The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
If Tammy Eger could start work on a research project tomorrow to improve mine safety, it would be on mental health in the workplace.
A researcher at Laurentian University’s Centre for Research in Occupational Health and Safety, Eger gave one of seven presentations to the advisory group for the Ontario Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review.
The last of three public consultations to the group was held Thursday afternoon in a small, crowded room in the basement of the main branch of Greater Sudbury Public Library.
The mining review was announced late last year by the Ministry of Labour after a push by Sudbury labour groups for a public inquiry into mine safety in Ontario. That call came after an investigation into the June 2011 deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram at Vale’s Stobie Mine.
Eger told the group that good mental health in workplaces is “absolutely critical” to work safety, and being productive and healthy on the job.
That is just one of the subjects CROSH researchers look at when working with industry to develop critical solutions and practical policies to make workplaces safer, Eger told the advisory group.
Research could drive prevention, said Eger, in other areas such as musculoskeletal disorders, and fatigue and sleep hygiene.
Ontario chief prevention officer George Gritziotis, who chairs the mining review, told Eger he’s a big supporter of research and said mental health is an issue in all workplaces.
Gritziotis told those attending consultations in Sudbury that recommendations from the mining review will also benefit other industries in Ontario.
Third-generation miner Dave Stewart has been involved in health and safety with Xstrata and now Glencore for eight years. He’s a member of Mine Mill Local 598/Unifor, and sits on the union’s health and safety committee. He gave an emotional presentation to the advisory group, dissolving into tears several times.
Stewart recalled receiving word 14 years ago that his father, Gerald, had been struck by a scoop while working in a mine near Gowganda.
His father was brought to hospital in Sudbury and Stewart said he will never forget seeing him injured.
That accident ended his father’s mining career and kept him from enjoying his daily fishing excursions, limited his mobility and put pressure on Dave’s mother as well.
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