IWH in the media

Pharmacists can spend an average of eight to 12 hours per day on their feet, often in a static position. Yet, the effects of prolonged standing remain “hidden” because they develop gradually. Standing for long periods has become normalized in pharmacy culture and is overshadowed by other workplace concerns, writes Marina Rowbotham, citing research by IWH's Dr. Peter Smith.

A Toronto Star investigation has found that critical workplace injuries spike on the hottest days of the year. The provincial government knows that heat is a growing and potentially lethal threat to workers, but new protections it once proposed have never materialized, writes climate change reporter Kate Allen, with data analysis provided by IWH's Dr. Peter Smith.

In what was described as a strategic, provincewide collaboration, the WSIB has partnered with Workplace Safety North (WSN) and the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) to lead a proactive campaign aimed at enhancing hygiene monitoring practices and reducing exposure to harmful workplace hazards. The initiative, spearheaded by WSN, is to focus on high-risk sectors such as mining and forestry, where workers continue to face some of the highest rates of occupational illness fatalities in Ontario. WSN has developed a suite of specialized training materials and will work directly with employers and workers through hands-on coaching and real-time use of hygiene monitoring equipment. The IWH will support the initiative by applying its expertise in health and safety research to assess the effectiveness of the training programs and their impact on improving worker safety.

On Day 1 of the Mining Health and Safety Conference in Sudbury, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board announced $6.78 million to protect workers in Ontario’s natural resources sectors, to be conducted by Workplace Safety North and the Institute for Work and Health, Lyndsay Aelick reports.

Compared to those in standard employment, workers in precarious jobs are more than three times as likely to die from drug poisoning and nearly twice as likely to die from alcohol-related causes. The risk of suicide is also markedly higher—2.4 times greater for women and 1.7 times greater for men in precarious work, reports Shane Mercer, based on a webinar presentation by IWH associate scientist Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi. The findings challenge the notion that having any job is enough to safeguard health, instead pointing to job quality as a critical, and often overlooked, determinant of life expectancy.

In a column that's part of the Globe and Mail Careers’ Leadership Lab series, Siemens Canada president and CEO Faisal Kazi makes the case to strive for zero safety incidents. He cites IWH research showing each work injury on average costs manufacturing employers $39,000, as well as IWH findings that the return on safety investment in manufacturing is 24 per cent, largely from productivity gains and reduction of workplace injury costs.

Findings from the Institute's study on claim suppression were among those cited in this column highlighting the under-reporting or under-recognition of work-related injuries and fatalities. Without a more accurate picture of work-related suffering, much needed workplace and government interventions will be stalled or fail to materialize altogether, the column states.

According to a study by the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), small businesses participating in health and safety incentive programs, such as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Health & Safety Excellence Program (HSEp), are better able to make positive health and safety changes in their workplace, despite facing challenges like limited time and resources. Participants in these programs achieve significant benefits, such as increasing health and safety awareness and effective implementation of occupational health and safety (OHS) policies. However, small businesses often require additional support due to resource constraints and limited OHS knowledge.

Competent and supportive supervisors can help reduce injuries experienced by workers, especially when supervisors are properly trained, states article that cites research by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH). It found that workers most likely to suffer an injury were those who reported that their supervisors were unaware of hazards and/or didn’t provide reasonable protection.

Severe pain is the main factor associated with opioid use after a work-related injury, regardless of the employee’s return-to-work timeline, a recent study out of Canada suggests. Findings show that 35.6 per cent of the workers used opioids more than once in the past year. However, those who experienced severe post-injury pain were nearly three times more likely to use opioids than the participants who had mild or zero pain.