Today@Dal

The Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills, and Immigration (LSI) have issued a safety bulletin on step stools. The full bulletin can be found on the Province of Nova Scotia website.

This bulletin is clarifying step stool use in the workplace and represents a change from previous a release from LSI. Going forward all step stools must be Canadian Standards Association (CSA) approved, grade 2 or higher. In the past non-CSA step stools were allowed provided they were adequate and appropriate for the task.

What this means for Dal

Every group who uses or owns step stools should review their stools, including labelling. Step stools that are not CSA approved and the correct grade should be removed from service and replaced with a CSA approved step stool of an appropriate grade. 

Updating resources

Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) will promptly update our resources to match this change, including our Portable Ladders myDal page, Portable Ladder Program [PDF], and Portable Ladder Inspection Form [PDF]. 

Anyone who has questions or would like to learn more please contact us. 

Reminder

We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to practice good ladder safety. We host a variety of resources to make it easier for the Dalhousie community to work safely and meet regulatory requirements. If you have not inspected your ladders or step stools yet this year, now is the perfect time. It is also a great idea to review the safe work practices for step ladders and extension ladders if you use them.

We ask everyone to take care this holiday season, and practice good ladder safety.