Occupational and Environmental Health

The Division of Occupational and Environmental Health comprises a multidisciplinary group whose aim is to aid in the prevention of occupational and environmental disease.  The Division works collaboratively with the Division of Occupational Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at St Michael’s Hospital through the Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit.

Division faculty participate in a variety of educational programs, both professional and research oriented.  Professional training is offered in Occupational Hygiene through the Master of Public Health and Occupational Medicine through the Occupational Medicine Residency Program.  Division faculty provide occupational health content to the undergraduate medical program in the Determinants of Community Health course.

Research activities focus on both occupational and environmental health.  Occupational health research is focused in the Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease which receives infrastructure funding from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.  Centre programs include respiratory disease, skin disease, hand-arm vibration syndrome and biological hazards.  The Centre works with other WSIB funded research groups including the Institute for Work and Health, the Centre for Research Expertise in Musculoskeletal Disorders, the Centre for Research Expertise in Improved Disability Outcomes and the newly established Occupational Cancer Research Centre.

The key environmental research focus is air contaminants.  Division researchers cover the range of questions from basic mechanisms, through detailed exposure characterization to human and population studies.  The Division houses a multi-stage ambient particle concentrator.  Division researchers participate in the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research and more recently are actively involved the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study supported by CIHR and AllerGen.

The Division is integrally linked with the clinical programs at the Occupational Health Clinic at St Michael’s Hospital.  The clinic provides specialist consultation services in occupational disease.  It is a site for clinical and research training in occupational medicine for medical, nursing, occupational hygiene and physical therapy students.

Division Head: Linn Holness

*known as the MHSc degree prior to September 1, 2009.