CDDA MeetingFebruary 9, 2012 – New Liskeard, Ontario
PresentCompanyEmail
Sheldon BoilyNorex Drilling
Chad BurkeLSG
Scotty
Gil HuardSwick
Karen WhallSwick
Rose-Lyne D’Aoust-MessierNorthern
Andy AttwaterCabo
Kerry WillettWorkplace Safety
Gilles Vachon Boart
Jocelyn JulienBoart
Robin HoodBoart
Brian MaeckBoart
Sylvie McPhailBradley Bros/
Sylvain DroletOrbit
Graham EnnisMajor
Organization
Meeting of the Eastern Safety Group was called to order at 9:06
Introduction of Participants
The chair asked each member to introduce him or herself by name and affiliation. Brian Maeck, EHS Manager – Boart Longyear, has accepted ESG Chair.
Reading of Previous Minutes and Review of Agenda
There was no business arising from the previous minutes.
Accident Discussion
- Brian Maeck: Boart Longyear – Employee rather than using a ladder to install an eyebolt, climbed on top of diesel drill carrier over reached, slipped, fell and dislocated pinky finger.
- Gilles Vachon: Boart Longyear – Broke end of finger when attempting to push core through lifter case with wrong tool for the job. Using end of hammer instead of ‘core knocker’.
- Robin Hood: Boart Longyear – slipped on ice, and twisted knee
- Sylvie McPhail: Bradley Brothers – while driving three others were sleeping in the vehicle, driver also fell asleep. Hit a rock cut. Vehicle is write off, all survived, one badly injured – couple of months light duty. Change in policy, any over-night travel requires a coach rather then personally drive. Flying is actually cheaper than travel and accommodation.
- Sylvain Drolet: Orbit Garant – Mobile equipment in Feb, helper without lots of experience, pulling concrete sloop from hole to hole. Pushed snow on dam with dozer, weight too much for ice, went through the ice. Water was at middle of track, not deep however, potential for flip over etc. Discussed working on ice procedure.
- Graham Ennis: Major Drilling – December crew working on AVD5000, had pipe wrench under power, helper lost finger. Had to take water swivel off of the rod, was stuck. Helper was instructed to try to break around the tower, no visual contact, made communication – helper said he was not ready, but the driller activated the function anyway. Helper stated: “that if I had reported that the driller was smoking dope every day that maybe I would still have my finger.” Employee was intimidated to report drug use, wasn’t going to be working with the driller for much longer, put up with driller.
- Sheldon Boily: Norex Drilling – Last quarter, client required to move barrier, driller moved however did not get authorization, sited into berm, they were going to move the drill again, potentially would have pushed rig into hole, would have taken dozer with it.
- Chad Burke: LSG Exploration – NA
- Scotty Robertson: MOL –NA
- Gil Huard: Swick Drilling – Drilled 6 inches into a bootleg, drilling was seized, discussed high potential of explosion. Some paint had been washed away. Poor face prep, discussed with all crews how to face prep etc. Not just have safety talks, trying to be more in depth underground. Drill site completion form filled out prior to drill start. Discussed Swick policy.
- Karen Whall: Swick Drilling – NA
- Rose-Lyne Messier: Northern Collage – 7 students, at pump shack beginning of training, tried to start generator – pull start, after 20 minutes; instructor added ether then one student while attempting had pullback and strained arm. Instructor came forth stating that equip must be in good working order.
- Andy Attwater: Cabo Drilling – Jan 28, employee pulled muscle in chest; trying to lift frozen tongue on shack; did not get assistance.
- Kerry Willet: WSN – Discussed low RPM – fallacy. Slower but more power. Auger examples.
- While drilling diamond drill hole; 70-10’ sections of rods fell out of the hole. The drill hole was plus 28 degrees, 1945 feet drilled. The rods went through the floor under the rod sloop and went over the track then started to snap in pieces and fly all over the set up. Driller and helper were working at drill, helper left workplace to go to washroom, testing of the rig by mechanic and engineering found rig was in good working order. Found to be driller error – potentially activated isolator controls. High potential for fatality, no injuries sustained.
