Information for Decision-Making - A WWW Service
Presentation at XVth World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health
April 12-16, 1999
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Presented by: P.K. Abeytunga
To improve workplace health and safety there is ever greater reliance on the involvement and participation of all parties in the workplace in decision-making and action-taking.
Workers and line managers especially, not only directly face the problems and suffer many of the consequences, but also are best positioned to identify, recognize, intervene and deal with the problems and their causes at the earliest possible time. Employers, senior managers, line managers, practitioners and workers, all have responsibilities and important rÙles to play in workplace health and safety.
All of these categories of people need to have a clear picture of the problems and their causes as well as of the solutions and how best to implement them effectively in the workplace.
Knowledge about problems and how to deal with them effectively are the basis for preventing, controlling and dealing with workplace accidents and diseases. Also, understanding of legislated requirements is an essential pre-requisite for compliance.
Good information is, therefore, vital to support effective participation and informed decisions, to ensure compliance and to enable all parties to carry out their obligations.
Information as a strategy for health and safety entails providing the information needed to address specific health and safety issues to those concerned, so that informed decisions and actions may result, and that understanding and consensus between the parties involved may prevail.
Much of the useful information and current knowledge in health and safety is the result of practical experience gained directly from workplaces as well as from planned research activities. Solutions to problems tend to emerge from a process of identification, evaluation, determination of solutions, and analysis by people, based on their own capabilities, experience and resources. These human experiences take place in all parts of the world and lead to information on how to identify, recognize, prevent and control accidents and diseases and how to minimize the consequences if any do occur.
Tapping this information from diverse organizations spread across the world for the benefit of everyone is crucial to avoid repetition of mistakes and to gain from others' experiences.
For nearly 20 years the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) has been using information as a strategy to improve workplace conditions and to reduce accidents and diseases in the workplace.
CCOHS' service is based on partnerships with reputable institutions - international and national - from across the world, thus gaining from the information readily available from partner institutions. The service is designed to reach the people who most need it and will most benefit from the information - workers, employers, health and safety professionals, legislators, law enforcement officers and others. In this endeavour, CCOHS relies heavily on new information technology in compiling, organizing, presenting, updating and distributing its vast collection of information, including that from the partner institutions.
The multi-faceted service consists of a free-of-charge inquiries service, printed publications and a compendium of electronic services such as CD-ROM, World Wide Web and diskette products.
In 1998, CCOHS launched OSH Answers, a free--of-charge information service on it web site. [http://www.ccohs.ca]. anyone with Internet access can consult the OSH Answers page, click on their topic of choice and instantly find easy-to-read, practical information on that topic in a question and answer format.
OSH Answers is a product of CCOHS' free, confidential Inquiries Service which anyone in Canada can call when they have a question about workplace health and safety. People access this service by telephone, mail, fax and increasingly, by e-mail.
OSH Answers is an effective means of sharing with the world, the topics, the experience and the information available from CCOHS' Inquiries Service, which has answered over 250,000 inquiries from Canadians over the past twenty years.
In addition to the Inquiries Service, OSH Answers draws on all other services of CCOHS, which include printed publications, and databases and documents on CD-ROM and on the WWW, which are being used by thousands of organizations in over fifty countries around the world.
OSH Answers covers a wide range of topics; at present answering over 2,100 questions on some 400 topics of major concern in workplaces. The number of topics and questions will grow steadily with time. The question and answer format makes it easier for the users to find, understand and retain information.
OSH Answers meet several criteria:
the information is current and reliable and is based on the experience of professional staff and their evaluation of the vast information resources available at CCOHS the information is objective and unbiased: it contains information from CCOHS' publications that have been reviewed by representatives of organized labour, employers, and governments in keeping with the tripartite nature of CCOHS the information is balanced, with differing points of view, when conclusive, factual or scientific information is lacking.
The design and implementation stages of OSH Answers included:
The selection of a suitable software system that optimized the efficiency and effectiveness of both development and delivery of the service. The development of directories and a hierarchical structure for organizing information that would facilitate continued expansion in breadth and depth of information provided, and updating. The design of appearance and navigation features that would offer different ways of searching and enable users to find information easily without getting lost in the site. Creation of a library of "images" in a dedicated directory to which OSH Answers documents could be linked for the required image.
