National Silicates Safety Week Toronto

National Silicates Opens their Doors to the Community
National Silicates 2011

National Silicates is a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of the PQ Corporation. The PQ Corporation in conjunction with its affiliates is the world’s largest producer of sodium and potassium silicates with manufacturing facilities in 23 countries around the world.
National Silicates has been serving customers in Canada since 1931, but as a subsidiary of the PQ Corporation, has experience in the chemical manufacturing industry beginning in 1831. National Silicates is a member of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada. Members of the CIAC operate their businesses under Responsible Care - A commitment to Sustainability. Part of Responsible Care is to have a process to promote Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) in communities in which the company is located.
National Silicates Safety Week Toronto 2011

National Silicates Toronto operations which include the Canadian corporate office, the Toronto Plant and the R&D center annually conduct “Safety Week”. The Joint Health and Safety Committees of the three departments annually plan together activities for Safety Week.
Larry Masaro, Director, North American Plant Operations
BBQ luncheon
This year, 2011, Safety Week was held in the week of September 19th to the 23rd. On Monday the announcement of the annual safety slogan was announced and all employees attended a safety presentation from Wilson Bateman who spoke about the 7 Safety Habits. Tuesday plant employees were trained and certified in confined space procedures and rescue by Sentry Fire. On Wednesday all employees were trained by Pyrosoft in fighting fires using the company’s fire simulator. On Thursday, National Silicates invited their employees, contractors, neighbours, Toronto West CAER, SEIEA, the Toronto Fire Department and all levels of government to attend a luncheon followed by a presentation performed by Jeff Bell. Jeff spoke of his life history in the safety world and the importance of family and protecting your co-worker. Jeff has worked in the pulp and paper industry for 39 years and lost his son in an industrial accident. The presentation was very moving and impactful.
Some of National Silicates' guests
 Jeff Bell
Jeff was an hourly worker at a large paper mill and helped implement Behavioral Based Safety (BBS) at his plant back in the mid-nineties. He had pulled back from his role in safety when his and his family's lives were changed forever with the phone call that his son Brian, a college student with less than a week left on his junior-senior summer job had been killed in a workplace accident. Because of Brian's death Jeff rededicated himself to working in safety and became the facilitator of his plant's BBS process. Jeff says "I will do anything to keep another family from receiving the call that our family received on the day that Brian died." Jeff has thirteen years of practical experience in BBS including being an observer, a steering team member, and facilitator.

In addition to powerfully describing the loss of a loved one, Jeff calls each viewer to action by stressing the following critical safety points:
• Never forget that safety statistics represent real people.
• Think about every job before you do it.
• Look out for your co-workers; have the courage to speak up.
• Ask "what if" to try and foresee unexpected hazards.
• Inspect equipment before use.
• Be aware of pinch points, line of fire and shifting loads.
• Everyone can make a difference; get involved in safety.

Jeff currently works for a major paper company as a safety specialist and draws on his 30+ years of experience in the paper industry when delivering his powerful and moving presentations. He has spoken to rave reviews at the BST Users Conference, Region IV VPPPA Conference, ConocoPhillips, Equistar, Eastman Chemicals, Kroger, Bowater Abitibi, Smurfit Stone, Shell, and Temple Inland among others.
 
On Friday Safety week concluded with the employees of National Silicates playing “Minute to Win IT” sponsored by the companies BBS (Behaviour Based Safety) team.

Talking to employees at National Silicates, they all enjoy and look forward to safety week each year. Having fun and placing priority on Safety shows that the company places value in its people first and foremost. The company also takes pride in its outreach to the community.