Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) Seminars

Towards a vision on the future of occupational and environmental health in British Columbia: Beginning the conversation

As 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.

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For interactive questions and polling app go to https://www.sli.do/

Event code is 9746

Determining causation and creating an exposure history for long latency occupational disease claims – challenges and practical tools

Despite 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.

Quantifying the burden of disease from major sources of ambient fine particulate matter:   Insights from an atmospheric chemist

Air 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.

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1pm           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

1:15           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.

1.30           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

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Click on presenters name below for personal Evaluation Form

Minal

1pm      Aaron Agyeman - Prevention and FSII officers exposure to TENORM in oil and gas.

1:15    Arthur Leung - Health Hazard Exposure Survey of Workers in Aluminum Pot Lining

A 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.

1.30   Hongjie Yu -

1.45    Sana Javaheri -  Occupational Exposure Limit for Hydrogen Sulphide in British Columbia’s Mines.

Dr Alex Bigazzi

Assistant Professor, UBC Dept. of Civil Engineering and School of Community and Regional Planning

 NO SEMINAR

 No Seminar

 No Seminar

AIHA AGM Meeting

For last years schedule see Link

No Seminar

No Seminar

Cascadia Conference   https://www.spph.ubc.ca/about/cascadia/

Baytalan Greg,

Interior Health – Community Health and Services Centre

No Seminar

Reading Week

Sharon Provost

PhD Candidate

Michelle Naimi

Research Coordinator

Please click here for a survey evaluation for the presentation

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Please click here for a survey evaluation for the presentation

Dr. Kate Weinberger

(Candidate for UBC Assistant Professor position in Environmental Health)  Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Health, Brown University

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Click here to view recorded seminar

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Current and future burden of disease from major air pollution sources in China and India

READING WEEK

Prescillia Percy Chua

Craft Brewing: Advancing Health and Safety in British Columbia Breweries