Occupational and Environmental Hygiene Friday Seminars
Occupational and Environmental Hygiene Friday Seminars
Friday afternoons, 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
The UBC Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (OEH) seminar series present the best of current research and practice in the field. Contact oeh.seminar@ubc.ca to sign up for the mailing list.
How to Join
Seminars are held on Fridays from 12:30pm to 1:30pm (PT) via Zoom or in-person in Room SPPH 349, Teaching Lab, 2206 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C.
Registration is required and free of charge to receive the instructions for connecting to the upcoming seminars. Only one registration is needed for all seminars in the same term. Save the registration confirmation email or add the calendar item to your calendar to instruction for joining for the whole term. Meeting link will not be sent out with the weekly reminder.
Following the seminar, recording will be posted below with the consent of the presenter.
Attendance record
Attendance of the seminar is mandatory for MSc OEH students. Record of attendance can be issued for Certification Maintenance Points after the seminar year has adjourned (i.e. after the last seminar in April). For more information, click here.
TERM 1 – 2024/25 OEH SEMINARS SCHEDULE
2024-25 Term 1 September 3 – December 6
| Date | Speaker | Title | Registration/Recording |
| September 13, 2024 | Sean Douglas National Practice Leader, PINCHIN | Asbestos in the Built Environment Because of its unique properties, asbestos has been used in many buildings in Canada and throughout the world as a component of construction materials. Commercial use of asbestos started in the early 20th century, peaked in the 1970’s and when health effects became prominent, its use steadily declined until its ultimate ban in 2018. Pinchin Ltd. conducted an internal study that examined over 307,000 asbestos samples collected from over 30,000 buildings in Canada.The presentation will summarize the results of the study that demonstrates the prevalence and use of asbestos products in Canada in relation to building materials and construction dates. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| September 20, 2024 | Brandy Howard Senior Project Manager, Terracon Holly Cusack-McVeigh Associate Professor, Indiana University | A TOXIC PAST: Understanding and Addressing Contaminated Indigenous Cultural Heritage From the late 1800s well into the 20th century, museums routinely treated their collections, including Native American and Indigenous cultural items, with pesticides (e.g., mercury, arsenic) to protect them from rodent, insect & mold damage. This talk will address the history of this contamination and explore new, collaborative approaches to addressing these ongoing health risks. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| September 27, 2024 | Breann Corcoran Environmental Health and Knowledge Translation Scientist, Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | Designing Sun Safety: Shade Design to Mitigate Exposure to Heat and Ultraviolet Radiation in Young Children In this presentation, Breann will discuss the impact of ultraviolet radiation and heat on young children and how shade can help mitigate these risks – and support climate change adaptation. Breann will share local evidence on the importance of shade design in early childhood settings and how it can also support quality outdoor play experiences for children, critical to healthy child development. She will introduce the Shade Lookbook, a newly developed resource that offers guiding principles for well-designed shade and highlights some of the best plants and built shade options to use in British Columbia. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| October 4, 2024 | Molly Mastel Industrial Hygienist, Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | Overdose Prevention Sites: A Case Study for Challenges Associated with Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Overdose Prevention Sites, especially those that allow smoking, present unique challenges in environmental and occupational hygiene. This presentation will summarize some of those challenges, work that the BCCDC has been doing to address them, and lessons learned when working with exposures which affect both occupational groups and community members. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| October 11, 2024 | Hao Yin Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California | Global Health Costs of Ambient PM2·5 from Combustion Source This seminar will present a study on the global health costs associated with ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from various combustion sources and their implications for policy design.The research provides critical insights into strategies for improving air quality and mitigating climate change. The presentation will cover the methodology used to estimate health costs attributable to PM2.5 and source-specific costs. It will also demonstrate and discuss the spatial distribution of health costs from combustion sources across countries worldwide. Additionally, the talk will examine the disparities between source’s relative contributions to PM2.5 concentrations and their associated health costs, as well as the policy implications of these findings. This seminar aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the potential health benefits of targeted air pollution control strategies. | Watch recording |
| October 18, 2024 | Abigail Overduin Manager, UBC Workplace Health Services Isabel Evans Master’s Student, UBC KinesiologyJosh Lowery Undergrad Student, UBC Kinesiology | Exoskeletons in the workplace This presentation will provide an overview of the use, potential benefits, and limitations of upper body passive exoskeletons in the workplace. Designed to reduce the physical load on workers, these exoskeletons have been used to lower the risk of upper extremity (shoulder) injuries in manufacturing environments. However, despite their potential advantages, there is a lack of studies on their application in complex, non-manufacturing work settings. Our presentation will highlight findings from our study on the effectiveness of exoskeletons in these multifaceted environments. For those attending in person, we will offer a live demonstration of the exoskeleton, with an opportunity for interested attendees to try it on. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 No Recording |
| October 25, 2024 | Scott Weichenthal Associate Professor, McGill University | How Much vs. What Kind: Should we be paying attention to PM2.5 composition in epidemiology even when mass concentration is the exposure of interest? This seminar will discuss the importance of considering particle composition/characteristics when trying to estimate the health impacts of PM2.5 mass concentrations. Examples from recent studies of outdoor Ultrafine particles will also be discussed. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| November 1, 2024 | Allyson O’Connor Epidemiologist, CDC NIOSH Respiratory Health Division | NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation: Blastomycosis outbreak at a paper mill NIOSH led a multi-agency response to a Health Hazard Evaluation request by a paper mill during an outbreak of blastomycosis among mill workers. The response to the fungal disease outbreak included a medical survey for mill workers and an environmental assessment at the mill, and this presentation will share results from the epidemiologic investigation and recommendations on blastomycosis prevention and mitigation. | Watch recording |
| November 8, 2024 | Jérémie Boudreault PhD candidate,National institute of Scientific Research | Predicting heat-related mortality and morbidity using machine and deep learning methodsIn this talk, different machine learning (ML) methods, such an ensemble tree-based methods and deep neural networks, will be introduced to model the mortality and morbidity associated with heat exposure in Quebec, Canada. The performance of ML models will also be compared to approaches traditionally used in environmental epidemiology. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| November 15, 2024 | Christopher McLeod Head of the OEH Division in the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia | Working in the time of COVID-19: Exploring the effect of COVID-19 policies on violence, bullying and harassment in the food and beverage service sector in British Columbia This talk will describe results from a CIHR funded study that is exploring how COVID-19 public health policies affected the experience of violence, bullying and harassment of workers in the restaurant industry. The study is a mixed-method study and results will be presented based on interviews of 47 restaurant workers employed in British Columbia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will describe key themes from the study and discuss a planned survey of restaurant workers regarding their experience of workplace violence, bullying and harassment. Initial recommendations related to violence prevention while working during a pandemic as well as those more general to violence prevention in restaurant work will also be discussed. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Watch recording |
| November 22, 2024 | Janette Lan PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia | Prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 and childhood health outcomes in Canada In my presentation, I will discuss my master’s thesis on prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 during specific developmental windows and its impact on respiratory health in the first year of life. Additionally, I will present my PhD proposal, which involves an integrated approach combining systematic review, epidemiological analyses, and exploration of biological mechanisms related to prenatal wildfire exposure and its postnatal effects in childhood. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Register here |
| November 29, 2024 | Pat Byrne Partner, Byrne Fatigue Consulting | Fatigue Management: The intersection of sleep, circadian rhythms and occupational hygiene Poor sleep directly and measurably impacts human health, safety and performance. The emerging fields of chronobiology and sleep science demonstrate how workers are affected by sleep, shift work and workplace exposures and how these emerging fields impact the work of occupational hygienists. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Register here |
| December 6, 2024 | Eva Glosson Consultant | Workplace Violence and Harassment in North America This talk will provide a brief overview to discuss how industry has historically come to understand the occupational exposures of violence and harassment as an occupational risk/exposure in the first place, where we find regulations from a government standpoint and where we find guidance from other organizations, where we are finding pushback as changes are made, and what the future may look like as practitioners as we assess risk and offer protective interventions for our organizations. | IN-PERSON speaker in Room SPPH 349 Register here |
Please see the list of past OEH Seminars below
2024-2025 Term one and two
2024-2025
Term 1
| Date | Speaker | Title | Registration/Recording |
| September 13, 2024 | Sean Douglas National Practice Leader, PINCHIN | Asbestos in the Built Environment Because of its unique properties, asbestos has been used in many buildings in Canada and throughout the world as a component of construction materials. Commercial use of asbestos started in the early 20th century, peaked in the 1970’s and when health effects became prominent, its use steadily declined until its ultimate ban in 2018. Pinchin Ltd. conducted an internal study that examined over 307,000 asbestos samples collected from over 30,000 buildings in Canada.The presentation will summarize the results of the study that demonstrates the prevalence and use of asbestos products in Canada in relation to building materials and construction dates. | Watch recording |
| September 20, 2024 | Brandy Howard Senior Project Manager, Terracon Holly Cusack-McVeigh Associate Professor, Indiana University | A TOXIC PAST: Understanding and Addressing Contaminated Indigenous Cultural Heritage From the late 1800s well into the 20th century, museums routinely treated their collections, including Native American and Indigenous cultural items, with pesticides (e.g., mercury, arsenic) to protect them from rodent, insect & mold damage. This talk will address the history of this contamination and explore new, collaborative approaches to addressing these ongoing health risks. | Watch recording |
| September 27, 2024 | Breann Corcoran Environmental Health and Knowledge Translation Scientist, Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | Designing Sun Safety: Shade Design to Mitigate Exposure to Heat and Ultraviolet Radiation in Young Children In this presentation, Breann will discuss the impact of ultraviolet radiation and heat on young children and how shade can help mitigate these risks – and support climate change adaptation. Breann will share local evidence on the importance of shade design in early childhood settings and how it can also support quality outdoor play experiences for children, critical to healthy child development. She will introduce the Shade Lookbook, a newly developed resource that offers guiding principles for well-designed shade and highlights some of the best plants and built shade options to use in British Columbia. | Watch recording |
| October 4, 2024 | Molly Mastel Industrial Hygienist, Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | Overdose Prevention Sites: A Case Study for Challenges Associated with Environmental and Occupational Hygiene Overdose Prevention Sites, especially those that allow smoking, present unique challenges in environmental and occupational hygiene. This presentation will summarize some of those challenges, work that the BCCDC has been doing to address them, and lessons learned when working with exposures which affect both occupational groups and community members. | Watch recording |
