2000, following a series of tragic adverse events, the Quebec Health and Social Services Minister, Madame Pauline Marois, set up a committee to study adverse events in the province. Under the chairmanship of Mr. Jean Francœur, first Health and Social Services Ombudsman, the committee made a series of recommendations concerning all aspects of patient safety and including leadership, information ...

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In their recent commentary, “Children’s Health, Susceptibility, and Regulatory Approaches to Reducing Risk from Chemical Carcinogens,” Charnley and Putzrath (1) noted the seminal importance of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children (2) in having catalyzed current concern about risks to children’s health from environmental chemicals. As memb...

National Drug Policy (NDP) constitutes the specification of mid-term and long-term pharmaceutical objectives by the government and the determination of major strategies warranted to achieve such objectives. Stated in other words, NDP determines the frameworks for the pharmaceutical activities of private and state sectors. The specification of these policies and strategies will be an effective m...

BACKGROUND The British Thoracic Society (BTS) Standards of Care (SoC) Committee produced a standard of care for occupational asthma (OA) in 2008, based on a systematic evidence review performed in 2004 by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF). METHODS BOHRF updated the evidence base from 2004-2009 in 2010. RESULTS This article summarises the changes in evidence and is ...

The safety of cosmetics sold in Europe is based on the safety evaluation of each individual ingredient conducted by those responsible for putting the product on the market. However, those substances for which some concern exists with respect to human health (e.g., colorants, preservatives, UV-filters, nanomaterials) are evaluated at the European Commission level by a scientific committee, curre...

BACKGROUND Workplace mortality and severe injury are disproportionately distributed among foreign born and Hispanic construction workers. Worker Centers (WCs) provide services and advocacy for low-wage workers and a way for investigators to reach them. The goal of this project is to prevent occupational injuries by increasing awareness of hazards and self-efficacy among foreign born, Hispanic c...

BACKGROUND The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is developing an online e-guide, which will provide tips and practical information for each EU country (in their national language(s)) on ageing and occupational health and safety. The e-guide will be launched in 2016 as part of the EU-OSHA campaign on Healthy Workplaces for all ages. The e-guide will present evidence, tools...

In this paper, I focus on a domain in which the conflict between freedom and equality is at stake: the world of work. Current U.S. laws impose many negative liberty restraints on employers with respect to employees. They may not discriminate by race, gender, religion, or age. They must pay minimum wages to most employees, and pay overtime to those working more than 40 hours per week. They must ...

There has been a recent surge in the number of disasters and incidents in occurring in the process industry (e.g. the petrochemical, chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries). The reasons include defects in process-safety management (PSM); inadequate safety management systems in companies; inadequate knowledge among managers and insufficient information about the tasks undertaken and result...