Category: Workplace Safety

Ontario rewards Employers with a Health & Safety Management System

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Ontario rewards Employers with a Health & Safety Management System

Organized, systematic approaches to health & safety have been shown to increase worker awareness and participation in safe practices. This in turn, has reduced workplace injuries and illness. Similar programs in Europe and Japan have resulted in a decline in workplace accidents.

On November 22, 2019, the Ontario government announced a pro-active initiative, Supporting Ontario’s Safe Employers. This initiative recognizes and financially rewards employers who have successfully implemented an occupational health & safety management system in their workplace. The incentives, estimated at $140 million, are open to all employers in Ontario, regardless of size or sector and will come in the form of WSIB rebates over a three year period.

Building on the provincial program, WSIB is launching their own Health & Safety Excellence program. The provincial program will target those employers who have already implemented a health & safety program while the WSIB program is aimed at encouraging employers without an existing program to adopt one.

Jump start your Safety Management System by contacting us.

Workplace First Aid Kit Changes

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Workplace First Aid Kit Changes

Workplace First Aid Kit requirements in Canada presently differ by province and territory.  The CSA Group has been reviewing these requirements with the aim to standardize First Aid Kit requirements across Canada.  These new kits will be designed to “scale up” depending on the number of workers.  F.A.S.T. Rescue will inform our clients when this change is in effect and will offer add-ons for any kits that will require an upgrade.

Click here for the present first aid kit requirements for your province.

Ways To Make Workplace Safety Training More Exciting

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Ways To Make Workplace Safety Training More Exciting

When you hear the phrase “Workplace Safety Training,” do you jump for joy? The answer is probably not. In fact, it’s probably more of the opposite of that reaction. Workplace safety training can often be a very boring topic, and seem like just another chore for you to have to go through in your business as an employee or an employer.

Yet you know the importance of getting your employees trained effectively, efficiently, and comprehensively. But everyone knows that information is easier to retain when it’s presented in an easily digestible manner that people will actually enjoy.

Here’s how to get the most of your employee’s workplace safety training.

Have a Conversation

If you’re doing a presentation about workplace training or simply guiding your employees through a safety lecture, don’t do so without allowing a place for feedback. Most studies report that the education that attendees yield from lectures is relatively low. On the other hand, when you incorporate room for interaction into your presentation, retention of the topic is increased.

When you’re preparing to train your employees on safety, structure the event so you’re having a conversation with your workers. Instead of talking at them, you can talk with them, and they will feel more engaged.

A Little Incentive Never Hurt

If you used a rewards-based program as an incentive for employees to complete their training, they’ll have a whole new level of motivation associated with their task.

You can turn the training into a friendly competition, based on who can complete it in the shortest amount of time, who can score the highest on the tests, or who can answer the most questions.

You can use a gift card as a reward, or just bragging rights that they did the best. You can even offer an extended break to the person who performs the best.

Use Roleplay

Getting your head into the game with roleplay is a great way to increase retention of materials and allow the training to make a lasting impact. When you assign roles to your workers, you can act out real-life scenarios that may arise on the job. This way, your employees can engage in kinetic learning and have already been walked through a potential dangerous situation. That way, if the dangerous situation did actually arise, they’ve already experienced a similar scenario and will remember how to react.

Use Multimedia

Wherever possible, incorporate ways for your employees to interact with the information that you’re giving to them. Depending on your work situation, you can make video games that simulate situations that they might encounter, or use quizzes to keep them paying attention to the presentation at hand.

The closest you can get to simulation a real-life situation that you’re describing, the better. Not only does this make your presentation more fun, it gives workers some experience dealing with potential situations.

Get it at F.A.S.T.

You knew we were going to go there. Yes, when you do your workplace safety training with F.A.S.T., you’re getting all that exciting workplace safety training. You might have thought that the word “exciting” and “workplace safety training” couldn’t be used together in the same sentence, but we’ve got your back for engaging safety seminars of all types.

We make safety a way of life, not just a one-time training session that your employees are going to be likely to forget. We offer all measure of safety and training solutions for your business, and can consult with you to create the most effective training session possible.

What’s Hot Work Training and Why Do You Need It?

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What’s Hot Work Training and Why Do You Need It?

Hot work. That sounds like work that you do that’s a little bit spicy, right? Things get a little heated? That may be what it sounds like, but it’s not exactly right.

What Is It?

Hot work is work that produces a flame, spark, or any heat. It’s work that is often seen around construction or demolition sites. Hot work often involves cutting, welding, using arc welding equipment, portable gas, soldering, or grinding.

What’s the Danger?

Hot work can introduce fire hazards into the scenarios and areas where it is being conducted, so a high level of safety training and skill is required for the job.

With hot work, you’re frequently around gas when you’re working with flames. That means leaks could occur, and release flammable gas into the area.