| October 11, 2024 | Hao Yin Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California | Global Health Costs of Ambient PM2·5 from Combustion Source This seminar will present a study on the global health costs associated with ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from various combustion sources and their implications for policy design.The research provides critical insights into strategies for improving air quality and mitigating climate change. The presentation will cover the methodology used to estimate health costs attributable to PM2.5 and source-specific costs. It will also demonstrate and discuss the spatial distribution of health costs from combustion sources across countries worldwide. Additionally, the talk will examine the disparities between source’s relative contributions to PM2.5 concentrations and their associated health costs, as well as the policy implications of these findings. This seminar aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the potential health benefits of targeted air pollution control strategies. | Watch recording |
| October 18, 2024 | Abigail Overduin Manager, UBC Workplace Health Services Isabel Evans Master’s Student, UBC KinesiologyJosh Lowery Undergrad Student, UBC Kinesiology | Exoskeletons in the workplace This presentation will provide an overview of the use, potential benefits, and limitations of upper body passive exoskeletons in the workplace. Designed to reduce the physical load on workers, these exoskeletons have been used to lower the risk of upper extremity (shoulder) injuries in manufacturing environments. However, despite their potential advantages, there is a lack of studies on their application in complex, non-manufacturing work settings. Our presentation will highlight findings from our study on the effectiveness of exoskeletons in these multifaceted environments. For those attending in person, we will offer a live demonstration of the exoskeleton, with an opportunity for interested attendees to try it on. | No Recording |
| October 25, 2024 | Scott Weichenthal Associate Professor, McGill University | How Much vs. What Kind: Should we be paying attention to PM2.5 composition in epidemiology even when mass concentration is the exposure of interest? This seminar will discuss the importance of considering particle composition/characteristics when trying to estimate the health impacts of PM2.5 mass concentrations. Examples from recent studies of outdoor Ultrafine particles will also be discussed. | Watch recording |
| November 1, 2024 | Allyson O’Connor Epidemiologist, CDC NIOSH Respiratory Health Division | NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation: Blastomycosis outbreak at a paper mill NIOSH led a multi-agency response to a Health Hazard Evaluation request by a paper mill during an outbreak of blastomycosis among mill workers. The response to the fungal disease outbreak included a medical survey for mill workers and an environmental assessment at the mill, and this presentation will share results from the epidemiologic investigation and recommendations on blastomycosis prevention and mitigation. | Watch recording |
| November 8, 2024 | Jérémie Boudreault PhD candidate,National institute of Scientific Research | Predicting heat-related mortality and morbidity using machine and deep learning methodsIn this talk, different machine learning (ML) methods, such an ensemble tree-based methods and deep neural networks, will be introduced to model the mortality and morbidity associated with heat exposure in Quebec, Canada. The performance of ML models will also be compared to approaches traditionally used in environmental epidemiology. | Watch recording |
| November 15, 2024 | Christopher McLeod Head of the OEH Division in the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia | Working in the time of COVID-19: Exploring the effect of COVID-19 policies on violence, bullying and harassment in the food and beverage service sector in British Columbia This talk will describe results from a CIHR funded study that is exploring how COVID-19 public health policies affected the experience of violence, bullying and harassment of workers in the restaurant industry. The study is a mixed-method study and results will be presented based on interviews of 47 restaurant workers employed in British Columbia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will describe key themes from the study and discuss a planned survey of restaurant workers regarding their experience of workplace violence, bullying and harassment. Initial recommendations related to violence prevention while working during a pandemic as well as those more general to violence prevention in restaurant work will also be discussed. | Watch recording |
| November 22, 2024 | Janette Lan PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia | Prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 and childhood health outcomes in Canada In my presentation, I will discuss my master’s thesis on prenatal exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 during specific developmental windows and its impact on respiratory health in the first year of life. Additionally, I will present my PhD proposal, which involves an integrated approach combining systematic review, epidemiological analyses, and exploration of biological mechanisms related to prenatal wildfire exposure and its postnatal effects in childhood. | Watch recording |
| November 29, 2024 | Pat Byrne Partner, Byrne Fatigue Consulting | Fatigue Management: The intersection of sleep, circadian rhythms and occupational hygiene Poor sleep directly and measurably impacts human health, safety and performance. The emerging fields of chronobiology and sleep science demonstrate how workers are affected by sleep, shift work and workplace exposures and how these emerging fields impact the work of occupational hygienists. | Watch recording |
| December 6, 2024 | Eva Glosson Consultant | Workplace Violence and Harassment in North America This talk will provide a brief overview to discuss how industry has historically come to understand the occupational exposures of violence and harassment as an occupational risk/exposure in the first place, where we find regulations from a government standpoint and where we find guidance from other organizations, where we are finding pushback as changes are made, and what the future may look like as practitioners as we assess risk and offer protective interventions for our organizations. | Watch recording |
Term 2
2023-2024 Term one and two
2023-2024
Term 1
| September 8, 2023 | Marshall Chester Occupational Hygienist, Vancouver Coastal Health | An evaluation of occupational health and safety changes to eye lens dose in lower mainland medical imagingThe lens of the eye is one of the most radiosensitive tissues in the body. After approved amendments to the provincial occupational exposure limit in 2022, this prospective cohort study followed high-priority medical departments within lower mainland British Columbia for a period of two years. | Watch Recording |
| September 15, 2023 | Mona Shum Principal Industrial Hygienist, Aura Health and Safety Corporation | Hot and Smoky – A new normalMona will discuss how heat stress and wildfire smoke have affected the entertainment industry in BC and highlight case examples of what film productions have done to assess and control exposures to cast and crew. | Watch Recording |
| September 22, 2023 | Erin Shellington Research Associate, Legacy for Airway Health | When the Smoke Clears: how to optimize wildfire smoke messagesUsing an integrated knowledge translation approach, Legacy for Airway Health has undertaken a series of projects to 1) understand public desires for communication, 2) share this with relevant government organizations, 3) identify strategies for optimization, 4) evaluate efforts towards optimization. In the context of extreme weather events associated with climate change, there is a clear need for effective public health advice that meets the needs of diverse audiences and addresses adaptation and resilience in our communities. | Watch Recording |
| September 29, 2023 | Paul Villeneuve Professor, Carleton University | The Newfoundland Fluorspar Miners Study: Updated Findings on Exposure to Radon Progeny and Lung CancerJoin Paul Villeneuve speaking IN-PERSON in room SPPH B151The underground mining of fluorspar started in the 1930s in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland well before radon was a recognized lung carcinogen. These miners were exposed to concentrations of radon that vastly exceeded contemporary occupational limits. This talk will provide an overview of past studies of these miners that found increased risks of lung cancer in this cohort of approximately 2,000 miners, and present findings from a recently updated mortality linkage. | Watch Recording |
| October 6, 2023 | Daniel Rainham Professor, Dalhousie University | Development of the Canadian Environmental Quality Index (Can-EQI): Development and calculation of an index to assess spatial variation of environmental quality in Canada’s 30 largest citiesMultiple characteristics of the urban environment have been shown to influence population health and health-related behaviours, though the distribution and combined effects of these characteristics on health is less understood. The objective of our work was to develop an index of environmental quality for Canada’s largest urban areas and to assess the influence of population size on index values. We identified and selected nine datasets across five domains (outdoor air pollution, natural environments, built environments, radiation, and climate/weather). Datasets were chosen based on known impacts on human health across the life course, complete geographic coverage of the cities of interest, and temporal alignment with the 2016 Canadian census. We selected 30 cities with a population of more than 100,000 people which included 28,026 DAs and captured approximately 55% of the total Canadian population. Can-EQI scores ranged from 21.1 to 88.9 out of 100, and in Canada’s largest cities were 10.2 (95% CI: −10.7, −9.7) points lower than the smallest cities. Mapping the Can-EQI revealed high geographic variability within and between cities. | Watch Recording |
| October 13, 2023 | Melanie Gorman Ng Health and Exposure Scientist, BC Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA) Adjunct Professor, UBC SPPH | Occupational hygiene in the BC construction industryJoin Melanie Gorman Ng speaking IN-PERSON in room SPPH B151Health traditionally gets less attention than safety in the construction industry. This presentation will discuss research and resources from the BC Construction Safety Alliance that aim to increase awareness of occupational hygiene and protect worker health in the industry. | Watch Recording |
| October 20, 2023 | Anya Keefe Occupational & Public Health Consultant | Don’t just shrink it and pink it: addressing the gender gap in PPEJoin Anya Keefe speaking IN-PERSON in room SPPH B151Significant numbers of women report that their PPE does not fit properly, it is uncomfortable to wear, and the selection of women-specific PPE is inadequate. Despite evidence that anthropometric differences exist between the sexes, PPE continues to be designed for “all workers” based almost entirely on male anthropometry. This is problematic as research on the gendered and sexual division of labour – and its impact on occupational health and safety – reinforce the need to pay attention to sex and gender differences in exposures and hazards as well as the unique needs of each sex in mitigating those hazards and risks. | Watch Recording |
| October 27, 2023 | Kiffer Card Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University | Understanding Climate Related Ecological Distress and Resilience: A multi-phase, community-based mixed methods evaluation of the mental health effects of climate changeThis seminar reviews results from research exploring climate-related ecological distress and resilience to improve our understanding of the mental health effects of climate change and what we can do to mitigate and prevent these effects. | Watch Recording |
| November 3, 2023 | Sahar Derakhshan Assistant Professor of Geography, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Travis Longcore Adjunct Professor of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA | Extreme heat exposure dynamics and heat-refuge strategies: what can we learn from smartphone users?Extreme heat is the most deadly of weather disasters and individual exposure depends on individual location through the day and night. Anonymized location data from smartphone users makes possible investigations of individual-level extreme heat exposure patterns and heat-refuge strategies that were previously unimaginable. Using a two-month dataset of smartphone locations in Los Angeles County during the record-breaking summer of 2017, we explore exposure and refuge-seeking strategies surrounding cooling centers, parks, and pedestrian shade use to gain insights on adaptation and mitigation strategies to protect public health in communities facing extreme heat events. | Watch Recording |
| November 10, 2023 | Anne-Marie Nicol Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University | Climate Resiliency in Action: helping communities to help themselves during Firesmoke events. This talk presents research conducted during the Summer of 2023 with communities at-risk from firesmoke and the agencies who help support them in the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. | Watch Recording |
| November 17, 2023 | Bianca Malouf Manager of Industrial Hygiene, Canadian National Rail | Industrial Hygiene in the Rail IndustryWe have heard them from afar, we have seen them up close and we have even sometimes felt them rumbling past us. Locomotives are everywhere, instrumental to our society’s delivery of goods and economic health. The railway industry is a vast one. In Canada, between 2017 and 2021, the average number of employees in Canadian railway companies ranged between 28,000 to 31,000. These employees covered an average of 100,000,000 train kilometres as well as worked an average of 2,400,000 total train hours per year. This session will cover elements of the railway industry in Canada as seen through the eyes of a hygienist. | Watch Recording |
