Safety Solutions at Work is proud to feature  the following guest article from the Mesothelioma Center.  You can learn more about their centre by checking out Asbestos.com

Need information to pass along to your construction contractors? Be sure to read our article discussing how asbestos can affect construction workers!

Thanks to the popularity of energy efficiency upgrades and environmentally friendly home overhauls, construction workers are handling an ever-increasing number of home renovation requests. Often, multi-worker construction teams tackle the same project, providing high-quality upgrades in a short amount of time. However, workers must mindfully allocate time to safety addressing asbestos hazards. If mishandled, asbestos products can lead to a number of serious diseases including the most common type of mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma cancer.

Construction workers have some of the highest risks for asbestos-related diseases, thanks to the frequency with which they handle asbestos-containing materials. Asbestos is present in many of the insulating, flooring and roofing products that construction workers renovate on a daily basis.

Workers in many different construction sectors may encounter asbestos. Some of the riskiest construction industries include:

• Demolition
• Plumbing
• Pipefitting
• Roofing
• Carpeting

These industrial sectors have high rates of mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases. However, any construction worker who handles older construction materials may have an elevated risk of contracting these diseases.

How Construction Workers can Reduce their Risk of Asbestos Exposure

Construction workers are not always required to undergo asbestos training. However, abatement professionals and workers who may encounter asbestos during their work must complete asbestos licensure courses outlining methods of safe handling and disposal. Workers should complete these classes before beginning any asbestos work, and they must remember to renew their certifications before they expire.

Until asbestos inspections confirm otherwise, construction workers should assume that materials installed before the 1980s contain the fibers. These fibers can easily enter the air if the materials are cracking, crumbling or otherwise in poor condition. Additionally, construction work such as grinding, sawing or cutting can release asbestos fibers into the breathing space. Workers must take special precautions – such as using wet removal methods – when handling these products.

Although wet removal methods can help reduce the likelihood that asbestos enters the air during renovation, construction workers should still wear protective gear when working in older homes. Supervisors must provide respirators, face masks and other safety equipment when construction workers head to jobsites where asbestos is present.

Author bio: Faith Franz researches and writes about health-related issues for The Mesothelioma Center. One of her focuses is living with cancer.

So I built a desk where I work standing up!  I added to my new creation a “wellness mat” that I stand on to ease any tension in my legs.  I feel cared for and energized.

What I discovered in this process is how long I was willing to suffer with back pain and knee pain before I took action.  I care a lot for my body and invest in gym memberships, yoga passes, healthy food and meditation classes.  I enjoy being healthy, fit and well…..yet I was willing to sacrifice my well being for my work.  My work ethic overruled my health ethic.

Recently, my loved one, Jacob, came home with cracked, red and irritated hands.  He is a metal fabricator and had spent his day working with grease and then a harsh industrial paint.  His hands were covered in paint and grime.  The irritation on his hands was extremely painful.  I asked him if his employer provided him with gloves to protect himself from the irritating chemicals.  Yes, his workplace had protective gloves.  He knew where to find them, but they were across the shop from his workstation.  He was engrossed in his task.  Here is how he describes his thoughts:

I get so focused on my task that I don’t want to stop.  I just want to keep focused.  Stopping to find protective gloves would have interrupted my thought process and work flow.  I just wanted to get the work done

Interestingly enough, after greasing the deadline anchor that he was working on, Jacob needed to clean up the mess on his hands.  He used some degreaser that was in the shop.  The degreaser began to irritate his hands and caused what looked like skin ulcers.  Alarmed he needed to hunt down his supervisor and first aid attendant to find the MSDS on the product.  Yes, the degreaser can cause dermititis and skin ulcers in people who have sensitivities.  The combination of the degreaser, the soap and the handcleaner that he used to try to remove the grease may have also caused a chemical reaction.

Then Jacob went on to paint the deadline anchor.  The thick industrial paint got on his arms and hands.  It coated his hands in a thick crust.  An hour of scotch brite scouring pads at home finally got off the paint.

Mission before Man!

Maybe it is not for lack of caring  that workers do not care for themselves.  Quite often it is the case that they care too much.

Across the land, in every workplace, we have hard working Canadians who are working themselves to injury or literally to death.

Just get the job done!

If only we could care enough to stop this cycle.  Jacob made another interesting comment to me:

Sometimes I see other workers doing things that I know aren’t safe.  For example, I see young guys positioning themselves in the path of danger.  If a clamp holding a heavy piece failed, they could be crushed.

