Cara Benoit
Occupational Health & Safety Hygienist
Diavik Diamond Mine, NWT
Cara is responsible for protecting workers and monitoring the work environment for agents, contaminants, or chemicals that could cause illness.
She measures worker exposure to noise, dust and diesel, and assesses worker health to understand if and how they are being affected by the work environment. Daily, she performs interviews, outfits workers with monitoring equipment, analyzes data, and coaches colleagues about safety.
“I really like the philosophy of the mining industry; health and safety are so critical.”
When Cara first started her job, she was concerned about the remote location but was surprised with how effortless the transition to camp lifestyle was.
“If you can get a position like this, it’s really quite fabulous and you can have an influence on the health of so many people. The big thing is to get a degree. It’s hard for companies to fill these positions.”
The Job Goals
- Ensure health and safety of workers
- Influence workers to take charge of their own safety
- Protect workers from noise, dust, chemicals, radon gas and diesel contaminants
The Skills That Play A Part
- Develop and deliver programs that improve worker health and safety including healthy diet and sleep pattern, cancer screening, and campaigns to inform about risks of smoking, drugs and alcohol
- Inform with messaging and communications about workplace hazards and steps to reduce risk
The Education and Training Needed
- High school or GED diploma
- College or university training (occupational health and safety diploma)
Interested in learning more about this mining career or others in the North’s minerals industry? Check out over 100 mining careers here.
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