IWH Updates

The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is honoured to welcome Tom Zach to its Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Advisory Committee (KTEAC). Zach has worked as a communications professional within the public and private sectors for over 30 years. Currently, he is the director of government and stakeholder relations at the Public Services Health and Safety Association. He is there on secondment from his previous position as director of communications and marketing for the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

Zach replaces Maria Papoutsis, who retired last year from her role as director of the Health and Safety Policy Branch at the Ontario Ministry of Labour.  The Institute is grateful for the guidance Papoutsis has offered over the years as a member of a committee that advises IWH on its knowledge transfer and exchange activities.

A research team at IWH has been awarded one of 14 new cannabis-related research grants recently announced by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The team, led by Dr. Peter Smith, senior scientist at IWH, and Dr. Nancy Carnide, post-doctoral fellow at IWH, was awarded a one-year CIHR Catalyst grant to study the attitudes and habits of Canadians around cannabis consumption in the workplace. This will establish baseline data for possible further research on changes following the legalization of recreational marijuana. The 14 grants were announced in January by Liberal MP Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and to the Minister of Health. We acknowledge the need to expand our knowledge when it comes to the health effects of cannabis, as well as the behavioural, social and economic implications of its legalization and regulation, Blair said.