A building material might lose its safety designation following reports of the danger it poses.
The Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) is looking to remove wired glass from its national building standards at the end of the month, reasoning that the material is not safe “because it’s not impact resistant.”
“It can shatter when hit and cause lacerations,” CGSB senior director Jacqeline Jodoin told
The Canadian Press.
Although building standards are voluntary and “have no force of law,” Jodoin and the CGSB hopes that the safety designation drop would discourage the use of wired glass.
Last year, the Ontario School Boards’ Insurance Exchange (OSBIE) told
Global News that it had incurred a cost of over $5.8 million for 114 claims related to wired glass injuries from 1987 to 2015. An advisory written by the exchange and obtained by
The Canadian Press also noted that there were 107 wired glass claims against schools participating in the exchange between 1987 and 2000, costing more than $3 million in payouts.
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Tyler Dickie was one of the victims of broken wired glass who claimed damages for his injuries. In 2007, he was exiting his Amherst, N.S., high school when he pushed open a wired glass door and - to his horror - his arms crashed through the pane. The resulting broken glass tore through his left arm, ripping his biceps and triceps muscles, cutting his nerves, and even severing an artery.
Dickie continued to bleed due to his injuries, prompting students nearby to try and help until paramedics arrived. When he was finally taken to the hospital his heart stopped beating and his breathing ceased. Fortunately, he survived, but the incident left the strength of his left arm severely crippled for life.
“That glass is a ticking time bomb, someone is going to die,” Dickie told
The Canadian Press.
He later filed a lawsuit in 2012 against the school board, the owner of the school, and the manufacturer and installer of the doors.
“Wired glass is about half as strong as the same glass without wire — it’s terrible,” said Doug Perovic, University of Toronto engineering professor. “It never passed the impact test requirements and that goes back to its initial introduction in the early 1990s.”
The use of wired glass was popularized due to its ability to reduce the spread of fires, Perovic explained. While regular glass breaks during a fire due to the intense heat, wired glass does not fall apart as easily.
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