| November 24, 2023 | Sonja SenthanarPartnership for Work, Health and Safety | Workers’ compensation system experiences of immigrant workers in British Columbia, CanadaWorkers’ compensation claims data indicate that immigrant workers experience a longer time to return to work following a work injury or illness compared to their Canadian-born counterparts. Extending from this work, we employed in-depth, semi-structured interviews with immigrant workers to explore the contextual reasons for these differences and to gain insights into key areas where changes can be made to improve their work disability experience and reduce inequities. | |
| Decemeber 1, 2023 | Shuai Xie Postdoc Fellow, National Institutes of Health | Occupational exposure to organic solvents and risk of bladder cancerBladder cancer has been linked to several occupations including those with solvent use. In this project, we evaluated occupational exposure to solvents by integrating a job-exposure matrix with exposure-oriented modules capturing within-job, respondent-specific details about tasks conducted on the job and chemicals handled. Using these data, we found that lifetime, cumulative exposure to benzene, toluene and xylene as a group (or BTX) may increase the risk of bladder cancer. |
Term 2
| Date | Speaker | Title | Registration/Recording |
| January 12, 2024 | Cascadia Conference | ||
| January 19, 2024 | Eric Coker speaking IN-PERSON in room SPPH 349 | IN-PERSON speakerClearing the Air: Key insights into leveraging low-cost air quality sensors and machine learning to investigate indoor wildfire smoke at BC care facilities.Dr. Coker will discuss recent findings and ongoing research at the BCCDC leveraging low-cost air quality sensors to understand and reduce exposure to wildfire smoke at BC care facilities. This talk will address infiltration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at BC care facilities and recent efforts towards improving public health messaging about indoor PM2.5 using a low-cost sensors and a web-based app. The talk will also highlight the use of machine learning to model indoor exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 and its implications for exposure assessment in wildfire smoke epidemiology studies. | Watch Recording |
| January 26, 2024 | Linh NguyenResearch Associate, Occupational Cancer Research Center (OCRC), Ontario Health | Development of an industry-specific silica JEM for mining using historical exposure measurements in Ontario, CanadaThe talk focuses on the development of an industry-specific silica Job-Exposure Matrix (JEM) for mining, utilizing over 18,000 historical exposure measurements in Ontario, Canada. Automated job-coding was used to standardize free-text job titles, and aggregate samples were incorporated into the analysis using Monte Carlo Simulation. The generated JEM estimates were compared with US Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) data to investigate the potential development of a larger JEM that could have broader generalizability to other geographical areas and be made available to researchers upon request. | Watch Recording |
| February 2, 2024 | Christopher MacDonaldPhD Candidate, University of Toronto | Impact of COVID-19 on the risk of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder among Canadian paramedicsParamedics are considered a high-risk occupation for the development of mental health disorders during non-outbreak conditions. During COVID-19, paramedics were responsible to undertake exposure-prone procedures as part of their everyday job, despite uncertainty regarding the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This seminar will leverage the COVID-19 Occupational Risks, Seroprevalence and Immunity among Paramedics (CORSIP) study data to characterize factors associated with meeting the screening risk criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Canadian paramedics working in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. | Watch Recording |
| February 9, 2024 | Jeavana SritharanScientist, Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Ontario HealthNancy CarnideScientist, the Institute for Work & Health | Opioids-related harms among Ontario workers in the Occupational Disease Surveillance SystemThe opioid crisis continues to grow in Canada, however current health surveillance systems that monitor opioid-related harms have limited or no employment information. The Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS), designed to detect work-related disease in a large cohort of formerly injured Ontario workers, was recently expanded to identify opioid-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits. In this presentation, Dr. Nancy Carnide and Dr. Jeavana Sritharan will share findings from analyses of these data, including the occupational groups found to be a highest risk for opioid-related harms and the results comparing rates of opioid-related harms among workers in the ODSS to those in the general Ontario population. | Watch recording |
| February 16, 2024 | Cheryl Peters Senior Scientist, Cancer Prevention, BCCDC & BC Cancer | Changing activity patterns since the COVID-19 pandemic began and increased radon gas exposure for some workersRadon exposure is determined by location, characteristics of the built environment, and human activity patterns, and an unintended consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been more time spent at home. This webinar will discuss the results of an analysis of participants in the Evict Radon study, which demonstrated radiation dose to the lungs has increased since the start of the pandemic, with the biggest increases among urban, younger people with jobs that can be done from home. | Watch recording |
| March 1, 2024 | Jillian Ashley-Martin Research Scientist, Health Canada | The Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals Research Platform: Key Findings from 10+ Years of ResearchIn this presentation, Dr. Ashley-Martin will provide an overview of the study design and key research findings from the MIREC Research Platform. The primary goal of MIREC is to understand levels of exposure to and potential health effects of environmental chemicals in pregnant people and children. The Research Platform comprises an initial pregnancy cohort study of approximately 2000 participants and three follow-up studies during infancy, early childhood, and adolescence. | Watch recording |
| March 15, 2024 | Ariane Adam-Poupart Scientific Advisor, Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec | Impacts of climate change on the health and safety of workers and adaptation of workplacesThe objectives of this talk are to present 1) an overview of the impacts of climate change on the health and safety of workers in Canada and 2) examples of workplace adaptations to the effects of increased temperature due to climate change.. | Watch Recording |
| March 22, 2024 | Hugh Davies Professor, University of British Columbia Susan Arnold Associate Professor, University of Minnesota | Hazardous Drug Exposure Prevention Program (HazDEPP): A new approach to reducing risk to healthcare workersThis seminar will describe a study in progress in BC hospitals and cancer care centers aimed at investigating novel ways of reducing the risks from inadvertent exposure to antineoplastic drugs. The study (HazDEPP for short) implements a sampling strategy developed by the investigators that will be used to generate target “hygienic guidance values” for exposure risk assessment purposes. Also, the study will implement/augment communications channels within and between health authorities to encourage sharing of risk mitigation information and exposure data. It is hoped this will help clinics understand where and when exposure risks are increased, to identify best control practices, and to help to continually reduce exposures in the absence of OEL’s. We’ll discuss the study motivation, objectives, design, and progress to date. | Watch Recording This seminar is incomplete due to a building evacuation at that time. |
| April 5, 2024 | Rivkah Gardner-Frolick PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia | Adapting and Applying Air Quality Modeling to Environmental Justice Questions in CanadaTraditional air quality estimation methods can often be ill-suited to environmental justice applications due to a variety of factors. The talk will give examples of fit-to-purpose ways to adapt and apply methods to novel environmental justice questions in Canada and will present results from multiple projects in Canada, including a local study in Vancouver. | Watch Recording |
2022-2023 Term one and two
| Date | Speaker | Title | Recordings |
| Term 1 starts on September 6, 2022 | |||
| Sep 9, 2022 | Chris McLeod OEH Division Head | Towards the future: Updating our learners, alumni, and stakeholders on renewal and expansion of the OEH teaching and training. In this kick-off talk, Dr. Mcleod will present the highlights of the renewal process of the OEH division at UBC SPPH, and discuss the launch of new professional development initiatives. | Watch Recording |
| Sep 16, 2022 | Melissa Friesen Senior Investigator, National Institutes of Health | Impact of the specificity of exposure metrics in epidemiologic studies: Lessons learned over 2-3 decades A common theme in Dr. Friesen’s research, from her masters and doctoral degrees at UBC through to her role as a tenured investigator at the US National Cancer Institute, has been the necessity for using more refined and proximal exposure measures in epidemiologic studies to detect exposure-disease associations. Dr. Friesen will discuss several case studies demonstrating how improved exposure assessment approaches have improved our understanding of occupational health risks, including her recent work on exposure to metalworking fluids and solvents in a case-control study of bladder cancer. | Watch Recording |
| Sep 23, 2022 | Sarah Henderson Scientific Director, Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | Review of a mass casualty event: Mortality during the 2021 heat dome The 2021 heat dome was the deadliest weather event in Canadian history, with an estimated 740 excess deaths in British Columbia (BC). These deaths were not uniformly distributed across the population; they were concentrated in areas with higher deprivation and lower green space. They also occurred disproportionately among people with conditions such as schizophrenia and substance use disorder. This presentation will review the epidemiologic evidence generated by the BC Centre for Disease Control and the evolving public health response to extreme heat in the province. | Watch Recording |
| Sep 30, 2022 | No Speakers | Truth & Reconciliation Day | |
| Oct 7, 2022 | Lucy Guo Industrial Risk Specialist, Risk Analysis Unit, WorkSafeBCKimiko Banati Occupational Hygiene Officer, Risk Analysis Unit, WorkSafeBC | Risks Related to Cannabis Extraction and Processing Over the last few years, there have been dynamic changes in the cannabis industry. In this presentation, we will discuss WorkSafeBC’s Risk Analysis Unit’s project on cannabis extraction and processing (Phase II). This project highlighted the risks to workers in cannabis extraction/processing and how employers can control these risks. | Watch Recording |
| Oct 14, 2022 | Naman Paul Data Scientist, BC Centre for Disease Control | The Canadian Optimized Statistical Smoke Exposure Model (CanOSSEM) Biomass smoke is associated with a wide range of acute and chronic health outcomes. CanOSSEM estimates daily mean PM2.5 concentration resulting from biomass smoke across Canada. It is a large-scale model that integrates data from multiple sources. CanOSSEM quantified PM2.5 from wildfire and residential wood heating smoke. It is a useful tool for epidemiologic studies, PM2.5 estimates are publicly available. | Watch Recording |
| Oct 21, 2022 | Geoffrey Clark Occupational Hygienist WorkSafe BC (Retired) | Confined Spaces in BC – What does the Future Hold? Confined spaces are not the type of places in which people normally work. The risk of an accident is greater and minor mistakes can have major consequences. Eighteen workers have died in confined spaces in B.C. since 2000 and many others have been injured. There are many hazards that can be encountered including engulfment or immersion, exposure to toxic gases or vapours, oxygen deficiency, and flammable atmospheres. Come to this session and learn about the types of confined spaces found in commercial and industrial facilities and the hazards within them. WorkSafeBC is currently reviewing Part 9 of the regulation, which covers confined spaces. | Watch Recording |
| Oct 28, 2022 | Élyse Caron-Beaudoin Assistant Professor University of Toronto | Communities’ observations to inform environmental health research in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Unconventional natural gas operations can release volatile organic compounds and trace elements naturally occurring in the rock formation: many of these chemicals are known or suspected reproductive and development toxicants. During this seminar, Dr. Caron-Beaudoin will present community-based research regarding the gestational exposure to contaminants associated with unconventional natural gas operations and maternal and birth outcomes in Northeastern British Columbia. | Watch Recording |
| Nov 4, 2022 | Robin Van Driel Owner & Occupational Hygienist, VOHS Consulting Group | The Adventures of an Industrial Hygienist (IH) The challenges, learnings and victories of being an IH. Taking a little bit of experience, lots of education and going into workplaces as a practicing IH can be full of surprises and is a lifelong learning process. This presentation will involve sharing some real-world scenarios and stories of personal encounters that were memorable experiences. Robin will share some tips and strategies she used to work through challenges that maybe useful to early career professionals. The variety never ends… and the adventure continues. | Watch Recording |
