IWH study finds mandatory working at heights training has helped reduce injuries by 19%
A new study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) has found that workplace injuries due to falls from heights in Ontario dropped by almost one fifth after the province standardized working at heights training and made it mandatory.
According to the study, which was published on November 3 in the American Journal of Public Health, that decline was larger than any seen in other Canadian provinces: a six percent decline in the same types of injuries during the same period. It also stood in contrast to a 12 percent rise of injuries in Ontario due to falls not targeted by the training (such as falls down stairs, and falls on same level).
Other types of acute traumatic work-related injuries in the province saw no change.
The IWH study compared lost-time injury rates between the three-year period before the training standard was first implemented (2012–2014) and the three-year period after it came into full effect (2017–2019).
“Although a 19 percent drop may seem modest, previous research tells us that a reduction of this size would be considered typical of a well-planned training program,” said IWH Scientist Dr. Lynda Robson, who led the study. “In our analysis, this reduction in injury rates amounts to four deaths and 320 lost-time injuries avoided during the three-year period after the change went into effect.”
The new study also followed up with a sample of 600 construction workers who took working-at-heights training in 2017. It found they continued to maintain fall protection practices two years after.
“In the first study, we first looked at the practices of construction workers four weeks after taking the mandatory training in 2017. We found meaningful improvements in fall prevention knowledge and practices after the training,” said Robson. “Two years later, among the 300 workers who took the follow-up survey, those improvements in safety practices had not slipped or eroded even though knowledge had.”
Construction is one of the most hazardous sectors in the Canadian economy. The leading cause of traumatic deaths and a major cause of traumatic injuries in the sector is falls from heights.
In 2017, the province of Ontario implemented mandatory working-at-heights training in the construction sector. This change was in response to a recommendation in the 2010 report of an expert advisory panel led by Tony Dean, which was tasked with reviewing Ontario’s occupational health and safety system. The panel was convened by the provincial government in the wake of the December 2009 swing-stage collapse that resulted in four migrant workers falling to their deaths.