WorkSafe

“They need to understand — at the earliest stage possible — the
hazards of silica in an industry that already has many potential risks.”
—Joy Piehl, WorkSafeBC manager of Industry and Labour Services
workers are drivers for this cultural change. “They’re
more conscious of wellness, and this likely translates
into solid health and safety practices as well.”
Industry exploring healthier
alternatives
Evidence of engineered controls has begun to emerge
on industry worksites. “When I first started to point
this issue out, no such controls existed,” Waterhouse
says. “Since then, many worksites are successfully
using a variety of engineering control strategies. The
challenge now is to get better at the use of these
controls and to steward the industry along this path so
their use becomes normal practice.”
Waterhouse also recommends the use of dust
suppressants that have been shown to significantly
reduce airborne silica levels; these can be applied to
the sand at the mine and can reduce exposure risks at
transfer points along the entire supply chain.
When it comes to moving forward with these new
work practices, timing is critical. Phillips says death by
occupational disease has become an escalating trend
in Canada over the past few years, and in B.C.,
occupational disease fatalities now eclipse traumatic
deaths in the workplace. For at-risk workers and their
employers, the health and safety decisions made today
around prolific materials like silica dust, he says, could
have major implications in the decades to come.
View resources
Enform’s silica exposure control plan and a series of
templates and guidelines are available on their website
at www.enform.ca. The association will also be
profiling the issue of silica exposures in their next issue
of Frontline Magazine on www.enform.ca. W
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September / October 2015 | WorkSafe Magazine