen says the "single most important thing" is for waste collectors to not cross the street. Procedures should be in place so that the pickup of garbage is on the same side of the road as the truck. The public needs to realize their curbside and roadways are the workplaces of waste collectors, says Petersen, and they need to approach slowly and carefully when they see a garbage truck. "The trucks will make numerous stops along a particular route and you get people in behind that can't see what's around them, they get impatient, honk their horn and they can get fairly close (to the truck)," says Boudreau. In Boudreau's analysis of truck drivers across industries, he has found those who are the most likely to be involved in a road accident are the ones who have been on the job for six months or less. The next most accident-prone group is individuals with 25 years or more of experience who have never had an accident before. "They think, 'I have been doing this for 30 years. You weren't even born yet and I was driving. What do you think you're going to tell me?'" says Boudreau. Boudreau recalls an incident two years ago where a gar- bage truck rolled over. The driver had been working for 30 years without an accident or ticket and was "safe as can be." When Boudreau was interviewing the driver, he said, "I never thought this would ever happen to me. Two seconds and I was over. It didn't even cross my mind." But no one is immune, Boudreau says. Lifting is another major hazard for waste collec- tion workers. The average weight of a garbage bag is 16.5 pounds, with a maximum weight measured up to 86 pounds; however, this varies consider- ably, according to the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Heavy loads increase the risk of injury. The average worker does nine lifts per minute, with an average of two bags per lift, the centre found. Workers often toss the bags into the hopper instead of walking all the way to the truck, which can result in repet- itive strain injury. Muscle strain — whether it be back, shoulder, hips, elbows or wrists — is the number 1 type of injury at Emterra, says Boudreau. "When you're picking up anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 houses a day, it can put a lot of wear and tear on your body if you're not picking these bags up properly or if they're too heavy," he says. A high lifting frequency can also lead to fatigue. Workers at Emterra are told not to lift a bag that they are struggling to lift, which is often more than 50 pounds. They can ask the garbage truck driver to help them lift it, or they can tag it and leave it on the curb to be picked up later. Employers need to offer training for proper lifting tech- niques and provide a mechanical aid when possible, says Petersen. Some municipalities have bins, rather than bags, so workers can wheel the bin to the truck, which then lifts and empties the bin. Many trucks have a mechanical arm that reaches out to the curb to pick up the bin on its own. The number 1 hazard Fraser sees at GFL is slips, trips and falls. Workers are often not maintaining three points of contact when entering and leaving the truck, as they are trained to do. "They do this every day, over and over, 100 or 200 times a day, so what do you think they do? They are jumping in and jumping out," she says. "And they slip out of the truck and that's what's breaking and spraining and straining their ankles, their legs, because of that swift motion." The workers who are the loaders are often hanging off the back of the truck and if that truck does not come to a complete stop, that worker is not supposed to jump on or off. Despite constant communication, tailgate meetings and training, violations do occur — something Fraser does not take lightly. After an extensive investigation and a root cause analysis, if it has been determined that a worker chose to make an unsafe decision that caused an incident, he will be disciplined. "I have a very, very strict disciplinary policy: It's called 'at fault management'… If the evidence shows you were trained and you knew better, you will be disciplined," says Fraser. "When I first did it, a lot of people thought it was very harsh." Weather poses a major risk for waste collection workers because they have to go out every day — rain, shine or snow. In the summer, heat stress in an issue; in the winter, cold stress is a concern. Driving conditions can change throughout a day, such as sun blinding the driver or rain making the roads slick. According to Boudreau, workers need to know what to do in all types of weather: Take breaks if they are overheated; wear appropriate rain gear; watch their footing on ice; and be aware of items blowing around in high winds. Even if the weather seems fine one day, remnants of poor weather the night or day before can cause problems. "Our trucks are driving on the street and what looks to them as a regular routine might not be because yesterday it was pouring rain; it's pulling the wires down. They come around the corner where they have been clearing that area every week for three years and all of a sudden they have clipped the electrical wires and they're down," says Fraser. When you're picking up anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 houses a day, it can put a lot of wear and tear on your body if you're not picking these bags up properly or if they're too heavy.

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