Risk
Guardian - Summer 2004PUBLISHED IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY IN ONTARIO
Send your comments and submissions to:
Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council,
Chris Slosser, Editor
5775 Yonge Street,
7th Floor,
Toronto, ON M2M 4J1
Tel: 416-325-3120
chris.slosser@jus.gov.on.ca
Last year the Fire Marshal's Public Fire Safety Council contracted SMARTRISK to “Canadianize” and transcreate the Risk Watch program. The SMARTRISK team, led by Brenda Enchin, Julie Johnston and Carrie Hayward, undertook the mammoth task of reworking the curriculum to include the latest statistics, injury prevention information, resources and educational approaches relevant to Canada. Six different committees with different purposes and skills provided input and guidance to the content and development of the Canadian Risk Watch program. In addition, the team received advice from Canadian experts in eight risk areas.
They worked with teachers to develop a new approach to the lesson plans which now emphasize critical thinking, provide more challenging activities and can be integrated easily by teachers with other subjects such as science, math and language arts. In keeping with Canadian educational approaches, additions to the lesson plans include encouraging students to reflect on prior learning, and student assessment suggestions for teachers. Efforts have also been made in the Canadian version to add references to ice, farm, rural and rail safety issues, as well as information on popular activities that involve risk, such as skateboarding and operating ATV's.
The SMARTRISK team has completed the English revision of Risk Watch and has sent the material to the French translators. Translation is expected to be completed by January, 2005. The next step is the graphic design of the materials. The new Canadianized version is expected to be available for use in schools by September, 2005. Stay tuned for the exciting launch!
The SummerSmart campaign, aimed at raising public awareness about outdoor safety and the safe use of barbecues and fuels, was launched on May 19 by Monte Kwinter, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services; Bernard Moyle, Ontario Fire Marshal; Ted Dance, TSSA; and Terry Boyko, Toronto Fire Services. SummerSmart provides safety materials focusing on:
•the safe handling of propane, gasoline, kerosene and other fuels commonly
used outdoors;
•practicing proper procedures and following the manufacturers’ instructions when
using fuel-burning appliances; and
•recognizing and preventing carbon monoxide hazards at home, around the cottage or at the campsite.
SummerSmart campaign partners include: TSSA, CSA International, Direct Energy
Essential Home Services, Garrison (exclusively at Canadian Tire), Energizer
Canada, Kidde, State Farm Insurance, Toronto Fire Services and the Council.
For more information, visit www.safetyinfo.ca.
July 9 was Toronto Blue Jays Fire Safety Day, recognizing the dedicated fire prevention work done by the fire service, and by sponsors and organizations committed to the on-going promotion of fire and life safety messages.
An on-field presentation was made to partners supporting the Spring into Summer...Spring into Safety and the Fire Prevention Week campaigns.
Pictured below (from left) are Blue Jay Josh Phelps; Doug Tennant, Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs; Chief Bill Stewart, Toronto Fire Service; Dr. James Young, Commissioner of Emergency Management; Fire Marshal Bernard Moyle; Doug Geralde, CSA; Jeff Higgins, Direct Energy; Bev Gilbert, Office of the Fire Marshal; Manny Sousa, Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc.; Danielle Zima, Energizer Canada; Jim Rotz, Pyrene Corporation; Sharleen Mascoll, State Farm; Dave Lisle, Technical Standards & Safety Authority; Sparky; and Ron Jones, Toronto Fire Service.
The provincial government is planning legislation and regulations requiring booster seats for children who are too big for toddler seats and too small to be protected by seat belts.
The legislation would make booster seats mandatory for pre-school to primary-grade-aged children weighing between 18 kg and 36 kg (40 to 80 lbs.), with a standing height of less than 145 cm (4ft., 10 inches) or a maximum age of eight years.
“It’s a sad fact that children using seat belts instead of booster seats are 3.5 times more likely to suffer significant injury, and four times more likely to suffer head injury,” said Ontario’s Youth Services Minister Dr. Marie Bountrogianni.
Currently, Ontario law re-quires children weighing over 18 kg to wear only a normal seat belt. It is expect-ed the new requirements would go into effect in the spring of 2005 to give manufacturers and parents time to make the adjustment.
The new legislation will also extend the mandatory use of child car seats to care-givers such as grandparents and babysitters, and assign demerit points for failing to use child car seats or for using them incorrectly.
•Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death and injury among children and youth, according to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program.
