Canadian Occupational Safety

6 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com WORKPLACE NEWS Workers at risk for accidental exposure to fentanyl By Alexia Kapralos C anada is in the midst of an opioid crisis. According to a Health Canada report, the country saw about 2,458 opioid-related deaths last year and those numbers remain high in 2017. But it's not just the users who are at risk. Police officers, prison guards, first responders and medical professionals are at risk for accidental exposure to fen- tanyl — a drug classified as an opioid that's prescribed as a painkiller, but often abused and obtained by illegal measures. "Fentanyl is up to 100 times more powerful than things like morphine. So it's pretty scary stuff when you talk about exposures," said Ian MacDonald, constable at the Abbotsford Police Department in British Columbia. "Even at the granular level, it can be enough to either kill someone or put them into medical distress." In July, six prison guards at the maximum security Edmonton Institution were exposed to fentanyl and two were hospitalized. That same month, one guard at Bowden Institution in Innisfail, Alta. had to be hospitalized for 48 hours after coming into contact with fentanyl. Accidental workplace exposure to the odourless, often-fatal drug could occur through inhaling drug residue, absorbing it through the skin, through needlestick injury, conducting first aid on a user or by handling mail that may contain the substance. Fentanyl's reach varies from province to province. The West Coast has the most severe rates of fentanyl overdoses. CBC cites that B. C. and Alberta's overdoses skyrocketed from 42 in 2012 to 418 in 2015. In fact, B.C. declared this a public health emergency in April 2016. Street drugs are often laced with fentanyl or other opioids to make them more addictive and to create a "better high," said Andrea Furlan, senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilita- tion Institute. This is why fentanyl and other variations of the drug are often undetected at first glance. So how does the drug work? Opioids cause central nervous system depression. "The person would feel immediately very drowsy and the other function of the central nervous system that is depressed is the respiratory system," Furlan said. "They'd stop breathing." Opioids are generally safe to handle if they're in pill form because the body cannot absorb the drug unless it's ingested. It's when the drug is in a pow- dered form and particles become airborne, even if it's just a few particles, that it becomes dangerous to anyone handling it, Furlan said. Toronto Police spokesperson, Mark Pugash, said that during an internal survey looking at all suspected opioid overdoses in the city in one year, the force found that in every case, paramedics were able to arrive and provide care. This extends to providing care in case of emergency for officers, adding that what works in Toronto might not necessarily work everywhere else, such as rural areas. Transport Canada proposes new rules on flight crew fatigue P ilots in Canada are facing new rules to ensure they are well rested and fit for duty before takeoff. The proposed changes to the Canadian Aviation Regulations aim to improve passenger and flight crew safety and align regulations with scientific data, international standards and best practices, the federal government said. "We cannot take chances when it comes to flight crew members whose judgment and performance could be impaired. The proposed rules will limit the amount of time a crew member can be on the job and help operators manage fatigue risk," said Marc Garneau, minister of transport. The new rules on flight crew fatigue manage- ment address flight time and hours of work limits. Transport Canada has identified human factors, including fatigue, as one of its top four safety risk priorities. The new flight duty period requirements take into account time of day, increased rest peri- ods and new requirements for free time. A fatigue risk management system will allow air operators to adapt policies, procedures and practices to manage fatigue risk in an operation. The system will allow operators, including those who provide cargo ser- vices, more flexibility as long as they can demonstrate an equivalent level of safety, said Transport Canada. But the Safer Skies coalition, representing more than 8,000 passenger and cargo pilots across Canada, expressed "profound disappointment" in the regula- tions. The group says the new maximum allowable time for long haul flights at night far exceeds the hours recommended for pilots by NASA's Ames Research Center, by up to 25 per cent. "Canada had some of the worst aviation regulations in the world and after seven years of consultation, we still have one of the worst regulations in the world in many areas," said Jerry Dias, national president, Unifor. "Nowhere else in the world can pilots fly as many hours in a day, week and month with as little time off to recover as Canada." The new rules also prohibit flight crew members from working within 12 hours of drinking alcohol, up from eight hours. Crew members will also be pro- hibited from working if they are suffering from a mental or physical condition. Since 2009, the International Civil Aviation Organization has required member states to update fatigue regulations based on the latest science. Airline operators will have one year to comply with the new requirements. The rest of the operators (air taxi and commuter operators) will have four years to comply. This is concerning to members of Safer Skies because "all pilots are equal and should have the same margin of safety across the board," it said. Suncor funds tailing safety project as part of creative sentencing A n innovative creative sentence under the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act is addressing the tragedy of a Suncor Energy worker's death by enhancing the protection of workers against ground hazards. In the early morning hours of Jan. 19, 2014, a veteran employee of Suncor died in a workplace acci- dent near Fort McMurray, Alta. Jerry Cooper, a 40-year-old tailings opera- tor who had worked for the company for 13 years, fell through the ground, softened by a leaking tailings pipeline, and was unable to free himself. In April, through a negotiated agree- ment on all sides, a Provincial Court judge ordered Suncor to fund a project to help manage ground hazards. The company is investing $285,000 in the University of Alberta to enhance risk management tools to guard against ground hazards. "We were heartbroken by Jerry's death and we want to make sure some- thing like this never happens again to another oilsands employee across the industry," said Mark Little, Suncor's president of upstream. "This invest- ment to strengthen industry safety is an important way to honour Jerry's memory and make sure his passing was not in vain." By the end of the project, oilsands facilities operators will have an extra layer of protection against potential geotechnical hazards. "When you think about a tailings facility, what often comes to mind is the safety measures in place against a catastrophic failure. As far as ongo- ing operations and worker safety are concerned, there hasn't been much done," said Lianne Lefsrud, the research team lead. "We have identi- fied an important gap in the research, which we aim to fill." The two-year study focuses on enhancing worker awareness and safety at tailings storage and fluid tail- ings transportation facilities such as ponds, dykes, dams and pipelines. Potential ground hazards around these facilities are difficult to detect for untrained personnel. Few people would even consider the possibility that the ground is unstable, as ground conditions don't change very often or very fast. The research team is interviewing tailings operators to identify their current health and safety practices for field operations, investigating poten- tial ground hazards and reviewing risk management regulations. Although initiated and funded by Suncor Energy, other oilsands com- panies have expressed their interest in this project. Once the research team has reviewed the current safety measures and iden- tified potential geotechnical hazards associated with tailings facilities and daily operations, it will develop "red flags" heralding the onset of a ground hazard, and present safety recommen- dations to the participating companies that would enhance worker safety.

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