Experience can help us teach others.  Send a message to fellow workers to take measures to care for themselves and to work safely.  We can work as a team and all go home healthy and safe at the end of the day.

That is a sign of caring.

Create Inclusion

We thought that we had grown out of peer pressure when we left high school, but it continues in the workplace.  Safety rules are constantly being broken because people are afraid of peer pressure.  When faced with the choice of shame, exclusion or jibes from a peer group or the choice of physical injury or harm, it is amazing the number of people who would risk physical pain over social conflict.

A safety culture needs to break the energy of negative peer pressure.  This can only be achieved by a combined effort of positive leadership.

In my long experience in education, my most interesting work was in creating a positive learning cultures.  My work was to create tightly-knit peer groups called Tribes.  I worked with these groups to develop skills to collaborate and work together.  In an industrial environment, these working groups can be empowered to problem solve areas in a company.  These teams can be built from people who work together on a regular basis or mixed groups from people in various departments.  The goal is to create groups that contain a natural leader who will support a positive work culture.

The peer leaders influence others.  When leadership comes from a peer group, the energy spreads.  If the leader follows the safety guidelines, the peers will follow.

Within the group, there will also be negative leaders- those who try to distract or sabotage positive initiatives.  Negative leaders have the power to undermine a group if their are given the opportunity.  The goal is to create a momentum behind the positive change and lessen the influence of negative leaders.

Management plays a critical component in this area.   Managers and supervisors need to work to include negative leaders in the positive changes.  There is a danger of focusing on positive reinforcement for positive leaders and disciplinary action for negative leaders.  This only leads to more feelings of exclusion and deeper resentments with these members of the group.  Others who share feelings of exclusion will gravitate to this energy and it will grow.  Instead, kill it with kindness.

Kindness is a powerful tool and takes many forms.  Kindness can be an acknowledgement of a person- a friendly hello in the morning, or “how was your weekend, Bill?”.  It can be looking for opportunities to praise positive performance.  Find the good.

This does not mean that company discipline policies are not followed.  Focusing kindness on negative leaders exposes their complaints and grumpiness as superficial.  Underneath is a person who wants to be respected and to be acknowledged.

Creating a positive safety culture is challenging but it is possible.  Use the power of the group to direct the energy.  One person can not create it on their own.  If enough people are following the same desired path or positive outcome, the momentum carries the group forward.  The culture shifts or changes and new habits are formed.

Christmas Fire Safety

Safety Solutions at Work asked a safety expert about fire safety for the holiday season. This newsletter teaches us how to keep our family and home safe for Christmas.

Fire Safety for your Family at Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching and the excitement is palpable. This festival is always characterized by gifts, Christmas trees, lights and Santa Claus among others. It offers family members an opportunity to bond with one another and show their appreciation for each other. During Christmas, people allow themselves to be immersed in the excitement, which is quite a good distraction from workplace-related stress.

Regardless of the happiness associated with Christmas, safety should be an important priority for all families. In particular, fire safety is important to ensure that the home is rid of any fire accidents. Many people have sought treatment on Christmas day for injuries, cuts and falls related to fire incidents.

Tips to maintain fire safety in the home

The following tips could be helpful when seeking to keep the home free from fires:

1. Purchase the right Christmas tree
Most families would opt for artificial Christmas trees due to their benefits. When doing this, it is important that they go for a fire-resistant variety. Such trees are usually easy to extinguish in the event that they catch fire.

The freshness of the tree is another important ingredient of a good Christmas tree. Green is always the color that indicates the freshness of a Christmas tree. They also have needles that do not break and could not easily be pulled from the branches. Such trees are usually sticky as a result of being coated with resin and do not lose a lot of needles when tapped on the floor.

All Christmas trees should be placed away from radiators and fireplaces. The stand should be consistently watered and kept out of doorways and foot traffic.

2. Think about the Christmas lights
The perfect Christmas lights are those that have undergone laboratory testing and comply with safety standards. Family members should also ensure that the lights do not have bare wires, loose connections, cracked sockets or damaged sets. The maximum number of standard-size lights should be three for every extension cord.

Fire safety can also be achieved by avoiding the use of electric lights on metallic Christmas trees. There is the risk of electrocution when someone touches the tree after becoming charged from contact with the lights.

Outdoor lights should also be securely fastened onto house walls, trees or other firm supports. This shields the lights from wind damage. The fastening process should only be done using staples. These lights should be turned off at bedtime or when nobody is in the house.

