Glossary
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- Allergen - A substance which reacts with the body's immune system to produce a type of irritation known as an allergic reaction.
- Allergic Reaction - A response to exposure to an allergen.
- Acute - Occurring immediately or very soon after exposure.
- Bacteria - Microorganisms associated with plants and animals.
- Canada Labour Code - Part II of the Code provides the health and safety law that applies to federally regulated workplaces. It’s enforced by Human Resources Development Canada.
- Chronic - Occurring long after exposure.
- Department of Environment and Labour (DOEL) - The government department that develops and enforces environment and labour legislation.
- Dusts - Solid particles suspended in air produced by agitation, crushing, grinding, abrading or blasting. Dust ranges in size from 0.1 to 50 micron and larger.
- Employer - A person who employs one or more workers or contracts for the services of one or more workers and includes a contractor or subcontractor who performs work or supplies services and a contractor or subcontractor who undertakes with an owner, constructor, contractor or subcontractor to perform work or supply services.
- Fumes - An airborne dispersion consisting of minute solid particles arising from the heating of a solid (such as molten metal).
- Gas - A formless substance that expands to occupy the space of its container.
- Guard - Mechanical, physical and electrical devices that protect workers from moving parts on machinery.
- Hazard - Anything in the workplace that can hurt workers or make them ill.
- Health and safety representative - A health and safety representative selected under the OHSA.
- Internal Responsibility System (IRS) - A system by which workers, supervisors, employers, and worker representatives all have legal duties to keep their workplace safe and healthy.
- Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) - An advisory group of worker and management representatives established under the OHSA.
- Labour Relations Board - An independent quasi-judicial tribunal that is responsible for a wide variety of matters including determining bargaining units and bargaining agents, trade union certification and unfair labour practices.
- Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) - Provides detailed hazard and precautionary information for hazardous materials.
- Noise - Any unwanted sound which can damage the nerves in the ear.
- Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) - The health and safety law that applies to provincially regulated workplaces in Nova Scotia. DOEL enforces it.
- PPE - Personal protective equipment.
- Radiation - Energy that is emitted, transmitted or absorbed in wave, or energetic particle, form.
- Regulations - Specific health and safety regulations made under the OSHA.
- Solvent - A substance, usually a liquid, capable of dissolving another substance.
- Supervisor - A person who has charge of a workplace or authority over a worker.
- Supplier label - Product label required under WHMIS for hazardous material supplied to a workplace.
- Viruses - Simple submicroscopic parasites of plants, animals, and bacteria that often cause disease.
- Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) - A Canadian system of identifying hazardous materials through product labeling, material safety data sheets and worker training.
- Worker - A person who performs work or supplies services for monetary compensation but does not include an inmate of a correctional institution or like institution or facility who participates inside the institution or facility in a work project or rehabilitation program.
- Work related musculoskeletal disorders - Injuries that affect muscles, tendons and nerves. These injuries develop when the same muscles are used over and over again, usually while applying force, and with little recovery time between repetitions.
- Workplace label - Product label, used in place of a supplier label, required under WHMIS for hazardous material used in the workplace.
- Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) - Provides injury and illness prevention education, protection from legal action, financial and health-care benefits, risk management (programs to reduce injury costs that affect premiums), and co-ordination of the partners in the workplace safety and insurance system
- Workers' Compensation Act (WCA) - Sets out Nova Scotia’s no-fault accident insurance system for work-related injuries or illness.
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