Emile Tompa | Institute for Work & Health

Dr. Emile Tompa is a senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health. He holds appointments as an associate professor in the Department of Economics at McMaster University and as an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is also co-director of the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy, a seven-year initiative funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant.

Tompa is a labour and health economist with an MBA from the University of British Columbia, an MA in economics from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in economics from McMaster University.

Tompa’s research interests include the consequences of occupational health and safety system design on the health and well-being of individuals and populations, the economic evaluation of workplace interventions for improving the health and well-being of workers, the economic burden of adverse health conditions and disability, and the analysis of disability policy systems.

“How to get the most for the least, that’s the basis for economics. I am interested in analyzing issues related to occupational health and safety and work disability prevention and management from the standpoint of this basic challenge.” – Dr. Emile Tompa

Research areas

A colourful array of old hardhats hanging up

Workplace OHS programs and practices

Overhead view of male cleaner pushing industrial floor polisher along long red walkway

OHS regulation and enforcement

A close-up of a businessman's hand wheeling his wheelchair

Workplace disability management

Office workers are seen from afar through office windows

Compensation and benefit policy

Projects

Accommodating and communicating about episodic disabilities (ACED): A partnership to deliver workplace resources to sustain employment of people with chronic, episodic conditions. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Signature Initiative. Ongoing.

Assessing the human and economic burden of workplace cancer in Canada. Funded by Canadian Cancer Society. Ongoing. (PI on the project)

Best practices for work disability prevention management systems: a scoping review in support of new Canadian standard. Ongoing. (PI on the project)

Cost to Canadians of excluding people with disabilities from the labour market . Funded by Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy. Ongoing. (PI on the project)

Costs of work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths in the European Union. Funded by European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Ongoing. (PI on the project)

Publications

Riano-Casallas MI, Tompa E. Cost-benefit analysis of investment in occupational health and safety in Colombian companies. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2018;61(11):893-900. doi:10.1002/ajim.22911.

Scott KA, Fisher GG, Baron AE, Tompa E, Stallones L, DiGuiseppi C. The associations between falls, fall injuries, and labor market outcomes among U.S. workers 65 years and older. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2018;60(10):943-953. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000001379.

Mustard C, Tompa E, Landsman V, Lay M. What do employers spend to protect the health of workers?. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 2018 [Epub ahead of print]. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3778.

Mofidi A, Tompa E, Spencer J, Kalcevich C, Peters CE, Kim J, Song C, Mortazavi SB, Demers PA. The economic burden of occupational non-melanoma skin cancer due to solar radiation. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. 2018;15(6):481-191. doi:10.1080/15459624.2018.1447118.

Oldfield M, Gewurtz R, Tompa E, Harlos K, Kirsh B, Lysaght R, Macdougall A, Moll S, Rueda S, Sultan-Taieb H. Improving workplaces to enable people living with mental illness to stay in their jobs. OOHNA Journal. 2018;37(1):46-49. doi:.