Toronto District School Board fined $150,000 for health and safety violation

    TORONTO, Jan. 27 /CNW/ - The Toronto District School Board, Canada's
largest school board with 560 schools under its jurisdiction, was fined
$150,000 today for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act that
resulted in the death of an employee at a school.
    On June 24, 2002, a part-time caretaker on an evening shift complained to
a co-worker of being unable to breathe. The caretaker's condition deteriorated
and the caretaker died later that evening in hospital. According to a police
report, the fire captain at the scene advised police that the caretaker might
have mixed bleach with a toilet bowl cleaner. One of the police officers at
the scene noted a very strong odour like a swimming pool chemical.
    The fire captain seized two cleaners - a sanitizer/deodorizer identical
in composition to household bleach that contained sodium hypochlorite and a
liquid toilet bowl cleaner containing hydrochlorite. When mixed together, the
two cleaners would have created a dangerous, corrosive, chlorine gas. A
Ministry of Labour investigation found the caretaker had not received
instruction on these products, as required by the Regulations for Workplace
Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS). The incident occurred at
Alexander Stirling Public School, a public elementary school located on
Fawcett Trail in Scarborough.
    The Toronto District School Board pleaded guilty, as an employer, to
failing to ensure, as required by Section 7(1) of the WHMIS Regulations, that
the caretaker was instructed:

    -  on the contents, purpose and significance of the information on the
       labels for the two cleaning products;
    -  on the contents of the material safety data sheets and their purpose
       and significance;
    -  on procedures for the safe use and handling of these products; and
    -  on procedures in case of an emergency involving these products.

    This was contrary to Section 25(1)(c) of the act.
    The fine was imposed by Justice Robert Bigelow of the Ontario Court of
Justice at Old City Hall in Toronto. In addition, the court imposed a 25-per-
cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The
surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist
victims of crime.

I guess he should have used a Pad and your commercial machine, but then again he probably would have gotten electrocuted sticking that machine into the toilet. There has to be more than what I read to that story..........did he sit in the washroom and have lunch while the chemicals were reacting.............a school is a pretty big place with plenty of cross-ventilation.

                            Nightrider

Sorry Padman............I thought this thread was another one of your info-mercials.

                             Nightrider

Yeah, if you read it you would see it is about CAUTION,,

Gotcha!

Where is our own Inspector Lee?

He is probably out looking for floods when he should be consulting with the Toronto School Board District for Health & Safety.

Maybe there was no instructions on the Bleach container stating that it should not be mixed with toilet bowl cleaner, maybe the cleaner( employee ) was unable to read, maybe he had no sense of smell, maybe he commited suicide, maybe he was locked in the bathroom by someone and murdered.............too many maybe's and frankly I blame the government not requiring maintenance permits in order to work in this field...........Did you know hairdressers need a permit.

                         Nightrider

You know what guys, I just had to re-read that story again after Steamer said that he never heard of that story and to tell you the truth there is something wrong with it..................As it is stated...........the part time evening cleaner complained to a co-worker of being unable to breath while on the job and died later that evening ( thus several hours passed ) He should have had time to re-coup even a little after being in the fresh air and out of the building, and blood tests should have showed toxins in his blood. SECOND How come his co-worked did not fall ill or have trouble breathing, it must have been real bad if even the Police and Fire Captain smelled bleach in the air...............

                             Nightrider

I put in in my coffee......................Kills the taste and cleanes my dentures all at the same time..........then I chew gum.........R e f r e s h i n g

                              Nightrider

What kind of gum do you chew tidy bowl??

Doug................Tidy Bowl !!!!!!!!!!!.......................Are you nuts or something...............don't you know you NEVER mix Bleach with a Toilet Bowl Cleaner. I thought you were smarter than that.................haven't you learned anything reading this thread.

                            Nightrider

Doug - You may be interested to know that bleach is absolutely the best disinfectant out there. I would imagine that every hospital has it and is prepared to use it in the right circumstances. The reason it is not used in a more widespread fashion is because of the health and safety effects associated with the product.

Approximately 70 people / year die in North America from mixing bleach with bowl cleaner or ammonia. It is a silly way to die. In the industrial arena where we all work, we are all aware of these dangers. It is quite something when we go to a grocery store and see your wife or mine picking up the Javex and Bowl Cleaner from the grocery isle with never a second thought.

This unfortunate case in Toronto will only make more people realize the potential short and long term affects of the traditional products we use

Javel works great in my swimming pool...........kills everything, at times it will even turn your nice new black bathing suit pink if you go in too soon after treatment. That stoty at the beginning still doesn't hold water................he must have had an underlying health problem.

