Following the mid-September 2007 derailment of a train near Terrace, BC – the third such incident that has occurred in less than two months – questions have been raised about safety procedures in the railroad industry.   The first incident occurred in early August, when two trains collided near Prince George, BC, resulting in[…]

  As of July 26, Worksafe BC began implementing a new regulation in their Occupational Health & Safety Regulations, requiring that BC employers document how they are ensuring the safety of young and/or new workers. It has long been required that employers hold orientation sessions, but the new regulation dictates that employers must also keep[…]

  Rising incident statistics in the construction industry indicate that action should be taken to address the causes of injury and moderate the trend of rising claims. In 2006 there were 38 fatalities in construction, and in the first half of 2006 alone, the number of serious injuries grew by 36 percent. Falls from elevation[…]

  OSHA has proposed over $50,000 in fines against an industrial gear manufacturer and $16,800 against a contractor, both based in Milwaukee, for alleged serious violations of federal workplace safety standards. The fines are a result of a gas explosion last year that claimed three lives and injured 45 others.   OSHA’s investigation resulted in[…]

  Canadian companies will soon have some help in keeping their workplaces safe.   With more than 900 workers dying each year, Canada has one of the worst records among developed nations in occupational health and safety. That’s why the Canadian Standards Association is introducing Canada’s first consensus-based occupational health and safety management standard, called[…]

  According to a new report from Homeland Security Department Inspector General Richard Skinner, IT shortcomings contributed to the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. In addition to difficulties with damaged or destroyed communication networks, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was hampered by lack of a common IT system to collect and distribute[…]

  Statistics from Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) show that the job fatality rates of small businesses are 6.7 times higher than those for larger businesses and lost-time injury rates are 10% higher.   This is why the IAPA (Industrial Accident Prevention Association) has launched the Small Business Safety Calculator, so that for[…]

  According to a recent study conducted by WorkSafeBC, 41 people have died, and nearly 1500 have been injured in BC’s oil and gas exploration industry since 2001. While the injury rate within BC’s “Oilpatch Industry” is still about half the average of all other workplace injuries in the province (approx. 300 per year industry-wide),[…]

  WorkSafeBC has levied the highest fine it has ever imposed – nearly $300,000 – after a fatality that occurred at a major sawmill, citing the mill’s management “ignored safety concerns and condoned a culture where complacency in the face of danger became the norm.”   The death met three standards to justify the high[…]

  November 1st 2006 was the official launch of the Safety Accord Forestry Enterprise (“SAFE”) Companies Program in British Columbia. The program is a uniform, sector-wise system of health and safety standards designed and operated by the BC Forest Safety Council which focuses on five main themes: collective safety responsibility, building an infrastructure, training/certification, effective enforcement[…]