Dr. Peter Smith
Dr. Peter Smith is president and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto, and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Prior to moving into the president's role in January 2022, Smith was IWH's scientific co-director.
Smith has a master's in public health from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He is a former recipient of a New Investigator Award (2008-2013) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council (2012-2014), and a five-year CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018).
Smith has extensive experience conducting research related to work injury and its consequences using large population-based surveys and administrative workers' compensation data. His key research interests include: gender and sex differences in the relationship between work and health; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes; labour market experiences of newcomers, older workers, younger workers and other vulnerable labour force subgroups; chronic illnesses and work injury; and trends in working conditions over time.
“I don’t understand how people can think about health without thinking about work. Between our early 20s and our 60s – and later for some people – we spend most of our waking hours at work. It makes sense, then, that aspects of work must have an impact on different aspects of our health, both positively and negatively. That drives me to better understand what good work and bad work look like from a health and return-to-work perspective.” – Dr. Peter Smith
Projects
- Developing approaches to measuring the dimensions of gender and their relationship to health outcomes. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Evaluating the effectiveness of distance learning in delivering Ontario's JHSC certification training. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. Ongoing.
- Examining sex/gender differences in exposures to workplace-acquired communicable disease: a systematic review. Funded by WorkSafeBC. Ongoing.
- Exploring how daily patterns of sleep and activity affect the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality among Canadian workers . Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research . Ongoing.
- Exploring where Canadians work and live and their association with active transportation. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
Publications
- Giesinger I, Buajitti E, Siddiqi A, Smith PM, Krishnan RG, Rosella LC. The association between total social exposure and incident multimorbidity: a population-based cohort study. SSM - Population Health. 2025;29:101743. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101743.
- LaMontagne AD, Greiner B, Kawakami N, Rugulies R, Keegel T, Martin A, Noblet A, Papas A, Reavley N, Smith PM. Letter to: Mishiba, T (2023): The legal regulation of psychological hazards at work: the hypothesis regarding the benefits of the mental health approach compared to the psychosocial risk (PSR) approach. J Work Health Saf Regul 2023; 2: 97-109. . Journal of Work Health and Safety Regulation. 2025 epub ahead of print. doi:10.57523/jaohlev.lte.24-017.
- Orchard C, Lin E, Rosella L, Smith PM. Using a causal decomposition approach to estimate the contribution of employment to differences in mental health profiles between men and women. SSM - Population Health. 2024;28:101718. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101718.
- Dobson KG , Chien YC, Carnide N, Furlan AD, Smith PM, Mustard C. Uncovering mental health profiles of workers with a physically disabling injury or illness using the complete state mental health framework. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2024 epub ahead of print. doi:10.1007/s10926-024-10254-3.
- Zahiriharsini A, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Hervieux V, Trudel X, Matteau L, Jalbert L, Svyntozelska O, Demers J, LeBlanc A, Smith PM. Incorporating sex and gender considerations in research on psychosocial work exposures and cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review of 55 prospective studies. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 2024;167:105916. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105916.
Speaker Series presentations
- Refining estimates of occupational exposures and risk of workplace COVID-19 transmission. IWH Speaker Series. January 16, 2024.
- Building on the past, looking to the future: Presenting the IWH Strategic Plan, 2023-27. IWH Speaker Series. May 23, 2023.
- Workplace COVID-19 protections and transmission: Findings from population-level data in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. October 19, 2021.
- Differences in the return-to-work process for work-related psychological and musculoskeletal conditions: findings from an Australian cohort. IWH Speaker Series. April 6, 2021.
- More than just COVID-19 prevention: Exploring the links between PPE, safe work protocols and workers' mental health. IWH Speaker Series. November 10, 2020.
Interviews and articles
- In Ontario's housing crisis, immigrants are the scapegoat and the solution. The Local. January 29, 2025. Available from: https://thelocal.to/construction-labour-housing-immigrants-foreign-workers/
- Lancet series calls for greater attention to work as social determinant of health. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 114, Fall 2023.
- The impact of work on well-being: 6 factors that will affect the future of work and health inequalities. The Conversation Canada. October 15, 2023. Available from: https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-work-on-well-being-6-factors-that-will-affect-the-future-of-work-and-health-inequalities-215047
- IWH tool comes out ahead in Australian study of OHS leading indicator tools. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 111, Winter 2023.
- Educators lack protection in-class and support online, studies find. Workers Health & Safety Centre. November 17, 2022. Available from: https://www.whsc.on.ca/What-s-new/News-Archive/Educators-lack-protection-in-class-and-support-online-studies-find