North America is now the home of two voluntary Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems standards: ANSI/AIHA Z10-2005 and the Canadian Standards Association's CSA Z1000-06. Last week we looked at the former. Here's a brief overview of the latter.

CSA Z1000-06

Less than 10 months after the introduction of ANSI Z10 in March 2006, the CSA announced a new Canadian standard to help organizations prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities in the workplace by providing a model for developing and implementing an occupational health and safety management system. The new standard, CSA Z1000-06 Occupational Health and Safety Management, is touted as Canada's first consensus-based standard for occupational health and safety (OHS) management.

The stated purpose of CSA Z1000-06 is to enable an organization to advance its OHS performance by establishing, maintaining and improving an OHS Management System. By doing so, the organization will be better able to identify, eliminate or control hazards and risks while ensuring conformity with OHS policy. In crafting CSA Z1000, the intent was not only to achieve significant safety and health benefits, but also to improve productivity, financial performance and quality.

The PDCA Approach

Both the American and Canadian standards have been structured using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) approach common to other management system standards, such as ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001. The PDCA approach provides an overall framework for managing preventive and protective measures, emergency preparedness, training, procurement issues, documentation, legal and other safety-related requirements.

All of the standard's requirements are intended to be incorporated into an OHS Management System, but the extent of the application will depend on the circumstances particular to each organization, such as the nature and location of its operations and the conditions in which it functions.

According to CSA, implementing the Z1000 standard will encourage "a more systematic approach to meeting defined OHS objectives and helps increase awareness of health and safety in the workplace." It should also provide motivation for Canadian organizations to implement an OHSMS that meets the requirements of a recognized standard and forms a framework through which other Canadian OHS standards can be applied.

Conclusion

There's always the chance that ANSI Z10 and CSA Z1000 will turn out to be much ado about nothing. But many believe the new North American standards represent a significant step in the evolution of safety in the 21st century. Over time, the theory goes, the standards will come to be seen as a benchmark against which safety and health management systems will be measured. The standards may also influence expectations regarding the quality of safety management systems and the knowledge and capabilities of SH&E personnel.

Only time will tell if the standards have real influence or simply collect dust on the shelf. But it would be prudent for safety practitioners in the U.S. and Canada to become familiar with the requirements of the standards and determine if they can be applied to improve current systems.

Note: Wayne Pardy was an associate member of the CSA Z1000 Technical Committee.

MEMBER REPLY

Detroit?s Ford Field

OSHA & the NFL

On Friday, we published a story about how OSHA applies workplace safety rules to NFL teams and facilities. SafetyXChange has since learned about another important OSHA case against the NFL.

In 2003, Michigan OSHA imposed $556,000 in fines in connection with a fatal injury to a construction worker at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. The victim was in a Condor 150S aerial work platform painting trusses 120 feet above the ground. At 10:15 a.m. on July 30, 2002, the outrigger of the Condor lifted off the ground and the lift fell, landing in the lower concrete seating area.

A few minutes earlier, the foremen of the painting and concrete subcontractors had observed the outrigger elevate about 10 inches off the ground. At that point, OSHA concluded, they should have determined that there was an imminent danger, stopped the work and brought the painter down immediately. Instead, they told the painter to finish what he was doing and come down slowly. Moments later, he fell to his death.

The contractors were cited for a number of willful violations, including failure to inspect and maintain the aerial lift and inadequate training.

Thanks to member, Jake Ruppert, for bringing this incident to our attention.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

The late Senator William Proxmire: Crusader against wasteful spending

The Year's Biggest Budget Boondoggles

By Glenn Demby

Like most legislatures, the U.S. Congress likes to spend money on programs of dubious value. The unearthing of such boondoggles was an art form made famous by the late William Proxmire, a Senator from Wisconsin. Proxmire's "Golden Fleece" awards helped bring attention to billions of dollars of wasteful and unnecessary spending that might otherwise have gone under the radar.

Now another Congressman from Wisconsin has decided to continue the Proxmire tradition. Representative Paul. D. Ryan, the ranking Republican on the Republican Caucus Committee on the Budget, has presented his first annual Budget Boondoggle Awards. The "winners" for 2007 both come from Department of Defense Appropriations bill, a favorite hiding spot for misguided spending.

This year's winner: The Ferry to Nowhere. A $20 million earmark for a craft that would connect the Alaskan communities of Anchorage and Port MacKenzie. And what benefits will this $20 million project buy? It will save 40 people, all of them employees of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), 30 minutes on their two hour commute to work. But don't blame the Navy for this one. The ONR actually rejected the proposed ferry as a low priority.

Second prize: The Drug Agency that Doesn't Do Anything. $39 million to the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), an agency that supposedly coordinates law enforcement intelligence in the effort to combat illegal drugs. Nobody would deny that this is an important function. But it's also a function performed by several other agencies. Administration officials admit that the NDIC has been "slow to delineate a unique or useful role within the drug intelligence community." Even so, the agency has been in existence and funded with tax dollars since 1993. The 2007 earmark not only maintains but expands the agency's budget.

Silly walks didn't make the 2007 boondoggle list

I wonder how much money the Congress appropriated to the Ministry of Silly Walks. . .

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