The theme was worker health in a changing world of work.

It led to wide-ranging presentations and conversations. They went from the invisible health consequences of precarious or contingent work to the stigma of being an injured worker and how to turn research into action. Participants included academic researchers, physio and occupational therapists, and people doing work in occupational health and safety and workplace wellness. Union health and safety representatives, injured workers and disability rights advocates also were there.

It sounds like the APHA Occupational Health and Safety Section. But it happened in late May north of the 49th parallel, thanks to the Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health (CARWH). (For details about the program, see http://carwh2010.ih.on.ca/.)

Founded in 2001, the multi-disciplinary group is open “to anyone who identifies him/herself as a work and health researcher in Canada.” Dominated by academic researchers, there still is a fair bit of space for others on the edges of, and outside, the university.

CARWH’s goals are simple and grandiose: To enhance and promote research on work health, safety, and well being in Canada and to advocate for research on how work and work environments can be altered to improve health, safety, and wellness among Canadians.

Conferences are held in different regions of Canada and Quebec every two years. At these events, and in between, CARWH tries hard to breach the “two solitudes” of Anglophone and Francophone cultures and language. It provides one of the few OHS venues where this is done. (Otherwise, there is little exchange of information, results, and practices.)

In between, the organisation is building its website (http://web.cher.ubc.ca/carwh), and working to expand its membership and make new links for its members and the organisation itself. You will hear more about possible links at the OHS Section discussions during APHA’s Annual Meeting in Denver.

Dorothy Wigmore

APHA OHS Section Secretary

Member-at-large, CARWH Board