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Alerts & Bulletins
OSH Essentials can help you build your workplace hazard action plan
The workplace can be fraught with all types of hazards - ergonomic, physical, and safety to name a few - that can harm your employees or make them ill. If you want to improve the health and safety of your workplace, taking action on workplace hazards is a good place to start. CCOHS has created OSH Essentials a new online tool to help you build your workplace hazards action plan.
OSH Essentials
With OSH Essentials you can easily navigate a step-by-step process to help you identify, asses and control workplace hazards, to keep your workplace healthy and safe.
This interactive online tool provides you with practical information to help recognize, assess and control hazards in your workplace. Checklists guide you through the steps of reviewing workplace activities, identifying potential hazards, and learning relevant legislation by key sections. Choose from suggested control measures to create your final action plan that will help address the risks in your workplace.
Currently there are ten OSH Essentials topics from which to choose, with more already in the works:
Podcasts
CCOHS produces free monthly podcasts on a wide variety of topics designed to keep you current with information, tips and insights into the health, safety and well-being of working Canadians. You can download the audio segment to your computer or MP3 player and listen to it at your own convenience...or on the go!
This month's edition of Health and Safety To Go! features Prolonged Sitting: The Risks of Sitting Too Long. The podcast highlights the health issues surrounding prolonged sitting at work, and what workers can do to avoid the risks of sitting too long.
The podcast runs 3:55 minutes. Listen to the podcast now.
Encore podcast: Violence and Harassment in the Workplace
In this podcast Jessie Callaghan, Senior Technical Specialist at CCOHS, discusses workplace violence and harassment - how to protect your employees, tips for prevention and the requirements under Ontario Bill 168.
The podcast runs 7:13 minutes. Listen to the podcast now.
See the complete list of podcast topics. Better yet, subscribe to the series on iTunes and don't miss a single episode.
Tips and Tools
It's been talked about, speculated upon and anticipated for several years, and now the Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is closer than ever to becoming a reality. The exact date is not known; however with regulations for implementing GHS drawing closer, chemical suppliers are beginning to prepare for the change. The challenge they face is figuring out how to transition to the new system while still complying with the existing Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) regulations.
In Canada, supplier labels require:
Partner News
On November 2nd more than 200,000 grade nine students across Canada will head off to work with their parents for Take Our Kids to Workâ¢. This annual, national program from The Learning Partnership gives young people a chance to job shadow their parent or another adult at work for a day, to get an up close glimpse of work life. In addition, the entire community of parents, teachers and employers has an opportunity to get involved in the career development of young Canadians.
Something for Everyone
Students: Spending a day in the workplace can help highlight the importance of getting an education and provide practical insights into the skills required in today's workplaces. Students can explore career options in practical ways. They may even develop a better appreciation for their parents' roles in earning a living and supporting their families.
Employers: Take Our Kids to Work allows organizations to demonstrate their commitment to the education of young people as the workforce of the future, and highlight the range of jobs within the organization. Participation can also help enhance employee morale and boost community spirit and workplace pride among employees.
Parents: The program provides parents with an opportunity to share an experience with their child that can be a starting point for further career discussions. It's a chance to introduce their child to their workplace and co-workers. Parents can help enrich the experience for their child by making efforts to talk before, during and after the visit.
Keep the kids safe at work
It is important that young people receive information about health and safety prior to their workplace visit. They need to know and understand their rights and responsibilities for jobs they may hold now and in the future. Parents need this same information and to be aware of the work that their children are doing. They should ask questions about the health and safety concerns and how they are being addressed in the workplace.
Teachers should encourage all participants in the Take Our Kids to Work program to commit themselves to a safe day. On forms, include a section demonstrating that students have read and discussed materials on health and workplace safety before participating.
In preparation for Take Our Kids to Work, workplaces should conduct an inspection prior to the day with a view to youth workplace safety. One of the first things employers should do on Take Our Kids to Work day is hold workplace orientations with the students that focus on health and safety issues relevant to that environment. Students should be supervised all day while they are at the workplace site and should only be allowed to undertake tasks and experiences for which they have been properly oriented. In the work environment, students should be encouraged to speak up about health and safety concerns, ask questions, and comment on situations they observed during the day.
More information
Visit The Learning Partnership website to register your participation, download resources and posters, and learn more about the Take Our Kids to Work program.
Young Workers Zone from CCOHS offers resources for young workers, parents, employers and teachers to help young people be healthy and safe at work.
Learn about the Teaching Tools Resource Manual.
Watch the free webinar: Help Your New Workers Stay Safe.
Length: 1 hour
Listen to the free podcast Keeping Young Workers Safe.
Length: 19 minutes
In the News
In a sector where there is a high risk for worker disability, health care workers in Canada have the highest rate of lost-time claims and work absence than any other sector in the country. This is especially true for nurses who experience high rates of prolonged absences, 14% of whom in 2005 were absent from work for 20 days or more due to illness or injury. A recent study from the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) suggests that creating non-violent and supportive health care workplaces may help reduce prolonged work absences among nurses.
Health-related worker absence is a costly problem that creates a financial burden in compensation costs and lost productivity, in addition to the impact it represents to worker health. And it is on the rise. In the last ten years the length and costs of absences have increased and, with an aging workforce likely to experience evermore chronic conditions, will continue to do so.
The study
The study, Examining the Impact of Worker and Workplace Factors on Prolonged Work Absences Among Canadian Nurses, was published in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. It collected information on 11,762 female, direct-care Canadian nurses from Statistics Canada's 2005 National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses. Factors related to nurses' personal health and their workplaces were examined relative to three categories of work absences: none, short-term (one to 10 work days) and prolonged (11 or more work days).
The impact of the following worker health factors were considered in the study:
The Health and Safety Report, a free monthly newsletter produced by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), provides information, advice, and resources that help support a safe and healthy work environment and the total well being of workers.
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