Illness/injury prevention

Women working in Ontario’s education sector are four to six times more likely than their male counterparts to require time off work because of being physically assaulted on the job, reports the Canadian Occupational Safety.

Published: Canadian Occupational Safety, August 2018

Recent immigrant workers are 1.6 times more likely than Canadian-born workers to experience occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability, defined as exposure to hazards without adequate protection to mitigate those hazards.

Published: August 2018

Men and women face similar risks of physical violence at work, but the risks of sexual violence at work are four times higher for women than for men.

Published: August 2018

Published: Annals of Work Exposures and Health, July 2018

We currently do not know what proportion of workplace violence incidents in Ontario are captured by each hospital’s reporting system. We also lack information on reasons for not reporting workplace violence incidents. Dr. Peter Smith of the Institute for Work & Health provides findings from a survey in late 2017 of over 1,000 workers in six Ontario hospitals on the incidence, reporting and consequences of workplace violence. He also discusses the implications of these findings on the interpretation of Ontario's new mandatory indicator of workplace violence.

Published: May 2018

A local store manager was eager to help newcomers from Syria find employment, but he made something clear. Before they could work a single shift, they would need sufficient language skills to complete job safety training. This safety-first approach is not a universal experience among recent immigrants, according to a study by the Institute for Work & Health, writes columnist Robin Baranyai.

Published: The London Free Press, April 2018

IWH economist and senior scientist conducted the first estimate of the economic burden of non-melanoma skin cancers from work-related sun exposure in Canada.

Published: April 2018

The work of rigging and hoisting loads comes with significant hazard. Adding to the injury prevention challenge is the fact that many people doing this work have literacy and numeracy skills gaps. A recent IWH study tried out a novel approach to address these learning needs.

Published: April 2018

There has been a cultural shift in recent years when it comes to violence and aggression toward health-care workers. But despite commitment among hospital leadership to tackle the problems, prevention efforts still face several common challenges on the ground.

Published: April 2018

Skin cancer cases attributable to work-related sun exposure could be costing millions of dollars, and must be better addressed by policymakers, according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

Published: Science Daily, April 2018