IRSST - Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail

1982: External research

Five groups were awarded the status of “associated research team” for the following programs:

  1. industrial toxicology, Université de Montréal, Director Jules Brodeur ;
  2. epidemiology of occupational injuries, McGill University, Director J. Corbett McDonald ;
  3. epidemiology of occupational cancer, Institut Armand-Frappier, Director Jack Siemiatycki ;
  4. biomedical engineering, École polytechnique de Montréal, Director Gilles Drouin ;
  5. pathophysiology and early screening for pneumoconioses, Université de Sherbrooke, Director Raymond Bégin.

A sixth associated team emerged in time: the research group, Department of Biology, Université du Québec à Montréal, under Director Luc Desnoyers.

Its first computer

To support research needs and the task of managing the 20,000 samples that the IRSST laboratories hoped to process, the Institute spent 257 149,70 $ on the purchase of a Perkin-Elmer 3230 mini-computer 3230, which alone took up an entire room and required special air conditioning and a fire protection system. Yet this 32-bit computer had only two megabytes of RAM, or 1,000 times less capacity than a portable PC purchasable in 2015 for under $500.