- Group discussion – slow rotation, guarding, drilling modes, manipulator : potentials – when attentions are not focused. Deeper holes, the risks are less with manipulators etc.
- Jim Savage – Hexarmor gloves : discussed Boart Longyear trials. Waterproof sleeve issues. Will update. Discussed Metatarsal guarded boots – issues obtaining extreme cold met boots ie: -70+
COFFEE BREAK
MOL
Scotty Robertson–Everyone above the rank of inspector is ‘grounded’; reason why Gerald could not make it due to structure changes. Bring to attention, director Peter Augruso/Don Jewitt – appointed full time manager, within structure, revamping of structure. Don replaced by Dan Wood out of Timmins office. Dan Wood will attend next meeting. D.Wood very experienced, can offer more guidance. 705-235-1907 Direct line. Toll free 1800-461-9847 ask for Dan Wood – covering northern region.
Scotty answers only to director, office in Timmins. Direct line 705-235-1913. Cell phone 705-266-3187.
Stated: The CDDA have the directors ear, so utilize the resource. MSD Blitz in month of February. Discussed recent fatality in Vale, Sudbury - everyone has been called back today to review safety. Although we have blitz settled, it does not supersede serious injury. We may see higher field visits with the fatal injury focus. Manual handling of material etc, focused for blitz. Those familiar with MOL Act and Regs; we cannot cover all aspects of the acts, however the order that the inspectors will follow while on their blitz is: to take all reasonable precautions.
MTCU: released long awaited revisions to the underground common core, soft rock and core. Having to address lots of the questions raised. Told documentation we have now, typo errors – identified in December, corrections made but were not – Mill common core must be completed in underground mine? Growing pains with changes. No changes in diamond drill common core… yet.
Fatality in Sudbury, while loading face, rock fell loose and struck worker fatally wounding him in the head and chest - still under investigation.
Service - Ontario, ready for sale, the new green books. Complete revision, they will not be selling the revisions individually. New book available only - binder or bound.
Bootlegs – because explosives are easier to handle, we have become complacent. Recently a bootleg detonated, when stuck, several people were in close proximity, cap when off, shrapnel struck face – wearing glasses: Request for pictures on incident to add to bootleg training and health and safety awareness.
Drugs on the job – worker must report – however, cannotto “refuse to work” - because of someone’s condition; however, the worker is required by law to report unsafe act or condition, internally can refuse to work and must to supervisor – reporting a potential. From a legal perspective, MOL would not take it as a work refusal; it would be portrayed as a potential unsafe condition.
Discussion of drugs – liability under the law; discussion about reporting drug use and acting on reports; Discussed workplace illness and liability: Head-colds underground for instance - potential lost times if sent home and deemed by medical that although employee has a head-cold, the pain associated to it or damage to ear was work related and therefore liable.
MTCU – discussed workplace assessor program, evaluation, accreditation program. Between Quebec – no specific module for diamond drilling, not mandatory - must have miners training. Will follow-up with MTCU about common core drilling program as well as bootleg incident pictures. Records discussed: having training records on site as evidence of completion, so that if inspector leaves with employee information, then identifies gaps in training, upon returning to site the drill and crew have moved on. Discussed online access to MTCU records – not easily accessible for employers.
W.S.N
Kerry Willett Mining Sector Update: new CPO announced, George Gritziotis, was named as the provinces first Chief Prevention Officer.
Products and Programs: Every Worker magazine: focus on slips and falls
WSN Safety Groups program accepting registrations
Mining Conference April 17-19 2012 in Sudbury: speakers Emotional Intelligence and Leadership and Fatigue and safety. CEO Panel: Xstrata, Redpath, The Canadian Salt Co. 45 min.
Call for Papers: submit a call for papers
Ground Control Committee Projects: Quality Assurance and control ground support installations and Survey of scaling bar design.
WSN along with MOL gets tied up when fatalities occur. Trying to maneuver to address concerns, delay in development of programs.
Mine Rescue group same issues: redesigned website; risk management component into Mine Rescue response. Research in heat stress.
Mining Equipment Committee projects delayed.
