Logo from CanSav website

I recently visited the CanSav website and read about the lives of people affected by asbestos-related illness.

Bob Katzka – founder of the Canadian Society for Asbestos Victims – emailed a link to the site when he introduced himself after finding my blog. I checked out his link right away – so glad he’d taken the time to write – and I noticed the site included a Tribute section.

That’s where I read about Bob’s father Michael, who died in 2008 from mesothelioma – a lung cancer nearly always caused by exposure to asbestos.

The tribute says Michael was only 18 – back in 1942 – when he joined the Canadian Navy and worked for two years on a ship that was “full of asbestos – the insulation, the boilers, etc.” After years of “excellent health,” Michael was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2007 and died four months later.

Value of sharing stories

Bob shared his father’s story and encourages others to do the same.

“By sharing experiences, those in pain may at least know the comfort that comes in the knowledge they are not alone,” reads the CanSav website.

“In many ways, the most significant and meaningful way to contribute is by sharing your own experiences with asbestos-related disease. Too many victims – those diagnosed as well as the people who love and care for them – have suffered under this burden alone.”

Photo credit: Per Ola Wiberg on Flickr

In addition to the tributes, the website includes links to articles on asbestos-related disease, support for people diagnosed with mesothelioma, information on exposure to asbestos in Canada, and links to more support.

WorkSafeBC’s HiddenKiller website includes information on what to do if you are concerned you have been exposed to asbestos or any other harmful substance at work.

Thanks to Bob for the introduction, and for all you’re doing for people faced with similar challenges to your dad’s.

Photo credit: Mike Traboe on Flickr

“Webinar” stands for web-based seminar – and this platform is a great way for people to connect and share information from any where.

I took part in a webinar hosted by the BC Forest Safety Council and listened to a presentation called How WorkSafeBC Sets Rates, by Gerry Paquette, a manager in WorkSafeBC’s Certification and Rate Modification Department. It was the first time this popular in-person seminar was offered by webinar.

How it works

I received an email invite to the webinar from Laura Maguire – BCFSC’s manager of training and development. It included a link to join online, using a program called WebEx, so at meeting time, I re-opened Laura’s email, clicked the link, and followed the easy instructions to get online.

If you don’t have a computer with a mic, speakers, and an internet connection, you can still take part by calling in from any phone and watching online.

About 10 of us connected via computer and phone and were greeted by moderator Gerard Messier, who explained the system and let us know we were on “mute.” No one could hear us unless we “un-muted” ourselves to ask a question, and we could also type our questions into a text box for the moderator to ask.

Gerry gave a high-level introduction to how WorkSafeBC set its rates using an employer classification system. He “shared” his computer desktop with the online participants, allowing them to see the diagrams and notes on his screen – and at the end, everyone had a chance for their specific questions.

BCFSC has already offered other webinars that cover injury management, ergonomic solutions, and high-frequency injuries such as slips, trips, falls, overexertion, and struck by incidents. They’re also sharing their use of technology with training managers at other industry safety associations – seeing how they can use it to serve the employers who rely on them for training and safety certification.

It’s exciting to picture what this techology can offer – especially to employers and stakeholders in remote areas. I’m glad I had a chance to take part, and I’ll follow up with more webinar options for you in the future.

Kathy Tull at the 2012 Western Conference on Safety Conference. Raffle winner, to be announced mid-May, wins a Blackberry PlayBook.

Kathy Tull says we should look at the Day of Mourning on April 28 as a call to action for North American Health and Safety Week May 6 to 12.

I talked with Kathy, an industry specialist for WorkSafeBC, at the
2012 Western Conference on Safety trade show in Vancouver on April 23. She sits on BC’s NAOSH Week steering committee which judges NAOSH Week award entries.

“On the Day of Mourning, we recognize people who’ve had tragedies and workplace incidents, then the following week is NAOSH Week. That should be the call to action for people – to do something to make the change in their health and safety culture in their organization,” Kathy said. “How can they do that? By having safety meetings, doing training, and there are so many things organizations can do.”

