Canadian Occupational Safety

April/May 2015 3 Latest COS videos Coming up online More videos at www.cos-mag.com/video.html April Remote workers Training Lone workers May Machine safety Mobile workers OHS Legal Update Award season Do you work for one of the safest companies in the country? Nominations for the fth annual Canada's Safest Employers Awards, with new awards for Young Worker Safety and Canada's Best Health + Safety Culture, are open now until June 1. www.safestemployers.com On now @ twitter.com/cosmagazine Join Canadian Occupational Safety group on Follow us on Safety Tip: Distracted driving Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times more likely to get into a serious car crash Occupational cancer Biological hazards researcher says cases of this disease are underesti- mated and under-reported DIRECTOR, CARSWELL MEDIA Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9411 PUBLISHER John Hobel john.hobel@thomsonreuters.com 416-298-5197 ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Todd Humber todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com 416-298-5196 EDITOR Amanda Silliker amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com 416-649-9502 ASSISTANT EDITOR Mallory Hendry (on leave) ASSISTANT EDITOR Anastasiya Jogal ART DIRECTOR Steve Maver PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Pamela Menezes pamela.menezes@thomsonreuters.com 416-649-9298 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Stephen Hill stephen.hill@thomsonreuters.com 416-558-9102 MANAGER, MEDIA PRODUCTION Lisa Drummond lisa.drummond@thomsonreuters.com MARKETING MANAGER Mohammad Ali mm.ali@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 Workers' Compensation David Marchione and Maurice Dransfeld CUSTOMER SERVICE Tel. 416-609-3800 (Toronto)/ 1-800-387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax 416-298-5082 (Toronto)/ 1-877-750-9041 (outside Toronto) carswell.customerrelations@thomsonreuters.com RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 2075 KENNEDY RD., TORONTO, ONT. M1T 3V4 Contents of Canadian Occupational Safety are copyright © 2015 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 cos-mag.com visit us online 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 Director, Pozniak Safety Associates Inc. Guy Chenard Retired, Senior H&S Advisor, Ontario Power Generation Maureen Shaw President, Act Three Consulting Dr. Ron Saunders Director of Knowledge Transfer & Exchange Institute for Work & Health Start them young K eeping young people safe on the job is something I personally feel should be a top priority for all employers. While any workplace death is devastating, it's even more heart wrenching when the victim is a young worker. Young workers under the age of 25 face a signifi cantly higher risk of getting hurt on the job (along with new and temporary workers). In 2013, more than 30,000 young Canadian workers were seriously injured at work and 30 of them died. There are constant headlines of young workers being killed on the job. For example, last July, a 15-year-old died in a conveyor belt accident at a gravel crushing operation in Wintering Hills, Alta.; in September, an 18-year-old construction worker died after falling 23 stories from a building in Waterloo, Ont.; and a young worker in northern British Columbia died in February when the logging truck he was driving rear-ended another loaded logging truck. These tragic deaths should prompt legislators to take a hard look at their occupational health and safety laws. In Alberta, workers aged 15 to 18 can work any job as long as they don't work between midnight and 6 a.m. In a province with a potentially dangerous work climate — the oil and gas industry and construction booms — the government should consider setting limits on where teens can work. For example, in Manitoba, employees under the age of 16 cannot work in construction or manufacturing or on drilling rigs, scaffolds or swing stages. Workers under 18 cannot work in forestry, confi ned spaces, saw or pulp mills, underground mines or asbestos removal. Health and safety professionals also need to put a specifi c focus on these vulnerable workers. They are new to the workplace, trying to do the best job they can, attempting to fi t in with their co-workers and safety may not be their top priority. It's up to OHS professionals, managers, supervisors and other co-workers to look out for these workers and help instill safety values in them early. One of our readers, Carola Mittag, sent in this photo (left) of her grandson, Fritz, wearing a hard hat from Canada's Safest Employers Awards gala. It's not only an adorable photo, but it is a good reminder to start safety conversations as early as possible to ingrain safety into our future workforce. (See article on page 24.) And just in case you needed more proof of the importance of young worker safety, a new study from the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto found a disabling injury at a young age is linked to a higher likelihood of premature death. (See page 6 for more.) To encourage employers to promote the safety of young workers, Canada's Safest Employers Awards has launched a new Young Worker Safety Award. If your company has excellent pro- grams in place that speak specifi cally to young workers, consider applying for this inaugural award. And if you know of an exceptional safety leader who is working hard to keep workers safe — young and old — nominate him or her for the 2015 COS Safety Leader of the Year Award. (See box at right for website details.) This month our legal columnist, Norm Keith, looks at occupational health and safety trends around the world, including the Globally Harmonized System of Classifi cation and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). This has been in the works for such a long time, it is great to see it fi nally coming to fruition. (See column on page 12.) To help with the transition to the new WHMIS, which implements the GHS, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has launched www.WHMIS.org. The website has the most current information on WHMIS from all of the jurisdictions across Canada. It also contains helpful tools and resources for employers, so make sure to check it out to see new hazard class names, classifi cation rules and hazard classes, such as "aspiration hazard." Amanda Silliker, Editor amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com 2015 Safety Leader Your supervisor, manager or colleague could be the next COS Safety Leader of the Year. Nominations close July 6. www.cos-mag.com/safety-leader.html WORKPLACE SAFETY GROUP

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