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,