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

1989

Institute   >   Historical Overview   >   1981-1990   >   1989
April 19, 2024

1989: Knowledge transfer

Jean-Charles Guindon

A new department, the Service de transfert des applications de la recherche (STAR), or Research Applications Transfer Unit, was formed. It published eight reports, including five deriving from internal research (the topics were protective leg-guards, shingle-cutting machines, protection against falls from heights, work organization and the safety of forestry activities, and a dust generator used for diagnosing asthma) and three on the control and adverse effects of noise and occupational lung diseases. Jean-Charles Guindon was the director.

René Lévesque

Alain Lajoie, directeur des services et expertises de laboratoire, 1985 - 1995
Entrevue complète

Scientific Conference – Work with Display Units

The Institute organized and hosted the 2nd International Scientific Conference on Work with Display Units. Approximately 750 delegates from 30 countries took part in the event, where 180 papers were delivered and the IRSST had an opportunity to showcase the results of research it funded on possible effects of radiation and other health problems associated with the use of display units.

A prototype hand prosthesis
Prothèse de main

Gilbert Drouin, Institut de génie biomécanique,
École Polytechnique de Montréal

A new more functional hand prosthesis, was designed by researchers at the École Polytechnique de Montréal and the Institut de réadaptation de Montréal, whose work was partly funded by the IRSST. Six copies of the prototype, which permitted a thumb trajectory much closer to natural movement, underwent clinical evaluation in which worker amputees took part, before the prosthesis was commercialized.

Robert Diamant

Robert Diamant

In December, Robert Diamant was appointed chairman of the IRSST’s Board of Directors. His plan was to help ensure that the Institute stayed on the track that best met the needs of its true stakeholders, namely, Québec employers and workers.