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• Opening Details: In April 2012, an explosion and fire occurred at the Lakeland Sawmill in Prince George, BC.
• Result: The explosion resulted in 2 fatalities and injuries to over 20 workers, with many suffering severe burns, injuries, missing fingers and loss of limbs.
• Cause: The explosion was caused by the processing of large amounts of dry wood, which produced highly fine and combustible.
• History: Previous complaints had been made about dust issues, and there had been 5 dust-related fires in the months leading up to the explosion, however the issues were not resolved.
• Trigger: An overheated fan shaft ignited dust-laden hair, which caused the explosion.

Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

• Workplace injury: Encompasses any form of ill health arising from employment, including both physical and mental injuries or illnesses.
• Focus: Includes beyond acute physical injuries from obvious physical causes.

Types of Injuries

• Injuries: Minor to temporary, can include slight burns.
• Injuries: Permanent, includes amputation.
• Injuries: Life threatening includes cancer.
• Injuries: Acute (severe), such as laceration. Injuries: Chronic, requires years before symptoms appear, includes silicosis.
• Occupational illnesses: Abnormal disorder caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment.

Compensation Claims

• Lost time injuries: Workplace injuries result in time away from work, ranging from one shift to multiple weeks.
• Medical aid injuries: Required is seeing a medical professional for a work-related illness; the doctor is obligated to submit the claim to the WSIB.
• First aid injuries: Minor, is a wound treated with a bandaid.
• Ontario Legislation: Managed by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).
• Law: In other provinces the law is called Workers Compensation Act (WCA) and is managed by the Workers Compensation Board.
• National Association: Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC).

Workplace Injuries/Illnesses Causes

• Hazards: Workplace hazards are any source of possible injury or illnesses in a workplace.
• Hazard Type: Physical hazards involve a transfer of energy resulting in injury, such as a box falling.
• Hazard Type: Ergonomic hazards result from the interaction of work design and the human body.
• Hazard Type: Chemical hazards cause harm to human tissue or interfere with normal physiological functioning, such as burns or hallucinations.
• Hazard Type: Biological hazards include organisms or their products that harm human health, for example bacteria, mold, and fungi.
• Hazard Type: Psycho-social hazards are social environment and psychological factors that affect human health and safety.
• Recognition: Workplace hazards aren't always obvious.
• Responsibility: Employers are obligated to assess and control all hazards, even if they are unexpected.

Injury Causation

• Proximate Causes: Event immediately responsible for the injury is the visible/immediate.
• Root Causes: The underlying or "real" cause of an injury that caused the proximate cause.
• Example: Proximate cause of a worker falling is loss of footing due to a wet surface.
• Example: Root cause is an inadequately maintained leak of a hose caused by a wet surface.
• Chains: There is often a chain of causality that leads to an injury.
• Cost cutting: Root causes, such as inadequate hose maintenance, could stem from an employer minimizing production costs to maximize profitability, pressuring profitability to retain investment in capitalist economies.

OHS Development

• Ancient Egypt: Stonemasons and potters showed respiratory problems.
• Industrial Revolution: Led to OHS related problems, i.e. brown lung disease.
• Previous perspectives of risk and liability include volenti non fit injuria ("voluntary assumption of risk") and accident proneness the "inherent likelihood" to be involved in accidents.

Legislative Development

• Machine Guards: Late 19th-century Ontario legislation established safety standards (machine guards).
• Early 20th Century: Canadian jurisdictions passed factory laws for regulating heating, lighting, ventilation, hygiene, fire safety, and accident reporting.
• Commissions: Royal Commission on Relations of Capital & Labour in Canada (1889) improved H&S by establishing standards and mandating regular inspections.
• Worker Compensation: System was created to compensate victims of industrial accidents, regardless of fault and a labour bureau was established to oversee these activities.
• Worker Rights: In 1974, the 3 principal rights of workers were right to know of the hazards, right to refuse dangerous work without penalty, and right to participate in identifying + correcting H&S problems
• JHSC: Joint health and safety committee reps of the ER + EE that meet and discuss how to keep the workplace safe
• WHMIS: Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System legislation was passed in 1988 and revised in 2018
• Criminal Code: Changes made to the Criminal Code to allow for charges for some OH&S violations in 2004
• OHS: Incorporates both physical and mental health.

Considerations

• Economic Analysis: Cost benefit analysis (shareholder's interest).
• Legal Obligations: Due diligence as a defence to OHS charges.
• Moral Responsibility: Society's conscience and acceptability.

Cost Benefit Analysis

• Imperfect Safety: Since perfect safety is unattainable, ERs adopt a cost-benefit approach to safety stating "Safety should only be improved when it costs less to prevent".
• Not Suggesting Harm: This policy doesn't suggest ERs wish to see their workers injured or don't take it seriously.
• Risk : Can be classified as minimal, unavoidable and acceptable.

Justification

• Risk: Every workplace activity involves some level of risk, and reducing risk is expensive.
• Worker Perception: Workers often view workplace risk differently as they are often the ones injured, or killed.
• Employer Decisions: Workplace injury results from ER decisions about production (how, what, when, and where goods/services are produced) and they make decisions to maximize profitability, shifting the cost of workplace injuries onto EEs.
• Risks: Employer decisions regarding risk can lead to injury or death.
• Health and Safety: Primary goal is to reduce injury, disease, and death. Societal Costs: Workplace injuries broaden societal costs because injured workers require medical treatment, lose income, and may even lose their homes and Meanwhile, ERs continue to profit from dangerous working conditions.
• Government Choice: These economic consequences are secondary effects of employer choices that expose workers to risks and is a political choice by the government.

OHS Stakeholders

• Government: Include legislation (OHSA, WSIA).
• Legislation: Federally mandated laws such as the Canada labour Code II (Section 91 for federal companies + section 92 for provincial companies under the 1867 Constitution Act).
• Employer Policies: Ensure safe equipment and supervision,
• Worker Protection: Work safely, use PPE, and report defects
• Labour: Is the the collective agreements of the JHSC?

Internal Responsibility System (IRS)

• Shared Responsibility: Over health and safety to have the basis for most Canadian OH&S legislation
• Stakeholder responsibility: Primary responsibility rests with workplace stakeholders, not government regulations.

Barriers to OHS/Accident Prevention

• Valuing production over safety
• Only focus on safety for the wrong external reason
• Be uninformed/lack confidence about safety concerns

OHS Professionals

• Broad array of backgrounds suit OHS careers, i.e. industrial hygiene, occupational medicine
• Certifications (CRSP) help firms identify people with relevant OHS training
• Companies may delegate OHS responsibilities to HR generalist or contract out services to third parties
• Experts: Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (CRSP) are recognized experts and many organizations require individuals in the field to hold this designation

CRSP Training

• Hazard identification and analysis
• Incident severity evaluation
• Development and communication of hazard control policies