Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safetyreporter.com
September 2016
PROSTHETIC LIMBS A SECONDARY
CONDITION FROM WORKPLACE INJURY
Worker originally denied benefits for slip and
fall related to unsteadiness with 2 artificial
legs and one artificial arm pg. 3
'ONE SIZE FITS ALL' FOLLOW-UP
TESTING NO GOOD pg. 5
Follow-up testing for employees returning
to work after testing positive must
allow for individualized treatment
NO MENTAL STRESS BENEFITS
FOR FEDERAL WORKER
IN NEW BRUNSWICK
Worker at federal penitentiary subject to
provincial workers' compensation regime
excluding gradual mental stress
pg. 6
INSIDE
Monitoring carbon monoxide at work
Proactively measuring air quality helps manage risk and improve employee safety
BY MELISSA CAMPEAU
ON MAY 28, 2014, a mainte-
nance worker was using a power
washer to clean an underground
parking garage in Toronto, un-
aware that the air around him
was slowly becoming toxic.
Around 2 p.m., he was found
outside on the sidewalk, without
vital signs. He was pronounced
dead at the hospital from carbon
monoxide exposure.
The employer was fined
$75,000 for failing to protect the
worker's health and safety. On-
tario Regulation 833 requires
every employer to take all mea-
sures reasonably necessary to
limit workers' exposure to haz-
ardous agents. In the case of car-
bon monoxide, exposure should
not exceed 125 parts per million
(ppm) at any one time. On the
day in question, carbon monox-
Dismissal not a reprisal
for safety complaint
Employer wasn't aware of nurse's
concerns over bedbugs at patient's home
when it made decision to terminate
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ONTARIO health care provider's termination of a registered
nurse's employment was for performance issues and not a reprisal
for the nurse's raising of safety concerns at a patient's home he vis-
ited, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled.
Michael Carr was a registered nurse with St. Elizabeth Health
Care HNHB, a provider of home health care services in the Ham-
NEWS BRIEF
CHILD DEATHS IN 'GHOST'
MINES COVERED UP
(Thomson Reuters) — In the
depths of India's illegal mica
mines, where children as young as
five work alongside adults, lurks a
dark secret — the cover-up of child
deaths with seven killed since
June, a Thomson Reuters Founda-
tion investigation has revealed.
Investigations over three
months in four major mica produc-
ing states found child labour rife,
with small hands ideal to pick and
sort the valued mineral.
But interviews with workers
and local communities discov-
ered children were not only risking
their health in "ghost" mines off of-
ficial radars, but they were dying in
the unregulated, crumbling mines.
Indian law forbids children be-
low 18 working in mines and other
hazardous industries but families
in extreme poverty rely on children
to boost household income.
India is one of the world's larg-
est producers of mica, used n the
car and building sectors, electron-
ics and make-up.
A spokesman for India's Min-
istry of Mines said safety in mica
mines was a matter for state gov-
ernments who are facing mounting
pressure from the mining industry
to grant licences to illegal mines.
Commercial > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/
MZinchenko
Nurse > pg. 2
