Ontario expects to have an occupational exposure registry in place by 2025 to track workers’ exposure to disease-causing elements at work.
“I believe it’s an aggressive timeline given the number of stakeholders but that it is needed given that this information will be used to understand and prevent overexposure and ultimately prevent disease and death,” said Mike Parent, president and CEO of Workplace Safety North and Ontario Mine Rescue.
The registry is just one of the moves the province is making to act on the findings of a report written by Dr. Linn Holness and Janet Brown of the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, a research centre that is part of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. The occupational disease landscape review has been in the works since April 2022, and the 60 pages of findings cover everything from the types of chemicals, physical agents or biological agents that can cause harmful or deadly diseases, to the way that safety training is planned and delivered to the challenges workers face when attempting to navigate the legal and health systems in order to claim compensation for their workplace-caused illnesses.