Dr. Peter Smith
Dr. Peter Smith is president and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto, and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Prior to moving into the president's role in January 2022, Smith was IWH's scientific co-director.
Smith has a master's in public health from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He is a former recipient of a New Investigator Award (2008-2013) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council (2012-2014), and a five-year CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018).
Smith has extensive experience conducting research related to work injury and its consequences using large population-based surveys and administrative workers' compensation data. His key research interests include: gender and sex differences in the relationship between work and health; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes; labour market experiences of newcomers, older workers, younger workers and other vulnerable labour force subgroups; chronic illnesses and work injury; and trends in working conditions over time.
“I don’t understand how people can think about health without thinking about work. Between our early 20s and our 60s – and later for some people – we spend most of our waking hours at work. It makes sense, then, that aspects of work must have an impact on different aspects of our health, both positively and negatively. That drives me to better understand what good work and bad work look like from a health and return-to-work perspective.” – Dr. Peter Smith
Projects
- Developing a framework for understanding and measuring OHS vulnerability. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Completed. (PI on the project)
- Ontario Leading Indicators Project. Completed.
Publications
- Gignac MA, Bowring J, Tonima S, Franche RL, Thompson A, Jetha A, Smith PM, MacDermid JC, Shaw WS, Van Eerd D, Beaton DE, Irvin E, Tompa E, Saunders R. A sensibility assessment of the Job Demands and Accommodation Planning Tool (JDAPT): a tool to help workers with an episodic disability plan workplace support. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2023;33(1):145-159. doi:10.1007/s10926-022-10057-4.
- Jetha A, Shamaee A, Tompa E, Smith PM, Bultmann U, Bonaccio S, Tucker LB, Norman C, Banks CG, Gignac MA. The future of work in shaping the employment inclusion of young adults with disabilities: a qualitative study. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. 2023;42(9):75-91. doi:10.1108/EDI-06-2022-0154.
- Dobson KG , Vigod SN, Mustard C, Smith PM. Parallel latent trajectories of mental health and personal earnings among 16- to 20 year-old US labor force participants: a 20-year longitudinal study. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2023;58(5):805-821. doi:10.1007/s00127-022-02398-5.
- Smith PM, Oudyk J, Cedillo L, Inouye K, Potter G, Mustard C. Perceived adequacy of infection control practices and symptoms of anxiety among in-person elementary school educators in Ontario. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2022;64(11):e763-e768. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000002693.
- Carnide N, Lee H, Landsman V, Frone MR, Furlan AD, Smith PM. Cannabis use and workplace cannabis availability, perceptions and policies among Canadian workers: a comparison before and after the legalisation of non-medical cannabis. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 2022 epub ahead of print. doi:10.1136/oemed-2022-108316.
Speaker Series presentations
- Refining estimates of occupational exposures and risk of workplace COVID-19 transmission. IWH Speaker Series. January 16, 2024.
- Building on the past, looking to the future: Presenting the IWH Strategic Plan, 2023-27. IWH Speaker Series. May 23, 2023.
- Workplace COVID-19 protections and transmission: Findings from population-level data in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. October 19, 2021.
- Differences in the return-to-work process for work-related psychological and musculoskeletal conditions: findings from an Australian cohort. IWH Speaker Series. April 6, 2021.
- More than just COVID-19 prevention: Exploring the links between PPE, safe work protocols and workers' mental health. IWH Speaker Series. November 10, 2020.
Interviews and articles
- Bad news: Now standing at work is killing you, too. GQ: Conde Nast (New York, NY). September 17, 2017. Available from: https://www.gq.com/story/standing-death-study
- If you stand for too long at work, you could double your risk of this disease. Reader's Digest. September 15, 2017. Available from: https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/standing-increases-risk-heart-disease-study/
- Standing too much at work can double your risk of heart disease. The Conversation. September 11, 2017. Available from: https://theconversation.com/standing-too-much-at-work-can-double-your-risk-of-heart-disease-83629
- Standing all day is twice as bad as sitting for your heart. Runner's World: Hearst Communications (Emmaus, PA). August 24, 2017. Available from: https://www.runnersworld.com/sweat-science/standing-all-day-is-twice-as-bad-as-sitting-for-your-heart
- Too much standing is bad, study finds — it's time to move. CBC: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Toronto, ON). August 18, 2017. Available from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/standing-sitting-work-move-1.4252006