MOL launches year-long falls inspection campaign

Year after year, roughly one in six lost-time injuries results from same level falls and falls from heights, according to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board statistics (see table below).

Inspectors have been given specific guidance material on identifying fall hazards whenever they visit workplaces, as well as during targeted visits, such as a racking and storage area blitz tentatively scheduled for early 2012.

“It’s the first time we’ve done something like this,” says Wayne De L’Orme, provincial coordinator of the ministry’s Industrial Health & Safety Program. If this year-long approach results in fewer lost-time injuries, continues De L’Orme, “we may apply it to other hazards.”

De L’Orme believes that employers may assign a higher priority to preventing falls from heights than to slip- and trip-related falls because they perceive the potential consequences to be greater. However, claims statistics show that

• same level fall claims outnumber falls from heights by two to one
• both types of claims remain stable despite efforts from the ministry and health and safety associations to reduce them

Source: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Statistical Supplement to the 2009 Annual Report

“I think people may be a little complacent about fall hazards,” says De L’Orme. “Oh, this box will only be in the aisle for a little while…” Erroneous thinking of this type places responsibility on workers to sidestep hazards, rather than on employers to eliminate them. “Even falls from the same level can be dangerous,” says De L’Orme.

“Especially,” adds Corinne Kager, “if you hit your head.” Kager is a senior program director, traumatic brain injuries, at the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation. Kager describes most people’s attitude towards a concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury, as “Well, you’ll get better. You’ll be fine.” The reality is maybe, or maybe not.

“Someone in the workplace who has fallen and hit his or her head has a fairly good chance of recovering within a week,” says Kagan, However, recovery can take up to two months. “Even then,” says Kagan, “somewhere between 10% and 20% don’t recover as well as expected. There is a whole constellation of symptoms that people may deal with – severe headaches, dizziness, trouble with balance, trouble sleeping, cognitive problems such as a shorter attention span, getting fatigued easily, trouble focusing, mood swings, depression…”

Kager notes that people may not attribute these symptoms with having hit their head, especially if they didn’t lose consciousness. However, you don’t have to lose consciousness to sustain a mild traumatic brain injury. This makes fall prevention at any level a priority.

Lessons for employers from the 2010 falls blitz

In May 2010, Ministry of Labour inspectors visited 1,506 workplaces and issued 4,208 orders, including more than 120 immediate stop-work orders.

Although the 2010 blitz focused mainly on falls from heights at mostly non-construction workplaces, the type of violations inspectors encountered could be found in any industry sector. Consider the following examples:

• Worker participation (13% of orders), under sections 8 (health and safety representative) and 9 (joint health and safety committees) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
• Same-level/low-level falls (11%), under the premises section (11-20) of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments (O. Reg. 851)
• Equipment maintenance (8%), under section 25(1)(b) of the act — “An employer shall ensure that the equipment, materials and protective devices provided by the employer are maintained in good condition”
• Guardrails (3.5%), under sections 13 and 14 of O. Reg. 851
• Material handling (3%), under section 45 of O. Reg. 851
• Ladders (2%), under section 73 of O. Reg. 851

It’s worth noting that, perhaps because of greater workplace concern over falls from heights than other falls, orders involving fall protection at heights greater than 3 metres (section 85 of O. Reg. 851) represented less than 5% of all orders issued.

Watch for more on fall prevention in the first issue of Health & Safety Ontario Network Magazine, to be broadcast next month.

How we can help

Training, education and consulting resources are available from a number of providers. Starting the list are resources produced by the Ministry of Labour [http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/topics/falls.php] on its own or in conjunction with other Ontario prevention system partners.

1. Visit the Ministry of Labour web site to find fact sheets, safety tip cards, guidelines, and videos. Looks for the new online, interactive “spot the hazard” tools that help users identify slip, trip and fall hazards in these settings:

• construction
• health care
• kitchen
• mining

2. Health & Safety Ontario’s Partners in Prevention 2011 Health & Safety Conference and Trade Show [http://www.healthandsafetyontario.ca/bundles/conference2011/index.asp], featuring fall protection conference sessions, professional development course (PDC) and trade show exhibits; May 15-19 (including PDCs), Mississauga

3. Prevention of Slips, Trips and Falls [http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/safety_haz/falls.html], Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)

4. WSN offers a fall prevention resource list and fall protection checklist [http://www.workplacesafetynorth.ca/resources.html]

5. WSN offers training courses in fall protection – both as part of workplace-specific certification and for other needs. Please contact our customer care staff at 705-474-7233 or 1-888-730-7821