When purchasing Christmas lights, people must also remember to purchase GFCIs (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters). These devices would provide shock against electronic shocks by circuits that hold outdoor electrical lights.

3. Use decorations correctly
When trimming a tree, it is recommended that families should use non-combustible materials. Examples of such materials include non-leaded metals plastic or tinsel. People should also remember not to bring lighted candles in contact with the Christmas tree. Closely related to this fact is the fact that requires families to use non-flammable candle holders.

Children should also be kept out of reach of harmful decorations. Such decorations include breakable or sharp ones that could be ingested or inhaled by the young ones.

4.Maintain the fireplace
All flammable materials should be kept away from fireplaces. These include materials such as, Christmas decorations, lights or trees. Wrapping papers should also not be burned in the fireplace as they could ignite unexpectedly and cause a lot of damage.

Nisha represents a site called http://www.aplclothing.co.uk. She enjoys writing about health and safety in the work/home.

I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world. I have destroyed more people than all the wars of all nations.  I massacre thousands of people every year.  I am more deadly than bullets.  I steal over $500 million each year.  I spare no one and I find victims among the rich and poor alike, the young and old, the strong and weak.   Widows know me to their everlasting sorrow.  I loom up in such proportions that I cast my shadow over every field of labour.

I lurk in unseen places and do most of my work silently.  You are warned against me, yet you heed me not.  I am relentless, merciless and cruel.  I am everywhere-in the home, on the streets, in the factory, at railroad crossings, on land, in the air and on the sea.

I bring sickness, degradation and death, yet few seek me out to destroy me.  I crush, I maim,  I will give you nothing and I may rob you of everything that you have.

I am your worst enemy.

I am carelessness

One of my custom home builder clients had to implement a new housekeeping rule on their jobsite in Naramata, BC. The crew needs to remove all human garbage from the site at the end of the day.  A black bear has been ripping through the neighbours garbage in the development.  The bear was so aggressive that it tore open the top of the neighbour’s jeep and destroyed the doors.  Wildlife conservation has been notified and the community needs to avoid putting out garbage overnight.

Jobsites sometimes get treated like garbage dumps.  Crews toss their chicken bones on the ground.  The site is often littered with Timmies cups, granola bar wrappers and Subway napkins.  The mentality is that the ground will be backfilled soon anyway.  Our miny-landfill at the job site is creating the same problem that we find at our local dumps- bear fodder!

The development in Naramata is rural.  This week there has been wild times on the job in the city as well.  Yesterday, a coyote chased a four point buck right through our large construction site in West Kelowna.  All crew stopped and stared.  It was a remarkable sight.

If I only had my bow.   Keep your high viz vests on to be safe!

Happy hunting!  Have a safe season and enjoy the harvest.

This video is of a black bear on a jobsite in the States.  Watch this and take note of how not to interact with a bear.  It is a simple illustration of how a bear on a jobsite could quickly become a nuisance and a serious problem.  Share your wild stories with us!

The comments from the surveys were interesting and similar.

Kyle on the Job at Ritchie Homes

Here are some comments

“I strongly believe that employees need to feel a sense of ownership relative to the goals and objectives of their employers. This can be reflected through staff meetings that have an open door policy of inclusion where employees can freely express their concerns and issues in the workplace.”

Dakota on the job at All Elements

 ”Have a mechanism to applaud work well done in the workplace by personnel regardless of complexity or difficulty. Logic being that everything is relevant to the overall success of the enterprise.”

“The single biggest factor in my opinion and experience is that each employee needs to feel like their opinion matters. Workers who feel they have input into how the company is run, or how certain tasks are carried out, or even how social events are organized in the workplace are far happier than workers who feel they are just ‘punching a clock’.”
“If workers feel their opinion matters and that their recommendations are implemented, they take more pride in their work, care less about the money, and are overall happier employees. ”
“Workers also need to feel they are treated fairly when it comes to wages, benefits, etc., and that the organization does not simply see them as a number, but most importantly that they are a valued employee above all else. Dictatorships simply don’t work. Not in the workplace nor in politics.”

Josh at Ritchie Homes

Boredom, carelessness, poor attitude.

We are dealing with people and people are unpredictable.  Employers are responsible for training and supervising workers.  They need to inspect their job sites.

Check this out

Safety is a shared responsibility.  Everyone suffers with poor safety management.  The cost of taking shortcuts is enormous.  Injuries are painful and may affect someone for the rest of their life.  Injuries affect the family and community.  In addition, injuries affect fellow workers and the company.  It may lead to downtime.  It can result in lost time and lost revenue for everyone.