NAOSH Week call to action
May 03, 2012
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
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.
Bridging the Gap construction conference
November 24, 2011
Demonstration of PPE at Bridging the Gap Construction Safety Conference Nov. 19, 2011
On Saturday Nov. 19, I visited a conference for construction safety workers who want to “bridge the gap” in their knowledge about the industry’s health and safety issues. I visited safety product vendors and service consultants at the trade show portion, then went to a seminar called Pre-Inspection to Ensure Your Protection.
A group of safety product demonstrators were stationed at tables where they gave 12-minute demos on what construction safety officers need to look for when inspecting personal protective equipment. The session was led by sales manager Derek Malone, of HazMasters.
“As a safety officer, you’re going to deal with multiple trades coming in with safety equipment,” Derek told me, as he timed the sessions and led attendees to their next PPE demo station.
He said the session “gives a general introduction to some of the things to look for” when they inspect equipment used for gas detection, fall protection, and other types of PPE.
Networking for construction safety pros
Derek explained the spark behind the conference.
“The original intent of Bridging the Gap was to give construction safety officers the vision to see what else they can do – other than taking what they learned in their programs – and continue to evolve it and network with other officers and safety manager who have got to a higher level,” he said. “Some of the concerns were younger CSOs coming out and not knowing what was available as a career path. Sometimes they got to a job and didn’t have the support. They have the ability to speak with somebody here – maybe a manager for a larger company – who says ‘This is the support you should have.’ Then they can see what they can work towards.”
Stay tuned for more stories from people I met at the conference that was sponsored by WorkSafeBC in partnership with the BC Construction Safety Alliance, BC Association of Restoration Contractors, Canadian Society of Safety Engineering, HazMasters, Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC, and BCIT.
Putting people first at work
November 17, 2011
Howard Behar. Photo credit: Mike Archer/FIOSA-MIOSA
If you put people first, everything else will fall into place – including safety.
That’s the message from Howard Behar, the former president of Starbucks who helped grow the company from 28 stores to more than 15,000 on five continents. I recently spoke with him on the phone and also at the October 27 Leading Performance Conference, hosted by the FIOSA-MIOSA Safety Alliance of BC.
In his talk, “The Importance of People Over Profits,” Howard told delegates about his experience of evolving as a leader while remaining true to his personal values. He’s distilled his knowledge into 10 principlesof personal leadership that he speaks about frequently and he wrote a book about this topic, called It’s Not About the Coffee.
Howard Behar's presentation slide at the Leading Performance Conference in Vancouver Oct. 27
One principle – “The person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom” – reminded me of a story I heard from a worker who was really frustrated that management had chosen new eye protection that wasn’t working for him. No one on the crew had been consulted, and they were upset about wearing the goggles that steamed up every time they went outside (which was often). They were supposed to be protecting his eyes, but they were actually obscuring his vision. He said management didn’t want to hear about it, which was “terrible for morale” because it made the workers feel like the employer didn’t care about them.
It’s this type of attitude Howard wants to change.
“People need a chance to use their creativity and to use their intellectual power to create something,” he told me on the phone. “They are human beings who have the capacity to achieve results beyond what is thought possible.”
I asked Howard what, in his view, was significant about a group of industry leaders getting together and signing the Health and Safety Leadership Charter.
“What makes it significant is that they’ve said, ‘Okay, we get it. We commit.’ It’s a public commitment to taking care of people,” he said. “I applaud the people who started this conference and are bringing together all these different organizations to commit to workplace safety. I think we need to do more of that.”
I agree. Thanks to Howard for sharing his message and taking the time to talk with me.
BC safety charter signals commitment
November 15, 2011
Paul Henning, vice president of Rio Tinto Alcan BC, signs the Health and Safety Leadership Charter
I had a chance to see history in the making on October 27 when 23 CEOs and senior managers signed BC’s first workplace safety charter in Vancouver. I was there to cover the event as a guest reporter for Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine Online and wrote this story about it.
This new Health and Safety Leadership Charter was introduced at the Leading Performers Conference hosted by the FIOSA-MIOSA Safety Alliance of BC. The Safety Alliance represents the province’s food processing and manufacturing industry, and their goal is 150 signatures on the Charter by 2015.
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan have their own safety charters already – and I’m glad to see BC join their ranks. By signing the Charter, industry leaders are making a public commitment to build a strong workplace safety culture for their employees, customers, and communities.
Injuries in manufacturing and food processing
The injury rate among BC manufacturers is 4.6 – nearly double the province-wide injury rate of 2.37, according to WorkSafeBC stats from 2008. The food processing sub-sector has an even higher rate of injury at 7.1 – and, fyi, that means for every person who works full-time in a one-year period, 7.1 out of 100 were injured.
In 2009, BC’s manufacturing sector paid $121 million in claims and the actual cost to employers is estimated at $605 million. The most common cause of injury was lifting, followed by repetitive movement, injuries from sharp edges, and slips, according to a 2010 Safety Alliance survey.
Sandra Oldfield, CEO & President, Tin Horn Creek Vineyards. Photo credit: Mike Archer/FIOSA-MIOSA
“Simply put, there are too many individuals whose lives, well-being, personal finances, and health are being adversely affected by the poor health and safety record of our industry,” said Safety Alliance CEO Lisa McGuire, who described the Charter as a starting-point for leaders.
At the conference, speakers and attendees discussed how health and safety can lead to increased business sustainability, profitability, and corporate performance. CBC’s Kathryn Gretsinger moderated panel discussions on topics like the moral and legal cases for safety, and there were many more conversations during networking breaks.
Congratulations to the Safety Alliance on the success of their inaugural signing. I’ll follow up and let you know how it’s going.
Win a free pass to Make It Safe
October 07, 2010
Photo credit: RhonniRhubar on Flickr
They make different things – bread, roofing tiles, metal pipes – but they share a lot in common.
Their processes are often similar, and, no matter what they make, they use many of the same safety solutions.
A group of manufacturing employers, safety professionals, and safety committee members will have a chance to compare notes on October 25 and 26 in Richmond, BC at the Make It Safe conference. Read more
8 steps to a good crew talk
September 21, 2010
Photo credit: Global Crop Diversity Trust on Flickr
Crew talks are an excellent way to deliver information on the job site. I first learned what it takes to deliver a good crew talk from WorkSafeBC’s Bruce Jackson at a Manufacturing Safety Conference (see also the full article I wrote for the May/June 2008 issue of WorkSafe Magazine).
When it’s time to show the crew how to use a new piece of equipment or perform a new process safely, follow these eight steps to communicate your message on the shop floor, outside the site trailer, or at the cash register. Read more