| Nov 11, 2022 | No Speakers | Reading Break | |
| Nov 18, 2022 | Katie Hayes Senior Policy Analyst, Health Canada | The Impacts of Climate Change on Mental Health and Well-being In this session, the audience will have an opportunity to learn from the latest findings on the impacts of climate change to mental health in Canada. Dr. Hayes will be present research published in the 2022 Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate Report. | Seminar Slides |
| Nov 25, 2022 | Catherine Trask Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology | A foot on each horse: merging perspectives and frameworks for a healthy work environment Ergonomics and occupational health are inherently interdisciplinary, and OSH professionals regularly combine and integrate multiple perspectives in their practice. This presentation reflects on some of the knowledge bases (and ways of knowing) that contribute to this (sometimes precarious) dance, and considers what perspectives could be useful for future practitioners. | Watch Recording |
| Dec 2, 2022 | Jaclyn Parks Methodologist, BC Cancer Research Centre | Evaluating the impact of built-environment factors on sleep disruption The quality of your sleep depends on many things, but one overlooked and potentially modifiable influence is where you live. Using a dataset of ~25,000 adults from the BC Generations project (BCGP) cohort, we assessed self-reported sleep duration in relation to the built environment. Built environment metrics included light-at-night, greenness, road proximity, and air pollution (PM2.5, NO2, SO2), as linked to our BCGP participants’ postal codes by the Canadian Urban Environmental Research Consortium. Single and multi-exposure analysis results will be discussed. | Watch Recording |
Term 2
| Date | Speaker | Title | Recordings |
| Jan 13, 2023 | Arif Jetha Scientist, Institute for Work & Health Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto | How will the future of work shape the work-health interface?The future of work reflects the dramatic transformation of all aspects of the working world. Drawing from a program of research at the Institute for Work & Health, this presentation will describe key trends that are driving change to the nature and availability of work and discuss how they can impact the health, safety and well-being of workers. | Recording unavailable |
| Jan 20, 2023 | Dan Sarkany Sr. Lead Occupational Hygienist Teck Coal Limited | Occupational hygiene for large surface mining operations – challenges, solutions and success with identifying and controlling silica exposureTeck Coal has focused much effort on real-time dust monitoring to target implementation of engineering and administrative controls. This presentation will review the current applications of real-time exposure monitoring in use at Teck Coal, interpretation of real-time bigdata, key findings to identify controls and lessons learned. | Watch Recording |
| Jan 27, 2023 | Michael Lee Epidemiologist Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control | We don’t need a better rat trap: Reconceptualising municipal rat management.This seminar will present on a project designed to understand the current state of municipal rat management with a view towards providing recommendations for cities seeking to improve or develop their own management strategies | Watch Recording |
| Feb 3, 2023 | Ezra Yu Research Coordinator School of Population and Public Health, UBC | Early Child Development and the impact of noise on language development | Recording not available |
| Feb 10, 2023 | Brian Ng Medical Advisor, WorkSafe BC Olivia Sampson Manager Clinical Services, WorkSafe BC | Occupational DermatitisThis presentation will review common causes of occupational dermatitis and other skin-related occupational issues. We will focus on irritant and allergic contact dermatitis, in particular, and discuss common causes of these skin conditions in the workplace and by industry. | Recording not available |
| Feb 17, 2023 | Imelda Wong Occupational Hygienist/Epidemiologist Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health | From UBC to CDC: (Almost) All I really need to know, I learned in SOEHA brief glimpse of the endless possibilities following your OEH degree, and the valuable lessons from our small (but mighty!) school. | Watch Recording |
| Feb 24, 2023 | No Speakers | Reading Break | |
| March 3, 2023 | Juliette O’keeffeEnvironmental Health & Knowledge Translation Scientist National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | Climate change and opportunistic pathogens in the built environmentThis presentation explores some of the ways that climate change could influence the occurrence of, and exposure to, opportunistic pathogens such as Legionella in our urban centres, and some of the measures that can be taken to reduce the risks. | Watch Recording |
| March 10, 2023 | No Speakers | No Seminar (AIHA meeting) | |
| March 17, 2023 | Victoria Arrandale Assistant Professor University of Toronto | Towards healthier and safer nail salons: Perspectives from Toronto, Ontario In recent years, discount nail salons have proliferated. Despite the caring and artistic nature of the work, nail technicians are exposed to a variety of workplace hazards including chemicals and ergonomic stressors. Additionally, nail technicians in these salons are often women, recent immigrants and precariously employed, all of which impact their work and health. In this seminar I will describe results from several projects conducted in Toronto, Ontario that focus on better understanding health and safety in the context of discount nail salons. | Watch Recording |
| March 24, 2023 | Gavin McDonald Research Specialist University of California, Santa Barbara | Shining light on forced labor in fisheries using satellite data and responsible machine learningForced labor in fisheries is an increasingly recognized global problem. This seminar will go over recent advances that could help better understand and address it by combining responsible machine learning, satellite-based fishing vessel monitoring data, and expertise from human rights practitioners. | Watch Recording |
| March 31, 2023 | Sahil Bhandari Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow Mechanical Engineering, UBC | Odour, Air Quality, and Well-Being: Understanding Urban Smellscape Using Crowd-sourced ScienceOdour exposure can adversely impact health and quality of life. As a part of the Smell Vancouver project, quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted on a 12-month data set from a web application collecting crowd-sourced odour reports in Vancouver, Canada. Results from this project provide evidence that human-centered approaches can enrich understanding of the impacts of odorous emissions on health and well-being. | Watch Recording |
| April 7, 2023 | No Speakers | No Seminar (Good Friday) |
2021-2022 Term one and two
| Date | Speaker | Title | |
| Term 2 starts on January 10, 2022 | |||
| Jan 14, 2022 | Richard Neitzel Professor University of Michigan | Finding meaning in the noise: the Apple Hearing Study The Apple Hearing Study is a prospective cohort study that is collecting data on environmental and headphone sound exposures and hearing, stress, and cardiovascular outcomes among tens of thousands of adult participants across the United States. The results of our analyses of these complex and highly variable exposures and associated health impacts will help guide public health policy and prevention programs designed to protect and promote public health. | Watch Recording |
| Jan 21, 2022 | Kerry Buschel Director, Experience, Marketing and Insights WorkSafe BC | Engaging workers and employers in BC about COVID Designing awareness and education outreach for workers and employers in BC through the pandemic meant having a close relationship with the data around the evolving way people use communication and engagement channels, and with changing perceptions, biases and needs around information related to the pandemic. At WorkSafeBC we have relied on biweekly secondary research updates on changing perceptions and needs, as well as perceptional and operational measurement of the messages we are sharing and the information and tools being used in workplaces with changing health and safety needs. This presentation is a discussion of our engagement design and evolution through the pandemic as a result of the changing needs of the people we serve. | Recording not available |
| Jan 28, 2022 | Christopher Simpson Professor University of Washington | Occupational Health Hazards in the Cannabis Industry Over the past decade there has been a dramatic expansion of the Cannabis industry. Although thousands of new employees are joining the workforce each year, very little is known about the occupational hazards and potential health effects for workers involved in Cannabis cultivation. In this presentation I’ll discuss the occupational exposure experienced by cannabis workers, with a focus on respiratory exposures and associated adverse health effects. | Watch Recording |
| Feb 4, 2022 | Darryl Quantz Consultant in Public Health Fraser Health | A Public Health Response to the Climate and Ecological Crisis The climate and ecological crisis represent unprecedented threats to population health and governments around the world have declared climate emergencies. Health and social care providers have a crucial role to play in the transformation required to address these threats and this presentation provides an overview of these efforts from a public health perspective recognizing the wider leadership role of health systems as change agents in this agenda. | Watch Recording |
| Feb 11, 2022 | Katherine White PhD Student University of British Columbia | A comparison of greenspace metrics and measurement methods, and the relationship with neighbourhood walkability and deprivation in Metro Vancouver Along with other environmental exposures, neighbourhood greenspace and walkability have been linked to numerous health behaviours and health outcomes. There are several different metrics and methods commonly used to quantify neighbourhood exposure to greenspace. This project compares the use of four greenspace metrics and two different measurement methods (circular and network buffers) using 6-digit postal code level data from Metro Vancouver. This project also looks at whether neighbourhood walkability is associated with greenspace exposure, and how these neighbourhood characteristics relate to local area social and material deprivation. | Watch Recording |
| Feb 18, 2022 | Lorraine McIntyre Food Safety Specialist BC Centre for Disease Control | Marine biotoxin illness concerns in BCIncreasing paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and other biotoxin illnesses linked to shellfish consumption and marine recreational activities may be linked to our changing climate. This talk will review toxins associated with PSP, DSP and ASP, emerging marine toxins, vectors and marine organisms linked to illness. | Watch Recording |
| Feb 25, 2022 | No Seminar | Reading Break | |
| Mar 4, 2022 | Anita MinhPost Doctoral FellowUniversity of British Columbia | Youth mental health and early adult education and employmentAlthough adolescence precedes working life, mental health during this period may have a particular influence on the working life course because adolescence is a sensitive period. This research explores the following questions: What is the relationship between young people’s mental health trajectories and their transition to the labour market in young adulthood? How does the influence of adolescent mental health differ across similar but different educational and cultural contexts such as the United States and Canada? | Watch Recording |
| Mar 11, 2022 | No Seminar | AIHA Meeting | |
| Mar 18, 2022 | Bojosi Gamontle Client Partner, Exposure Prevention Fraser Health Hanchen Chen (Phil) Client Partner, Exposure Prevention Fraser Health | Roles of Occupational Hygienist in Healthcare during COVID PandemicThe presenters will talk about the successes and challenges in managing Occupational Health and Safety programs during the COVID pandemic, as well as the roles and support the occupational hygienists can bring to healthcare industry. | Watch Recording |
| Mar 25, 2022 | Melissa Glier Research Scientist BC Centre for Disease Control | Using wastewater to test for SARS-CoV-2 and variants as a supplementary COVID-19 surveillance toolWastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Metro Vancouver has become a vital surveillance tool providing information on community transmission that can be used to initiate interventions and policies to minimize the disease spread as part of the pandemic response. A powerful community-based tool that is independent of healthcare seeking behaviours (i.e., clinical testing, vaccine status) and one that builds on existing COVID-19 surveillance programs. The presentation will provide an update on the progress pertaining to using wastewater testing as 1) a population-level COVID-19 surveillance tool in Metro Vancouver communities 2) a targeted building-level COVID-19 surveillance tool at UBC residences, and 3) leveraging lessons learned to apply to new projects beyond COVID-19. | Watch Recording |
| Apr 1, 2022 | Avi Biswas Associate Scientist, Institute for Work & Health Assistant Professor (status), University of Toronto | Physical activity and worker health: what role do working conditions play?Even with the best of intentions, many workers do not exercise as much as they should. The spillover of strenuous working lives on exercise participation is a reality for many people. Furthermore, increasing evidence suggests that physically strenuous jobs can also be harmful. This presentation will explore research on the relationship between working conditions and exercise and recommend strategies to support more Canadian workers getting the health benefits of exercise. | Watch Recording |