•An unrestrained child in a 50 km/hr crash would suffer the same consequences as a child being dropped from a third storey window.
•The Infant and Toddler Safety Association has shown that there is up to a 75% reduction in child deaths and injuries in a motor vehicle collision when child car seats are used correctly.
•The Canada Safety Council reports that the proper use of child car seats can reduce the possibility of fatal injury for infants by 70%. Proper restraint use for toddlers can reduce the risk of fatal injury by close to 50%.
Source: Ontario Ministry of Transportation media release
Fifteen individuals and or-ganizations, including five youths, received Fire Safety Awards from the Fire Mar-shal’s Public Fire Safety Council at a ceremony on June 17. The annual awards recognize outstanding con-tributions to fire protection and prevention in Ontario.
Action Award recipients included: Shannon Clarke, age 10, from Whitby; Dan-ielle Denison, age 9, from Waterloo; Jamie Pursell, age 16, from Sarnia; Cody Vid-eto, age 10, from Petawawa; and Kenisha Williams, age 11, from Whitby.
Advocate Award recipients were: Tom and Janet McEwan from Cambridge and George Vice from New-castle.
Partner Award recipients included: Council Aware-ness Players from Toronto; Durham Radio Inc. from Oshawa; John Deere Welland Works from Welland; The New RO from Pembroke; Newstalk 610 CKTB Radio from St. Catharines; the Toronto District School Board; The Tribune newspaper in Welland; and VR News in Barrie.
Awards for Excellence in Fire Safety went to Bill Donahue from the Cambridge Fire Department and Dr. Sherri MacKay from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Fred Leber and Jonathan Rubes from the Leber/Rubes Inc. engineering firm received an award for providing expertise and leadership to the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council.
This year’s awards were sponsored by Pyrene Corporation, manufacturer of fire safety, suppression and detection products marketed by Kidde Residential, Pyrene Industrial and Angus Fire.
Pictured above: Fire Marshal Bernard Moyle and Carol Heller from Pyrene Corporation, sponsor of the awards, are pictured with Action Award recipients (from left) Danielle Denison, Kenisha Williams, Shannon Clarke, Cody Videto and Jamie Pursell.
Just over half of the school teachers in the City of Kawartha Lakes region incorporate Risk Watch safety lessons into their daily teaching plans, according to a new survey of teachers done by the Kawartha Lakes Risk Watch Advisory Coalition. While 91% of survey respondents report having heard of the program, and 70% report having a copy of the Risk Watch binder in their classroom, 54% are actively using the lessons.
“[Fifty-four per cent] is probably higher than I expected,” said Karen Cook, Co-Chair of the Advisory Coalition. “Teachers are inundated with outside requests for inclusion of programs, lessons, activities, etc. This statistic demonstrates that over half the teachers in our county recognize that the Risk Watch program is an excellent resource that augments the health curriculum. However, recognizing the challenges that we face, we plan to use the results of the survey to address the factors that have had an adverse effect on some teachers’ decisions to use the lessons.”
The Kawartha Lakes survey asked teachers what they liked most and least about the Risk Watch program. Teachers liked that the binder is easy to use and follow; that topics are congruent with curriculum and are teacher friendly; that the program lessons are easy to implement and provide practical, hands-on materials for certain ages; and that the lessons are informative.
Other teachers said the lessons were difficult to fit into the school curriculum for higher grades and that there was too much information to cover in the amount of time they have to teach; that lessons are too juvenile for some grades and that there are not enough interesting activities for others; that there is not enough material on winter and ice safety, or springtime water safety; that there is no French version; and that other, effective resources covering similar material already exist.
James Hind, Public Information Coordinator at the Woodstock Fire Department, said Risk Watch has received a similar mixed reaction in schools in his area. Generally, teachers there have received the program well, Hind said, but they too feel its use is limited because of the lack of Canadian content and a French version.
Dyane McCullough, at the Office of the Fire Marshal ’s Midhurst office, has been working with schools in the Parry Sound, North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie areas. Risk Watch has been received very well in those areas, McCullough said, and is, or soon will be, implemented in most English schools in the region. The greatest problem she has encountered is the lack of a French version.
To address the criticisms in her area, Cook said the Kawartha Lakes Risk Watch Advisory Coalition will set up meetings with school staff in September to promote the Risk Watch program and the coalition’s support services, and will offer after-school professional development workshops to new teachers.
