Safety managers have been urged to revisit their roles and responsibilities within their company in light of what is seemingly an increasing trend among prosecutors to pursue personal charges against safety managers in workplace health and safety-related cases. 

The caution came from Toronto lawyer Cheryl Edwards, partner with Heenan Blaikie and leader of the firm’s national occupational health and safety (OHS) and WSIB practice group. Edwards was among the speakers at the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering’s Education Day event held in Toronto this week.

The Industrial Accident Prevention Association has launched a new machine safety course dubbed, Interlocking Devices: Selection and Use. The initiative aims to drive down the number of people getting injured by machinery. 

“Most workplaces don’t realize they have a problem until the Ministry of Labour does an inspection or a machinery accident occurs that involves critical injuries that have lasting effects for the injured party, their co-workers, and the organization,” says Jim Armstrong, IAPA’s director of consulting services. 

Improving the safety of employees working alone or in isolation was the focus of recent amendments to British Columbia’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, which came into effect this February.

The new changes to the regulation include mandatory pre-payment of fuel at all gas stations across the province, in a bid to reduce gas station employees’ exposure to safety risks, according to a statement from WorkSafeBC, which led a series of multi-party consultations and public hearings across B.C. between 2006 and 2007.  

British Columbia auditor general John Doyle painted a bleak picture of the condition of the province’s forestry workers when it comes to their safety, in a report released recently entitled, Preventing Fatalities and Serious Injuries in B.C. Forests: Progress Needed.

New online resource tool

Canada’s leading business-to-business magazines that promote workplace and machine safety have joined forces to help Canadian manufacturers and safety professionals learn more about machine safety and introduce them to the latest technologies.

Canadian Occupational Safety, Manufacturing Automation and Design Product News magazines, have created a new online resource  www.SaferMachines.com to help machinery builders create safer machines and helps manufacturers understand how to use technology to make their machines safer and protect workers.

Visitors to SaferMachines.com will find relevant articles and case studies, video demonstrations, links to industry events and training, and can source new products and technologies from machine guarding and safeguarding, to safety switches, light curtains, optical guards, safety mats, perimeter and area guards, and industrial automation technology.