                                  Nightrider

worked with a guy a few years ago,he was a great salesman,upsell like crazy

one day he decided to sell the customer some stain remover,so once he made the sale on some citrus spotter he went out to the van to realize he only had half of a plastic bottle left in the truck so he improvised and decided that he would just add some 2 part coffee stain remover he already had mixed up.

well a while later the customer called the office to tell the owner that the juice he had sold them EXPLODED on the kitchen table getting all over the place and smelling like orangey ammonia.

I never even thought of doing something like that but it did make me stop and think to be careful with some of the stuff in the van

Doug, Doug, Doug,........What do you think you are buying when you purchase Chlorine in those 5 gallon yellow plastic containers.............JAVEL BLEACH.

Have a piece of gum.

                              Nightrider

NOT ME.............I'm an old timer............If it ain't broke.........don't fix it. All this new crap on the market is great until they realize one day that 200 kids fell ill at the local swimming pool because the bacteria in the water rose to a high enough level due to improper water purification cause by some new product that claims to do what it doesn't..............WE KNOW CHLORINE WORKS, WE KNOW IT'S SAFE WHEN PROPERLY DILUTED, WHY CHANGE IT. WHERE DID THE BAZOOKA GUM DISAPPEAR TO.

                          NIGHTRIDER

Just thinking about it Doug, you might as well swim in your toilet, cause I have a smelly feeling that you're swimming in 2000 gallons of PISS.

                            Nightrider

GREEN, DID YOU SAY GREEN , I never seen my pool turn green, do you let your horse in there, along with the pigs, and cows. Do you have a Happy Hippo living in there.Do you have any idea how long it takes before water in a pool would turn green and what kinds of conditions the pool would have to undergo. Doug, Please go buy some chlorine, and stop using Teds " Hide all purpose cleaner"

                                Nightrider

Doug, just where abouts do you live...........I don't want your address ( unless you want to give it ) what town, city, village..........where. Do you eat Pork Doug..........if not............go kill all those pigs..........that's discusting.

                               Nightrider

Story is true:

Here is the link:

http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2005/01/27/c7742.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html - http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2005/01/27/c7742.html?l match=&lang=_e.html

If they did not conduct an investigation regarding his death......then I know alot of janitors who are going to bite the dust the next time they have an argument with a co-worker.............too many questions unanswered for me.............

                        Nightrider

LilNiteRidrhood wrote: Story is true: Here is the link: http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2005/01/27/c7742.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html - http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2005/01/27/c7742.html?l match=&lang=_e.html

My god...in reading the link you have provided to lawsuits for health and safety I realize that I myself could be sued for more than I ever make.

Simply by renting out a unit without a third prong. Every unit I rent out usually comes back with the third prong missing and we get sick of replacing them.

Guess we had better replace them all and put the rental charges up to cover the cost.

Kleen Kuip is proud to offer you the #1 products for cleaning up #2

If the Toronto School Board dealt with Kleen Kuip and purchased our Enviro Products the tax payers could have saved $150,000.00 and have the woman who perished still alive and caring for her family.

 welcome back Ted I missed you.... nothing like a sweet Infopic to make you feel warm inside...

I think Ted missed his calling

while I like Ted

Fibreclean and Alberta Steamway are both great suppliers

Study harder kenni...study much much harder!

Ted is super thats for sure.

What's the deal with the Ecogent and the dual bottle sprayer in the picture posted? If Ecogent is in one what is in the other?

Also I've been reading about the Benefect, is it sold in ready to use form or a concentrate?

Thanks

Jeff,

Ecogent has come out with a neat little bottle that has a concentrate in one side and then you add water in the other bottle. There is also a dial that you turn for the concentration you desire for spotting. Please go to our site and you will learn all about Ecogent & Benefit our excellent environmental products.  ( at Home Page Click onto Products)

Ecogent General Purpose Cleaner
http://www.kleenkuip.com/products/ecogent_pds.htm - http://www.kleenkuip.com/products/ecogent_pds.htm

Benefect 100% Natural Disinfectant
http://www.kleenkuip.com/products/benefect.htm - http://www.kleenkuip.com/products/benefect.htm

MR. STEAMER wrote: Ted could be great if he wasn't stuck here in HOG TOWN

Yes you are absolutely right Steamer as I am in a rut stuck in Hog Town when I could be performing magic on a cruise ship.

It would be a pleasure looking at the blue caribbean water as opposed to the water coming out of Ninja waste tanks.

Oh well, it's a dirty job but somebody has to do it.