JSHA vs FLHA – Part 3

We have learned about JSHA’s and the hierarchy of controls used to make them. Now let’s get into what’s expected from the employee. FLHA stands for Field Level Hazard Assessment. This is to be completed by the worker. It’s pretty self-explanatory, it’s to be filled out at field level, meaning right where you are working. A fab tent, the high line or a ditch, they all have specific hazards that only apply to them. A FLHA ensures that all workers know the hazards involved in their task. They have been a part of identifying hazards that directly affect them. They also need to know the steps to eliminate or mitigate each of those hazards. They can then add the additional hazards that they have identified at the field level, also outlining the controls needed to eliminate or reduce the hazard. These need to be filled out every time a factor in the task changes. A new worker joins the task or the job location changes. Even if everything’s the same as yesterday, you still need to do one every morning before you start and go over it after each break. There are always changes, weather changes, night/day crews in the area, other companies coming through, there are endless possibilities of what you may have missed. Also, it never hurts to go over the hazards again and stay fresh. 

No matter what these forms are called, it is imperative that they are done. Will it be the highlight of your day? Probably not. But getting injured at work doesn’t sound like a skip in the park either. The 15 (boring) minutes you may spend filling one out, will give you a better understanding of exactly what is needed of you and your co-workers so everyone makes it home safe… Every night. If you work for an employer that is not doing this, You need to speak up, it’s for your own safety and bottom line… It’s legislated.

To learn even more about this topic head to our site and take our ABCS Hazard Assessment training course. It will provide you with some great tools for your safety belt and best of all… it’s free for limited time!

JSHA vs FLHA – Part 2

I know you have been patiently waiting to learn all about the hierarchy of controls… so let’s jump right back in. The hierarchy of controls are 4 possible ways to eliminate or lessen the hazard. The first is always elimination. Is it possible to completely remove that hazard from the equation? Most times this is not an option. The second is engineering controls. An example of this would be constructing a safe walkway for pedestrians and workers next to an area using a EWP. The third step is administrative. This would be changing how a task is done. You can do this by reworking a safe job procedure to include steps to mitigate the hazard. An example of this would be how to conduct a task with motorized equipment that must be done in a congestion work area where a separate walkway is not possible. In this case they would use the proper steps to identify and acknowledge pedestrians and a plan to proceed safely with the task at hand. The last resort is PPE. Is it reasonable to make all workers and pedestrians wear PPE? Workers, yes of course. Pedestrians… absolutely not. Using these 4 controls an employer will find the safest and most effective way to get the job done. Now going back to the ever so riveting legislation, it’s also stated that “An employer must involve affected workers in the hazard assessment and in the control or elimination of the hazards identified.” And so FLHA was born. I’ll see you back here tomorrow to learn about FLHA’S and finish up.

To learn even more about this topic head to our site and take our ABCS Hazard Assessment training course. It will provide you with some great tools for your safety belt and best of all… it’s free for limited time!

JSHA vs FLHA – Part 1

Sometimes with all the safety talk going on, I forget that not everyone always knows what I’m talking about. I bring JSHA’s and FLHA’s up a lot. They’re one of the most valuable tools in the safety industry. Then it dawned on me… Some people might not know what I’m talking about. This is a terrifying thought but a real one. I worked on one site where there was a quick pre-work talk… mostly instructions for the day but no FLHA. When I asked about doing one, everyone looked at me like I had two heads. This wasn’t THAT long ago. So, sadly there may be some of you new to industry working on a site like this as well. For those workers and well… everyone, let’s take a few days to focus on one of the most important tools in your belt. 

JSHA and FLHA are not different names for the same thing. They each have their own purpose. JSHA stands for Job Site Hazard Analysis (keep in mind there are many names for both of these such as JSA, JHA and so on) This is completed by an employer for the entire site. If we want to get super technical here, the legislation in Alberta OH&S Code, Part 2, Section 7.1 states, “An employer must assess a work site and identify existing and potential hazards before work begins at the work site or prior to the construction of a new work site.” Section 7.2  further states, “An employer must prepare a report of the results of a hazard assessment and the methods used to control or eliminate the hazards identified.” This site wide hazard assessment can be viewed as the Job Site Hazard Assessment, or JSHA. They will use the hierarchy of controls to determine what is safe and practicable for each task. Come back tomorrow and we will go over the hierarchy of controls and all things JSHA and FLHA.