Speakers for Term 1 (2021-2022)
| Date (Click Date for ICS file) | Speaker | Title | |
| September 10, 2021 | Mike BrauerProfessor UBC School of Population and Public HealthSarah HendersonAssociate Professor, UBC School of Population and Public HealthAnnalee Yassi, Professor, UBC School of Population and Public Health | Highlights of work on COVID-19 pandemic response from OEH faculty membersDescription: To kick start the new OEH seminar series, we invited a panel of faculty members from the OEH divisions to talk about their work that contributes to the COVID-19 pandemic response. There will be a 10-minute presentation from each faculty member, followed by a facilitated discussion. | Watch Recording |
| September 17, 2021 | Stephanie Cleland ORISE Research Participant, US Environmental Protection Agency Lauren Wyatt Environmental Health Scientist, US Environmental Protection Agency | The Impacts of Short and Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution on Cognitive PerformanceDescription: Using cognitive performance data from the Lumosity brain training platform, we investigated the cognitive effects of short and long-term exposure to PM2.5, ozone, and wildfire smoke in the contiguous United States (US) for 2017-2018. We found that daily and sub-daily exposure to PM2.5 and smoke was negatively associated with Lumosity performance, with the greatest impacts in the western US and in older adults and males. Annual PM2.5 and O3 was associated with reduced cognitive performance in young adults. | Watch Recording |
| September 24, 2021 | Cancelled | Faculty Retreat | |
| October 1 | Faraz Vahid Shahidi Associate Scientist Institute for Work & Health | Does receiving unemployment benefits reduce mortality following job loss?Description: Unemployment insurance is hypothesized to play an important role in mitigating the adverse health effects of joblessness. In this presentation, I test that hypothesis by asking whether receiving unemployment benefits reduces mortality following job loss. | Watch Recording |
| October 8, 2021 | Chris HarleyProfessor UBC Department of Zoology | Be glad you’re not a barnacle: impacts of the 2021 heat dome on seashore life and beyondDescription: The extreme temperatures at the end of June, 2021, triggered an unprecedented die-off of seashore life along the coast of British Columbia. All told, billions of animals – crabs, sea stars, snails, mussels, barnacles – died during the heatwave, and the ecological consequences are still unfolding. Chris will discuss the future outlook for the marine environment, and draw parallels between how people and ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change. | Watch Recording |
| October 15, 2021 | Glen Kenny Professor University of Ottawa | Understanding the limits of heat tolerance in vulnerable populations in the face of rising global temperaturesDescription: By 2050, average summer temperatures in many areas across Canada will exceed 30°C (humidex equivalent exceeding 40°C). This will be paralleled by a near 5-fold increase in the number of extremely hot days from current levels. In response to this threat to population health, we must advance our understanding of the impacts of heat stress so that we can help Canadians adapt to the impacts of rising temperatures, which includes protecting workers in Ontario’s vital industries. In this presentation, we will examine the unique transformational research conducted by the Human and Environmental Research Unit of the University of Ottawa to define the human physiological tolerance to heat stress and how this practice-changing research is used to generate heat protection solutions to safeguard the health and well-being of all Canadians. | Watch Recording |
| October 22, 2021 | Anya Keefe Occupational and Public Health ConsultantPaul Demers Director Occupational Cancer Research Centre | Asbestos Management in Canada: Assessing the Need for a National StandardDescription: Effective management of asbestos is contingent on accurately identifying its location and condition, assessing the risk of exposure to workers and the public, and selecting an appropriate strategy to eliminate or control the risk. This presentation will highlight the findings of a recent research project undertaken for the Canadian Standards Association to explore potential gaps and best practices in asbestos management in Canada and to determine if there is a need for the development of a national standard. Our research identified important gaps and inconsistencies in how asbestos is currently managed in Canada – in particular, in the regulations governing personnel qualifications and competency, thresholds for what constitutes asbestos-containing materials, and the disposal of asbestos-containing materials – and confirmed that there is an appetite for a national asbestos management standard. Such a standard could benefit regulators, employers, workers, and the public alike by creating a transparent and uniform playing field throughout Canada, helping to ensure that asbestos exposure is minimized regardless of where you call home. | Watch Recording |
| October 29, 2021 | Ivan Kamurasi MSc Candidate – UBC Experimental Medicine | Assessing exposure to Antigens and Endotoxins in First Nations housingDescription: In collaboration with Carrier Sekani Family Services, we under took a study to determine the presence of common pulmonary antigens and endotoxins in a number of First Nations housing and communities in North Central British Columbia. | Recording not available |
| November 5, 2021 | Karen Bartlett Professor UBC School of Population and Public Health Chris Mcleod Associate Professor UBC School of Population and Public Health | OEH alumni survey | Watch Recording |
| November 12, 2021 | NO SEMINAR | MID TERM BREAK | |
| November 19, 2021 | Scott Weichenthal Assistant Professor McGill University | Recent Innovations in Air Pollution Exposure Science: Deep Learning, Alternative Data Streams, and Beyond Particle Mass ConcentrationsDescription: Health and productivity effects of working from home for Fraser Health employees | Watch Recording |
| November 26, 2021 | Leah Thomas-OlsonClient Partner – Ergonomics, Health and Safety, Fraser Health Authority Chris Mcleod Associate Professor UBC School of Population and Public Health | Health and productivity effects of working from home for Fraser Health employees | Watch Recording |
| December 3, 2021 | Cheryl PetersResearch Scientist Alberta Health Services | The impact of sex and gender on occupational exposureDescription: A vast shift in the Canadian labour force occurred in the 1970s as women increasingly moved into the paid work force, though the types of jobs they took on were narrowly defined. There is a general perception that the gendered division of labour has lessened over time, but has it? Additionally, sex and gender both have influences on the ways in which men and women and gender-nonconforming people experience occupational hazards, but until very recently, safety standards and indeed occupational epidemiology were by and for men only. This presentation will provide a brief history of the gendered division of labour in Canada and describe the ways that both sex (biology) and gender (social constructs) can influence occupational exposures and disease, using recent and relevant Canadian examples. | Watch Recording |
2020-2021 Term one and two
Access past OEH seminar recordings below;
January to April 2020-2021
| Date (Click Date for ICS file) | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| January 8 | No Seminar | ||
| January 15 | Kate SmithPhD CandidateUBC Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences | Honey, let me tell you about this city! Honey as a biomonitor for lead distribution in urban environments Description: A look at city, regional, and global-scale applications of honey as a record for lead distribution in the environment. Lead isotopes in honey elucidate source-apportionment and distribution of Pb in a range of urban settings: from very young cities (e.g., Vancouver, BC) to cities with millennia-scale history of lead use (Paris, France), and this approach is applicable in both chronic/diffuse pollution settings and after acute lead pollution events. | Watch Recording |
| January 22 | Robert MacphersonResearch AssociatePartnership for Work, Health and Safety | Determining hazard management changes in workplaces following workplace safety inspections by WorkSafeBC Description: Workplace safety inspections are an important tool for occupational health and safety agencies to ensure compliance with regulation and promote safer workplaces.This presentation will explore the latest findings from the WorkSafeBC Inspection Experience and Impact Survey to identify what factors best determine hazard management changes following workplace inspections conducted by WorkSafeBC. | Watch Recording |
| January 29 | Anne TrudelEnvironmental Health & Safety ManagerTRIUMF | Occupational and environmental health at a nuclear facilityDescription: TRIUMF is a Class IB nuclear facility and is regulated under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act administered by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The three most significant EHS aspects to operation of TRIUMF’s 520 MeV Accelerator Facility are personnel dose management, emission and environmental monitoring, and plans for site decommissioning. This presentation will review the radiological hazards and mitigation measures at TRIUMF and highlight the challenges in each of the significant areas. | Watch Recording |
| February 5 | Stacey FisherCIHR Health System Impact FellowDalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto | Artificial intelligence and machine learning for environmental public healthDescription: Increases in the type, size and complexity of health-related data has presented new opportunities for artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve public health. In this presentation I will provide a general introduction to artificial intelligence and machine learning methods and discuss opportunities and challenges associated with their use in the public health context. Examples will be discussed, including the application of these technologies for prediction of childhood lead poisoning and real-time detection of foodborne illness. | Watch Recording |
| February 12 | Ela RydzAssociate AnalystCAREX Canada | CAREX Canada: Estimating occupational exposure to pesticides among agricultural workers in Canada.Description: Certain pesticides have been associated with adverse health outcomes including cancer and reproductive harms. However, little is known about the prevalence of occupational pesticide exposure in Canada. In this seminar, I will present on CAREX Canada’s new estimates of occupational exposure to three commonly used, potentially carcinogenic pesticides (chlorothalonil, 2,4-D, and glyphosate) in Canada’s agricultural industry. | Watch Recording |
| February 19 | Reading Break | No Seminar | |
| February 26 | Andrea McCormickHome & Garden Program ManagerTrail Area Health & Environment ProgramMeghan MorrisPublic Health NurseInterior Health AuthorityClare North,Superintendent, Environmental Remediation, Teck Metals Ltd | Trail Area Health & Environment Program: Reducing children’s exposure to lead and other smelter metals in the communityDescription: The community of Trail has developed around Teck Trail Operations, one of the largest lead and zinc smelters that has been operating for more than a century. Living next door to a smelter has created unique challenges in terms of minimizing exposure to lead in the environment. The program team will share the comprehensive program in place to improve air quality, support family health and keep homes, gardens and parks healthy and safe (https://thep.ca/). | Watch Recording |
| March 5 | Sharon ProvostPhD CandidateUBC Interdisciplinary Studies | How does it make a difference? A realist evaluation of violence prevention education in healthcareDescription: This session presents the findings and practical recommendations from a realist evaluation of the education for BC healthcare workers to prevent violence from patients and visitors. Data from interviews and focus groups conducted in nine emergency departments was used to identify explanations of how, why, and in what contexts the education is effective. | ZoomMeeting ID:935 381 5254Passcode:0342020 |
| March 12 | AIHA AGM | No Seminar | |
| March 19 | Hao YinPostdoctoral FellowUBC School of Population and Public Health | Global health economic cost of air pollution: Disproportionate burden on the ageing populationDescription: While all people are exposed to air pollution, older individuals tend to be disproportionally affected. As a result, there is growing concern about the public health impacts of air pollution as many countries undergo rapid population ageing. We investigated the spatial and temporal variation in the health cost of deaths attributable to ambient air pollution, and its interaction with population ageing from 2000 to 2016 at global and regional levels. | ZoomMeeting ID:935 381 5254Passcode:0342020 |
| March 26 | Ingrid JarvisPhD CandidateUBC Faculty of Forestry | The association between cumulative exposure to natural environments and early childhood development – is the relation mediated by reduction in harmful exposures?Description: This session will present latest research findings from the Born to be Wise project. This project examines the effect of prenatal and early life exposure to natural environments on early childhood health and development. It includes mediation analyses to explore potential indirect health benefits of nature exposure through reduction of air pollution and noise. | ZoomMeeting ID:935 381 5254Passcode:0342020 |
| April 2 | Good Friday | No Seminar |
The best of current research in the Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (OEH) field is presented at these seminars, which run weekly during the academic year. Attendance is mandatory for MSc OEH students. View Certification Maintenance Points information.