Often, additional personnel are assigned to fire watch with hot work is being conducted to make sure that there is no possibility that anything greater than a minor fire could develop.

Gas detectors are also commonly put into place. If a flammable or combustible gas in the atmosphere gets to ten percent or higher of the lower explosive level, the hot work must be stopped until the source of the leak is found and repaired.

Another possible danger is flash fires. These happen when gasses like Hydrogen Sulfide or Methane build up around the wellhead area where the hot work is being performed. These gases are able to be monitored by gas detectors as well.

Work with grinding produces sparks that can cause considerable damage if the proper protective gear is not worn. Face shields are required, and fire protection equipment. Besides fire danger, fingers can also get stuck in the grinding wheel, which, needless to say, is something you wouldn’t want to happen.

Why Do You Need a Certification?

Because you’re literally playing with fire, a permit is important. A certification allows your employer to know that you’re qualified for the job you’re applying for, and you know the safety measures required of you.

When you’re safe and the area you’re working in is safe, everyone can rest assured that the job will be done well and be done securely. Besides that, every site and every employer you work for will require that you have your certification. Otherwise, you’ll be some random person wielding fire, and they won’t be able to trust you.

The Course

At F.A.S.T, creating a safe work environment is highly emphasized.

The class is four hours long, and the certification lasts for three years. You’ll learn how to identify hazards that arise with hot work. Atmospheric testing, setting up a permit system, and safeguarding areas is all also covered. You’ll be able to follow safe work policies, and not have to take another course for three more years.

Get the most comprehensive hot work training out there, because you don’t want to risk it when it comes to your safety.

Private Workplace Training

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Private Workplace Training

If you run a business, you’re well aware of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. You know, the labor law that says each employer needs to furnish their employees with a workplace that’s safe from physical hazards. And that employees must go through a workplace safety training program.

So you know you’ve got to train your employees on their safety. But are you doing the best that you can?

What Does OHSA Require?

OHSA was enacted to cover workers and protect them from safety and health hazards that might arise on the job.

It puts procedures into place for employers to be required to have a plan in case of workplace hazards. It enforces these laws, which helps create a safe workplace for employees, because employers may not have done so voluntarily in the past.

It details what to do in case of harassment, toxic substances, how to follow codes of practice, the duties of employers, and more.

You can read about the requirements of OHSA in their entirety.

So What Do You Do?

You’re aware of OHSA. So you know you need to provide your workers with safety training. There’s a lot of options out there for you to choose from. Many people might want to turn to an online training program to get the work out of the way, but online training has been proven to be much less successful than working with someone face to face.

E-learning can provide employees with the bare minimum of what they need to learn. But the information doesn’t stick in their heads as well as it does with in-person training.

Learning the safety elements in the actual field instead of learning them online provides a hands-on experience your employees wouldn’t get otherwise. It makes your program more credible, your employees even safer, and your company reputation more reputable.

In-person training sessions also eliminate the ability of your employees to slack off and miss vital information that will help keep them safe. They can ask questions specific to your business and be prepared for incidents particular to your work environment.

Private Workplace Training

F.A.S.T. private workplace training offers you any possible type of training you could need. We cover every element of the workplace safety world. Forklift training, First Aid & CPR, Fall Arrest, Spill Response, Event Coverage – there’s workplace training program for it all. Learning these safety measures effectively is critical to an employees safety and success, and it’s not something to be taken lightly.

Online Training

If you absolutely can’t work with in-person training, we’ve still got options for you with online programs. We cover everything from chainsaw safety to trenching and shoring with our online safety videos.

Whatever your need is, F.A.S.T. Rescue has just the thing to cover all the safety information out there.

What Will You Learn In a First Responder Course?

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What Will You Learn In a First Responder Course?

A first responder is a person who, in an emergency event, runs toward it instead of running away. First responders are the brave people out there on the front lines helping to save lives.

To be considered a first responder, all you really have to do is fall into that category who literally is the first to respond to a scene.

However, a certified first responder is someone who is able to provide advanced medical care, including first aid, CPR, and AED – the automated external defibrillator. A certified first responder is the lowest level of the emergency medical service team.

F.A.S.T. Rescue is a Red Cross authorized provider and can train you to become an emergency medical responder in a course designed for firefighters, EMS (emergency care instructor), and police. To become a certified first responder you must finish a course approved by your province.

What to Expect

In the class you will learn exactly what to do when faced with an emergency situation. The first responder class is a 40 hour class with flexible options for creating a schedule. When you complete the course, the certification is valid for three years. Different provinces or territories may have different types of rules and regulations in their courses, and yours will be adjusted accordingly to where you live.

The course takes about three weeks to take for full time students learning at an accelerated pace. If the student is taking the course part time it can take anywhere from eight to eleven weeks.

