WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

DELEGATES TO THE 13TH ANNUAL IWA SAFETY CONFERENCE HELD FEBRUARY 17TH AT WOODWORKERS’ HOUSE, VANCOUVER

For Inaction And Policy

LOCAL SAFETY REPORTS CRITICAL OF WCB

Criticism “blasting” both the policy of the Workmen’s Compensa-
tion Board and the Thadtion of their Inspectors was contained in a

number of the Local Union safety

reports submitted to the 13th

Annual IWA Regional Safety Conference, February 17, at Wood-

workers’ House, Vancouver.

The one-day meet attended by
forty-two delegates from both the
Coast and Interior Local Unions
heard Regional Secretary-Treasurer
Fred Fieber give a brief talk on the
unsolved problems of firefighters in
the woods.

The major part of the meeting was
taken up with a study of the Local
Union safety reports. The reports in
the main indicated a general im-
provement in safety progress but also
heavily scored the Workmen’s Com-
pensation Board in a number of in-
stances,

The following are excerpts from
the reports showing the criticisms:

Local 1-423, Kelowna

“\WVWe have in the past and will
continue in the future to criticize the
Compensation Inspector for our

area. His tours of sawmills and
woods operations invariably start in
the boss’s office over a cup of coffee
and end in the boss’s office when the
coffee is finished. In the next few
weeks, his report can be found hang-
ing on the bulletin board stating,
“Toured the entire plant and every-
thing seems to be in order.”

Local 1-363, Courtenay

“Tt seems that either the inspec-
tors have too large an area to cover,
or they are just not interested in
getting out and inspecting the camps
and mills. They never seem to be
available when needed, and the ex-
cuse is that they are too busy. It
would seem also that when they do
get out into the woods to inspect
the rigging, they are not too sure
what to look for. Perhaps a sub-

Do You Know?

wild animals can transmit rabies

Squirrels, rabbits, skunks, foxes, bats and even
mice can carry rabies. In fact, rabies in wild
animals is a serious problem in this country.
Many persons are bitten and infected by
rabid wild life.

Your best precaution is to keep your dis-
tance. Don’t feed wild animals by hand.
Never pick up a sick animal; it may be in the
last stages of rabies. Don’t let children play
with wild animals. When camping, keep tent
flaps fastened so wild animals can’t enter.

ptomaine poisoning is a myth

Despite what you've heard, no one ever be-
came sick or died from ptomaine poisoning.
The word “‘ptomaine”’ is a misnomer, applied
to all kinds of food poisoning. Actually, pto-
maine is a harmless chemical in decayed food.

Food poisoning, though, is a constant

threat, especially in summer weather. It hap-
pens when a person eats food that is spoiled
by bacteria. Foods that provide the best
breeding place are ground meats and dishes
prepared with a salad dressing or cream sauce.

There's a simple way to prevent food poi-
soning: keep food either very hot or very cold;
bacteria multiply rapidly only at lukewarm
temperatures. Also, when preparing food, keep

it as clean as possible so bacteria don’t get
started in the first place.

Nothing except time will do that. Coffee has
no ingredient that alleviates the effects of
alcohol. The only thing coffee might do is
turn a sleepy drunk into a wide-awake one—
of no benefit if it encourages him to drive.

- One who has been drinking—even a little—
_ should never drive a car. Statistics show that
| the social imbiber who takes * ‘just a few’ is
pen tits sent

mission to the Board asking for more
inspectors and more intensive study
on correct rigging methods would
help.”

Local 1-71, Vancouver

“New or improved types of ma-
chinery have also contributed in
some instances to increased accident
frequency (i.e. the reduction in
weight and improved cutting capa-
city of new type, power-driven chain
saws make it physically and econo-
mically feasible for fallers to work
alone if they choose to disregard
common safety practices in favour
of potentially increased earnings).

In regard to the particular problem
mentioned above, we find that Work-
men’s Compensation Board Accident
Prevention Regulation No. 829 (b)
is so weakly worded that it allows
considerable latitude to the logging
operators in encouraging this prac-
tice.

“Our Local membership are still
experiencing a problem of their en-
titlement to fares paid by the Board
in instances where they receive medi-
cal or hospital attention in isolated
areas and then come to Vancouver
for further treatment or convalesc-
ence, The requirements of the Board
that permission must be granted

from them before such people leave
isolated areas and come to Vancou-
ver is unfair and deprives many of
our members the right to claim such
transportation costs from the Board.
In many instances, the doctor of
some up-coast hospital will send an
injured man to Vancouver for fur-
ther treatment or convalescence and
fail to get permission from the Board
for such a move. In doing this, he is
on one hand requiring the injured
man to go to Vancouver and by fail-
ing to get permission, he is, on the
other hand, denying the injured man
the right to claim fares from the
Board for such transportation costs
as may be incurred. The Board at
one time was fairly reasonable in
considering fares claimed under such
circumstances, but at the present
time we find it virtually impossible
to get such transportation paid un-
less the person involved is flown in
on a stretcher.”

