And just like that… it’s already February. With the December 1, 2021, update to the OHS legislation, Alberta Labour is not really sending out bulletins other than reminding everyone to ensure that their program has been updated to accommodate the new requirements.
Here are some general safety notes and considerations for the month!
1- Have you seen the Netflix docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight? In addition to being a complete disaster and the most frustrating thing for a safety practitioner to watch, it did bring forward some good considerations:
a. Are employees fully aware of the hazards and the risks they are faced with on a daily basis?
b. Is the equipment that employees use in a condition that is safe for operation?
c. Are you adhering to all defined processes – say “prove to us this is safe” instead of “prove to use this is not safe.”
2- A vendor company released a bulletin this past month about an employee who got the hood of his jacket caught in a rotating rod while it was back spinning. The operator was able to stop the backspin and get himself untangled. The vendor company has classified as a “near miss.” An incident classification that would make more sense for this particular instance would be a Potentially Serious Incident, as the incident actually happened, and there was luckily no serious injury. Have a moment and review your near miss reports. Were they classified correctly? Also, in that vein, review your hazard ID reports. Should some of them have been classified as near misses?
a. Consider providing your workforce with refresher training during a meeting for hazard vs near miss vs incident reporting, and what to do for each type of incident. Give them examples to classify. For example:
i. The hammer on the edge of the work bench is the hazard
ii. The hammer falling to the floor but missing the foot is the near miss
iii. The hammer falling and hitting the workers foot is the incident, even if there was no injury.
3- OHS – both at a federal and provincial level – has really been pushing psychological hazard awareness in the last few years. CCOHS has made some courses available that are free of charge until March 31, 2022. They can be found here