The new year is upon us, and once again it is the season for New Year’s resolutions. What will it be this time around? Those of us who are inveterate smokers will probably pledge, most not for the first time, to quit smoking. People who are somewhat over the prescribed weight, considering their height and age, will be prime candidates for committing to watch their weight and do some (or more) exercise. The list goes on. But countless new resolutions fall to the wayside as regular concerns and activities take over our lives again.
     
As academics, what should we strive for? What should be our New Year’s resolutions? The obvious ones are easy to roll out: good examples would be to continue reaching for truth and excellence in our teaching, research and service duties; to keep on being patient, helpful and fair to our students; and to improve our commitment to, and involvement in, our academic staff associations.
     
Those are all very commendable objectives for the new year, but in addition this year, why not throw in a novel one? I’d like to propose that we all become better informed about health and safety issues in our workplaces and more committed to improving the situation.
     
Workplace health and safety concerns have been around for a long time: reportedly there were safety laws that governed the slaves who built the pyramids of ancient Egypt and those who built the Coliseum and all the other monuments in ancient Rome. These concerns obviously became much more vocal in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution and its massive accompanying number of workplace deaths and injuries. Labour unions made advocating for workers’ health and safety a key issue in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century.
     
What’s the situation in Canada, and how important is improving working conditions? Suffice it to say that according to official statistics, the number of deaths reported each year due to workplace accidents is significant and rising. Between 1993 and 1996, the Canadian yearly average was 733 deaths due to industrial accidents. Between 1997 and 2000, the yearly average shot up to 837. And in the five years following, the yearly average again increased, this time to 968. That averages out to more than four deaths every working day. From 1993 to 2004, workplace accidents caused more than 10,000 deaths in Canada. And these figures only account for the fatalities — another 900,000 workers a year sustain occupational injuries.
     
Now, I can already hear some of you saying: these are industrial workplaces we are talking about, where it is true some sectors like mining, fishing, forestry, oil wells, and the construction industry do have a dismal safety record, but surely none of this applies to academia, does it? Well, if we think about it for a minute, we could easily identify certain departments on our campuses that deal in dangerous substances, such as chemistry, biochemistry and fine arts (think about the acids used in photography and ceramics, for instance), not to mention a myriad of ergonomic injuries and occupational diseases arising from psychological stress (ours is a very stressful profession, as many studies show!) Health and safety issues abound in our workplaces. What can we do about them?
     
Let’s start by remembering the broad context in which our actions can apply. In the 1970s, following the lead of other countries that were enacting legislation in this area, Canada’s federal and provincial governments passed various laws that mapped out regulations and policies governing this sector. Included were mandatory provisions to establish joint health and safety committees in all workplaces, to monitor and report on the issues at each locale and make recommendations for change where necessary.
     
Canadian and international health and safety laws and regulations now recognize that workers have three inalienable rights in the workplace: the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse. Workers have the right to know about unsafe materials or work, how to identify and prevent workplace hazards and how to protect themselves. Employers have an obligation to provide safe working conditions and to work with joint health and safety committees in implementing committee recommendations for prevention, reduction and substitution.
     
Canadian workers spend on average, five or more hours in the workplace, five days a week. This exposes them to an inestimable number of hazardous chemicals and substances and physical and ergonomic injuries.
     
Occupational disease has finally come into its own, with increasing recognition that most worker illnesses are caused in and by workplaces and not entirely attributable to lifestyle choices — where blame has previously been laid.
     
It is also increasingly being recognized that direct and indirect exposures to workplace hazards can have an acute or latent effect. In either case, they can be temporarily or permanently disabling, life-threatening and sometimes life-ending.
     
Occupational disease and injuries impact on quality of life, through financial impairment due to reduction or loss of employment, physical health or life, the ability to cope mentally or physically, the impact on family members and the community at large.
     
More recently, the “bystander effect” has come to be seen as a significant contributor to occupational disease causing secondary exposures outside the workplace. Family members and friends of persons exposed to a hazard at work also have an increased chance of suffering from the hazard. Asbestos is a prime example: family members of asbestos miners and production workers have developed mesothelioma (cancer of the lung and peritoneum) from secondary exposure to asbestos from these workers’ clothing and effects.
     
For all of these reasons — quality of life for yourself and others, financial stability and simply the right to work safely — a healthy and safe workplace is important. Without it, the things that hold meaning for us, such as research, teaching and writing, won’t matter if we are unable to do them.
     
CAUT’s membership interest in workplace health and safety was only significantly piqued when two of its members succumbed to mesothelioma from asbestos exposure. In the past three years, CAUT’s health and safety officer, working with local associations and their health and safety activists, has identified numerous hazards at the university and college level, often after recognizing that serious health issues among members were caused by workplace exposures.
     
Joint health and safety committee training, asbestos-awareness training and other training provided by CAUT in concert with other campus unions and associations, has accelerated the knowledge base on hazards and rights and dramatically increased the engagement and activism in many of these associations. Eleven associations so far have taken advantage of CAUT’s workplace health and safety training and numerous others have hosted site visits for assistance with hazard identification, among other issues.
     
Asbestos is one of the major hazards found on our campuses. Most potentially dangerous buildings are those built before the 1970s when asbestos was commonly used in floor and ceiling tiles and as an insulant in walls and around pipes. In an effort to address this serious health issue, CAUT last year launched an asbestos awareness campaign, including asbestos awareness training and presentation of a proposal for funding to the federal government to assist with asbestos removal and abatement. CAUT has more recently set up a national asbestos-related diseases database in order to keep track of the situation in a systematic fashion.
     
Cancers among staff in fine arts departments, particularly in photography and ceramics, have also drawn attention to hazardous substances that members are exposed to during the course of their work.
     
The recognition that hazardous substances, which have been used for years in research and teaching, need to be eliminated or replaced, is just now starting to be understood and accepted by the university and college community.
     
Employer compliancy has always been an issue, not only in the post-secondary sector, but in many workplaces. Joint health and safety committees make legally-binding recommendations to employers, who have an obligation to implement them. This can sometimes be an exercise in frustration, but the law lies with the committees, with government agencies providing legal enforcement when uncooperative employers fail to meet their obligation.
     
All in all, the best defence is a good offence — well-educated association executives and association members who know and exercise their rights and who support and work collectively through their joint health and safety committees will go a long way in ensuring employers meet their obligations and duties under government law.
     
So, why not make a New Year’s resolution on becoming better informed about health and safety issues in our workplaces and supporting our academic staff associations in exercising the rights to which we are entitled. We could all be better off for it. Happy New Year to everyone!