Arc flash hazards can result from many factors, such as improper work procedures, dropped tools, accidental contact with electrical systems, build-up of dust and corrosion.

Risk reduction is the phase that concludes the efforts made during all stages of risk analysis and assessment: it’s the phase where dangerous phenomena are acted upon directly and concretely.

The Regulation respecting occupational health and safety (RSST) sets out the minimum requirements for ensuring the health and safety of workers. More specifically, Division XXI of the Regulation concerns the safety of machines used in establishments in Québec. The primary objective of the amendments that will be made is to protect the health and safety of workers using these machines.
Everyone, from machine manufacturers and those who supply them to operators and those who offer services related to machine safety, is affected by the regulatory changes.

Once installed at the buyer’s site, the machine finds itself in a different context from that of design or manufacture. It will be confronted with constraints that were not necessarily present in the factory. That being said, the validation done during the Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs), even if very well done, must still be verified at the buyer’s site in the final operating environment of the machine. Furthermore, during transportation and implementation, functionalities can be affected, and the level of safety foreseen in the design or after manufacturing must still be challenged to ensure that it has not been compromised.

The Pre-Start Safety Report (PSSR) is the last step in the process of examining the safety of a machine before it is finally put into operation. Although it must be preceded by a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and a Site Acceptance Test (SAT), it is essential that the importance of this last step is understood, and that the necessary resources and time are devoted to it.

According to the CNESST, occupational injuries attributable to machines represent approximately 4.5% of injuries in Québec. Despite the observed decrease in the number of injuries since the implementation of the machine safety action plan in 2005, an upward trend has resurfaced since 2016. Moreover, the draft regulation amending the Regulation respecting occupational health and safety (S-2.1, r. 13) with respect to the safety of machines is intended, among other things, to establish the essential safety requirements related to design and manufacture. The objective is to intervene as early as possible in the design and manufacturing process to ensure a high level of intrinsic safety and to eliminate as much risk as possible before the machine is installed, and workers are exposed to hazards related to its use.

The International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) sets standards in all areas of industry. ISO 13849-1 Safety of machinery – Safety-related parts of control systems – Part 1: General principles for design, is the benchmark for control system design. In 2023, ISO published a new version of the standard. Our team is always at the forefront of the latest advances in machine and workplace safety.

The risk analysis and reduction process is the subject of several standards, including Canadian CSA Z432 and international ISO 12100. It is generally the same, whatever the field of application.

The CNESST’s “machine safety” action plan launched in 2005 has certainly raised awareness and improved the safety of a lot of equipment in Quebec, although there is still some way to go. It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that their equipment is safe. This is the law (LSST, 2020).

According to the IRSST’s annual indicators on occupational injuries, the number of work accidents fell sharply between 2007 and 2012 (22% decrease in injuries with loss of time later compensated) (Duguay et al., 2016). However, in 2018, there were 62 fatal occupational accidents (CNESST, 2019). If we include deaths linked to occupational diseases, 226 are to be deplored in 2018 alone. Much prevention work therefore remains to be done.

Standard ISO 13857 on safety distances preventing lower and upper limbs from reaching hazardous areas, together with standard ISO 14120 concerning the general requirements for the design and construction of fixed and movable guards, are essential standards for the design and verification of the conformity of guards.

In Quebec, the health and safety of workers is a priority framed in section 2 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (LSST), which defines its purpose by eliminating at the source of the hazards to health, safety and health and physical integrity of workers. In this definition, the dangers to the health, safety and physical integrity of workers are absolutely referred without mentioning any particular criterion to avoid any possibility of misinterpretation that may lead to depreciation or to neglect one or more corrective measures. However, because of the severity and the high frequency of certain situations, the CNESST has identified nine (9) points with zero tolerance that concerns all work environments.

In a workplace, ergonomics scientifically establishes, through the design of systems, the relationships between man, his tools, his methods and his workstation to ensure his comfort, safety and performance when carrying out his work. According to the “Society of Ergonomics of French Language”, this discipline is the science that includes both physiological knowledge or related sciences applied to human work in the perspective of a better adaptation to humans. It aims to understand the constraints factors specific to each workstation to make improvements by considering all the elements to determine how the work is done. It’s about the physical area, the physical development, the safety conditions, the amount of operations or informations to be used, the rate, the schedules and the physical characteristics of the operators (size, weight and gender).

One of the most frequently asked questions concerning the fastening of permanent protectors is the possibility of using a padlock as a means of fastening (conformity of fastening with a padlock).
It is a question that appears simple, but quickly becomes ambiguous when we try to rely solely on regulatory articles and applicable standards. This is a gray area where no clear answer can decide as to the conformity of this action. For this reason, deeper understanding and interpretations are needed to line up our actions with the true goals of these texts.

When electrical equipment is used in an area characterized by a presence of flammable gases, liquids, fibers or dust, the risk of fire or explosion becomes more significant.

The stick is a tool that simulates the limb you wish to keep from the danger zone (e.g. finger, hand, arm). Performing the permanent protector’s conformity check is done simply by making sure that the stick cannot reach the danger zone when inserted through the openings of the protector, according to its smallest opening.