You will go through five parts of the course, all designed for caring for injuries and sustaining life until the higher level medical personnel arrives on the scene. Essentially, everything you are learning is designed to be pre-hospital care. The course includes CPR, HCP, and AED.

The course content in part one includes how to assess the emergency scene, and how to prevent transmission of disease.

In part two you move on to the anatomy and physiology section, where you’ll learn how to handle respiratory emergencies and how to deal with airway and ventilation issues. Circulation, bleeding, and shock are also gone over.

Part three focuses on how to respond to traumatic injuries such as head and spine injuries, soft tissue injuries, musculoskeletal injuries, and others.

When you get to part four you’ll learn how to treat sudden illnesses, and what do do in the case of poisoning. You’ll also go over how to handle heat related emergencies like heat stroke, or cold related emergencies like hypothermia.

The final part of the course instructs on special situations. These include incidents that may involve multiple casualties, transportation emergencies, or moving a patient. It also goes over what to do in the case of emergency childbirth and crisis intervention.

At the end of the course, you will take a certification exam. You pass the test if you score 80% or greater.

Get trained to save people’s lives today and take your course with F.A.S.T. Rescue.

Protective Wear, What Do You Need It For Anyway?

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Protective Wear, What Do You Need It For Anyway?

If you’ve ever worked in an industry where you need protective gear to be able to conduct your job, you know that it’s of vital importance. You can get written up for not wearing the proper safety gear, and if employees fail to wear the proper protection, potentially not survive an audit. Most importantly, you might be injured on the job if you fail to wear the proper protection.

People with regular desk jobs mostly have to worry about paper cuts or carpal tunnel syndrome, but you have to worry about life and death burns, hand protection, and eye protection.

Personal protective equipment is called PPE, and it’s required for workplaces that work with hazardous materials, fire, welding, and more.

Eye Protection

These aren’t just your regular sunglasses. Eye protection in professional fields means heavy duty protective gear that might actually prevent you from going blind. It’s an important safety precaution that your goggles fit tightly, so they don’t slip off by accident and expose your eyes to danger.

Welding goggles help you be able to withstand the heat of the products you’re working with and still be able to clearly see what you’re working on. They’re super flexible and durable, because when welding your gear tends to take a lot of wear and tear.

Other professions like chemistry, food, construction, and others, may need goggles in order to protect the eyes. It’s also necessary to have cleaning solution on hand so that vision is never restricted due to cloudy eyewear.

Fire Retardant Clothing

Fire retardant clothing is just that – it helps protect individuals from their clothing catching on fire. It usually comes in a jumpsuit form for the employee to wear, or a jacket that they can put on when needed.

The clothes are made out of industrial strength PVC and Polyester. They are usually worn at construction sites, chemical refineries, or oil and gas companies.

Gloves

You use gloves around your kitchen, but there’s a huge number of different gloves out there that you can use and are needed for various industries.

Mechanic gloves help keep their hands safe when working with heavy duty equipment and can increase the traction of a grip. Ski gloves, welders gloves, and lineman’s gloves are all examples of industry specific gloves that workplaces require.

Disposable gloves are important when working with food so that there is no contamination. Clean room gloves have much the same concept in mind, but when it comes to making electronic components instead.

Hearing Protection

It is required that employees who are exposed to noise in their workplace the exceeds 85 decibels wear hearing protection.

Hearing protection can come in the form of earplugs or ear muffs. Earplugs are used for lower noise environments that still require them, while ear muffs are necessary for areas with higher volumes of noise like construction. Air traffic controllers and factory workers also require strong hearing protection.

Masks

Facemasks and personal respirators are needed for people with jobs that deal with toxic chemicals or work that produces small fibers that would be dangerous to breath in, like carpentry.

The face mask category can range from dental face masks to gas masks, sometimes called a full face piece. An N95 masks protects the wearer against liquid or solid particles that may be dangerous to breathe.

Face pieces can lock into place to give lateral and frontal protection to the wearer against the hazards they may be working with. They attach to headgear or a bracket, and literally allow you to get your head in the game without fearing for your safety.

If you’re in need of safety gear, F.A.S.T. can be your one-stop shop for everything you require to stay safe and sound. They have all of this protective wear and more available for you to finally get some peace of mind.

All of the gear is certified by the labour boards in every workplace and business that they’re necessary for use in. Committed to health and safety supplies, you’re being well taken care of when you choose to put your safety in the hands of F.A.S.T.

Why Do You Need Business Continuity Management

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Why Do You Need Business Continuity Management

What Is It?

Business continuity management sounds like a big string of complicated words that you may never heard of before.

Business continuity is a management process that holistically analyzes the needs of your business. It identifies the potential threats that the business might face from cybersecurity to theft.

