New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy – Outdoor workers are exposed to many hazards, including solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Identifying, reporting, analyzing, and tracking the exposures or health outcomes of outdoor workers have not generally been formally considered. This article aims to summarize the best practices/strategies for creating an occupational sun exposure or skin cancer surveillance system for outdoor workers and to understand the key barriers and facilitators to the development of such a system. The authors summarized five occupational surveillance strategies, and identified ten key considerations that include critical barriers and vital facilitators for the design of a successful occupational safety and health surveillance system for outdoor workers.

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CTV News – The Ontario government announced new rules to improve the safety for the province’s 29,000 mining workers. The new rules will improve ventilation requirements underground and lower the exposure limit to harmful diesel exhaust to the most protective levels in North America. Changes to the rules will also allow for the use of track mounted robots in mines. The changes come in response to calls from unions asking for diesel particulate exposure to be reduced for underground workers, and also from recommendations from the Final report: Mining health, safety and prevention review produced by the Office of the Chief Prevention Officer, and 2022 coroner’s inquests.

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Scientific Reports – The COVID-19 pandemic produced widespread behaviour changes that shifted how people split their time between different environments. The authors report an update of North American activity patterns pre- and post-pandemic, and implications to radon gas exposure, a leading cause of lung cancer. A survey was conducted with 4,009 Canadian households. Overall time spent indoors remained unchanged, but time in primary residence increased from 66.4 to 77% of life (+ 1062 h/y) after pandemic onset, increasing annual radiation doses from residential radon by 19.2% (0.97 mSv/y). Greater changes were experienced by younger people in newer urban or suburban properties, and those employed in managerial, administrative, or professional roles. This work supports re-evaluating environmental health risks modified by still-changing activity patterns.

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