Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com WORKPLACE NEWS Psychological safety standard in the works for paramedics T he government of Ontario is investing nearly $200,000 to support the Paramedic Association of Canada in developing a psychological health and wellness standard that will help identify and address mental health issues for paramedics. "The paramedic experience is unique," said Pierre Poirier, executive director of the Paramedic Association of Canada. "Their exposure to traumatic mental health incidents in terms of their personal experience is high and the frequency is high because they oftentimes do 10 or 12 calls in an urban centre and we don't know the cumulative effective of all of that." The project will develop, promote and distribute resources that will be used to: identify psychological hazards and possible control measures; increase awareness to help reduce stigma and harassment; increase the capacity of employers to promote the psychological health and wellness of paramedics; and prevent psychological harm from workplace factors. The standard needs to be specifi c to paramedics because they have a very different experience than other fi rst responders, such as police and fi refi ghters, said Poirier. While police might be at the scene for fi ve minutes or 15 minutes and fi refi ghters might be there for 10 minutes, a paramedic can be there for two hours. "The paramedic may also be interacting with family members for those two hours as well," said Poirier. "Even though they went to the same call… their exposure is different over a longer period of time." Although there already is a mental health standard in place — CSA Z1003 Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace — it does not pertain to paramedics as it is generic to the workplace. "Our workplace is not conventional. It is someone's home, the side of a road, an offi ce building, it's wherever," he said. To that effect, the association is working closely with the CSA Group to develop the standard and Poirier expects it will be completed early 2018. Although the grant came from Ontario, the standard will be useful for paramedics all across Canada, said Poirier. "First and foremost it will be focusing on Ontario paramedics because there may actually be a few things that are a little bit unique to Ontario. But we really do envision the application of what's being produced will transcend Ontario and have applicability across the country for paramedics and paramedic employers and health-care professionals who are assisting with paramedics." Inspections at Saskatchewan construction sites raise safety concerns W orkSafe Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) is con- cerned about the lack of compliance around covering openings, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and using fall protection equipment in the residential construction industry. "Workers fall through uncovered openings or drop tools or fall from scaf- folding with unguarded sides. They are injured when they are allowed to work on sites without proper hard hats or footwear," said Shelly McFadden, direc- tor of prevention at the Saskatchewan Workers' Compensation Board (WCB). According to the WCB's 2015 annual report, construction trades helpers and labourers had the fourth-highest number of total claims accepted in the province (775 claims). During two residential construction workplace inspection campaigns in 2015, visiting 161 residential construc- tion sites, Saskatchewan occupational health and safety offi cers found that 41 per cent of the workplaces were using fall protection as required. Fewer than one-half (48 per cent) of the workers on the sites inspected were wearing protective headgear. And just one- half of the workers were trained in fall protection. Additionally, there was only 41 per cent compliance with covering open- ings into which a worker could step or fall and 20 per cent compliance with providing barriers for open shafts. "Safety needs to be at the top of our minds at all times," said Ray Anthony, executive director, Occupational Health and Safety Division. "Employ- ers and supervisors have the highest degree of responsibility for safety on the workplace. It is everyone's respon- sibility to comply with the law and safe work practices." WorkSafe and SCSA issued an alert reminding homebuilders and renova- tors to cover unguarded openings on work sites and to wear proper equip- ment. Through the fall, OHS will be out inspecting residential construction sites. "Our goal is that supervisors and workers will comply with these common site practices in order to pre- vent injuries," said McFadden. Chris Guérette, CEO of the Sas- katoon and Region Home Builders' Association, is encouraging home- builders to strive for continuous improve through safety training and culture education. "We all want a home built on time with zero defi ciencies," he said. "A commitment to worker safety is a com- mitment to professionalism, consumer protection and zero injuries." Canadian mine rescue team best in the world M ine rescuers from Kirkland Lake Gold were crowned world champions by Workplace Safety North and Ontario Mine Rescue as the over- all winners of the 10th International Mines Rescue Competition. During the competition, held Aug. 19 to 25 in Sudbury, Ont., 27 mine rescue teams from 13 nations around the world were evaluated on their fi refi ghting skills, fi rst-aid response, high angle rope rescue skills, use of emergency equipment and decision-making ability under stress in a simulated underground emergency. The Kirkland Lake, Ontario, team of Terry McKnight, Jonathan Boutin, Hubert Gour, Alex Thompson, Norm Gannon Jr., Jason Dicaire, Ben Young, Lynne Thompson and Scott Gillett, became the fi rst Canadian team to win the event. "Some competitors that we were competing against, especially from the eastern European countries — Poland, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine — these are all professional mine rescue men. This is their job, so that kind of added an interesting ele- ment to it and a bit of pressure, but we basically tackled the problem the way we know how to tackle them and put it all out there," Alex Thompson, team captain for Kirkland Lake, told the CBC, adding the vast major- ity of mine rescuers across Canada are volunteers. The international competition, held for the fi rst time in Canada, is organized every two years to provide an opportunity for mine rescue organiza- tions to share and improve mine rescue knowledge and practices through global co-operation. Previous competitions have been held around the world in Europe, Asia and Australia. "While the competition allowed some of the most highly trained mine rescuers in the world to test their skills, it also allowed teams to return home with leading-edge ideas, equipment and procedures to help reduce the risk of underground mine rescue work," said Ted Hanley, general manager, Ontario Mine Rescue. Ireland's Boliden Tara Mines fi nished second, while the KGHM White Eagles of Poland fi nished third in the overall competition. Kirkland Lake also won the underground emer- gency simulation event, beating second-place Compass Minerals Goderich Mine — this year's Ontario Mine Rescue cham- pion — and Boliden Tara Mines in third. During the underground emergency scenario, fi ve- member teams had to build a wall in a smoke-fi lled, heated environment to change mine ventilation due to a fi re, and fi nd two miss- ing miners. One of the miners was found impaled on a length of rebar, further challenging teams' fi rst- aid skills. "These competitions are set up to learn from and to have people that are placed within the company that are able to have the next level of training and the ability to respond to these things," said Thompson. "It's really important that these competitions test our ability to make decisions." Compass Minerals Goderich Mine won the theory event, which tests team members on their knowl- edge of mine gases, fi refi ghting and emergency response activities. Two other Canadian teams also earned honours. Cameco McArthur River from Saskatchewan placed second in the high angle rope rescue event and third in the fi refi ghting and fi rst-aid events. Hometown favourites, Vale's Sudbury West Mines in Ontario placed third in high angle rope rescue and theory events. Kirkland Lake Gold mine rescue team

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