Once the potential threats to the business are realized, a framework is built to place guards against these things happening. The stakeholders, business values, and brand reputation will stay intact when safeguarded against these things.

Business continuity management looks at both internal and external threats to the company. It involves disaster recovery planning, crisis management, management of incidents, contingency planning, and management in case of emergencies.

Why Do I Need It?

The business world is, to put it mildly, an ever-evolving place. We work amidst a constantly evolving environment, which means constantly evolving threats.

That means that developing strategies to manage the threats that might arise in your business is extremely important. You need to defend yourself against serious internal disasters or external incidents. A business continuity management plan will have safe holds in place to guard against these things.

Having a business continuity management plan in place helps increase your organization’s reputability. Not only do regulations require that certain businesses have one in place, people will recognize that you had the foresight to enact the plan if things go wrong.

If your company was to experience a cyber risk, your plan will be in place with a protocol on what to do if the worst happens. The downtime of recovering from the incident will decrease, and the cost will decrease as well.

When a plan is securely in place, it adds to the consistency of your company. Investors and employees alike can feel confident that their best interests are well-protected.

For example, if a fire were to occur in your operation to where the business could temporarily not operate, you’d have a plan in place of what to do. You’d know about threats to your business operations when production comes to a halt, what to do about potential worker’s compensation, and any other specific plans your business would need to go through.

Now imagine that same situation without having a plan to act on in place. You’d look unprofessional and lose revenue in the time you spend trying to clean up the mess. You need a plan in place in case an emergency occurs.

How Do I Get It?

Well, it’s pretty clear that your business needs continuity management. There are many places to turn in order to get consulting, but you don’t want to trust such an important element of your business to just anyone. You might be putting yourself in the hands of someone who doesn’t have experience and won’t be able to create a plan that will actually guard you.

That’s why you should turn to FAST for consulting. You’ll get someone to personally look at your business and work with your for your specific needs. A plan tailored to your exact business is much more effective than a general plan that someone didn’t really care about. They care at FAST. Trust your business to someone who cares as much as you do.

Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

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Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

Working at heights is literally as it sounds: when you see construction crews on high level buildings, they’re working at heights. It’s working from anywhere that a fall could be considered debilitating. Thought your office job was stressful? Imagine having to worry about falling every time you take a step. Continue reading Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

Think You Don’t Need Health And Safety Consulting? Think Again

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Think You Don’t Need Health And Safety Consulting? Think Again

Perhaps you’ve been running a business or are an employee at a company thinking, nah, I don’t need a health and safety program. But then the unexpected day comes, and someone comes to audit your workplace, or an employee notices something that doesn’t measure up to guidelines.

It’s important to perform your own health and safety audits for your company so that you don’t fall short if any outside source examines your program and you have to face the repercussions.

What is A Health and Safety Audit?

Depending on your type of business, the parameters for a health and safety audit can differ.

Audits themselves are designed to assess the effectiveness of the safety plans and programs that you have in place. They make sure that your procedures, like inspection forms and safety materials, are completely up to date and still as accurate as possible.

More often than not, your audit will be voluntary to make sure that your workplace is protecting you well. But sometimes, a ministry of labor auditor can arrive and evaluate the procedures of your company.

Audits allow a company to determine the how to improve their employee’s safety, if necessary. They take into account the factors that are working well and which factors aren’t.

You can post your audit results for everyone to view once you’ve finished with the auditing process. Employee happiness can increase when they know exactly what a company is doing in order to ensure that they’re being kept as safe and healthy as possible.

If your company ends up being reviewed, can you prove your due diligence? You won’t want to answer no to this question – it could result in penalties like revoking licenses or stopping operations until the assessed problems are resolved.

What a Health and Safety Consultation Can Do For You

When your company is up to code, your staff or fellow employees can rest much easier knowing that there’s a well inspected code that’s up to standard in the workplace. Management is also protecting itself from liability.

Once you’ve proved how much you care about implementing a code that’s up to date, overall confidence in staff and management will increase as well. You’re helping to eliminate any penalties you might have incurred from a safety infringement.

When you go through your health and safety procedures and assess their effectiveness, you’re also streamlining the process. You can increase efficiency of your operations when you go over them with a fine toothed comb.

Why Consulting Helps Prepare You

Preparing for a health and safety audit or performing one yourself can be a wholly overwhelming process.

It’s hard to do on your own, so you can hire a professional to help you. Our occupational health and safety program will carefully assess your company’s legal requirements, then look at the program you have in place to see if it matches up.

We’ll let you know what the gaps are in your system, and take any corrective actions that need to be taken. We’ll show you how to implement them, ensuring your company is completely up to standard.

We go through emergency response programs, traffic management audits, site inspections, workplace investigations, and many more with expert knowledge that you may not have. Get a consultation today and set your mind at ease.