Fabrication Safety
Protecting workers in tight spaces
A Canadian first, the CSA has defined confined environments in a new national standard as “a workspace that is fully or partially enclosed; not designed or intended for continuous human occupancy and has limited or restricted access.”
Time to get tough on violence
Ontario manufacturers have only a couple months to put policies in place that are in compliance with new Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) amendments, but many are unsure what they need to do.
Safety
Olymel employees to be relocated after plant fire
180 workers will be offered the chance to work at one of five other facilities owned by the meat processor.
Ontario safety inspectors blitzing industry
Ontario safety inspectors will be blitzing workplaces for the remainder of October to ensure workers are properly equipped with safety gear.
Virtual injuries, safer reality
Applying technologies that allow for ergonomic interventions much earlier in the virtual manufacturing design process prevent workers from being exposed to injury.
Worker who lost feet in machine now walks to raise awareness
Threads of Life educating workplaces about occupational health and safety
Ford to build virtual crash test kid
The Ford Motor Co. is developing the one of the world’s first digital human child-body models for computer crash testing that will lead to future safety technologies.
Carnival warehouses burn in Brazil
Onlookers watched in tears as firefighters struggled to control a blaze raging through warehouses holding elaborate costumes and floats for this year's parade. Watch a video of the blaze.
Poor train marshalling practices causing derailments: TSB
The Transportation Safety Board says the trend towards longer, heavier trains brings current train marshalling practices into question.
The Real Have-Nots In Confederation: British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario
This study by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a right of centre western-based think tank, claims to show how Canada’s equalization program creates generous programs and large governments in have-not provinces. Simply put, taxpayers in the traditional have provinces subsidize substantially more generous public services in the recipient provinces. Click here for a copy ...
Small is Different: A Science Perspective on the Regulatory Challenges of the Nanoscale
The report assesses the state of knowledge of existing nanomaterial properties and the risks they may pose to health and the environment, which could impact “regulatory perspectives” on the need for research, risk assessment and surveillance. Click here for a copy of the report.
Combating alcohol and drug use in the workplace
The oil and gas industry has seen a 48% increase in employees seeking counselling for drinking problems. Photo: Stock Dealing with the effects of alcohol and drugs in the workplace is no small challenge for any employer, but in the industrial sector where employees work closely with heavy, dangerous and hazardous materials, substance abuse is ...
Pipeline workers more likely to get hurt in 2007
CALGARY: Pipeline workers were more likely to get hurt on the job in 2007 than in years past says a new report released by the National Energy Board (NEB). The NEB’s annual Focus on Safety and Environment: A Comparative Analysis of Pipeline Performance 2000-2007 reports nearly two out of every 100 pipeline workers suffered a ...
Sensor mirror alerts forklift drivers
The convex Mirror Alert Sytem displays a caution message to warn workers a forklift is approaching. Photo: Albert Safety Products Material handling safety is an ongoing issue for many manufacturers, with forklifts and other lifting devices continuing to be a significant cause of worker injury. Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has recorded 10,308 forklift-related incidents that ...
Tough economic conditions lead to injury
Employers tend to focus on injuries resulting from posture and repetition while overlooking psychosocial stressors. Photo: Istockphoto As production cutbacks, excess inventories and increasingly unstable supply chains aren’t worrying enough, plant managers can add the increased potential for physical and psychosocial worker injury to their list of recession woes. According to research from the Industrial ...
Making the most of industrial waste
Unpacking stations position drums at any angle allowing workers easy access to the contents. Photo: Newalta Newalta dares to ask the question: What if waste wasn’t? Focused on providing real solutions to this seemingly massive challenge, the Calgary-based industrial waste management and environmental services company has invested $3 million in a new labpack processing operation ...
Making the most of industrial waste
Newalta dares to ask the question: What if waste wasn’t? Focused on providing real solutions to this seemingly massive challenge, the Calgary-based industrial waste management and environmental services company has invested $3 million in a new labpack processing operation that’s improving efficiencies and increasing operator safety. Located in Toronto, the new operation uses an automated ...
Safety first at John Deere
The safety team at John Deere Welland Works includes Leo Walsh, Dawn Elliott and Shawn Finlay, director of health and safety and a member of the IAPA board of directors. Photo: Rodney Daw Achievement can bring recognition. Such is the case of the all-out safety effort that produced a big win for Ontario’s John Deere ...