Pictured above: The Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council and the National Fire and Life Safety Foundation presented the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs with a cheque worth $15,000 for volunteer firefighter training at the OAFC’s conference in May. Pictured, from the left, are Rob Browning, OAFC President; Daniel Langlois, CSA; Deputy Fire Marshal Doug Crawford; Art Pullan, from the Council; Fire Marshal Bernard Moyle; Harry Jones, representing the Foundation; John Roberts, Leber/Rubes; Ken Langer, TSSA; and Harvey Morrison, Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc.
Seventeen Ontario teachers won prizes for teaching safety lessons to their students as part of a campaign organized by the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council.
The “Keeping Our Kids Safe” program, part of the Council’s Spring into Summer...Spring into Safety campaign, was a partnership between Ontario teachers and the fire service, in which curriculum approved lesson plans about safety were taught in classrooms.
Every time a safety lesson was taught, teachers could submit a “Lesson Taught!” form to enter a draw for prizes, including class pizza parties, $200 certificates for classroom supplies, a gas barbecue and a weekend getaway to Toronto.
Pictured above: Sparky visited a pizza party on June 22 won by the grade 1/2 class at Enniskillen Public School (north of Oshawa) as part of the “Keeping Our Kids Safe” program.
Drowning is the second leading cause of death for Canadian children ages one
to four.
For every toddler who dies from drowning, there are an estimated six to 10
additional near-drownings which require hospitalization.
69% of drowning victims were alone at the time of drowning.
A small child can drown in only two centimetres of water – just enough to
cover the mouth and nose.
Only 18% of toddlers who drown were swimming or playing in water. 65% were
playing or walking near water.
Bathtubs account for 55% of infant drownings (0-1 years).
70% of people who drown were not wearing a personal floatation device (PFD).
Stay with young children, at all times, when they are near or in water.
If there is a water hazard nearby, do not leave a child under the age of five in the care of an older child without adult supervision.
Enroll children in swimming and water safety lessons.
If you have a swimming pool: establish “pool rules”; make sure that the pool is properly fenced in (1.2 metres/four feet high and can’t be climbed), has a gate that closes and latches by itself, and that there is safety equipment nearby (rescue pole, life-ring, rope, telephone with 911 sticker).
Everyone should wear a PFD every time they get into a watercraft.
Information courtesy of Karen Cook, Kawartha Lakes Risk Watch.
Two Toronto elementary school classes attended the launch of the SummerSmart public education campaign (see page 1) on May 19 at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square. At the event, Toronto Fire Services, a partner in the campaign, set up interactive activities and displays for kids and the public to learn about fire safety. Pictured below, one of the school kids practices crawling low under smoke as part of a fire safety obstacle course.
Fire Prevention Week is from October 3-9. This year’s theme, “Test Your Smoke Alarms,” is meant to remind the public that while smoke alarms save lives, they can’t protect people if they aren’t in working order. Kits soon will be available from the Council.
The Office of Boating Safety, a division of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, is
requiring that all boat operators pass a competency test as part of the
Competency of Operators of Pleasure Craft Regulations.
The regulations require that operators of pleasure craft fitted with a motor and
used for recreational purposes have proof of competency on board at all times.
These requirements are being phased in over 10 years.
All boat operators born after April 1, 1983 were required to pass the
competency test by September 15, 1999; all operators of craft under four metres
in length, including personal water craft, were required to have proof of
competency by September 15, 2002; and all other operators must have proof by
September 15, 2009.
For more information about boating safety, visit the Office of Boating Safety
Web site at
http://www.tc.gc.ca/BoatingSafety/menu.htm.
The 12th annual Fire and Life Safety Educators’ Conference, entitled “Naturally Wonderful,” will be held November 3, 4 and 5, 2004 in Pembroke, Ontario.
Speakers will include: Dr. Sherri MacKay and Dr. Diane Warling from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto; Fire Marshal Bernard Moyle; Chief Terry Allen, Cambridge Fire Department; and Mike Chafer, The NewRO.
Highlights will include: a pre-conference seminar on TAPP-C, during which new
and revised TAPP-C manuals will be introduced. The conference will also include
workshops on: working with the media, delivering great presentations,
benchmarking and measuring success, the effects of lifestyle factors on fatal
fires and The NewRO partnership with Renfrew County.
For more information, contact the Renfrew County Mutual Aid Fire Service
Association at 613-754-5221.
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