Company Profile

NorthWest OH&S is the health and safety services division of Training by Design Inc. Training by Design Inc. had its humble beginnings in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1986. Training by Design Inc. began with the goal of creating and providing high quality training in the health and safety field. Its first major product was WHMIS Implementing Worker Education. (WHMIS is the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, the Canadian system for hazard communication.) This product evolved over a period of 10 years from workshop materials to a complete package that included a Reference Manual for the instructor and a Worker Handbook. The Worker Handbook had undergone testing in numerous training sessions with a broad spectrum of workers, supervisors, and managers and had consistently received high praise. The resource and reference manual incorporated the feedback from those sessions. WHMIS Implementing Worker Education was the basis for The HazCom Training Program and The WHMIS Training Program. From these resources we developed updated materials to incorporate the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

NorthWest OH&S provides high quality solutions on a broad range of health and safety problems. We have saved clients millions of dollars by focusing on their needs and providing cost-effective solutions. A "50 cent solution to a $50 problem, rather than a $50 solution to a 50 cent one" says it all. How do those solutions come about? They reflect 40 years of experience "in the trenches" with employees, and their supervisors and managers in a broad-spectrum of industry. They reflect continuous learning about industrial processes and attention to detail about conditions. Attention to detail includes care to measure what is actually there, not the desired substance plus an interfering one. Finally, there is a focus on the simple things that will solve the problem. A simple, inexpensive measure that solves the problem allows both the organization and its employees to win.

NorthWest OH&S maintains its own equipment and consumables, so as to be able to respond rapidly to situations.

 

Directors

Neil McManus, DSc, CIH, ROH, CSP

Neil McManus is a practicing industrial hygienist with 40 years of broad-spectrum service "in the trenches" with workers, and their supervisors and managers. He is certified in the comprehensive practice of industrial hygiene by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene and by the Canadian Registration Board of Occupational Hygienists, and in the comprehensive practice of safety by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Dr. McManus is a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the British Occupational Hygiene Society. He has been an active volunteer in committees in the industrial hygiene profession and in the local community, and has written numerous articles and short publications. He is the author of Safety and Health in Confined Spaces, Portable Ventilation Systems Handbook, and Management of Hazardous Energy: Deactivation, De-Energization, Isolation and Lockout, and is co-author of The HazCom Training Program and The WHMIS Training Program. He is a member of ANSI Z9 (Ventilation Systems) and the Chair of ANSI Z9.9 (Portable Ventilation Systems). Dr. McManus is a Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, and was the first non-US citizen elected to this honour. He has spoken at conferences and presented courses in Canada, the US, Brasil, Portugal, Italy (Internet) and Taiwan as part of the development of occupational health and safety in these countries.

Dr. McManus also is an educator. He began his career as a high school teacher and has considerable experience in adult education, having taught courses on noise, industrial hygiene, and toxicology. He has a special interest in hazard communication and has written articles and created and presented workshops on this subject. He has first-hand experience in hazard communication with many groups on the shop floor and also knows full-well the challenges and difficulties in communicating the complex technical concepts in the health and safety area to audiences not familiar with them.

Dr. McManus has a D.Sc. in Civil Engineering (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niteroí), Brasil, and an M.Sc. in radiation biology and an M.Eng. in occupational health and safety engineering, as well as a B.Sc. in chemistry and a B.Ed. specializing in chemistry and biology, all from the University of Toronto.

 

Gilda Green

Ms. Green has been involved in hazard communication for over ten years. She has focused on devising strategies for enabling learning by adults on the shop floor. Many of these people have been out of school for many years or lack the necessary technical background. Instruction, therefore, must engage the learner's interest and develop the complex technical concepts through use of simple language, realistic examples, and supportive visuals.

Gilda Green is an educator. She has experience teaching adults in industry and children at the elementary level. She has an M.A. in special education, an M.Ed. in computer applications (instructional design/educational technology), and a B.A. in psychology. Ms. Green has been involved in the instructional design and visual layout of various publications and training presentations. She is co-author of The HazCom Training Program and The WHMIS Training Program, and a contributing author in Safety and Health in Confined Spaces. She illustrated The HazCom Training Program, and The WHMIS Training Program, and produced many of the illustrations in Safety and Health in Confined Spaces and Portable Ventilation Systems Handbook. Most recently, Ms. Green has upgraded The HazCom Training Program, and The WHMIS Training Program to reflect the GHS model, and she also has created an international version of the GHS for training.