A reference centre

1998: A reference centre

Updated vision of research

The IRSST updated its vision of research, which it stated as follows: “The IRSST is committed to building on its leadership in occupational health and safety and becoming, no later than 2002, a bipartite reference centre that is not only an essential component of the CSST network’s operations and strategic planning, but also a useful resource for its other partners. This will strengthen the Institutes’s reputation nationally and internationally, and ensure the establishment of a network of research and development partners.”

The advent of the Institute’s first “www” address

The URL address www.irsst.qc.ca appeared on the World Wide Web, becoming the Institute’s first web site and providing information on its mission, services and achievements.

The occupation of preventionist: between a rock and a hard place

IRSST-funded researchers at Université Laval drew up a striking profile of the daily realities of prevention specialists, or preventionists, based on nine months of workplace observation in industries with a long tradition of organizing prevention, namely the pulp and paper, panel board, and sawmill sectors. The results of the study led to publication of the book Le métier de préventionniste : entre l’arbre et l’écorce. [the life of a prevention specialist: between a rock and a hard place]. The authors highlighted the heavy workload borne by these professionals, the bureaucracy involved, contradictions in the demands, and so on. The book also identified the most effective prevention practices and the skills needed to apply them.

A first respirator guide

Québec workers who used respirators to protect themselves against contaminants in the air at last had a French-language respirator guide To develop the guide, the Institute created a database integrating more than 1,500 models that had been added since NIOSH stopped publishing its own guide in 1993. In all, the guide documented more than 6,000 respirators.

One of the IRSST’s founding fathers, Judge Robert Sauvé, died in Montréal on November 28, the day of the Institute’s anniversary. He had been the first chairman of the CSST’s and the IRSST’s boards of directors, positions he held until 1986. A fondation was created in his name.

1997 1999