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Rescue demonstration highlight of North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSHWeek)
Supporting documents
- Backgrounder (PDF 65kb)
- BCIT Backgrounder (PDF 45kb)
- NAOSHWeek
Richmond, B.C., May 6, 2004 — The Workers' Compensation Board, partnering with the Greater Vancouver Regional District and BCIT, will hold a demonstration of a confined space rescue today at 9:30 a.m. at BCIT's Burnaby Campus. The demonstration will be undertaken by the GVRD's Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant rescue team.
"Working in confined spaces is challenging and potentially dangerous," said Don Nelson, WCB's Industry and Labour Services Construction Manager. "When it's not done correctly, too often the consequences are tragic and we want to ensure everyone knows the correct procedures so they can go home safely at the end of the day."
In the past six years, 10 workers have died in B.C. as a result of work in confined spaces — four of these deaths occurred in 2003. While confined space accidents do not occur frequently, when they do happen, they often result in multiple worker fatalities.
"The problem with confined spaces is that they have limited openings for entry and exit. Workers entering silos, vats, ship holds, sewers, tunnels, large pipelines, and other such spaces are often unaware of problems and can lose consciousness quickly if there is a lack of oxygen, poisonous gas or other hazard present," said Nelson. "Too often co-workers suffer the same fate as they go into the confined space area to rescue their colleague."
It's fitting that this safety demonstration be one of the signature awareness events for this year's North American Occupational Safety and Health Week (NAOSHWeek), May 2nd through to May 8th.
"Everything starts at the beginning," said Chris Metcalfe, NAOSHWeek Steering Committee president. "Young workers, workers new to the workplace, new workplaces, management changes, are some of the points to start or reconfirm a safe beginning."
Employers, workers, the general public and all partners in occupational health and safety will be holding awareness events about the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace across North America. Many of these will focus on young workers and will be an excellent opportunity to reinforce the understanding of the benefits of investing in health and safety programs.
NAOSHWeek is an annual event in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The goal is to promote workplace safety and each year has a theme. For the next three years the NAOSHWeek theme is "Safety & Health: A Foundation for Excellence," with this year's slogan being "Build a Safe Beginning."
For more information, visit the WCB's online Health and Safety Centre at: http://www2.worksafebc.com/Topics/ConfinedSpaces/Home.asp.
Serving almost two million workers and about 173,000 employers, the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C. is a provincial statutory agency governed by a Board of Directors and fully funded by employer-paid premiums. The WCB is committed to a safe and healthy workplace and providing return-to-work rehabilitation and legislated compensation benefits to workers injured or suffering occupational disease as a result of their employment.
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For more information please contact: |
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Gladys Johnsen |
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