The 2012 NAOSH Week theme is Safety & Health — a Commitment for Life: Making It Work

Suggestions on how to take part in NAOSH Week are in the 2012 safety planner – so if you’re not taking part this year, consider what you might do in 2013.

Staff barbecues, earthquake drills, safety video competitions, PPE fashion shows, and take-home quizzes are a few options.

2012 NAOSH Week Launch

This year’s BC launch for NAOSH Week is Monday, May 7, at 10:30 a.m. at the Vancouver Airport (YVR) and the public is welcome.

The April 2012 issue of SkyTalkOnline says YVR’s NAOSH activities through the week include a health and wellness fair, an airside barbecue, and an airside clean-up walk where staff volunteers pick up loose objects like screws, luggage tags, and bits of plastic on the runway and around the terminal.

Winning NAOSH entries

Here’s some interesting NAOSH projects I’ve featured on Speaking of Safety:

Mock chemical spill gets staff talking

Following up on safety goals

City of Vancouver stages chlorine leak

Eye-patch basketball sends safety message

BCIT wins NAOSH award five years in a row

What are you doing?

Please let me know – in a comment below – what you’re planning for NAOSH Week.

Image from ForkLiftRally.com on YouTube

He described them as “literal artists.”

That’s how John Gilder, general manager of the Canadian Materials Handling and Distribution Society, described some of the competitors he’s seen at forklift rallies over the years.

“They are on these machines eight hours a day. That’s where their career is spent – on a machine. Some of them are incredible. It’s like the machine is a part of them,” said John, who I quoted in my post about the 2011 forklift rally.

Now it’s rolled around to that time of year again. On Saturday May 5, 2012, the 15th Annual BC Championship Forklift Rally will take place at the Cloverdale Agriplex.

Forklift operators from around BC will gather to test their knowledge in writing and their skills behind the wheel. For the first time, participants will also have a chance to win one of four pairs of Canucks tickets.

Here’s a link to more info on What is a forklift rally? The public is welcome – so check it out if you’re in the neighbourhood. Here’s what it looks like on video.

“If, by this, we can raise the issue of domestic violence – and violence generally – and do something to counter it, then that’s part of Tony’s legacy,” says Allen Sawkins, Tony’s partner. It must have taken so much strength and courage to tell the story on video, and I’m grateful to Allen for sharing it.

For more resources, see the Domestic Violence section of WorkSafeBC’s Violence Prevention portal, where there are also resources related to violence in health care, retail, and tourism and hospitality, as well as working alone and workplace bullying.

Photo credit: OregonDOT on Flickr

“Whoa! Look at that driver! He’s talking into an iPhone – right in front of his face!” yelled my passenger recently as we passed through the intersection of Main and Terminal in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Was the driver talking to Siri?

It’s likely that most of us see examples of this bad behaviour all too often, despite BC’s ban on hand-held devices and the $167 fine levied for infractions – not to mention the risk of death or injury to oneself or (even worse) an innocent person in the vicinity.

In BC, vehicle crashes are the number one cause of traumatic work-related deaths, according to WorkSafeBC statistics. On average, approximately 30 workers in BC are killed each year while driving, and distracted driving, such as cell phone use, is a key factor in these crashes.

The DriveCellSafe.com website says 25 per cent of vehicle crashes each year can be attributed to drivers being distracted – and most of the distraction is caused by hand-held devices.

What can be so important that they are willing to risk such serious consequences? Is it just another instance of “it won’t happen to me”? Regardless of the reasons, I feel very angry to see it – and I’ve heard a lot of people who feel the same way.

If you’ve got any tips for preventing distracted driving, I’d like to hear about them in the Comments section. Tell me where you are from and what traffic is like in your region. Also, what kinds of “distracted driver” campaigns are in your jurisdiction? Check out this video (it’s not shockvertising) from Preventable.ca.

More information on driving safely at work can be found at the Road Safety at Work website

Construction safety officer Sam Livingstone

No one ever told him to wear safety glasses when he was using a nail gun. At 19, Sam Livingstone was working on a carpentry job – about to start an apprenticeship – when a piece of wire shot out of the gun, pierced his cornea, and blinded him in one eye.

