Regulations amended for pesticides, safety headgear, and more
Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulation that came into effect on September 1 may affect you or your workplace. Employers in a variety of industries need to review the relevant sections of the Regulation carefully. You may need to take steps to ensure compliance for the health and safety of your workers.
What has changed?
The following summaries describe the amendments in very general terms. They don’t cover all the changes. Be sure to review the relevant parts of the Regulation to understand all the changes and implement them at your workplace as required. You may need to review and revise your safe work policies and procedures and communicate any changes to your workers.
Pesticides
Part 6 of the Regulation now aligns with the restricted entry intervals (REIs) stated on pesticide labels. It also provides more requirements for scenarios such as labels with multiple REIs indicated, application of multiple pesticides with different REIs, or labels without a stated REI.
Other Part 6 revisions provide more detail about the type of work that can be done, and the rare times an employer may authorize a worker to enter a treated area before the REI expires. Changes have also been made to the toxicity categories of pesticides, and to recognize the role of assistant applicators.
Safety headgear
Part 8 revisions require employers to follow the hierarchy of controls when controlling the risk of head injury from falling, flying, or thrown objects. The first step is to eliminate the hazard if possible. If that can’t be done, engineering and administrative controls need to be applied before relying on safety headgear. Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as safety headgear is too often used as a first line of defence. The amendment requires employers to consider ways to eliminate or reduce the hazard before defaulting to PPE.
The acceptable standards for safety headgear haven’t changed.
High visibility apparel
Part 8 adopts CSA Standard Z96-15, High-Visibility Safety Apparel for workers exposed to the hazards of vehicles or mobile equipment. This aligns the requirements with the CSA standard used in other Canadian jurisdictions.
Amendments also address permitted design modifications for certain emergency response workers. These modifications were previously covered under a WorkSafeBC standard.
Mobile equipment
The amendments to Part 16 are substantial, interrelated, and technically complex. There are 63 key changes and 19 are new requirements, including one covering rollover protective structure (ROPS) requirements for almost all mobile equipment.
All of Part 16 has been reorganized and streamlined with most sections renumbered and some retitled. Its provisions have been modernized to meet current practices and standards. Part 16 is also now harmonized with other parts of the OHS Regulation and other provincial regulations. Three G600 WorkSafeBC standards have been revised and are integrated directly into Part 16 as Schedules.
Other sections were updated to reflect technology changes.
Why were the changes made?
The amendments have gone into effect to improve workplace health and safety. Some of the changes update and harmonize health and safety regulations to meet the latest standards and ensure consistency with other regulatory requirements. For example, some amendments have been aligned with CSA standards used in other jurisdictions. This helps create consistency for employers who may have been dealing with two sets of standards.
The changes also make regulatory information easier to access.
Where can I get more information?
You can find the information you need relating to the September 1 amendments at worksafebc.com/searchable-regulation. See the “Latest updates” on this page to view the amended Regulation sections and the corresponding new and revised OHS Guidelines.
You can also review primers on each of the affected sections of the Regulation. They explain the changes and your responsibilities for complying with them. Use the following search terms on worksafebc.com to find the primers you need:
In addition, a new resource for safety headgear is available in English and Punjabi. Search for “safety headgear rights and responsibilities.”
Employers and workers can also call our Prevention Information Line at 1.888.621.7233 with health and safety questions.
This information originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2021 issue of WorkSafe Magazine. To read more or to subscribe, visit WorkSafe Magazine.