Canadian Occupational Safety

August/September 2016 3 August Professional development Electrical safety Summer safety September Construction Respiratory protection Psychological safety The competitive advantage of safety Jamie Hall, COO of Safe Work Manitoba, discusses how small businesses can stand out by having a strong safety culture. He shares a personal story that proves the safest companies retain the best workers. www.cos-mag.com/ smallbusinessadvantage.html Webinars The COS webinar library is lled with on-demand topics such as arc ash, safety culture, fall protection and ISO 45001. The one-hour sessions are delivered by health and safety experts from across Canada. www.cos-mag.com/CPDCentre on now @ 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 crafting a safety elevator pitch. Safety Tip - PTSD The COS Safety Tip video series provides information for workers to help them stay healthy and safe on the job. The latest video on PTSD explains how the disorder occurs and what can be done to prevent it. 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 Mallory Hendry 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 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 Contents of Canadian Occupational Safety are copyright © 2016 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. 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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 Director, Pozniak Safety Associates Inc. Guy Chenard, CRSP, C.E.T. Safety Consultant Maureen Shaw President, Act Three Consulting Dr. 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 coming up online latest videos RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 2075 KENNEDY RD., TORONTO, ONT. M1T 3V4 Err on the side of safety I n conducting research for this month's cover story on surgical smoke (see page 18) I was blown away by the ignorance around the severity of the issue. Although there are several peer-reviewed articles, academic studies and in-depth research reports indicating surgical smoke is harmful to those who may be exposed, there were still many comments, blogs and the like from skeptics claiming it is not a valid health concern. The most shocking was a presentation that I stumbled upon where a researcher and doctors from a hospital in Quebec were making the case that there was not enough evidence to prove that plume was a problem. They were presenting this topic at a conference in 2011 — well after surgical smoke was widely recognized as an issue. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the United States issued a hazard alert in 1996 recommending that smoke from laser and electrosurgical units be fi ltered and evacuated. The Quebec presenters said health-care professionals in their hospital wanted portable smoke evacuators and then went on to explain why the hospital did not think this was necessary. Ultimately, it decided there was not enough research or evidence to prove this was a health concern. I wholeheartedly disagree. In researching the article, I had no problem whatsoever fi nding lots of information dated before 2011 that they would have come across outlining all the terrible health effects that can arise from surgical smoke. I am not sure how they would have missed it. In fact, I am inclined to believe they just looked for the documents that said the hazard of surgical smoke was inconclusive and clung onto those for dear life. If you look hard enough, you can fi nd a dissenting opinion on pretty much anything. This brings me to the question: How much proof do we really need? It's very common to hear the line that there just isn't enough evidence on a topic to prove it's a problem. But when will there be enough evidence? How many cases of nurses and surgeons with respiratory problems, lung cancer or genital warts in their noses do we need to have? Shouldn't we err on the side of safety? I am a reasonable human being and I understand we can't always run out and buy the next best thing that claims to make us safer. But with surgical smoke, there clearly is enough evidence here to show it's a problem, so why not get in front of it and put in smoke evacuators? The CSA Group recognized this to be so much of an issue that its plume scavenging standard was one of its fastest ever made — just 18 months — because there was no opposition to it. If the Quebec hospital crunched the numbers, it would see the cost of the portable smoke evacuators is signifi cantly less than the cost of sick workers. This is common knowledge for safety professionals, but clearly not for everyone. I also want to point out the very important column by Glyn Jones on page 10. Our hearts go out to those in Fort McMurray (many COS readers are in the oil patch) and Glyn's column cautions those involved in the wildfi re cleanup to go about it in a safe and healthy manner. We know you all want nothing more than to roll up your sleeves and get everything back to normal as soon as possible, but please keep health and safety in mind. On the lighter side, the Up Close column in this issue explores the very interesting things that are happening at the Centre for Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. A workplace simulator will allow researchers to test different working conditions and determine interventions for issues workers are facing. They can crank up the heat to study heat stress or put a virtual-reality-type headset on the worker to capture his eye movements. I am excited about the innovations that will come out of this and how it will improve worker health and safety. Of note, CROSH's researchers get their ideas directly from the fi eld. Workers tell them what problems they are having and researchers get to work on coming up with solutions. Now that's erring on the side of safety. Amanda Silliker, Editor amanda.silliker@thomsonreuters.com

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