Community-Engaged Research in Workplace Health & Safety

1. Community-Engaged Research in Workplace Health & Safety Lar Hoven Baie Verte Peninsula Miners’ Association Barbara Neis Stephen Bornstein Memorial University

2. The Safety Net Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Research • Mandate • multidisciplinary research on workplace H & S • knowledge mobilization • capacity development • training • Organizing principle: a ‘community alliance’ approach

3. Overview • Twelve years of work, three examples: • Developing an Occupational Disease Registry • Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit • Safe Fishing Wharves • Benefits and Challenges of a Community Alliance Approach to OHS Research • Questions and Discussion

4. Occupational Disease Registries: Baie Verte and Beyond Lar Hoven Baie Verte Peninsula Miners’ Action Committee Stephen Bornstein SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Research, MUN

5. Background Community-engaged project to develop a “registry” for the former employees of the BV asbestos mine and mill • Funders: the NL Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC) with support from Memorial, other universities and a workers’ health clinic • A multidisciplinary team of researchers from multiple provinces guided by a “Working Group” with representatives from: • the WHSCC • the BV Peninsula Miners’ Action Committee • the United Steel Workers

6. Baie Verte • - the place Baie Verte

7. Why a registry? • Asbestos exposures can lead to or increase the risk of developing: • asbestosis • other forms of lung damage (e.g., pleural fibrosis) • lung cancer • mesothelioma • ovarian cancer • cancer of the larynx • possibly other cancers, including GI cancers

8. Why a Registry… • Occupational diseases often become manifest several decades after exposures • Miners can be highly mobile, moving between mines as they open and close • Health professionals may not ask about work history and may not be familiar with the OH risks of asbestos exposures • Contributes to risk of under-diagnosis and difficulty assembling medical information needed to file successfully for compensation. • Can add to our understanding of health risks of chrysotile asbestos

9. Getting the Registry funded: • Mine officially opened: 1963 • Mine officially closed:1994 • Original recommendation for a registry: 1977 • Ongoing pressure for a registry from: • Miners and the community • BVP Miners’ Action Committee • United Steel Workers Union • Decision to fund a registry: 2007 • Completion of the registry: 2013 (35 years later) In short: Registries are contested terrain

10. Project Outputs • The Baie Verte Miners’ Registry • Confidential electronic database with demographic, health, work history, exposure and compensation information for each registrant • Individual information accessible to registrants (on request) and to WHSCC where have consented and/or where file for compensation • Information package for each registrant/proxy • Health care brochure for health professionals • Final report including analysis of key issues available at www.safetynet.mun.ca

11. Results • 1244 contacts made • Completed registrants: 1003 • Medically confirmed cases of ARDs: 169-- not including GI cancers • 145 registrants have filed a claim but only 45 claims have been accepted

12. Reflections on the BV Registry as Community-Engaged Research • Community and union representation on the working group was essential to the design of the registry outputs, to the approach and to the willingness of SafetyNet and affiliated researchers to take on the contract. • Roles of SN Team and Working Group in the Registry Project: • design of the project • implementation • oversight • final report • dissemination and follow-up • Relative influence of WG members • Overall assessment as a community-engaged initiative

13. A Team Approach: Collaborative Development of a Toolkit to help Ergonomists and Workplaces Implement an Ergo-Team Approach to Participatory Ergonomics David Antle, Barb Neis, Nicole Vezina www.participatoryergonomics.mun.ca

14. The problem • Workplace musculoskeletal injuries are an incredible burden to society and industry • Rivilis et al, 2010; • We know a great deal about injury risk factors in the work place • We need to find ways to positively influence what actually happens in very diverse and dynamic workplaces to make a difference.

15. Participatory Ergonomics (PE) • Uses stakeholder knowledge of social and organizational factors, combined with expertise of ergonomists/ researchers, to identify issues and develop effective solutions • Requires key company stakeholders to be involved during all phases of the intervention • Managers, employees, maintenance, etc. • Involvement includes • Education • Selection of intervention areas • Assessment • Development and implementation of solutions • On-going capacity and process

16. The Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit is a free set of tools designed for use by facilitating ergonomists interested in implementing an Ergo-Team approach to addressing ergonomic issues in the workplace. • The Toolkit is designed to assist workplaces in: • identifying causes • developing strategies • evaluating changes Available free on the internet.

17. TOOLKIT CONTENTS: • Promotional Video – A Team Approach

18. Step by step guide • Summarizes key literature • Outlines role of ergonomist, stakeholders • Success factors; potential issues • Outlines each step of the approach • Written for an ergonomist, but also useful for: • Managers, OHS reps, Rehabilitation Specialists, Union Represenatives • User’s Guide

19. Training Workbook and Tools • Training for Ergo-Team members • 12 modules • Activities, teaching aids and key tools to apply at each step of the intervention

20. What led to the development of this toolkit? • Study of RSI’s in a rural fishplant and related changes • Plant representatives ask SN to ‘leave something behind’ • Successful CIHR Knowledge-to-Action grant • Development of draft tools • Establishment of Ergo-Team in Plant A using tools • Plant A Ergo-Team presented toolkit in a SafetyNet symposium • Plant B requested transfer of the toolkit to their workplace

21. Presentation of draft toolkit to PE expert researchers • Further testing/refinement by implementing in urban poultry and snackfood processing plants • Finalize and launch the toolkit (CIHR Café Scientifique) in NL and Alberta • Treat as a “working document” • Lead author/Ph.D. student now working with EWI – firm that helps companies deal with OHS issues that uses the toolkit in their work. • Timeframe – start to finish: roughly 10 years

22. Safety on Newfoundland and Labrador Fishing Wharves • Ben Jackson, Barb Neis, Andrew Canning, Scott McKinnon

23. Product: Report and multiple recommendations on ways to improve safety on fishing wharves in the province • Where did the project come from? • Raised as an issue in a fisheries OHS symposium • Concerns reinforced by a fatality on a fishing wharf in a community where we were working • Focus: Are there OHS issues? What are they? Why do they exist? How might risk be reduced?

24. Ingredients: • Funding (patched together from different sources) • Committed research assistant • Multi-stakeholder steering committee that provided input into research design, reviewed and commented on draft reports, etc.

25. Results • Report that reviews existing research, documents and makes visible range of OHS incidents on fishing wharves • Publication(s) dealing with understudied issue (globally) • Provides a sense of relative frequency of these incidents, groups most at risk • Notes inconsistencies in perceptions of risk • Documents complex regulatory issues associated with improving safety on wharves • Recommendations for further research and for improving safety refined with multi-stakeholder input • Timeline – roughly 4 years start to finish

26. Insights from 3 cases? • Different funding strategies/dynamics • Different governance/organizational approaches • Benefits of a problem solving approach and building on existing relationships/insights • Long timelines • Requirement for an engaged lead who carries the work forward through multiple phases to some kind of completion

27. Relevant SafetyNet Resources • www.safetynet.mun.ca • Baie Verte Miners’ Registry • www.bvminers.ca • Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit • http://www.participatoryergonomics.mun.ca/PE_Toolkit/ • Bornstein S and Neis B. Research on the periphery: the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 2010; 8 (1): 3-4. • Coombs-Thorne H, Bradbury E, Neis B, Bornstein S, MacKinnon S and Parent R. Interjurisdictional knowledge transfer in occupational safety and health: lessons from eastern Canada. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 2010; 8 (1): 95-109.