Contact

3129 Marentette Avenue, Unit #1
Windsor, Ontario
N8X 4G1
Tel. 519.973.4800 or 1.800.565.3185
Fax 519.973.1906
Email: windsor@ohcow.on.ca
Website: http://www.ohcow.on.ca

Staff

Director:
Mark C. Parent

Doctors:
Deborah Hellyer

Occupational Hygienists:
Barry Lam

Occupational Health Nurses:
Fay Lawn
Ivan Bauer

Ergonomists:
Brenda Mallat
Taylor Greenfield

Administrative Assistants:
Lucie Bechard
Danielle Findlay
Gina Davis (Temporary Part Time)

Windsor Local Advisory Council Members

Windsor 2004 Highlights

Clients Served

OHCOW-Windsor provides clinic services to Essex, Kent and Elgin Counties. OHCOW-Windsor dealt with 301 new patient cases for 2004, with 739 inquiries received and completed. Some of the issues included mould (indoor air quality), carbon monoxide, silica, benzene, asbestos, asthma, and reproductive hazards.

Group Projects

OHCOW Windsor were involved in 68 group projects in 2004, providing expert awareness and prevention advice with solid recommendations for Joint Health & Safety Committees (JHSCs). Group work and outreach activity continued to be a high priority component for servicing their catchment area. Group work has the potential to impact many more workers compared to servicing individual clients.

OHCOW Windsor completed the 2nd year phase of our Occupational Asthma (OA) project, which was funded by WSIB. Three-panel brochures for OA in Agriculture, Autobody Repair, and Nail Salons have been produced and disseminated. The designs of abstract presentation posters (5’ x 3’) for OA in Autobody Repair, Agriculture, and Nail Salons are also completed. These will be made available on loan to workplaces for display purposes as well as at conferences. In addition, we have designed and will be producing display posters (3’ x 2’) that will made available for target specific workplaces. In addition, story boards for each companion safety video were completed.

Working together with the Hamilton OHCOW Clinic, Windsor OHCOW presented recommendations and findings for the unions and families regarding 6 rare brain cancer cases from one workplace.

The Windsor clinic also worked with the CAW national office and their Health & Safety Training Fund Department to develop a new “Stress in the Workplace Prevention Program” for their union membership.

Publications

Windsor’s ergonomists have expanded on an existing template for formatting reports for both office ergonomics and workplace assessments. They created a user-friendly table format for relaying issues/problems and a variety of long-term and short-term solutions to the workplace, as well as one double-sided quick reference page for employers to distribute to individual workers about their portion of an assessment. They also developed an Office Ergonomics Assessment Guide that can be used on-site to assist workplace interventions and facilitate data acquisition.

Articles were published in the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association Journal, in two Association of Canadian Ergonomists (ACE) Communiqués, and in two ACE Provincial newsletters. We have also co-written four student articles that have appeared in both ACE publications and Toronto Computer newsletter publications.

The Director and Physician wrote articles for various newsletters and editorial letters throughout the catchment/servicing area. Their Occupational Health Nurse and Hygienist were featured in magazine articles regarding health and safety concerns in Agriculture and Indoor Air Quality.

Outreach/Other Activities

The Windsor clinic was involved in 104 outreach/knowledge transfer presentations, reaching out to diverse sectors of the community. Examples of outreach included: Brenda Mallat, was the president for the Association of Canadian Ergonomists (ACE), Ontario Region; The Clinic is also a supporting member group of the Windsor Cancer Prevention Coalition and the Windsor-Essex County Council on Smoking and Health, which held monthly meetings and various events/forums throughout the community; There were also many media outreach projects, which featured various Windsor Clinic staff; Regular Ergo Interest Group meetings and Essex County Occupational Nurses Association Interest Group meetings that were held at the Windsor clinic.

Windsor’s Student Mentoring Program was expanded to include medical, nursing and ergo students.

Presentation/Knowledge Transfer Activities

Windsor held a monthly Seminar Series last year. Among the topics covered were: Occupational Cancers; West Nile Virus; Heat Stress; Ergonomic Considerations during Pregnancy; Asthma and the Workplace; Ergonomic concerns with Children and Computers; Medical Surveillance; and Occupational Asthma – Working at Prevention and others. A total of 14 presentations were produced in VHS and DVD formats as safety talk films available on loan to workplaces. Copies were made and sent to all clinics including the provincial office for their lending libraries. The clinic also posted an electronic questionnaire survey on their website to determine the following year’s Seminar Series schedule.

Prevention Partners and Joint Ventures

An intake clinic was held for retired and active fire fighters initiated by the worker advocate from The Windsor Provincial Fire Fighters Association (WPFFA). The purpose of the intake clinic was to encourage fire fighters to bring forward any disease processes or illnesses including, cancer, heart and/or neurological conditions that would be assessed and claims would be submitted to the WSIB, as well as build a statistical foundation with the WSIB to encourage the recognition of future claims for fighters.

There were 14 fire fighters and 1 widow who participated in the intake clinic. The fire fighter’s union had expressed concern with the high incidence of occupational disease within their ranks. At the present time WSIB will accept the following if they occur in fire fighters: brain cancer with 20 years of service, leukemia with 30 years of service, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma with 15 years of service, bladder and kidney cancer with 30 years of service or 20 years of service prior to 1990, and Parkinson’s Disease has been accepted in a case by case basis.

The Fire fighter representatives submitted claims to WSIB. By the end of the calendar year four claims were accepted for bladder and kidney cancers and the fire fighters are awaiting NEL assessments. Four claims had been denied with diagnosis of: laryngeal cancer, multiple myeloma, skin cancer, and a cardiac condition, which will be appealed. The success of this project has further facilitated a positive working relationship between OHCOW, WPFFA, the OPFFA, and the WSIB.

Windsor OHCOW also participated in a separate joint project with the Toronto Clinic and IAPA regarding Occupational Asthma (OA) in the Auto Parts Manufacturing, Foam and Plastic, and Bakery Industries.Targeting these sectors, this project aimed to deliver free information about occupational asthma to the individual employers, groups of workers, Joint Health and Safety Committees, etc. The key to prevention is creating awareness, and the goal is to provide these groups with the necessary knowledge that is needed to understand the disease, how it’s acquired, and ways it can be prevented. The presentation is approximately 30 minutes and has been delivered to nearly 50 workplaces. It has also been produced as a safety video for our loaning library.