Ingislati_ve__Assembly

Time does not permit me to go into them here and I don't want to bore you or that I think all this safety will be boring enough. But I do want to say this. I think every one of us should practice and encourage everybody that we contact or that are purchasing electrical equipment to make sure that it is up to the Can- adian Safety Standards and that it has their stamp of approval on every piece of equipment you buy, from an electric frying pan to an electric kettle, skillets and what have you. For fire safety, once again, I think the cure lies within education, inspection, and awareness of the costs.

I want to spend a moment on industrial safety, and this is one where we do have facts and figures. We had two deaths last year here in the Province, and I might say that these figures I quote are from the Workmen's Compensation Board. It is the only place we can get an actual figure or dollar sign from. How- ever, this covers a very, very, very small segment of our accidents in the Province, and I might say that what was paid out by the Workmen’s Compensation, what they felt were direct costs relating to accidents last year amounted to almost $600,000 or a cost of almost six dollars per man, woman, and child here in the Province. Sometimes, when you total all of these things up and think of the cost in lost earnings, the extra or indirect cost relating in industry and particular of re- training personal and so on, to say nothing of the suffering and probably per- manent confinement for many of these persons, which we had twenty permanently disabled last year in industry here in the Province. How much does it actually cost each individual? While we are on costs, would you believe, that in 1964 we had 16,781 bed days used in the hospitals here on Prince Edward Island from acci- dents alone‘.’ That represents a cost of $333,000 just at ward rates, to say nothing of Doctors, medicines, and so on, and cost of lost earnings, and additional expenses that families are put to. You just can't figure it in dollars and cents.

When we look at this annual report of the Workmens Compensation Board, I wonder how many of us realize and can look down the scales, $551,880 was the cost of accidents. These are figures and this is money that comes out of every- body’s pocket. There are scales here telling what month of the year is the most hazardous. There is so much put into their book. I would guarantee you a hundred organizations could take something different and spend a half hour a month on it and would no doubt prevent accidents in their areas.

There were twenty-six hundred and some claims on the Workmens Com- pensation Board. Figure this out percentage wise and how many, if every Islander was covered last year, claims there would have been, probably up around the eight to ten thousand mark. There are other statistics in the Workmens Compensation Board re art as to where they were hurt; 601 in Kings County, 659 in Prince County, ,380 in Queens, population wise this balances out. There were fourteen out of the Province; there were two fatal accidents, one in Prince and one in Kings. The leading cause here is cuts, lacerations, punctures, strains, sprains, and bruises. We go down into the ones requiring medical aid only, and the leaders here, once again, cuts, lacerations, strains, sprains, minor injuries but those that, when added up, amount to not only thousands but hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Those struck by; it says, and believe you me it is not cars or trucks or rail- way trains, or locomotives, struck by tools, struck by machinery, by materials being handled by the victim himself, and by flying particles. These are the leading causes. Right down the line, all of this information is here for us. I know we don’t have time to read all these reports, but those that effect each and everyone of us, such as safet does, I think, are the ones we should really study. Caught in, on, or between, an these are interesting, machinery and bets, pulleys, chains, lines are the leading causes once again. Falls, of course, this from ladders and stairways, they are of equal numbers and they are also the leading ones in falls. How much does it cast each and every Prince Edward Islander in the year in actual dollars and cents?

I think the highest toll we must pay are the fatalities that we have, through inattentive driving, through carelessness on and about farm machinery, carelessness in and about the home, carelessness when it comes to looking after our homes with fire hazards and so on, carelessness around our beaches, while we are fishing, hunting or whether it is commercial fishermen. It is carelessness in industry, but

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