A threefold increase in Saskatchewan’s workplace cardiac arrest deaths in one year is prompting the province’s Workers’ Compensation Board to look closely at access to defibrillators at job sites.
Phillip Germain, vice-president of prevention and employer services with WCB, says they plan to “dig deeper” into how the 15 workers – who were of diverse ages and employed in various industries – died of cardiac arrest on the job in 2012.
“(We will) do some more research in terms of what is going on, and if there is something we can do to help employers and workers prevent heart attack-related fatalities,” Germain said.
“(It) could be something that comes out of the recommendations that we have, is that more and more of these workplaces should have access to these defibrillators.”
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Saskatchewan (HSF) views the sharp rise in cardiac arrest deaths as evidence that far more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are needed at job sites and public places.
“For a lot of employers, it’s up to them on whether they put one in,” said Carl Yaworski, the HSF’s resuscitation program manager. “We would like to see AEDs become as common as fire extinguishers in the workplace.”
The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region has 320 AEDs in public places such as malls, libraries and community centres in the city area.
An AED, along with CPR, pushes the survival rate in heart attacks up to 75 per cent from about seven to 10 per cent, the HSF says.
Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Don Morgan said Tuesday, after the WCB’s annual report was released, that it’s “difficult to drive down the heart attack rate because that is a broader health issue.”
Saskatchewan has no legislation or requirements regarding defibrillators, either for job sites or public places. Manitoba passed a law in 2011 stating that most public areas must have AEDs by January 2014.
SOURCE: Metro News