Other Problems

A number of the Locals report
that they are still plagued with the
problem of walking wounded. This
practice, they report, is being en-
couraged by numerous operators in
an effort to reduce their compensa-
tion assessment by showing an arti-

ficial accident frequency rate.

A general speed-up has also been
noticed which is contributing to the
rising accident frequency rates in
some sections of thé industry.

Local 1-85 reports that the Mac-
Millan, Bloedel & Powell River
Company in one of their large
camps, has refused an employee the
right to return to his job because
he has had two accidents in 1961 re-
sulting in 242 months lost time. They
maintain that from now on, any
employee who gets hurt too often
will be subject to disciplinary action.

John T. Atkinson

High praise was accorded Region-
al Safety Director, John T. Atkinson
in a number of the Local reports for
his safety tours in the logging and
mill. operations. These tours of
John’s, the reports stated, did much
to promote greater safety on the job.

It was moved at the Conference
that the Local Unions be urged to
send in pictures and other material
for the Safety Pages of the Western
Canadian Lumber Worker and re-
port all fatalities to the Regional
Office.

The next meeting of the Safety
Council will be held May 19.

Virus Disease Hepatitis
Now Sweeping Canada

The disease hepatitis, unknown
to most Canadians a few years ago,
is now so prevalent in Canada that
the Department of National Health
and Welfare has declared it epi-
demic. :

Hepatitis is caused by a virus that
thrives in the gastro-intestinal tract
and the A type is transmitted from
person to person by the fecal-oral
route. Type B is often spread by the
use of improperly sterilized surgical
and dental instruments. :

Last January, 1,585 new cases of
hepatitis were reported by Canadian
doctors —twice the number for
January, 1961. During 1961 the
monthly average of hepatitis victims
was 11,600, nearly thrice the aver-
age for the preceding five years.

Infect Others

One grave danger of hepatitis lies
in the fact that a mild attack may
be mistaken for an influenza infec-
tion and so be regarded lightly. But
the victim of a mild attack may in-
fect others to a virulent degree.

Both types of hepatitis are accom-
panied by splitting headaches, severe
stomach cramps, loss of appetite,
muscle pains, high temperatures and
depression. Between the third and
tenth day of the onset many patients
develop a yellow skin from the pre-
cipitation of bile into the blood by a
malfunctioning liver. The typical vic-
tim is off work for 60 days. The very
young and the very old are the
most severely affected.

In Canada the highest incidence of

hepatitis occurs in the less developed
Tegions.

Precautions
The following precautions are

recommended by doctors to stamp
out this disease:

Drinking Water: Correct any de-
fects in sewage disposal systems.

Toilet and wash facilities: Cleanse
daily toilet seats, flush handles, toilet
door knobs and all hand basins in-
cluding faucet handles and drinking
fountains with chlorine solution or
quaternary ammonium compound
(1:1000 sodium hypochlorite or
1:2500 Roccal).

Ablution requirements: Thorough
washing of hands in soapy solution
before leaving toilet area and before
all meals.

Personal hygiene: Avoid biting
lead pencils, nails, etc.

-Laundry facilities: Frequent laun-
dering of underclothes with hot
water and soap. Underclothes and
children’s diapers should be washed
in a special vessel and never in fam-
ily kitchen sink.

Isolation: Patients should be iso-
lated during the acute stage of the
disease, a stage lasting usually a
week. Disinfection of bedding and
articles used by the patients can be
achieved by: (a) boiling in water for
30 min., (b) dry heat at 170 deg. for
two hours, (c) autoclaving at 121
deg. for 30 min. at minimum pres-
sure of 15 Ib., (d) sterilization with
1:1000 sodium hypochlorite or
1:2500 Roccal. Perishable items can
he cleaned by washing with soap and
water and then by immersion in
0.5% iodine (70% ethyl or isopropyl
alcohol).

Injuries
Cause
Loss

New York — Job-connected in-
juries and deaths cause the loss of
twice as many days of production
as strikes, Pres. Harold C. Hanover
of the New York State AFL-CIO
told a governor’s conference here
on occupational safety.

The basic causes of this loss,
which Hanover said cost the state’s
economy $1.5 billion a year, are
loopholes in safety laws and codes,
lack of enough inspectors to enforce
the existing laws, and insufficient
union-management safety agree-
ments, the head of the 2 million-
member state federation said.

The extent of the loss, he told the
conference, is “reason enough why
the legislators at Albany should pay
far more attention to this subject”
than they have in the past.

Hanover cited lost wages, the
cost of compensation and other in-
surance, lost production, replacing
or retraining workers and damage
to machinery and goods as factors
in the economic loss.

He said five area safety confer-
ences conducted by the state AFL-
CIO led to the conclusion that the
basic approaches to industrial safe-
ty must include the spelling out of
safety provisions in collective bar-
gaining contracts, education and
training of workers and manage-
ments, and Jaw revision, including
safety code amendments,

Notable Quote

When a man forgets himself, he usually does something that everyone else
—Telegram, Garden City, Kansas

remembers,