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August 2014

Health & Safety

Health Canada toughening prescription-narcotic warning labels to combat abuse

Health Canada is toughening warning labels for controlled-released prescription narcotics as part of efforts to curb rampant prescription drug abuse, federal health minister Rona Ambrose announced Monday at the opening session of the 147th annual gathering of the nation’s largest doctors’ lobby.

The changes include modifying the label of prescription opioids to remove “moderate” pain and clarify that the drugs should be reserved for “severe” pain only, Ambrose told delegates to the Canadian Medical Association’s general council meeting in Ottawa.

Workplace Health and Safety

Each year, over one million work-related injuries are reported in Canada. In 2009, there were 15.5 cases of work-related injuries per 1000 employed Canadians. What can you do to stay safe and healthy at work?

Toronto becomes the latest municipality in Canada to crack down on e-cigarettes

They might be a little late to the party, but it seems Canadian governments are finally wading into the growing phenomenon of electronic cigarettes.

On Monday, by a vote of 36 to 2, Toronto City Council voted in favour of a Board of Health recommendation which would prohibit e-cigarette use in all City of Toronto workplaces. The Board also called on the provincial government to amend the Smoke-Free Ontario Act to ban e-cigarette use wherever cigarettes are banned and to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

Cuts to Canadian Food Inspection Agency risk food safety

On June 17, the Harper government declared that it had installed “inspection verification teams” within the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to target food establishments such as slaughterhouses and other meat-production facilities.

However, Bob Jackson, executive vice-president (B.C.) of the Public Service Alliance of Canada and a former meat inspector, says that the dissolution of the CFIA’s Metro Vancouver Consumer Protection Inspectorate earlier this year and ongoing budget cuts to the federal agency are leaving people at risk of eating unsafe food.

Resource aims to enhance workplace posture assessment practices

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in partnership with the Canadian Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders, released a report July 31 to help occupational health and safety practitioners more accurately and efficiently assess postural stress of workers performing their duties at work.

The ability to conduct posture assessments in the workplace can assist with the prevention and control of musculoskeletal disorders.

Human Resources

Canada’s nurse leader and Council of the Federation chair talk one-on-one about aboriginals and seniors health

This morning, Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) president Dr. Karima Velji met one-on-one with the Council of the Federation's chair, PEI's Premier Robert Ghiz, to strongly support the call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, discuss strategies for improving health care for aboriginal Canadians and reinforce the need for immediate action on a seniors health strategy. Following a meeting last week with federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose, CNA is in Prince Edward Island for the provincial/territorial council meetings.

Female physicians not to blame for Canada’s doctor shortage

Among the many reasons offered for why many Canadians are increasingly facing difficulties finding a family physician to call their own is the fact that the workforce has become increasingly female.

The argument usually goes something like this: female family practitioners work fewer hours, take time out to raise families and have shorter careers. And because the proportion of family practitioners who are male continues to decline — about 60 per cent of new medical students are female — we can look forward to the problem of accessing care getting worse.

This argument turns out to be simple, compelling and, for the most part, wrong.

Managements role in helping Canadian workers retire comfortably

When it comes to retirees in Canada, business management teams are doing all they can to make sure workers retire comfortably.

According to Statistics Canada, the average worker in the Great White North retires from the workforce at age 62.

Whether it's pre-planning or winding down the work schedule a little at a time, your management department can help employees successfully phase out work life and happily enter retirement.

Canadians more educated, less-suited to their jobs: study

Canadians are spending more time in school, only to wind up with careers unrelated to their high-priced university degrees, a Workopolis study says.

An overwhelming 73 per cent of online poll respondents told the job site Workopolis that they work in jobs unrelated to their educational backgrounds, while 56 per cent said they are over-educated for their current jobs.

Employee loyalty wanes as workers question their value in organizations

Employees increasingly expect to get more out of their jobs, and are more willing than ever to walk away from an employer if they feel undervalued or unfulfilled.

But while the first instinct of many bosses is to throw more money at the problem, a higher salary isn’t always what disaffected workers are after.

Industry

Health Canada approves Electorate™, the first therapy to extend the interval between prophylactic infusions in Hemophilia A

Today Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) announces that Health Canada has approved ELOCTATE™ [Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant BDD), Fc Fusion Protein] for the control and prevention of bleeding episodes and routine prophylaxis in adults and children aged 12 and older with hemophilia A.1 ELOCTATE is the first recombinant hemophilia A therapy with prolonged circulation in the body. It is the only treatment for hemophilia A to reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes via prophylactic regimens of either every three to five days, or once-weekly infusions. ELOCTATE offers people with hemophilia A the potential to extend the interval between prophylactic infusions.

Meeting on future of health care draws big crowd in Charlottetown

It was a standing-room-only crowd in Charlottetown Tuesday to hear dire warnings about the future of health care in Canada.

More than 150 people attended a rally at the Rodd Charlottetown hotel, organized jointly by the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. They have joined with others to create Campaign to Protect, Strengthen and Expand Medicare.

Panellist said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is covertly destroying national leadership on health and turning it over to the provinces. The result will be good care in growing provinces and terrible care in struggling provinces, the meeting was told.

In the name of ‘free trade’ our public health-care system is forced to swallow another poison pill

There has been a substantial amount of discussion surrounding the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union (EU), but when it comes to the media one thing that seems to have slipped under the radar is the hugely detrimental affects this deal could have on our public health care system.

Last week we saw two leaks of full text for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) the Harper government has secretly been negotiating.

Doctor urges Ottawa to allow injured Gaza kids into Canada for medical treatment

The federal government should rethink their resistance to bringing severely injured children from war-torn Gaza to Canada for the medical treatment they desperately need, a high-profile Palestinian doctor organizing the effort said Monday.

Izzeldin Abuelaish, whose three daughters died in the 2009 conflict in Gaza, is urging Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to support a proposal to allow 100 wounded kids into Ontario, which is willing to treat them.