Today, at 36, Sam is a corporate safety manager for RDM Enterprises. I first met him at the Bridging the Gap safety conference, and we talked about his prescription safety glasses. I gave him a call to find out more.

“My injury wasn’t a case of ‘I should have known better and used eye protection.’ I was a kid, and if someone had said, ‘You should be wearing eye protection with this tool,’ I would have been wearing it,” he said.

“If I’d had the proper training or hazard awareness, it never would have happened. Employers have to make sure their people know the hazards, have the proper protective gear, and most people – when they’re aware of the hazards – will wear the proper PPE.”

Inspired to work for safety

Sam was off work for 19 months after the injury.

“During that time, I decided to make a career change into safety and first aid. At the site I was injured at – in addition to not having the proper safety and training – they didn’t have proper first aid coverage, so my treatment post-accident was also very bad, which probably made the injury worse. It was because of the accident that I decided to get into health and safety and first aid – to prevent it from happening to anyone else.”

Sam says there is “no excuse” for failing to protect your eyes while using a nail gun – or any other tool that puts your eyes at risk. He chose Uvex because he found them comfortable and able to accommodate his high-level prescription (their Genesis model has an optional insert to hold prescription lenses behind the outer safety lenses) – and there are many other options on the market.

“If you go back 20 years, there wasn’t the option, but now there’s always a way to find good, comfortable, prescription safety glasses,” he said. “You’ve got to find the right one for you and the job you’re doing. You can never use the excuse ‘there isn’t anything out there.’ I can guarantee you there is.”

For more information on choosing the right eye protection, check out Toolbox meeting guide: eye and face protection

Image of "The Golden Tree" used with permission of artist Dean Lauzé who created it in memory of three farm workers who died in Abbotsford

One hundred and forty-two people died from workplace injury and illness in 2011 in BC.

They will be remembered – along with far too many others – at Day of Mourning ceremonies throughout BC on April 27 and 28. The ceremony taking place at the new Vancouver Convention Centre on April 27 at 10:30 a.m. will also be available via the WorkSafeBC website.

To honour the memory of fallen workers, you can wear and display Day of Mourning decals and posters, which can be ordered from WorkSafeBC (ideally by April 20).

Sharing memories in a public way shows respect for those who died, and hopefully reminds us what to avoid at all costs.

New memorial for three women who died in van crash

“The Golden Tree” is a new public art piece that will commemorate the lives of three women – Amarjit Kaur Bal, Sarabjit Kaur Sidhu, and Sukhwinder Kaur Punia – who died on March 7, 2007 in an overcrowded van that crashed into a median on Highway 1. Fourteen other women – also farm workers – were injured.

The memorial, designed by artist Dean Lauzé, will stand in Mill Lake Park and will “acknowledge the contributions of farmworkers and celebrate Abbotsford’s agricultural industry,” reads this story in The Abbotsford Times.

“The art piece is a tree worked in gold leaf with its trunk twisting in three female forms to symbolize the women who died,” reads the story.

What happened?

WorkSafeBC investigated this tragic incident and, according to this report, determined that overcrowding caused the vehicle to roll. Other contributing factors include improperly inflated tires, an untrained driver, and poor road conditions.

Image from WorkSafeBC incident report 2007

“If proper seat belts had been provided, and workers had worn them, the number of fatalities and the severity of the workers’ injuries might have been reduced,” reads the WorkSafeBC report.

The women in Abbotsford aren’t the only group of migrant workers to die in passenger van crashes in Canada, according to this CBC story about a different tragic van crash that killed 11 people and seriously injured three others – mostly migrants from Peru – in Ontario on February 6.  The story also outlines a number of other van crashes that killed or injured migrant workers.

On the Day of Mourning, I’ll be remembering these farm workers who died so tragically – crammed into unsafe vehicles and herded off to make profit for employers who put profit above human life. My thoughts will be with their loved ones, especially their kids who will grow up without moms.

This WorkSafeBC video is an animated recreation of the crash in Abbotsford.