To learn even more about this topic head to our site and take our ABCS Hazard Assessment training course. It will provide you with some great tools for your safety belt and best of all… it’s free for limited time!

Spring Break and School Zones

With spring break right around the corner, parents everywhere are getting ready to bunker down and be the live entertainment for two weeks straight. 🥴 Which means lots of outings and afternoons at the park. So even though school zones during spring break are treated the same as Christmas and summer break… Meaning you can drive the regular speed limit, not the 30 kms enforced during school hours (This varies from city to city. Some of Alberta is 7:30 AM-9 PM. British Columbia is usually 9 AM-5 PM.)  With that being said, speed limits are always the maximum recommended speed. With good weather, exhausted parents and most schools having parks; you need to still be on the lookout for kids. Sometimes they forget to look both ways, or assume that you see them, or they can dart out after a toy, either way they can come out of nowhere! So do the speed that makes you feel comfortable. If there is a herd of kids playing in a school park, by all means do 30 kms, even if it’s after school hours. Don’t worry about the person behind you getting road rage for the two minutes you’re going slow. If you hit a child… They won’t have to live with the guilt, you will. If you happen to be the person behind, calm down. Also don’t even think of passing! It’s incredibly dangerous and super illegal. Don’t mix up school zone signs and playground signs. There are no days exempt from these zones. It’s always the posted speed limit, every day from dusk till dawn or 7:30 AM to 9 Pm . If there is no posted speed limit with the playground sign, then the speed doesn’t change… But be cautious. Never speed through these areas (or anywhere). The 30 seconds you might gain by speeding isn’t worth a lifetime of pain for the families involved. Us parents like to joke about these little turkeys, but if something ever happened to them… Life would be over for us. So whether you’re a parent or not, please drive safely.

There’s Never an Easy Way

We’ve all cut corners before, skipped a step or rushed through a task. For whatever reason, maybe you’ve done it that way for 15 years, maybe you’re in a hurry or let’s be honest… maybe your just being lazy? Whatever the reason; there is never an “easy way”. It may seem easy at the time but it will catch up to you. Taking a trip down easy street can put everyone at unnecessary risk. There is a reason you are asked to do a task a certain way. For example; you’re asked to tighten a flange bolt and you only hand tighten it and not even in sequence because you are rushing to get to break. Well, you took the easy road but for the employee who’s standing anywhere near that pipe when it’s put under pressure, things will be anything but easy… if they even survive. If it seems easy at the time, there will be a price to pay later. It’s so important to do all our tasks properly; every time. Take pride in your work and your safety.

 

Theft

There is a lot misconception about stealing from the worksite. Some people workplace theft is a victimless crime. That these big construction/ oil and gas companies won’t even notice. Wrong! They do notice, according to CBC, employee theft costs Canadian businesses around 1.4 billion dollars every year. So how is this a safety concern? Well in a roundabout way it is. Missing tools or equipment can slow down or completely halt a job, making workers more likely to increase the speed they work at to play catch-up. This can lead to making critical errors and…. POOF! There is an accident or incident. Not to mention the blame game. Have you ever been on site when something does go missing? Everyone gets hammered by supervisors and finger pointing takes over, making it hard to focus on the task at hand. Workplace theft also makes the perfect breeding ground for an incident. 1.4 billion dollars is a lot of money that could have gone to safety programs, staff BBQs or maybe even raises. Stealing from your job site is not a victimless crime and of course, it’s also illegal so it also puts your job in jeopardy. Stealing from your workplace is the very definition of biting the hand that feeds you. We all make good money in the trades… Just buy your tool and equipment like everyone else.