Important Note – Presentations may contain provisional unpublished information and must NOT be distributed without explicit permission of the presenter.
Term One September to December 2020-2021
| Date (Click Date for ICS file) | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| September 11 | Michael BrauerProfessorUBC School of Population and Public Health | Global projections of potential lives saved from COVID-19 through universal mask useDescription: We conducted a meta-regression to estimate the reduction in respiratory virus transmission from the use of non-medical masks by the general population. We combined this estimate with daily survey data from nearly all countries on the proportion of people reporting always wearing a mask when outside their home as inputs into a deterministic transmission dynamics model to estimate deaths and infections under reference and universal mask use scenarios. | Watch Recording |
| September 18 | Angela EykelboshKnowledge Translation ScientistNational Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | Role of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and technologies in the public health response to COVID-19Description: As we return to indoor public spaces, there has been intense interest around both the role of ventilation systems in spreading COVID-19, as well as the use of ventilation to reduce transmission. This session will discuss what is known regarding SARS-CoV-2 in the environment, where and how outbreaks are occurring, and will discuss current ventilation recommendations for indoor environments. | Watch Recording |
| September 25 | Bronwyn McBrideResearch AssociateUBC Centre for Gender and Health Equity | Harms of criminalization of sex work: How Canadian sex work laws shape occupational conditions and labour rights among indoor sex workers.Description: As sex work remains criminalized in most countries, sex workers remain excluded from the labour rights and protections extended to workers in other industries. This presentation will explore the implications of criminalization on sex workers’ occupational conditions in the Canadian context. | Watch Recording |
| October 2 | Varun KelkarPhD CandidateEnvironmental Health EngineeringArizona State University | Microplastics: Ubiquitous and persistentDescription: Fragmentation of day-to-day plastics leads to formation of microplastics. With our ever increasing dependency on plastic products, the threat due to microplastics is now greater than ever. This presentation will describe microplastics, their sources, where they can end up, and their possible health implications | Watch Recording |
| October 9 | Matty JeronimoOccupational and Environmental Hygiene Lab ManagerUBC School of Population and Public Health | Ensuring a supply of respiratory protection: Occupational hygiene and development of solutions.Description: In order to address an urgent PPE shortage, the OEH Laboratory worked with interdisciplinary teams to develop solutions to ensure the ongoing protection of workers. This included testing of decontamination methods for traditionally single-use PPE, developing a novel product to adapt other materials to be used as an elastomeric half-mask respirator cartridge, as well as the commissioning of a new laboratory within Vancouver Coastal Health to test PPE products. Engagement with a wide variety of expertise, including occupational hygiene researchers and local health and safety leaders proved to be essential in this process. | Watch recording |
| October 16 | Catherine TraskProfessorErgonomics DivisionKTH Royal Institute of Technology | Sows and cows: Musculoskeletal risk factors in livestock agriculture and large animal veterinary tasks.Description:Large animal veterinarians are clinical professionals who often perform work literally ‘in the field’, on farms. Their work tasks can be physically demanding, and they have very high rates of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. This presentation outlines prevention strategies based on survey and worksite assessments. | Watch Recording |
| October 23 | Dany DoironResearch AssociateMcGill University | Urban environmental exposures and deprivation: exploring intersections using CANUE data.Description: The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) distributes urban environmental exposures to Canadian researchers free of charge. This talk explores the intersections and spatial patterns of nationally standardized walkability, nitrogen dioxide air pollution, greenness and material deprivation data within Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. These analyses allow identification of areas in each city with health-promoting environmental characteristics as well as areas with a confluence of characteristics potentially detrimental to health and demonstrate the potential for environmental data platforms such as CANUE to address questions important in the quest for more equitable and healthier cities. | Watch Recording |
| October 30 | Paul DemersDirectorOccupational Cancer Research CentreChris McLeodAssociate ProfessorUBC School of Population and Public Health | The changing face of mesothelioma in Canada.Description:We banned asbestos in Canada at the beginning of 2019, but it’s sad legacy will be with us for many years to come. The clearest example of this is mesothelioma, where the number of cases diagnosed annually continues to rise, although the rates appear to have peaked in BC and some other areas of the country. This seminar will examine the changing patterns and trends in the incidence of mesothelioma in Canada. | Watch Recording |
| November 6 | Chris BusePostdoctoral FellowUBC Centre for Environmental Assessment Research | Cumulative environmental, community and health impacts of multiple land-uses in British Columbia.Description:Resource development is a principle driver of economic and community development across British Columbia, and new developments interact with past, present and future land-uses in ways that leave lasting legacies for ecosystems, communities and human health. This presentation uses a novel quantitative analysis of cumulative impacts based on the CalEnviroScreen method—a relativistic analysis tool that quantifies environmental pollution, environmental exposures, socioeconomic marginalization and population sensitivity into a single measure of cumulative impacts. Challenges and opportunities will be discussed, drawing on feedback from 10 community engagement sessions organized in resource dependent communities in the north. | Watch Recording |
| November 13 | David McVeaCanadian Field Epidemiology ProgramPublic Health Agency of CanadaBC Centre for Disease ControlMelissa GlierResearch AssociateBC Centre for Disease Control, Public Health Laboratory | Measuring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to supplement COVID surveillance in BC communitiesDescription:People infected with SARS-CoV-2 shed it via stool, and it can be detected in wastewater systems of municipalities with COVID outbreaks. We discuss whether this presents a risk to wastewater workers and how SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater can be used detect and monitor COVID outbreaks. | Watch Recording |
| November 20 | Gary MallachAir Effects ScientistHealth Canada | In-vehicle air filtration and acute changes in cardiopulmonary and cognitive function among healthy adults.Description:We measured commuters’ exposure to air pollutants in rush-hour traffic and evaluated whether this exposure could be reduced by cabin air filtration. Also, we looked at effects on cardiopulmonary health, as well as cognition (mental processing and judgement), examining whether cabin air filtration reduced exposure to traffic related air pollutants and improved short term cardiopulmonary and cognitive function. Results will provide information about air pollution’s effects on cognition, an area of growing concern, while testing a potentially valuable and economical means of reducing exposure to traffic related air pollution in a commuting environment. | Recording not available |
| November 27 | Eric LavigneSenior EpidemiologistHealth Canada | The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent climate change.Description: The aim of this presentation is to present latest research conducted in Canada and across the globe on the human health impacts that have already occurred due to climate change. The presentation will focus on empirical data from 732 locations in 43 countries that estimated the mortality burdens associated with the additional heat exposure that has resulted from recent (1991-2018) warming. | Watch Recording |
The best of current research in the Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (OEH) field is presented at these seminars, which run weekly during the academic year. Attendance is mandatory for MSc OEH students. View Certification Maintenance Points information.
Important Note – Presentations may contain provisional unpublished information and must NOT be distributed without explicit permission of the presenter.
