Section
Safety Gear
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Back to the Future
Technology moves so fast that it can sometimes be hard to keep up with it. In the world of safety training, digital shifts mean that courses are being offered in new ways. One such development that has the potential to…
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Safety Goes Wireless
Today, there is an app for everything. Apps with workplace safety functions are no exception — they are becoming must-have tools for safety professionals and workers alike. “Apps are definitely a big part of today’s safety environment,” says Jonathan Brun,…
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Whiff of Danger
When the smoke cleared following an explosion and fire at a crude oil refinery in Regina in early October, 36 workers had suffered injuries ranging from burns and smoke inhalation to minor bruises, sprains and abrasions. Thirteen employees required hospitalization.…
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Getting Comfy
Yet another survey; yet another disappointing result. In July, Kimberly-Clark Professional in Roswell, Georgia released findings from an online survey on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Of the 119 people taking part, 89 per cent reported having observed…
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Sign of the Times
Signage in work environments is designed to help alert workers to potential hazards — not create them. That very problem recently surfaced in British Columbia where there has been a proliferation of commercial signs, posters and banners on utility poles.…
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Keep A-head of Hazards
Welding carries with it a host of potential hazards that demand careful consideration even before arc meets metal. Depending on the welding process employed, issues such as ergonomics, noise, electric shock, bright light, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, toxic fumes and gases,…
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Know Your Foe
Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.” Though known for his wit, Berra’s message regarding the importance of planning is no joking matter, particularly when it comes to occupational health and…
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Hip to be Cool
Stop whining about the cold; get ready to whine about the heat. Summer is just around the corner and that means on-the-job measures must be in place. Beating the heat is not solely an outdoors issue. If indoors, consider foundries,…
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Keep it Clean
Protecting workers from hazards in work environments is common enough. But how common is it to protect the environment from the worker? Unlike in industrial manufacturing environments, use of coveralls in cleanrooms “serves to protect sensitive processes and products from…
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Hear for Tomorrow
Sound can be transformed into the unsound when excessive: too much noise, too much vibration, even too much exposure to solvents can lead to hearing loss that no amount of second-guessing will restore. A whole host of controls should be…
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Avoiding the Fall
One need only look back to last Christmas Eve in Toronto for a grisly example of why proper fall protection is so very important. It was the afternoon of December 24, 2009 when a swing stage separated in the middle,…
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Eye Spy Safety
Let’s be clear. The main function of safety eyewear, as its name implies, is to protect. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of comfort, design and clarity — attributes that can…
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Hot and Bothered
Some emergency responders in Florida helping to clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are taking a different approach to summer’s oppressive heat while toiling in necessary protective g…
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Wash & Care
Whether in a sawmill, an industrial workplace or a research laboratory, the danger associated with workers getting hazardous substances in their eyes or on their skin should never be underestimated.
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Serve and Detect (June 01, 2010)
When the bodies of the final four missing workers were recovered days after a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia in April, the event gained the unfortunate disti…
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Hunt and Gather
Leaving worker safety to chance in environments where spills are possible is not an option. For those tasked with clean-up and containment — whether a spill is as simple as an oil drip from a machine…
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Lock Down On Safety
It’s fair to say many, if not most, people have heard of the so-called “Tylenol murders” in Chicago that claimed several lives three decades ago.
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From Bottom To Top
Brian Lane remembers being taken aback after entering a bakery in British Columbia.
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Hands-Down Protection
If safety gloves were ships, the main message would likely be “steady as she goes.” While no great new wave looks to be bearing down on the marketplace, that hardly means the waters are not churning j…
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Colour Me Safe
New technology is often eagerly anticipated, while concurrently viewed with scepticism — that is, at least until any wrinkles have been ironed out.
