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July 2025: Chris McLeod, PWHS Director, and Lindsey Richardson, Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Sociology, are co-principal investigators on a successful CIHR project grant focused on reducing substance-use related harm among people working in construction and trades in BC. In the context of the ongoing, intractable challenges linked to drug use and drug-related harm, people working in construction and trades bear a disproportionate burden of this harm, and there is a lack of published, action-oriented research in this area. The work funded by this grant will fill critical research and knowledge mobilization gaps.

Jun 2025: Congratulations to Chizitara Nkwopara, a recent MSc OEH graduate, and Harman Sandhu, a current MSc OEH student, who received the Best Student Oral Presentation Awards at this year’s conference.

May 2025: Immigrant workers are overly represented in high risk and precarious jobs that are not commensurate with their background, skills and experience. This study examined the association between use of government-funded employment-related (ER) settlement services and paid employment of immigrants arriving in Canada between 2015 and 2017. The cohort was restricted to immigrants with no paid employment in their year of landing to examine the direct impact of ER service on subsequent employment. Immigrants displayed a higher odds of paid employment the year following the ER service, compared to immigrants who did not access ER services. Read more in PLoS One.

April 2025: On April 28, 2025, workers, families, and employers gather at commemorative ceremonies to honour the workers who lost their lives last year due to workplace injury and disease and renew our commitment to creating healthy and safe workplaces for everyone. Whether you’re an employer, supervisor, prime contractor, or worker, you have a role to play in keeping the workplace safe. A public Day of Mourning ceremony will take place at Jack Poole Plaza in downtown Vancouver on Monday, April 28th at 10:00 am. Learn more at dayofmourning.bc.ca.

March 2025: Seafaring, fishing, marine aquaculture, and longshore work tend to be hazardous occupations with high injury rates. They are associated with varying levels of seasonality, shift work, geographic mobility, and different types of remuneration, posing unique challenges when recovering from work-related injury and illness. This paper presents findings from a mixed methods research program designed to provide insight into injury, compensation and RTW experiences among BC maritime workers. Read more in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy.