Illness/injury prevention
IWH has a long history of conducting research to provide practical guidance to employers, workers, OHS professionals and regulators about what works and what doesn’t in injury or illness prevention. This research targets the injury and illness prevention practices of workplaces, as well as the programs developed by governments, health and safety associations and others to support and motivate workplaces to adopt effective practices.
Featured
Impact case study
Saskatchewan’s construction safety group uses IWH tool to improve safety culture
This case study details how the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) members have been analyzing IWH-OPM scores to adjust their safety practices and how SCSA has been using the data to tailor their outreach.
Published: February 10, 2025
Issue Briefing
Cannabis use by workers before and after legalization in Canada
Since 2018, when non-medical use of cannabis was legalized in Canada, a pair of Institute for Work & Health (IWH) studies was conducted to explore the implications of this change for workplaces. This briefing sums up their findings.
Published: December 5, 2024
Journal article
Journal article
Is precarious employment an occupational hazard? Evidence from Ontario, Canada
Published: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, August 2024
At Work article
Rates of work injuries have declined in Ontario, except the most severe
Past research in occupational health and safety, including studies conducted at IWH, has shown a general decline in rates of work-related injuries in Ontario over the past two decades. But a new IWH study, based on emergency department records from 2004 to 2017, shows that when it comes to very severe injuries, no such decline was seen among men. It also finds an increase of 18 per cent among women.
Published: July 2024
Project
Project
Understanding how new businesses start managing OHS: laying the groundwork for future interventions
About 100,000 new businesses with one or more employees are created each year in Canada. Almost all start out as small businesses, which have been shown to carry high risks of injuries and fatalities. This study sets out to understand how occupational health and safety management is initiated by new businesses. Its aim is to fill in a research gap and help the prevention system in Ontario reach and support new businesses early in their lifecycle.
Status: Ongoing
Project
Project
Implementation of a comprehensive accommodation and reintegration program in a police service
This study sets out to evaluate the implementation of an accommodation and reintegration program at a major urban police service. The goal is to improve program access and participation and, ultimately, the well-being of police officers.
Status: Ongoing
Journal article
Journal article
Multiscalar toxicities: counter-mapping worker's health in the nail salon
Published: Labour, June 2024
Journal article
Journal article
Trends in severity of work-related traumatic injury and musculoskeletal disorder, Ontario 2004-2017
Published: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, May 2024
Journal article
Journal article
Occupational patterns of opioid-related harms comparing a cohort of formerly injured workers to the general population in Ontario, Canada
Published: Canadian Journal of Public Health, April 2024
Impact case study
Construction safety org adapts IWH research messages for tradesworker audience
A key program from Construction Health and Safety New Zealand—developed using IWH research—takes a participatory ergonomics approach to better prevent and manage musculoskeletal injuries among construction workers.
Published: February 2024
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Is precarious employment an occupational hazard?
Precarious employment has become more common in the Canadian labour market, as well as in the labour markets of other high-income countries. In this presentation, Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi examines the consequences of precarious employment for health and safety at work. Drawing on compensation claims data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and labour force estimates from Statistics Canada, Dr. Shahidi asks whether workers exposed to precarious employment – such as temporary, part-time, and low-wage jobs – are more likely to experience an occupational injury or illness. As a further source of evidence, he also assesses the impact of precarious employment on the workplace transmission of COVID-19.
Published: February 2024
At Work article
What can work-related COVID-19 cases tell us about how to prepare for the next pandemic?
To what extent did workplace exposures account for the transmission of the COVID-19 virus during the first two years of the pandemic? A new study by IWH combined data sources to estimate work-related infection rates, using a method that took into account major shifts in where people worked. It found the role of work exposure changed from wave to wave, in a dynamic pattern not in keeping with the number of cases in the general population.
Published: February 2024