Asking for Help

You are not paid to be the strongest person in the world….or to have magical powers and do the work of ten employees….or even be the all-knowing construction Genie. Yet a lot of people in the trades have a huge problem with asking for help. I’m not sure if they don’t want to slow down the job or they think it’s a sign of weakness or being bird-brained. Whatever it may be, it can cause serious injuries. What’s more embarrassing; asking for help to lift something or doing it yourself and throwing your back out and missing weeks of work? Or; being unsure of something and asking for help or trying to figure it out and hurting yourself? Asking for help, whether it be for assistance or with a question, can keep us from causing an incident for others or ourselves. Therefore, kind of making you the all powerful, never have an incident employee. Which is up there with all-knowing construction Genie.

Keep Learning

Some people hate change… And that’s fine if we are talking about the mullet you’ve been rockin since the 80’s or your playlist from Woodstock. However, when it comes to change in workplace safety; you need to embrace it. I know when you’ve been doing something the same way for 20 years and then all of a sudden your supervisors are asking you to do it differently, it can be overwhelming; maybe even frustrating and more time consuming….. but I assure you there is a reason for it. That reason is more than likely your safety. Just think if we did everything the same as we did 20 years ago? How dangerous would that be? With every incident, accident and injury, we learn how it could have been avoided. Then we apply it to the next worker; helping them avoid the same outcome. Not to mention technology is constantly changing and evolving, also helping us play it safe. We need to be on our toes and always learning the new safer way of doing things. So try and be the worker that is open to learning new things (our eLearning platform has you covered). It may even make you seem a bit younger and hip… Even with that mullet on your head. 😉

Fire Safety While Camping

What would camping be without a good campfire? That’s where all the action happens, the drinks, the grilling of hamburgers and hotdogs and of course the spooky ghost stories. I would say that anyone who has been camping, that their best memories are sitting around a fire. However, those memories could quickly change from the best to the worst if your campfire gets away from you. Here’s a quick overview of camp fire safety to keep those memories, great ones.

 

First check the fire bans and follow them. They are not suggestions and you can be fined for not complying. Next, make sure you can have a fire at your campsite. Almost all parks in Canada that allow fires will supply the pit or firebox. These are the only places you can make a fire. Please note, you cannot 4×4 into the woods, find a random spot and build a fire. However where fires are allowed, clear the area where your fire will be. If there is no pit, use bare ground. Clear a 3 meter area around the fire from all debris. Always have water, sand and a shovel close by.  Only let a competent adult start the fire. I say “competent” because you don’t want party animal Pete (who’s been drinking for several hours) starting the fire with a can of hairspray and a jerry can of gas. A competent adult should also be in charge of supervising the fire. Always extinguish the fire before leaving your campsite or going to bed. I know it sounds so cozy to sleep in your tent while a fire crackles away, but that fire can get out of hand very easily.

 

According to Alberta wildfires there are approximately 1500 wildfires in Alberta a year and 64% of them are human caused. In B.C. according to the Government of British Columbia the average is 1666 with 57.3% caused by humans. These fires cost millions; sometimes even billions, like the fire in Fort McMurray in 2016, not to mention the cost of human life. So, please enjoy a fire while camping but do so safely.

Respect at the Workplace

We’ve talked about workplace violence and bullying, but what about good old fashioned respect? They all go hand-in-hand. If people were always treated with respect and respected others, would there even be workplace violence or bullying? Probably not.  I’m not going to bust into the typical “young people nowadays” rant because I have seen 50 year old workers be disrespectful along with every other age. It’s not about age, it’s about taking the time to treat others the way you’d like to be treated, no matter the level of frustration. Treating someone with respect doesn’t mean you’re a brown-noser. It actually helps with communication and problem solving, instead of adding more problems to the situation. It also builds trust and if I’m working in a hazardous industry, I’d like to be able to trust my colleagues. When you have good communication and trust with coworkers and supervisors, you have a lot less weighing you down and can focus on the job and doing it safely. The foundation of all that is respect. No one is asking you to hold hands with everyone and sing Kumbaya but always remember, no one is too important or too busy to be respectful to other people.