Dawn Mooney

June 2025: PWHS researchers will give five presentations at the Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health Conference, June 3-2, 2025 in Ottawa, ON.

February 2025: Asbestos is classified as carcinogenic to humans by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and identified as a specific cause of mesothelioma and cancers of the lung, larynx and ovary, primarily among occupationally exposed workers. Epidemiological evidence for occupational asbestos exposure as a cause of gastrointestinal cancers among workers has been suggestive, limited or inadequate. The objective of this work was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analyses of occupational asbestos exposure and esophageal, stomach and colorectal cancer risk. The meta-analyses support a causal link between occupational asbestos exposure and the risk of esophageal, stomach, and colorectal cancer. Read more in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

January 2025: PWHS MSc trainee Harman Sandhu will present on return-to-work outcomes for workers with work-related chronic pain and concurrent psychological injuries in BC, and Director of Privacy and Operations Suhail Marino will present on safety challenges specific to small construction firms at the Annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health, January 9-10, 2025 in Blaine, WA.

October 2024: The Annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health will be held January 9-10, 2025 at the Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, WA. Registration and the call for abstracts are open.

August 2024: BC experienced an unprecedented summer with record-breaking high temperatures in 2021. This study characterized occupational heat-related illness (HRI) among BC workers by estimating by incidence rates and associations between heatwaves and HRI, with a focus on comparing risks during the 2021 summer and prior summers from 2001-2020. Read more in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health.

May 2024: The FABS study is looking for food and beverage sector workers who have experienced bullying, harassment, and/or violence at work in British Columbia (BC) to complete a confidential survey about these experiences. Share your story! We offer $25 for participation.

April 2024: On April 28, 2024, workers, families, and employers will gather at commemorative ceremonies to honour the 175 BC workers who lost their lives last year due to workplace injury and disease. Join us as we reflect on those we’ve lost, 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 Sunday, April 28th at 10:30 am, with the Olympic Cauldron being lit in honour of the day. A livestream of the event will be available at dayofmourning.bc.ca.

January 2024: This paper uses residential and employer location from workers’ compensation data to identify non-mobile workers (working and living in the same region of BC), intra-provincially mobile workers (working and living in different regions of BC) and inter-provincially mobile workers (working in BC and living outside BC) to estimate differences in work disability duration. The findings suggest that work disability duration was longest for inter-provincially mobile workers, even after matching workers on similar characteristics. Differences were attenuated in some industries (e.g., natural resources and mining), possibly due to more familiarity with mobile workers, and/or greater ability to accommodate workers. Read more in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

January 2024: PWHS PhD student Xiaocong Guo will present on heat-related illness and injury in BC in 2021 compared to 2001-2020; Research Associate Robert Macpherson will present on work injury among fisheries, aquaculture, maritime and land transportation workers, and Director of Privacy and Operations Suhail Marino will present posters evaluating OHS management systems at the Annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health, January 11-12, 2024 in Blaine, WA.

November 2023: Our team is really looking forward to the upcoming ACSA Conference Nov 22-23! Chris McLeod will be speaking on a panel on improving psychological health and safety at work, and our team will host a breakout session on OHS strategies and solutions for small and micro construction firms.

September 2023: The Policy and Practice in Return to Work after Work Injury (PPRTW) Research Group is presenting a conference in person at the University of Ottawa June 9 to 11, 2024. The conference will also include a tribute to the late professor Katherine Lippel, an international leader in labour and health policy, and founder of the research group holding the conference. Researchers, students, injured or ill workers, community members, advocates and policy-makers are invited to submit presentation proposals.

September 2023: PWHS PhD student Xiaocong (Maggie) Guo is presenting on the burden of occupational heat-related illness in BC and the impact of heatwaves on Sept 19 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, at the Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.

August 2023: The Institute for Work & Health is now accepting applications for its inaugural Cameron Mustard Early Career Accelerator Award. The application deadline is Friday September 29, 2023.

May 2023: This paper uses claims data from five Canadian provincial workers’ compensation systems to estimate how much variance in work disability duration was due to differences between regions, what regional labour market characteristics were associated with work disability duration, and what characteristics best explained regional differences in work disability duration. The findings suggest that while regional labour market conditions matter for work disability duration, system-level differences in workers’ compensation and health care are more important factors.

January 2023: The Institute for Work & Health is now accepting applications for its Mustard Postdoctoral Research Award in Work and Health. The application deadline is Friday March 24, 2023.

