Given the pressing needs at hand, the laboratories introduced industrial hygiene-toxicology and analytical support services right from the start of the year to ensure they could offer the essential services required by the entire CSST network.

The Institute launched three important programs:

• The Programme de financement d’équipes associées de recherche (funding program for associated research teams). The status of “associated team” was given to groups of university researchers to whom the Institute entrusted specific mandates owing to their particular skill sets.
• The Programme de la recherche subventionnée (funded research program). In addition to its role as a research centre, the Institute became a funding agency with this program.
• The Programme de bourses pour la formation de chercheurs (researcher training scholarship program). This program was instituted to close the gap between the need for and number of researchers active in the OHS field.

A very first intramural research program was launched under the theme La femme au travail (women at work). The initial project consisted of a large-scale epidemiological study on work and pregnancy. To learn about the spinoffs of this extensive program, consult the following documents:

• Les travailleuses enceintes dans l’industrie du plastique (Pregnant workers in the plastics industry)
• Grossesse et exposition aux substances chimiques (Pregnancy and exposure to chemical substances)
• Mortalité fœtale, contraintes physiques, expositions chimiques et conditions de travail (Foetal mortality, physical constraints, chemical exposure and working conditions)
• Avortement spontané et types d'emploi (Spontaneous abortion and type of employment)
• Prématurité selon le type d’emploi Premature birth by type of employment)