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
- Creating safe workplaces for newcomers. Funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- 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.
- Evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of Ontario’s working-at-heights training standard. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour. Ongoing.
- Examining sex/gender differences in exposures to workplace-acquired communicable disease: a systematic review. Funded by WorkSafeBC. Ongoing.
Publications
- Dobson KG , Vigod SN, Mustard C, Smith PM. Trends in the prevalence of depression and anxiety disorders among working-age Canadian adults between 2000 and 2016. Health Reports. 2020;31(12):12-23. doi:10.25318/82-003-x202001200002-eng.
- Robson LS, Lee H, Amick B, Landsman V, Smith PM, Mustard C. Preventing fall-from-height injuries in construction: effectiveness of a regulatory training standard. Journal of Safety Research. 2020;74:271-278. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2020.06.007.
- Smith PM, Gilbert-Ouimet M, Brisson C, Glazier RH, Mustard C. Examining the relationship between the demand-control model and incident myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure in a representative sample of the employed women and men in Ontario, Canada, over a 15-year period. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 2020;112(2):280-288. doi:10.17269/s41997-020-00378-3.
- Dobson KG , Gilbert-Ouimet M, Mustard C, Smith PM. Body mass index trajectories among the Canadian workforce and their association with work environment trajectories over 17 years. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2020;77(6):374-380. doi:10.1136/oemed-2019-106023.
- Kosny A, Yanar B, Begum M, Al-khooly D, Premji S, Lay M, Smith PM. Safe employment integration of recent immigrants and refugees. Journal of International Migration and Integration. 2020;21(3):807-827. doi:10.1007/s12134-019-00685-w.
Speaker Series presentations
- Reporting and consequences of workplace violence in six Ontario hospitals. IWH Speaker Series. May 22, 2018.
- Towards a better understanding of differences in the risk of workplace violence for men and women in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. March 27, 2018.
- Evaluating the impact of mandatory awareness training in Ontario. IWH Speaker Series. April 11, 2017.
- Understanding return to work in MSD claims versus psychological injuries, for younger workers versus older workers. IWH Speaker Series. September 29, 2015.
- Developing a measure of OHS vulnerability. IWH Speaker Series. January 20, 2015.
Interviews and articles
- Workplace violence solutions for schools central to recent ETFO symposium. Workers Health & Safety Centre. February 5, 2020. Available from: https://www.whsc.on.ca/What-s-new/News-Archive/Workplace-violence-solutions-for-schools-central-to-recent-ETFO-symposium
- Protecting minds a priority in changing times . OHS Canada. November 29, 2019. Available from: https://www.ohscanada.com/features/protecting-minds-priority-changing-times/
- Claimants’ perceptions of fair treatment linked to lower odds of poor mental health. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 98, Fall 2019.
- As teachers report more violent incidents in schools, boards struggle. The Globe and Mail. September 7, 2019. Available from: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/education/article-as-teachers-report-more-violent-incidents-in-schools-boards-struggle/
- What research can do: IWH research helps prevention system shift focus from young to new workers. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 97, Summer 2019.