confidential until approved.

["Kathleen M. Brosemer" <kathie@cleannorth.org>]

DRAFT response to Pat McAuley's safety lecture.  Comments, improvements,
warnings to not say _that_! very welcome.  Please treat as confidential
until the final draft is mailed.

thanks
kathie


Dear Mr. McAuley:

Thank you very much for your letter of 16 January, expressing your views
of the safety protocols in place at the Clean North Community Christmas
Tree Chipping event.  We are always happy to receive well-intended
suggestions for improving our programs.

You will be happy to know that we review safety procedures annually, after
the tree chipping event, and make adjustments to our protocols as needed. 
We incorporate this into planning the following year’s event.  We’ve made
numerous improvements over the thirteen years of our operation, and have
experimented with various procedures and equipment.  Your letter has
prompted us to set out the  protocols we have developed over the years in
a comprehensive document this year, and we will be glad to forward a copy
to you as soon as it is approved.

In the meantime, I would like to address the specific concerns you raise
in your letter.  While the city’s policies for its employees operating
chipping equipment are illuminating, I am sure you realize that our event
has aspects that make our safety issues considerably different than those
that city employees face on the job.  I don’t believe that city employees
routinely chip large quantities of small conifers, in a parking lot away
from motorists, in very low temperatures and snowy conditions.  The city
also does not operate a winter kitchen at work sites.  While large
mechanical equipment is of course inherently dangerous, our major health
and safety concerns at the tree chipping site are slips and falls,
hypothermia, food-borne illness, and respiratory problems.  We address
these and other safety concerns through careful management.

Our operation is barricaded from the motor traffic of the parking lot,
unlike city workers who must operate chippers alongside busy rights of way
with all manner of vehicular traffic to contend with.  Unlike city
streets, on our site the only vehicles have well-trained, highly
experienced, and unimpaired operators.

We are not limbing trees or hauling heavy log segments to the chipper. 
There is nothing heavy to fall on the heads or feet of our volunteers.

We are not feeding deciduous brush into the chipper, only small conifers. 
These do not “kick back” into volunteers’ eyes or snag their faces with
twigs.  I’ve handled deciduous brush on my maple bush and the situation is
very different.

These three differences with city operations mean that tear-away safety
vests, hard hats, and safety boots are equipment that are rather
unnecessary in our judgement.  We experimented with hard hats, face
shields, and safety goggles some eight to ten years ago, and found that
they in fact increased the safety hazards on the site.  At temperatures of
between -15 and -30 C, face shields and goggles quickly become covered
with icy condensation from respiration, reducing visibility and creating a
greater safety problem than the one they alleviate.  We’ve addressed the
risk of eye injury from flying chips, through site management practices
such as chipping onto the ground (rather than directly into the truck,
which results in much more entrainment as the chipper discharge chute is
about 12 feet off the ground), directing both chippers’ discharge into a
central area and aiming them away from the volunteers, barricading that
area from volunteers, and minimizing the time that two chippers are
operating.  This year, for example, we were able to complete chipping of
the stockpiled trees in less than two hours, reducing the amount of time
that our volunteers are exposed to the hazards of flying chips.

The chippers are operated by Great Lakes Power employees, who attend at
the mouth of each chipper throughout the time it is operating, retaining
one hand on the safety reverse bar at all times.  In addition, a trained
Clean North observer is stationed fifteen feet away from each chipper,
with responsibility to carefully watch the proceedings and intervene if
any safety issues are observed.  Many other Clean North volunteers are
interspersed with the youth on the site, intervening where necessary in
cases of exuberant youthful horseplay which carries excessive risk.  As
well, volunteers are screened during sign-in, for conditions that might
interfere with their judgement, such as  fatigue, use of prescription
medications, or alcohol.  We have removed volunteers from the site in the
past, or reassigned them to tasks far from the chippers, if in our
judgement they present a safety hazard to themselves or others.

Youth and all other volunteers are kept to the rear of the chippers at all
times, and not permitted to enter the area between the two chippers or the
zone occupied by the loader and trucks.   The loader and dump trucks do
not move until given a visual signal from one of three Clean North
organizers, and this person has responsibility to ensure that no
volunteers are in the area.  Great Lakes Power conducts a training session
for Clean North leaders every second year, going over the chipper
operation and reviewing and agreeing on safe practices.  The same
equipment operators have been with our program for many years, including
the loader and one of the dump truck drivers, and they are very familiar
with our conditions and operation.

Chipping operations are stopped before the loader or trucks move, and
volunteers are directed to rest in the tree piles, or move to the food
area (in a direction away from equipment) while the trucks are loading.

I hope I have addressed your concerns.  I would be happy to show you the
tree chipping operations in the future and describe the reasons for our
procedures, if you should care to visit the site either before or during
the chipping operation.  I also hope that you realize that safety
equipment of the kinds that city employees wear would be overkill for a
project of this scale.  To purchase insulated steel shank safety boots for
over one hundred volunteers, for the three hours per year that they work
at this site, is rather unreasonable.

Furthermore, our volunteers are not employees.  They do not have a payroll
incentive to show up and work, their reward is the enjoyment of being
there.  They work short shifts, so we need many of them to carry out the
operation.  All human activity comes with some risk.  A family reunion
which involves highway travel and potluck meals, is inherently risky, but
still worth doing in most cases as long as reasonable care is taken.  We
believe that so far, we have found the best way to balance the risks with
the benefits of the project and the enjoyment of our volunteers.  We are
confident that our approach is one of “reasonable care,” which will ensure
a successful project for many years to come.

Sincerely,

Kathleen M. Brosemer
Chair




--

I awake each morning torn between a desire to save the world, and a desire
to savour the world.  This makes it hard to plan my day.
                           -  E.B. White