IWH in the media

Using fatality reports filed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, the Toronto Star's Sara Mojtehedzadeh put together a comprehensive snapshot of COVID deaths in Ontario that are linked to workplace transmission. IWH president Dr. Peter Smith offers comments on the importance of occupational data in pandemic surveillance.

As many workplaces moved to online environments during the pandemic, training and development followed suit and many employees took courses in a virtual environment. John Dujay shares results of an Institute for Work & Health review that compares the effectiveness of online training with that of in-person training.

The number of people who die or who are being hospitalized due to opioids continues to rise, prompting the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) to launch a research project monitoring opioid-related adverse health events in order to identify the worker groups most at risk. Angela Gismondi reports.

Many organizations gauge the mental health of their workplace with the use of a psychosocial work survey. But one widely used survey, Guarding Minds at Work, may have some problems with its effectiveness, according to a joint study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), writes John Dujay.

While the frustrations of those seeking help from British Columbia’s system for compensating injured workers have been well-documented, much less is known about the many people who are injured at work but never make a claim, writes Andrew MacLeod, reporting on an IWH study on the extent of claim suppression in B.C.

As the pandemic lingers, Canadian employers are experiencing a human-resources crunch, now commonly referred to as “The Great Resignation.” But this challenge also comes with an opportunity, writes the Honourable Yazmine Laroche, Canada’s first deputy minister of public service accessibility and the deputy minister champion for federal employees with disabilities. She mentions a new IWH-co-led study, Inclusive Design for Employment Access, as an example of of how the labour market can embrace equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

A study of large employers in the manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors in Ontario found average returns on investment in workplace safety and health ranging from 24% to 114%, according to research by the Institute for Work & Health.

As new workplace health and safety needs surface due to the pandemic, these emerging demands require fresh, dynamic solutions. For robotics, pandemic was its time to shine, writes Jack Burton, with comments from Dr. Arif Jetha from the Institute for Work & Health.

Workplaces need to examine how work is organized and assigned by gender if they want to understand and address the real root causes of musculoskeletal injuries (MSDs). WHSC reports on a virtual RSI Day event hosted by the Manitoba Federation of Labour’s Occupational Health Centre with support from SAFE Work Manitoba. As part of the program IWH scientists Dr. Dwayne Van Eerd and Dr. Heather Johnston offered an interactive presentation exploring common work-related risk factors for both musculoskeletal and psychological injury.

Why do we feel pain long after an injury has healed? Do I feel pain differently than you? How does culture affect our perception of pain? And what’s the most effective way to treat the pain that doesn’t stop? CRAM Ideas host Mary Ito speaks with Dr. Andrea Furlan, a leading expert on pain.