Blog Post #48 – Engineering Firm Faces Charges

Excerpts from the OHS Canada magazine

A mechanical contracting firm in St. John’s, NFLD, has been charged with two workplace safety violations in connection with an incident in March, 2008.

On April 27, 2010, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Government Services announced that M&M Engineering Ltd. faces two counts under the provincial OHSA. The charges relate to the company’s alleged failure, as an employer, to provide a safe workplace and to ensure that holes in walkways or work areas are securely covered and identified.
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Blog Post #47 – Vale Closes Furnace at ‘Copper Cliff’ Smelter

By The Canadian Press

Vale (VALE-N) closed its No. 2 flash furnace in Sudbury early on Sunday morning Feb. 6 after molten metal leaked out between the tapping block and the furnace, the company has confirmed.

The failure of a tapping block on the northeast wall of the furnace caused the metal leak, which then ruptured cooling water lines and caused a reaction in the furnace.
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Blog Post #46 – Two Men Electrocuted in Edmonton – Here We Go Again !!!

Excerpts from the Alberta Confederation of Labour

EDMONTON – Two men are dead after farm machinery they were transporting came in contact with an overhead power line Thursday evening.

Occupational Health and Safety sent investigators out to the accident, but they left shortly afterwards without conducting a full investigation. The deaths happened on a farm, and farms aren’t covered under Alberta’s workplace safety laws.

Alberta is the only province in Canada where farm workers are not covered in some capacity by workplace legislation.
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Blog Post #45 – Atlas Dewatering Corporation Fined

Atlas Dewatering Corporation, a Concord company dealing in groundwater control, was fined $75,000 on February 10 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was critically injured. Patrick Maher, a supervisor with the company, was fined $6,000 in relation to the same incident.

On June 12, 2009, Atlas Dewatering Corporation was working at the bridge between Chapman St. and Silver Lake Rd. in Port Dover. The company was installing a temporary cofferdam so that engineers could inspect the existing dam. A cofferdam is an enclosure within a water environment that allows water to be pumped out to create a dry environment. Workers were using a crane to install the cofferdam while an electrical conductor remained energized overhead. A worker came into contact with the crane’s hook and received an electrical shock that caused extensive nerve damage leading to amputation.
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