HENRY NEDERGARD LOCAL 1-85 REPORT By HENRY NEDERGARD Safety Director, Local 1-85 The objective of our Local Union is to achieve a work environment where acci- dents can be reduced. We believe this can only be achieved when Management, Union and WCB work together in developing a Safety Training Program for all sections of the forest Industry and expand the educa- tional program to all workers at the work place. This year again the Local activity in safety education is an on-going program. A two-day safety seminar for our elected Safety Committees from our major opera- tions was held to familiarize them with the responsibilities and duties as a Committee Member. Hopefully we can extend these seminars to our smaller operations in the near future. Our involvement in the field of education and activities are of a great variety just to mention a few. Through the co-operation of MacMillan Bloedel and Tahsis Companies, management has been excellent in co- sponsoring joint seminars which are availa- ble through the WCB Educational Depart- ment. At this time I would like to say thank you on behalf of all our members who attended the seminars presented by Mr. Bert Ford and the Defensive Falling & Bucking Seminars presented by Mr. Gerry Krusel. The favourable comments from supervisors and crews alike was overwhelming to carry on with this type of program our people could relate to and understand, I hope will continue in time to come so thanks for a job well done. We are also fortunate to have Brother Tom McCrae put his knowledge to use by con- ducting seminars with the crews of the two sawmills in Tahsis. Tom’s dedication to health and safety for his fellow workers are of his prime concern. On behalf of the Local I thank you and keep up the good work Tom. At present we are involved with a study of (Raynaud’s Phenomenon) or “White Hands Disease” carried out by Dr. Bob Brubaker. The fallers of MacMillan Bloedel Franklin River Division were recently tested. Dr. Brubaker received good co-operation from the fallers and controllers alike which was excellent. We have scheduled the Tahsis Company study for the latter part of July when the Gold River fallers will be tested. Hopefully this will mean a step closer to overcoming this Industrial disease. Our Local also was fortunate to have Len Kreklau serving on the Committee for the Canadian Society for Safety Engineering recently reviewing Industrial First-Aid training standards in B.C. The Committee’s recommendations to up-grade the training to the highest level possible is a step in the right direction. The nature of our Industry needs the best protection possible. This year to date we have had three fatal accidents and an increasing number of severe accidents in our Local. We have to turn this trend around by putting more emphasis on training standards and Health & Safety Education in our Industry, by working together on problems we are facing only then can we achieve our goal. CEDAR DUST REPORT By BRUCE ELPHINSTONE Business Agent This article could be considered a progress report or balance sheet of where this Local and Regional Council are at in terms of cedar dust control in mills under certifica- tion to the IWA. Every woodworker working with cedar knows that there is a problem with dust. Cedar dust clings from rafters and piles up in corners. It clogs your lungs and the drier the wood is, the worse the problem. The native Indians knew about the problem long before major harvesting of this product took place in B.C. For some strange reason people who hold in their hands the power and authority to deal with the problem either ignore, claim indifference or simply close their mind to the fact that it exists. The first is the employers who well know the problem and fail to institute cleanup programs or dust control techniques which could be implemented but cost money which they do not want to spend. The second is the Workers’ Compensation Board, who runs block for the employer by setting standards five times lower than World Health Organi- zation and examining work sites, make insignificant recommendations and trans- fer their responsibility on to the individual worker rather than write penalties and force work procedures which will make the life of a cedar worker more livable. As a result of our concern over many years, we asked the Workers’ Compensation Board to examine all cedar operations in our Local Union to determine dust levels and implement control techniques. The problem is that the Industrial Hygiene Department of the Workers’ Compensation Board approached this examination with an extreme reluctance. They first off failed to even understand that dust levels were higher in the summer time than in the winter. They secondly felt that dust control in itself was not necessary as only 40-45 workers contracted cedar dust disease on an average during the preceding years. They argued in turn that we put an impossible problem in front of them because not enough trained inspectors were availa- ee to carry out inspections of this magni- tude. When the inspections took place some absolutely incredible things happened. In one case, an inspector took a sampler after an 8-hour test, unscrewed the filter, banged it on a piece of machinery thereby expelling the majority of dust and screwed the filter back on. Asked by the union representative why he did this, the reply was, “that this part of the sample was no good anyway as you just cough it up.” In several other separate incidences, union representatives were told verbally and by letter that the Workers’ Compensa- tion Board was suspicious of the sampling and suspected that the samplers were being “salted” by workers on the job. Many exam- ples exist where unions have attempted to deal with industrial hygiene and disease problems in which the Board has taken a similar position. We understand in Trail, B.C. where the steel workers were fighting for a reduction in the airborne lead emis- sions the Board consistently offered the same excuse. Control, Regulation and Safety It is worthwhile to examine standards set by the Board and whether these have any real bearing on the nature of the problem or its results. The Board sets what is known as thresh- hold limit values. These determine the level of airborne contaminants which workers can be exposed to over a time period and not be harmfully affected. These arbitrary and negotiated levels bare no relationship to reality. Picture for example the situation if the condition in your mill were transferred to the office of the Industrial Hygiene Department of the Workers’ Compensation Board and the Hygiene inspector or the Commissioners of the Workers’ Compensation Board rather than having air conditioning in their office had instead cedar dust fed into the ventila- tion system to the point where at the end of the day a half an inch to an inch of dust had settled all around the place where they worked. We are convinced that that problem would be rectified before the day was out but woodworkers, cedar workers in particular are asked to accept, as a condition of employment, this situation on a daily basis. Ten years ago links were being estab- lished between wood dusts and cancers. Offered this information, the Workers’ Compensation Board deny any knowledge. We checked and the information is available in their library. For some number of years the Board held the perspective that all that was necessary was to try to get the employer to voluntarily clean these joints up. Clearly this has not worked. What the Board needs now is a considerably lower standard, tough regula- tions, tough penalties, a tough Hygiene Department and a tough Union to help enforce standards for clean air in the cedar mills. Synergistically Speaking pe Synergistically speaking means that it is not proper to deal with each contaminant or pollutant in isolation from one or other. That you must deal with the combined or SEE ‘CEDAR DUST’ PAGE TWELVE Lumber Worker/August, 1980/11