Top Health and Safety Questions of 2024 

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Ashley: Hello and welcome to Health and Safety to Go broadcasting from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. We are fast approaching the end of 2024 and wow, did this year fly by. I'm here with Emma Ashurst, Manager of Inquiries and Technical Services here at CCOHS, to discuss the most asked health and safety questions of the Year. Emma, thanks for joining us.

Emma: Thank you for the opportunity to chat.

Ashley: Could you tell us more about the Inquiries service and what you do?

Emma: Sure. The Inquiries service is made up of two products. We have our Safety Infoline and our OSH answers fact sheets. Safety Infoline is our confidential, bilingual and free person-to-person service where people can contact us through our website with their health and safety questions and we prepare a written response for them. Each year. We receive over 7,500 inquiries.

Ashley: That is a lot of queries!

Emma: It is. OSH Answers is our self-service online collection of fact sheets, and we have over 700 available in English and French on many different topics. Ranging from WHMIS information to physical hazards, such as temperature and radiation, to well-being and mental health content to suggestions on building your health and safety program. And these documents are continually being reviewed, and we add new records every year.

Ashley: So essentially, it's an online library of health and safety information. What questions did you get asked the most this year?

Emma: Well, naturally, the past few years have been dominated by COVID-related questions, and this past year, the inquiries returned to our previous trends, we started to see a return to the, I'll call it the typical health and safety questions. Such as: health and safety program development or how to select appropriate, personal protective equipment depending on what they're working on, and ergonomic-related questions like how to work safely lifting, manual materials handling etcetera. We've also fielded a lot of chemical-related questions and WHMIS is always an in-demand topic – how to work safely with different products in the workplace, like consumer products or introducing a new chemical to the workplace.

Ashley: WHMIS is always a hot topic, people always want to know about WHMIS!

Emma: Yes. It's a very important topic and it's big and there's a lot of information in there. From your safety data sheets to labels to training requirements. It really is a cornerstone piece to a health and safety program.

Ashley: What were some of the other interesting health and safety topics that came up?

Emma: Just when you think you've seen everything, you will still be surprised at the questions that we receive. So I did reach out to the team and I asked what have they been seeing, and there have been some neat ones for sure. So questions about working safely around wildlife. Watch and clock maker eye protection. Others that came up were mental health, impacts of remote work, brewery health, and safety, knowledge transfer with retiring staff, and new workers was also one that comes up. We've even had questions about the type of fall protection is needed when doing dinosaur bone excavations. So.

Ashley: Wow

Emma: It's neat. It you're always learning. It's so interesting. Just like I said, just when you think you've seen everything or read everything, or there's no more health and safety questions, I'm continually surprised. So it's great.

Ashley: I can imagine. Were there any specific themes emerging from the questions that your team fielded this year?

Emma: As mentioned, WHMIS continues to be the topic of interest and with recent legislation changes, it's understandable that we've continued to receive so many inquiries about it. It is also our top hits for OSH Answers, as well on the website. And unfortunately, we do continue to see questions related to violence harassment and bullying which I'm happy that we can provide information and resources but it is sad that these are topics that still need to be explored and people still feel they need support on. As much as there are exciting emerging topics of using the basics does remain to be important. So things like how do we use the hierarchy of control to tackle hazards?

Doing thorough risk assessments when introducing new ways of working or introducing new pieces of equipment or materials to the workplace or any changes that come up and making sure that workers know their rights in the workplace to help them stay safe.

Ashley: And for any of our listeners who aren't familiar, those rights are the right to know about health and safety matters, the right to participate in decisions that could affect their health and safety and the right to refuse unsafe work.

Emma: That's exactly right, Ashley, and they really are important and it's great that the workers have those rights but it really is important for the employer to be creating a safe environment for workers to actually exercise those rights. So there is an onus on the employer, to be creating a safe work environment for their workers as well.

Ashley: Absolutely. It's always interesting to learn about which topics are top of mind for our audience. Emma, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your expertise.

Emma: Thanks Ashley, happy to share.

Ashley: You can access the off answers, library to learn more about the most popular health and safety questions or submit your own for the inquiries. Team by visiting, our website, CCOHS dot CA. Thanks for listening and all the best for a safe and happy New Year.