2019-2020 Term one and two
Term Two – January to April 2020
| Date | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| Jan 10 | NO SEMINAR | Cascadia Conference 2020: For more information, click here | N/A |
| Jan 17 | Cancelled | Cancelled | |
| Jan 24 | Sonja SenthanarPostdoctoral Fellow School of Population and Public Health | Effects of work injury and RTW on family of precariously employed workersThe impact of work injury and the return to work process on family members of injured workers has often been characterized in the context of standard than precarious jobs. Drawing on 19 in-depth interviews with precariously employed workers and employers, we identified three areas where workers’ compensation policy and employer processes did not fit well with the situations of precarious workers in Ontario. Consequently responsibility fell on family members to provide instrumental and financial support while | Click here to view the webinar |
| Jan 31 | Patrick BaylisAssistant Professor, Vancouver School of Economics | Understanding Defensive Health Behavior: Evidence from Pollution Masks in Delhi.Air pollution in Delhi, India is among the highest in the world, but few residents choose to self-protect using particulate filtering masks. In this project, results were documented from two field experiments designed to understand the factors influencing mask use. In the first, differences in income levels and experimental variation in information, experience with masks, and perception of social norms were found to affect respondents’ likelihood to purchase masks, but demand remained low relative to other highly polluted cities. The second intervention took advantage of a public intervention of unprecedented scale: the Delhi municipal government distributed 5 million masks during the 2018/2019 pollution season. Mask effectiveness and social acceptance beliefs did not seem to change in this intervention. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Feb 7 | Trevor PeckhamPHD Student, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington | Precarious Employment and Health in the United StatesThe dramatic changes in the organization of work over the last several decades—including the general shift toward more flexible and competitive employment practices—have not been adequately examined from a public health perspective. To do so, traditional models of work and health research need to be expanded beyond a sole focus on work tasks or physical and social environments to include the relational and contractual aspects of employment that may also impact health. Here we examine the association between the multidimensional construct of employment quality (EQ)—defined as the terms and conditions of the employment relationship, such as contract type, wage/benefit levels, and employee representation—and workers’ health in two nationally representative U.S. surveys. Using cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey and a latent class analysis measurement approach, we identify eight disparate patterns of EQ. | Click here to view the Recorded Seminar |
| Feb 14 | Michael BrauerProfessor, UBC | Health and the built environment: Looking to the futureJust over 50% of the global population is urbanized, with cities expected to absorb all future population growth. In general, urban populations are healthier, with improved access to services and healthcare. Densely populated cities also play a key role in efforts to reduce emissions related to global warming. Yet, cities face significant challenges, especially those in the rapidly developing megacities of low and middle income countries. Urban design and management and the ways that we interact with this “built environment” can profoundly impact health. Air pollution, noise, mobility options and land-use, among others, play a role and interact in multiple, complex ways. Understanding these interactions and using this knowledge to shape our cities as they grow has the potential improve population health and build resilience to climate change. In this presentation I will review a number of analyses using cohorts and linked administrative data combined with geospatial estimates of environmental exposure to examine built environment-health linkages, describe emerging trends, and discuss implications for population health | Click here to view the Recorded Seminar |
| Feb 21 | No Seminar | Reading Week (Feb 18 – 21) | N/A |
| Feb 28 | Emily GummellMPH, School of Population and Public Health, UBC | Anxiety, Access and Trust: Communicating with new mothers about infant vaccinationInformation use in vaccination decision-making has evolved with the movement toward patient activation coupled with the arrival of online and social content sharing. Effective risk communication requires understanding the information seeking, assessment and use of specific vaccine-hesitant populations. This study applied ethnographic research methods to identified communities of low vaccine uptake in order to improve public health communication with new mothers at risk for vaccine hesitancy. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Mar 6 | Pierre TanquayHealth, Safety and Advisor, UBC Faculty of Medicine | Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees at UBC Vancouver – then and now.This presentation explores WorkSafeBC requirements regarding workplace Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees – and how the systems for meeting these requirements have evolved at UBC. | click here to view the webinar |
| Mar 13 | No Seminar | AIHA AGM Meeting | N/A |
| Mar 20 | Matilda van den Bosch | Urban natural spaces and public health: a matter of challenges or common sense?Over the last decade, research on human health impacts of urban natural spaces has rapidly developed. An increasing number of epidemiological studies demonstrates direct and indirect health benefits by exposure to urban green and blue spaces. While these studies have significantly contributed to confirming associations between nature exposure and various health outcomes, a number of challenges remain before evidence on mechanisms and causality can be established. These challenges range from uncertainty about optimal exposure measures to what physiological effects can be expected from nature contact. Nevertheless, the side effects of “urban green interventions” occur limited. By taking also co-benefits, such as increased biodiversity and climate change mitigation from urban natural spaces, into account there seems to be little to lose from a policy perspective by advocating for more natural spaces in our cities, although the evidence is still insufficient. This presentation will provide an outline of the current evidence level and present research challenges in on-going studies around urban nature and human health. It will also discuss the prevailing discourse around pathways and mechanisms. Finally, the goal is to initiate a debate around opportunities and risks with taking a “nothing-to-lose” approach to urban green initiatives across the world. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Mar 27 | Hugh Davies | Advancing surveillance protocols for antineoplastic drug exposures in health care settingsAbstract: The number of people receiving antineoplastic drug treatment for cancer is increasing as the population ages and more people are diagnosed with cancer. While these drugs are powerful tools in the fight against cancer exposure to these drugs can also cause genetic damage miscarriages and cancer in otherwise healthy people. Despite the dissemination of safe handling practices, healthcare workers and others such as veterinarians continue to be exposed through surface contamination. Guidelines such as USP Chapter 800 call for routine workplace surveillance but do not provide detailed guidance on how this should be done or how to interpret surface wipe samples. The SURveillance For AntiCancer drugs Exposure Study (SurFACES) sampled up to 20 different surfaces monthly at nine facilities in the US and Canada for one year, and obtained 2000 samples, each tested for 11 antineoplastic drugs. In this presentation we will characterize exposures found at the sites, discuss spatial and temporal patterns and determinants of exposures, and discuss how the findings can be used to provide improved AD surveillance guidance to practitioners. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Date | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| Sept 6 | Chris McLeod Associate Professor and Head, Occupational and Environmental Health Division | Towards a vision on the future of occupational and environmental health in British Columbia: Beginning the conversationAs incoming head of OEH division Dr. McLeod will outline his thoughts and ideas on current and future training and research needs in the area of occupational and environmental health. This will be an interactive presentation using online polling technology and social media to start a conversation to identify and stimulate action around this important topic. | Click here to view the webinarFor interactive questions and polling app go to https://www.sli.do/Event code is 9746 |
| Sept 13 | Angela Yao PhD Candidate | Assessing Sub-Daily Exposure to Wildfire Smoke and its Public Health Effects in British Columbia Inhaling smoke emitted by wildfires can affect human health. This is a growing concern for public health as wildfires will occur more frequently and affect more communities under the changing climate. This research aimed to improve our ability to monitor wildfire smoke exposures every hour at different locations in British Columbia during wildfire seasons, and to study whether more people call the ambulance during hours with more smoke. The findings show that ambulance calls for heart and lung conditions increased within one hour of exposure to smoke, while calls for diabetic conditions increased after 24 hours. These results suggest that the health effects from wildfire smoke can occur soon after exposure, and actions to reduce exposure should be taken promptly. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| Sept 20 | Anya Keefe, MSc Occupational & Public Health Consultant | Determining causation and creating an exposure history for long latency occupational disease claims – challenges and practical toolsDespite studies showing that occupational exposures are responsible for approximately 2 to 10 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer cases, many cancers are not recognized as being work-related and consequently not filed with the workers’ compensation system. This presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and potential solutions in better establishing evidence of exposure that not only shows medical causation, but also meets the test of legal causation. It will discuss the role of epidemiology in determining a general causal link between a disease and an occupational exposure as well as the need to build a comprehensive occupational history to answer the question of whether an individual work developed the disease as a result of their job. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| Sept 27 | Cancelled | Climate Strike Day For more info follow link | N/A |
| Oct 4 | Andrea Jones PhD Candidate | Anxiety and Depression disorders among workers with Musculoskeletal injury in British Columbia Anxiety and depression are leading causes of global disability and frequently co-occur with physical health conditions. The purpose of this research was to describe the occurrence of anxiety and depression disorders among workers with musculoskeletal work injury in British Columbia, and to investigate the impacts of these disorders on work disability outcomes. Approximately 1 in 10 men and 3 in 10 women were found to have a recent or current anxiety or depression disorder at the time of musculoskeletal work injury, and both pre-existing and new onset anxiety and depression disorders were associated with longer work disability. Collectively these results support the inclusion of anxiety and depression disorders as part of the disability management plan for workers with musculoskeletal work injury. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Oct 11 | Erin McDuffie, PhD – Atmospheric ChemistryDalhousie University | Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science | Quantifying the burden of disease from major sources of ambient fine particulate matter: Insights from an atmospheric chemistAir pollution, specifically fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in outdoor air, is recognized by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) as the leading environmental risk factor for human health, attributable to 7.5% of all deaths in 2016. To reduce exposure to ambient PM2.5, contributions from major emission sources must be quantified. Previous studies have identified coal and residential emissions as dominant sources in polluted regions in Asia and fossil fuel emissions as dominant global sources. These studies, however, have been limited to particular regions or have focused on large, aggregate emission sectors. Here, we expand upon previous work and utilize recent updates to anthropogenic emission inventories and atmospheric chemical transport modeling to quantify the source- and fuel-specific PM2.5 exposure levels for all 195 countries and territories currently included in the GBD. This presentation will focus on methods used to quantify PM2.5 exposure levels and discuss ongoing collaborations to quantify the burden of disease from all major sources. | Click here to view the webinar |
| Oct 18 | Occupational & Environmental Hygiene students to present on their 2019 Summer Practicums | 1:00pm Minal Pachchigar – Drinking Water Contamination in a Downtown Vancouver Building A tenant at a downtown Vancouver (DTV) building requested consulting company services for the collection of water samples in response to tenant staff concerns regarding drinking water quality. Potable water quality tests were conducted over four days to investigate the cause and provide recommendations. 1:15pm Ehsan Hemmativaghef – Assessment of Occupational Exposures during Laser Engraving Occupational exposures to total and respirable dust, methyl methacrylate, VOCs, formaldehyde and noise during laser engraving and cutting of acrylic based sheets was evaluated based on NIOSH and WorkSafeBC methods. Personal exposure to formaldehyde was found to have the highest risk rate (3 out of 4) followed by respirable dust and noise (2 out of 4). Recommendations for improvement include establishing a preventive maintenance for ventilation systems as well as provision of ventilation system for the supply and distribution of air in the workplace 1:30pm Soham Parelkar – Noise Sampling at a BC Health Authority This project examined the noise exposure associated with various occupations through personal noise monitoring at a BC Health Authority | Click here to view the webinarClick on presenters name below for personal Evaluation Form:Minal:Ehsan:Soham |
