Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 14/99) - Explosions, car accidents and blood squirting casualties are all a part of the third annual Industrial First Aid Competition to be held this Saturday.

As the kick off for the North American Occupational Safety and Health Week, the competition is sponsored by the Workers' Compensation Board and St. John Ambulance.

"The competition is an opportunity for employers and employees to take part and heighten the awareness for safety," said Sandra Dowdall, safety trainer at the WCB and committee co-ordinator for the week's events.

Six teams have already registered for Saturday's competition at the YK Fire Department and more are expected to enter, says the co-ordinator for the first aid competition event, Don Irwin.

"We never really know how many teams there'll be until the night before.

"But right now we have a team from the Iqaluit firefighters, and one from BHP, Giant and the DND Rangers."

Irwin is in charge of creating emergency/accident scenarios, in this case that will occur in and around the Fire Hall, and in which each team is judged on their response and reaction at the accident scene.

"Judging is based on a number of things," says Irwin, "but all of the scenarios are geared towards the standard first aid criteria."

Each team will consist of four members and a captain and will be given between 15 and 20 minutes to react and respond to their scenario.

An important component of the competition is the victim simulation.

Victims are dressed to look as realistic as possible and are trained to act and look injured.

"We will have people who are skilled in casualty simulation and who know how to make the victims look as though they've lost an arm, broken a bone or have an arterial bleed," says Irwin.

The North American Safety and Occupational Health Week is recognized throughout the continent in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada during the month of May.

Canada's theme for this year is "Occupational Health and Safety, It's everybody's responsibility."

"We create awareness for that theme by providing information throughout the week and of course, the first aid competition," says Dowdall, who will also be a judge in Saturday's competition.

"It's been statistically proven that the more people who are trained in First Aid, the less accidents that occur because they are more safety conscious."