My Safety Moment – Lee-Anne Lyon-Bartley

Q - Could you tell me about your background and how you got into health and safety?
A - I studied public health at the school of occupational and public health at Ryerson University taking the public health stream, whichever stream you take you have to take courses on the other side so as I was learning more about occupational health and safety I liked the learning; it resonated with me after being involved in an incident where an employee almost cut off his finger cleaning a slicer and I was the person in charge the night it happened.

I recognized that employers might want people with understanding of both occupational and public health. As I was leaving Ryerson University I was accepted to Durham Region Public Health Department to complete my public health practicum to become a public health inspector. I was also offered a job as a health and safety analyst working for Loblaw companies, I had been working at the store level for Loblaws Supermarkets since the age of 17 so I was familiar with the organization and the opportunity to work at head office was intriguing, so I chose the private sector job figuring I could always go back to the public health inspector route at some point in the future that never happened.

While working for Loblaw companies at head office I was allowed to work at the store level for Loblaws supermarkets And I never forgot the experience and connection of what happens at head office and what happens at the floor level and just seeing how some programs and initiatives that come out of head office don't always translate to the floor level. After leaving Loblaw I went on to a food safety auditing job that allowed me to provide auditing support to many large food service employers across the country. I got to travel quite a bit and get exposed to different employers and different ways of managing food safety, but also health and safety.

I now work for Dexterra and Horizon North, but over the years I have been going between food safety and occupational health and safety roles and sometimes those responsibilities are combined where I have to provide health, safety, food safety, infection prevention and control and environment support to the business. 

Q - What do you like most about being a health & safety professional?
A - As cliché as it might sound, I like the fact that I get to help people, make a difference in the organization. I'm a bit of a science geek too so I like the fact that health safety, food safety, infection prevention and control and environment all include science! I always say as a health and safety professional if you don’t understand the science behind a lot of what we do then you're missing a bit of a trick.

To me, occupational hygiene or industrial hygiene should be a mandatory course for all health and safety professionals to have to take because in that course you actually get to begin to understand the science of safety. I was teaching occupational hygiene in Fort McMurray at the local college and I never forgot the definition of occupational hygiene: it Included the words science and art and I think that's a perfect combination for the work that we do as health and safety professionals.

One of my biggest joys is just seeing others improve and succeed at health and safety. When I see “Don’t Walk By, Take Action Now” submissions from our workforce of interventions they have conducted at work, with subcontractor employees and in their communities when the workday is done, absolutely makes my week!

Q - How to you promote health and safety outside of work?
A - First and foremost, I try to…