A New Approach to Rescuing at Heights
PLUS 2013 Industrial Hygiene and Health
Conference
FIRST QUARTER 2013
Page 10
A New Approach to Rescuing at Heights
PLUS 2013 Industrial Hygiene and Health
Conference
Greetings from Safety,
The first quarter consisted of one reportable injury; we had a tire repair contractor receive a medical aid injury when he was changing a loader tire with the tire handler on the boom truck. The operator was pushing on the wheel components with the tire handler. When completed he started to install the“ O” ring and lock ring when one ear of the tire handler slipped off the wheel components and pinched the left hand middle finger of the operator. The operator was taken to the emergency room where he received stitches in his finger and returned to work the next day.
Through the course of daily activities it is very important to make time for co-workers to have discussions about numerous things such as; family, individual, work and sometimes play. Those conversations lead to positive changes for everybody across the mine site as well as sometimes across all of Goldcorp.
During a recent conversation I was asked what do we have to rescue an individual if they fall from height in their harness while tied off on a fall protection system? Well in our discussion we came up with several things that we could be used but, is it designed for a rescue, would it be convenient, practical, available, and can it be used in most applications? The answer was yeah, kind of, if we had to it would work and no it probably won’ t work in all areas. So this individual I was having the conversation with said he had seen a device called a Rol-gliss at the Marigold Mine that could be used for rescue.
After some research we decided to purchase a device that is designed for rescue and descent( RDD). The device is a Miller SafEscape Elite that meets all of the applicable safety standards globally. There is no annual factory recertification charges does not have to be recertified for seven years, and does not require special storage. The SafEscape Elite enhances safety as it is designed for self-rescue, assisted rescue, or rescue of more users in a short time period. It will be easy to use, as one end descends the other end is ascending for to ready for another rescue. It is lightweight and compact in design constructed of aluminum and stainless steel. We now have a rescue device that we will begin training with in the second quarter to get our emergency response team up to speed on the device if needed.
Although this device is an improvement
Mark Skvicalo Safety Coordinator
from the equipment that we previously had on site, it is important that we continue to analyze the rescue equipment to ensure that we are capable of doing the best we can if someone gets into a situation and needs assistance.
If we are all proactive in risk assessments for our job tasks that require the use of tie off points, lanyards, and harnesses the Emergency Response Team will not have to use this new system in an actual rescue so it is ultimately important that we train before we use the fall protection equipment so we completely understand why we are wearing it.
We had the great opportunity to host the Industrial Hygiene and Health conference here in Deadwood and at the Wharf Mine. It started out a little bumpy with Farrah Kassam not able to attend due to some issues with travel but I think it went off the rest of the way without any glitches.
There are some new requirements within Goldcorp for reporting of overexposures and that was one of the main focuses for the team that was here for the conference. It is also very important that we as a group understand from the safety aspect the Industrial Health side of our industry and vice-versa.
Sincerely,
Mark Skvicalo