Over the past two decades, there have been some reasonable debates and some less reasonable marketing on the duration and energy of hydrocarbon flash fires, despite the fact that existing North American standards were quite clear on the subject. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) both defined flash fire with identical technical language: the main factors being diffused fuel in air, an ignition source, a rapidly moving flame front and a consequent duration of three seconds or less. 

For people who work in hotels, restaurants or catering facilities, exposure to certain common hazards means the body’s first line of defence — the skin — is under attack. The result can be an outright war on the skin cells, or in more correct terms, occupational contact dermatitis.

Ontario will perform safety blitzes of construction sites and surface mines across Ontario this summer.

In July and August, inspectors from the Ministry of Labour will visit construction sites and check for hazards involving tower and mobile cranes that could result in injury or death to workers as well as the public.