1. Introduction

These guidelines provide information on the levels of diligence, methodology and reporting required to comply with section 7 of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments.

The employer, owner, lessee or reviewer needs to consider the following points:

• The employer is responsible for ensuring that all requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and regulations are complied with in the workplace. Even where a Pre-Start Health and Safety Review is not required or an exemption from the requirements of section 7 applies, the employer must ensure that workers will be protected when they use any apparatus, structure, protective element or process in the workplace.
• The section 7 Table in Appendix I specifies the provisions of the regulation that apply and circumstances under which a Pre-Start Health and Safety Review is required. There may be other compliance requirements that need to be met before any apparatus, protective elements, structures, and/or processes are used. Even if a Pre-Start Health and Safety Review is not required, it is still the employer's responsibility to meet these requirements. To avoid a costly retrofit the employer may broaden the scope of a regulated Pre-Start Health and Safety Review to include these requirements. The details outlined in Appendix I. Applicable Standards for Exemption or Review may provide an effective way to help ensure compliance.
• Integrating health and safety at the design stage and before operations begin is a cost-effective and proactive way to prevent workplace illness or injury. The benefits are numerous. They include direct savings from minimizing retrofitting; less downtime and replacement of equipment; savings in workplace insurance claims due to fewer illnesses and injuries; and, most important, maintaining productivity, health and safety in the workplace.
• These guidelines do not prescribe how a Pre-Start Health and Safety Review (PSR) is to be done, and the regulation allows for flexibility in that it does not specify any one report format. Where employers have existing review systems and processes to comply with health and safety requirements prior to start-up, they may use them to satisfy PSR requirements, provided that the evaluation, review and written report are done by an appropriate person as required in subsections 7 (11) and (12). The report or reports must indicate that the apparatus, structure, protective element or process complies with the applicable sections of the Regulation for Industrial Establishments referenced in section 7.