Canadian Safety Experts Advocate for Treating All Excavations as Confined Spaces

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Excavations present many of the same hazards as confined spaces – exposure to toxic gases, slips/trips/falls, falling equipment, contact with electrical lines, heat exhaustion, etc., as well as some unique hazards such as flooding and dust exposure. However, in some Canadian provinces, excavations sites are not treated as confined spaces.

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Canada Labour Program Amends Occupational Exposure Limits to Grain Dust and Flour Dust

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In a publication of the Canada Gazette on 10 June, Canada’s Department of Employment and Social Development Labour Program (a.k.a. the Labour Program) proposed amendments to the country’s occupational exposure limits (OELs) for grain dust and flour dust, to take effect within the month. For grain dust, a decrease from 10 mg/m3 to 4 mg/m3; for flour dust, an increase from 0.5 mg/m3 to 3 mg/m3.

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Canada: Labour Federation President Calls for Heavier Penalties on EHS Violations

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Labour Federation President Danny Cavanagh issued a public response to a recent contractor who was the first person jailed for violating health and safety regulation. Less than three months after being jailed, the contractor was once again found putting his employees at risk by failing to ensure they were using proper fall protection. In response to the repeat offender, Cavanagh stated how “change will only happen when the courts hand out stronger sentences and fines for workplace safety violations.” The Labour Federation President has also noted that repeat offenders are clearly undeterred by the current punishments. Read more here.

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Convergence

convergence is an environmental, health, safety and social management consultancy that specializes in multi-country (international) projects and programs.  We are able to meet our clients’ needs on a global scale while recognizing the important regional differences that our clients face in conducting business. Our country health and safety legal compliance tools for offices, retail and service sectors, known as CORE, are the foremost resource of its kind.

Canadian Asbestos Removal Company Fined for 274 Outstanding Safety Violation Orders

/ Seattle Environmental Consulting Ltd./

Seattle Environmental Consulting, a Vancouver asbestos removal company, is being fined a total of $506,000 for 274 workplace safety violations that have been accumulated since 2007. Some of the outstanding infractions include failing to clear asbestos from a site before demolition, repeated and high-risk violations that may have exposed the firm's own workers and other workers to asbestos, and the incorrect set-up of a negative-air unit which ended up contaminating the clean room with asbestos. Lee Loftus of the B.C. Insulators Union calls it "a crime" that the company has been allowed since 2007 to ring up over half a million dollars in fines and incur 274 safety violation orders. Read more here.