December 2022: This paper describes the incidence of heat-related illness among workers in BC from 2001-2020. Rates were higher among male workers, younger workers, and among those working in occupations related to primary industry; trades, transport and equipment operators; and processing, manufacturing, and utilities. Read more in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

November 2022: Chris McLeod will give a virtual talk discussing the effectiveness of HC management systems for the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium on Dec 1 at 9:30 am PST. Register here, or learn more about our research in this area.

November 2022: The inaugural edition of the IDIVOSH global forum, June 12-14 2023 in Montreal, will focus on the theme Immigration, Diversity of the Workforce, Precariousness and Vulnerabilities in Occupational Health and Safety. Abstracts are due January 9, 2023.

November 2022: This paper investigates differences in modified-return-to work (MRTW) after a work-related injury by immigration characteristics – defined as a Canadian-born worker versus a worker who immigrated via the economic, family member or refugee/other humanitarian classification. Immigrant workers who arrived to Canada as a family member or as a refugee/other immigrant had a reduced odds of MRTW within the first 30 days of work disability for a back strain, concussion and limb fracture, compared to Canadian-born workers. Read more in Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

October 2022: Abstracts are now being accepted for podium presentations, ignite talks, and posters on occupational, environmental, or population health topics for the Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Public Health, January 5-6, 2023, at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, WA. The conference will feature four cross-institution, cross-disciplinary themes (precarious work & work organization, climate change, wildfires, and the built environment) as well as presentations from across the fields of environmental, occupational, and population health.

September 2022: The annual Cascadia Symposium on Environmental, Occupational, and Public Health Conference will re-launch January 5-6, 2023 at the Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, WA. Please save the date and stay tuned for more information!

July 2022: Listen to Chris McLeod describe the methodology we used in assessing how the COR™ program affected lost-time and high-impact injury rates in Ontario in the IHSA Safety Podcast. In this discussion, Paul Casey of Ontario’s Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) also shares what prompted IHSA to engage with PWHS.

July 2022: The Canadian Association for Research in Work and Health (CARWH) is taking place online September 15-16, 2022, with the theme “The Changing World of Work, Health and Research.” This year, attendance will be free to all. Abstract submissions for oral and poster presentations are welcome, and the deadline for submissions is extended to Friday, July 22.

June 2022: PWHS and the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) are looking for public transport workers ages 35 and under to participate in our research project to better understand the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on young workers and their workplace mental health.

May 2022: Co-director Chris McLeod presented findings showing COR leads to safer workplaces at the Ontario General Contractors Association’s annual Leadership Day, held May 6 in Vaughan, ON. Read more in the Journal of Commerce.

April 2022: April 28 is National Day of Mourning in remembrance of workers who lost their live to workplace injury and disease this year. A ceremony will be held on April 2 at 10:30 am at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver. Watch our co-director Chris McLeod’s message.

April 2022: PWHS and the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) are seeking (1) a Project Coordinator/Interviewer and (2) a Qualitative Research Lead/Interviewer to conduct a mixed-methods study that will critically assess the effect of COVID-19 policies on violence, bullying, and harassment in the BC food and beverage service sector. Please note that these positions closed on April 20, 2022.

January 2022: Using WorkSafeBC and Statistics Canada data for 2010-2017, we found that workers from out of province had lower workers’ compensation claim rates than those from within province, even after adjusting for sex, age, industry and year. Differences were largest among health care only claims and smallest among serious injury claims. Read more in American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

January 2022: We examined differences in work disability duration by firm size using data from five Canadian and five Australian workers’ compensation systems. Compared to large firms (200+ FTEs), workers in small firms (<20 FTEs) had longer work disability duration in all but one of the study jurisdictions, even after adjusting for a range of individual-level characteristics. Read more in Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

November 2021: PWHS Co-Director Chris McLeod spoke about workplace health and safety with Rob Cook, VP of Health and Safety at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario, at a Celebration of Health and Safety on Nov. 25, 2021. Watch the recording (starts at 9:20).

November 2021: PWHS Co-director Chris McLeod and Leah Thomas-Olson, Client Partner – Ergonomics, Health and Safety, Fraser Health, will present on the health and productivity effects of working from home for Fraser Health employees at the UBC School of Population and Public Health OEH seminar on Friday Nov. 26 at 12:30 PST. More details