OSH Answers will be made available through vehicles other than the World Wide Web to ensure that a larger range and number of people can access this information. These include: printed documents, a CD-ROM and a fax-back service, which users can access at any time.
COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS
Chair
Mr Warren Edmondson
Assistant Deputy Minister, Labour
Head of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
Human Resources Development Canada
Place du Portage, Phase II
11th Floor, 165 HÙtel de Ville Street
Hull PQ K1A 0J2
Tel: 819-997-3290
Fax: 819-953-5685
Nominees of Provincial and Territorial Governments
Mr Tom Calkin
President and CEO
Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission of New Brunswick
P O Box 160
One Portland Street
Saint John New Brunswick
E2L 3X9
Tel: 506-632-2800
Fax: 506-632-4999
e-mail: calkint@whscc.nb.ca
Mr David Clark *
Director of Prevention Services
Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut
PO Box 8888
Yellowknife Northwest Territories
Z1A 2R3
Tel: 867-669-4407
Fax: 867-873-0262
e-mail: davidc@wcb.nt.ca
Ms Roberta Ellis
Vice-President, Prevention Division
Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia
P O Box 5350 Stn Terminal
Vancouver British Columbia
V6B 5L5
Tel: 604-279-7536
Fax: 604-279-7410
e-mail: rellis@wcb.bc.ca
Mr Tom Farrell
Deputy Minister
Manitoba Labour
Room 160, Legislative Building
Winnipeg Manitoba
R3C 0P8
Tel: 204-945-4039
Fax: 204-945-8312
e-mail: tfarrell@leg.gov.mb.ca
Mr James LeBlanc
Executive Director
Occupational Health and Safety Division
Nova Scotia Department of Labour
P O Box 697
Halifax Nova Scotia
B3J 2T8
Tel: 902-424-7661
Fax: 902-424-3239
e-mail: leblajim@gov.ns.ca
Mr James M Lee, Chair
Workers Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island
14 Weymouth Street
P O Box 757
Charlottetown Prince Edward Island
C1A 7L7
Tel: 902-368-5685
Fax: 902-368-5705
Mr Roy Mould *
Vice-President, Prevention
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
19th Floor, 200 Front Street West
Toronto Ontario
M5V 3J1
Tel: 416-344-4902
e-mail: Roy_Mould@WSIB.on.ca
Mr Jeff Parr
Executive Director
Occupational Health and Safety Division
Department of Labour
1870 Albert Street
Regina Saskatchewan
S4P 3V7
Tel: 306-787-4481
Fax: 306-787-2208
e-mail:jeff.parr.lab@govmail.gov.sk.ca
Nominees of Labour Organizations
Mr George Heyman, President
BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU)
4911 Canada Way
Burnaby BC V5G 3W3
Tel: 604-291-9611
Fax: 604-293-1369
e-mail: george_heyman@bcgeu.bc.ca
Mr Anthony Pizzino
Senior Officer, Health & Safety Branch
Canadian Union of Public Employees
21 Florence Street
Ottawa Ontario
K2P 0W6
Tel: 613-237-1590
Fax: 613-233-3438
e-mail: apizzino@cupe.ca
Ms Cathy Walker
National Health and Safety Director
CAW-Canada (Canadian Auto Workers)
205 Placer Court
North York Ontario
M2H 3H9
Tel: 416-495-3789
Fax: 416-495-3785
e-mail: walkerc@caw.ca
Mr Hassan Yussuff
Executive Vice-President
Canadian Labour Congress
2841 Riverside Drive
Ottawa Ontario
K1V 8X7
Tel: 613-521-3400
Fax: 613-521-4655
Nominees of Employer Associations
Mr Ian Campbell
I. J. Campbell Associates
35 Hill Crescent
Scarborough Ontario
M1M 1J3
Tel: 416-265-9781
Fax: 416-265-1533
e-mail: ijc@idirect.ca
Ms Agneta Hollander
5800 Eldridge Ave
Montreal Quebec
H4W 2E4
Tel: 514-485-0607
Fax: 514-485-1824
e-mail: ahollan@netcom.ca
Ms Michèle Parent, Director
Occupational Health and Safety
Bell Canada
1000 de la Gauchetière West
Montreal Quebec
H3B 4W5
Tel: 514-870-8689
Fax: 514-870-6772
e-mail: michel.parent@bell.ca