Safety & Loss Control Committee Project - Overview of Safety Management Systems that lead to Zero Harm. Will come to people in the room after a tool box of things that work in the field to prevent harm. Success in progress
Workplace Environment Committee Projects: Hazards to nursing mothers and pregnant workers. Recommendations for the development of mine ventilation management plans.
Lost Time Injury for D.D. in 2011= .6
Medical Aid frequency for D.D. in 2011= 5.3
Total Medical Injury Frequency for D.D. in 2011 = 8.2
Discussed injury rates reasons? Changing workforce, younger work force? Non-routine tasks? Different changing elements? In Kerry’s view the better supervisor is not the high baller but the teacher, trainer.
Kerry will look into getting a differential between drilling stats; ie: surface, underground drilling etc.
Fatalities Mining Industry
2012: 1
2011: 5
Meeting adjourned for lunch
WSN Presentation
Kerry Willett presents: Ice Awareness and Safety
Many hazards an ice plan must take into consideration. Policy and program element must be in place, risk assessment, company policy, hazard assessment, procedures for routine tasks, for non-routine tasks. Watched video on hypothermia and falling through ice.
Ice cover hazard assessment
Ice cover hazard controls
Ice cover monitoring and maintenance
Discussed ice making process, ice making done by third party – want copy of risk assessment before hitting the ice. Discussed ice thickness charting, formulas and safety factors. The longer you sit there on the ice it sags and becomes brittle. Lose bottom of sag because of current in water and brittle point happens faster.
Ice covers can form in many ways, the three main types of ice are: Blue Ice: clear – most stable form of ice / White Ice: (or snow ice) Forms on top of the ice, more air bubbles – 50% of the load bearing capacity of blue ice. / Slush Ice: found rivers or streams, contains strong water currents - unstable form.
Thermal Stressing – ice will naturally contract and expand causing ice cracks to appear. Generally small ice cracks do not diminish ice capacity unless in extreme temperature changes.
Types of cracks: Dry and Wet. Stabilized through flooding. Dry less the 10 cm in width and do not effect ice stability. Wet cracks penetrate through the ice to the water below. Intersecting wet cracks near a worksite are of a greater concern than parallel cracks, because you are creating your own ice flow.
Load Weights: Gold’s Formula – Ice strength cannot be solely determined from Gold’s Formula. Only an qualified personnel should inspect the ice to determine the ice texture and bearing capacity. Should always physically test ice and inspect surface for anomalies that can affect ice bearing capacity: look for springs, rocks, know where dams are. Etc.
Air temperatures, when rise above 0 degrees, surfaces start to decay rapidly, blue ice starts to decay the fastest because higher penetration.
Calculate the allowable weight.
As vehicles move across ice, the ice deflects downwards due to the vehicles weight.
This creates an underwater wave in front and behind the vehicle. The vehicle must be careful not to travel faster than the underwater waves it is creating, or the wave may be deflected to the behind wave which and collide fracture or break the ice. The collision of two underwater waves can also occur if two heavy vehicles pass each other on the way to and from a rig site. In vehicle will need to come to a complete stop well before the vehicles pass each other. Cracks do not necessarily show on surface.
Best practice is to have vehicles travel all together in a line approx. half a mile apart to allow waves to die off.
Flotation devices must be worn by all workers during the testing process. Testing is completed by a supervisor wearing a flotation device and safety harness.
The quality of the ice surface must be continually monitored. Ice thickness is the primary measurement used to determine ice bearing capacity. Needs to be tested regularly!
Log book should record! Co-signer? Geology – who gave the program as third party?
Over the past decade some 500 Canadians have died after breaking through ice covers.
Resources: Field Guide to Ice Contruction Safety – Northwest Territories
Best Practice for Building and Working Safely on Ice Covers in Alberta
Ice Testing Information, Manitoba
W.S.I.B.
-No one was available
C.S.S.T.
-No one was available
MTCU
-No one was available
FMTM
-No one was available
APSM
-No one was available
CDDA
Golf tournament here in New Liskeard.
Mihr Assessment Program
Papers for CDDA Quebec City meeting
Certification of Drill Companies (not workers) Certified Contractor after assessment.
Closing
Thanked Boart Longyear for hosting
May 24th – next meeting, sponsored by Foraco
Motion to close meeting at 2:15