| Oct 25 | Occupational & Environmental Hygiene students to present on their 2019 Summer Practicums | 1:00pm Aaron Agyeman – Prevention and FSII officers exposure to TENORM in oil and gas.Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) in oil and gas processing develop from the pre-concentration and distribution of radionuclides in oil ad gas. Radionuclides continue to undergo radioactive decay causing the release of alpha, beta and gamma radiation which are harmful to human health. Worksafe field officers conduct investigation and inspections in environments contaminated with TENORM. Therefore, to ascertain compliance and the protection of health and safety a study was conducted to investigate the extent of radioactive exposure for officers during their mandated work.1:15pm Arthur Leung – Health Hazard Exposure Survey of Workers in Aluminum Pot LiningA health hazard survey was conducted at the Lining Facility located in an aluminum smelting facility, as no exposure monitoring has been performed in the past. This health hazard assessment aims to accomplish the following:Stratify the workers into Similar Exposure Groups (SEG);Determine compliance with regulatory exposure limits;Identify tasks associated with highest exposures;Recommend appropriate controls.1:30pm Hongjie Yu – Respiratory silica and noise exposure survey of employees in building product industry”.During the summer co-op in 2019, industrial hygiene surveys were taken at a large North American building product company. Employees’ respiratory silica and noise exposures were measured. Results suggest that employees working as ground men and tower operators are at risk of silica and noise overexposure.1:45pm Sana Javaheri – Occupational Exposure Limit for Hydrogen Sulphide in British Columbia’s Mines.The purpose of this project was to propose a new worker exposure limit for hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in Table 2-1 of the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in BC. This was achieved by identifying sources of H2S in BC mines, evaluating the H2S exposures of worker involved in these processes, assessing the accuracy of electrochemical direct reading instruments (DRIs),conducting a literature review of the health effects, reviewing the exposure limits set in other jurisdictions to evaluate their underlying evidence and rationale, and investigating the feasibility of a new limit with regards to practicality of implementation. | Click here to view the webinarClick on presenters name below for personal Evaluation Form: Aaron:Arthur:Sana:Hongjie |
| Nov 1 | Dr. Lawrence Frank, Bombardier Chair Professor Transportation & Health SPPH, UBC | Where Matters: The Health and Economic Impacts of Where We LiveThere is a public health crisis happening right now. Total health expenditure in Canada was estimated to be up to $253.5 billion ($6,839 per person) for 2018. This represents 11% of Canada’s gross domestic product according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. For example, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes place tremendous pressure on our healthcare system. There is an increasing consensus that the postal code of the neighbourhood where we live is as important as our genetic code. Studies have shown that land-use decisions and transportation investments to enhance neighborhood walkability and access to green space can significantly affect how you travel and your physical activity, and exposure to air pollution, traffic safety and crime, and noise. Very few studies have examined how transportation investment, neighbourhood walkability and access to green space are associated with less chronic disease and lower health care cost. To date, existing evidence used to inform major transportation investment decisions have rarely accounted for the potential health impacts and related costs of these factors.The Where Matters Study aims to incorporate health into local and regional policy-making by examining the multiple pathways linking the way our communities are planned and designed with people’s travel and physical activity patterns, chronic disease risk and health care cost. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| Nov 8 | Matt Shupler4th year PhD Candidate | The PURE Air Study: A multinational examination of household air pollution concentrations & primary fuel switching determinantsApproximately 2.5 billion individuals (~40% of global population), primarily in rural areas of Asia (>1.5 billion), Sub-Saharan Africa (>500 million) and Latin America (>50 million) are exposed to harmful household air pollution (HAP) from cooking and heating with polluting fuels (e.g. wood, crop waste, animal dung, coal) in rudimentary stoves. Exposure to HAP was the second highest environmental risk factor in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017, with an estimated 1.6 million attributable deaths annually. Residential combustion of polluting fuels is also a major contributor to outdoor air pollution and emissions of climate-forcing agents, including up to one-third of global anthropogenic emissions of black carbon.Few multinational studies have examined multilevel (e.g. household, community, national) factors associated with households switching from polluting to clean (gas, electric) primary cooking fuels. Longitudinal epidemiological studies of HAP exposure are also sparse due to the financial and time intensity associated with such studies. The Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE)-Air study, one of the largest HAP exposure assessments to-date, was carried out among rural communities of eight countries: Bangladesh, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Pakistan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The study design enabled an examination of physical, environmental and contextual determinants of primary cooking fuel switching and household air pollution concentrations. The concentrations measured in the PURE-Air study will be used in one of the largest epidemiological analyses of cardiovascular and respiratory disease burden due to cooking and heating with polluting fuels. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| Nov 15 | Seminar Cancelled | Cancelled | |
| Nov 22 | Dr Alex BigazziAssistant Professor, UBC Dept. of Civil Engineering and School of Community and Regional Planning | A closer look at energy expenditure and pollution inhalation during urban cycling: Physics, physiology, and travel behaviourAlthough urban cycling is widely known and promoted as physically active transportation, the actual physics of utilitarian cycling have been given little attention in transportation engineering and planning. In contrast, the field of sports science has developed detailed data and models of road bicycle performance, but only for sport and racing cyclists. What can we learn about utilitarian cycling by integrating knowledge of the physical attributes of bicycles and cyclists? Findings will be presented from recent and ongoing studies aiming to quantify these relationships and enhance travel analysis tools with an understanding of the physical aspects of cycling. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| Nov 29 | Jennie Christensen | Can a single strand of hair be used to monitor exposure to toxic metals?Hair is a growing keratinous tissue comprised of sulfur. As such, the sulfur in the hair can bind the many elements present in circulating blood, including toxic metals. Since hair is metabolically inert once formed, the elements retained in the tissue become locked in, so as the hair grows it can record changes in blood element concentrations over time. Using laser ablation on single strands of hair, exposure histories can be revealed for toxic metals. But, there are some caveats, including external contamination by air, water, and hair treatments. Here we will discuss occupational exposure to lead and other metals, compare hair and blood concentrations, effects of contamination on hair concentrations, examine another growing keratinous tissue (nails) for metal monitoring, and provide forensic case studies from an inadvertent poisoning event, and the historic Franklin Expedition. | Click here to view the webinar |
2018-2019 Term one and two
| Date | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| January 4 | No Seminar | ||
| January 11 | No Seminar | Cascadia Conference https://www.spph.ubc.ca/about/cascadia/ | |
| January 18 | Dr. Anders Erickson | Disease assimilation: the loss of the healthy immigrant advantage over time with exposure to fine particulate matter | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| January 25 | Dr Hind Sbihi | The role of microbiome and built environment on asthma development | Click here to view the webinar |
| February 1 | Jessica Yu PhD Candidate | Mapping spatial patterns in vulnerability to climate change-related health hazards | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| February 8 | Baytalan GregInterior Health – Community Health and Services Centre | Occupational Health & Safety, Common Indoor Radon Levels and the New 2017 International Commission on Radiological Protection, Alpha Radiation to Lung Tissue Effective Dose Coefficient | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| February 15 | Dr. Andrew Clarke | Psychological Safety in Health Care Workplaces | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| February 22 | No Seminar | Reading Week | No seminar |
| March 1 | Emily J. Rugel M.P.H | Modeling exposure to natural spaces as a factor in mental health and social interaction across metro Vancouver | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| March 8 | Sharon ProvostPhD CandidateMichelle NaimiResearch Coordinator | Is it making a difference: Why, how, & for whom? A realist review of violence prevention education in healthcare | Click here to view the webinar |
| March 15 | No Seminar | AIHABC – Annual General Meeting for further details click here | No seminar |
| March 22 | Emily S. Acheson, MSc, PhD candidate, Dept of Geography, UBC | Exploring links between deforestation and the 1999 outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii on Vancouver Island | Click here to view the webinar |
| March 29 | Kim McLeod, PhD student | Workplace Safety inspections in British Columbia | Click here to view the webinar |
2018-2019 Friday Seminars – Term One – September – December 2018
| Date | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| September 7 | Dr. Brian Ng | WorkSafe BC: How Physicians, Hygiene Officers, and Case Managers work together to manage a claim | Click here to view the webinar |
| September 14 | Dr. Parveen Bhatti | A Target for Cancer Prevention Among Shift Workers | Click here to view the webinar |
| September 21 | Dr. Yuhao Lu | People and Pixels | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| September 28 | Dr. Ben Wheeler | Are greener (and bluer) cities really better for health? Interdisciplinary perspectives informing environment and public health policy” | Click here to view the webinar |
| October 5 | Dr. Robert MacPherson | How does geography matter for return-to-work after work-related injury | Click here to view the webinar |
| October 12 | Brian Campbell | Development, programs and initiatives of the BC Federation of Labour Occupational Health and Safety Centre | Click here to view the webinar |
| October 19 | Dr. Ajay Pillarisetti (Candidate for UBC Assistant Professor position in Environmental Health) Postdoctoral Scholar Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Berkeley | Household Energy & Health In India and Beyond: Strengthening the Case for Clean Household Energy with Measurements and Modeling | Click here to view the webinarPlease click here for a survey evaluation for the presentation |
| October 26 | Dr. Jana Hirsch (Candidate for UBC Assistant Professor position in Environmental Health) Assistant Research Professor, Urban Health Collective, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia | Planning for Health: Constructing Evidence for the Built Environment’s Influence on Health and Health Equity | Click here to view the webinarPlease click here for a survey evaluation for the presentation |
| November 2 | Dr. Kate Weinberger(Candidate for UBC Assistant Professor position in Environmental Health) Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Health, Brown University | Preventing heat-related morbidity and mortality in a warming world | Click here to view the webinarPlease click here for a survey evaluation for the presentation |
| November 9 | Dr. Lorien Nesbitt | Human faces, forest places: Urban forestry in multicultural cities | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| November 16 | Dr. Hugh Davies | Surveillance for Occupational Exposures to antineoplastic Drug in Hospital Settings in Alberta and Minnesota | Click here to view recorded seminar |
| November 23 | Leela Steiner, PhD Candidate National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | Growing at Home: Health and Safety Concerns for Personal Cannabis Cultivation | Click here to view recorded seminar |
2017-2018 Term one and two
| Date | Speaker | Title | View Seminar Online |
| September 8 | Jesse Cooper | The role of hospital toilets in microbial dissemination and the effectiveness of ultraviolet C irradiation | Not available |
| September 15 | Chris McLeod | Developing an effective occupational health and safety management system. A provincial, national, and international perspective. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| September 22 | Mieke Koehoorn | Does gender matter to occupational health and safety? | Not available |
| September 29 | Matthew Wagstaff | Monitoring Residential Woodsmoke in BC | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| October 6 | Xibiao Ye | Epidemiology of hematologic cancers: the role of environment, occupation, and medications | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| October 13 | Byron Gates | Engineered Nanomaterials in the Workplace Environment: A Perspective | Not available |
| October 20 | Anders Erickson | How low to go? Assessing the health effects of low levels of air pollution. The Mortality Air Pollution Associations in Low Exposure environments (MAPLE) project. | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| October 27 | Karen Bartlett | Indoor air quality and health in Canadian First Nations communities | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| November 3 | Carolyn Sparrey | The effect of environmental exposure on the performance of fall arrest systems | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| November 10 | Sara Adar | From Tailpipe to Windpipe: Characterizing the Health Impacts of Pollution from Motor Vehicles | Not available |
| November 17 | Prabjit Barn | A Randomized Controlled Trial of HEPA Filter Air Cleaner Use and Fetal Growth in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
| November 24 | Abigail Overduin | Ergonomic Case Studies: Successes & Challenges | Click here to view the recorded seminar |
Technical Information
System Requirements
Traditional computers:
- macOS X with macOS X (10.10) or later
- Windows 11*
*Note: Windows 11 is supported on version 5.9.0 or higher. - Windows 10*
*Note: Devices running Windows 10 must run Windows 10 Home, Pro, or Enterprise. S Mode is not supported. - Windows: Edge 12+, Firefox 27+, Chrome 30+
- macOS: Safari 7+, Firefox 27+, Chrome 30+
Mobile devices and tablets:
- iOS 8.0* or later:
- Send and receive video using front or rear camera
- iPhone 4 or later, iPad Pro, iPad Mini, iPad 2 or later, iPod touch 4th Generation, iPhone 3GS (no front facing camera)
- iPadOS 13 or later
- Android 5.0x or later
Technical Issues
We cannot diagnose remote technical issues on the day of the seminar.
However, we are happy to confer with you or your IT support staff regarding our configuration ahead of time. Please contact spph.it@ubc.ca at least three business days before the next seminar.