The CSST’s board of directors determined the average contribution rate for employers in 2013, which will be set at $2.08 per $100 of payroll or $0.05 less than in 2012.

Because the growing use of nanotechnology is increasing workers’ risk of exposure to substances whose health effects still aren’t well known, IRSST researchers developed a method for measuring the efficacy of the materials used to make gloves that protect the wearer from nanoparticles. Based on …

A heavy equipment rental company also engaged in intra-provincial road transportation, maintenance and repair of equipment as well as stevedoring. All of its activities took place within Québec. Its parent company asked the CSST for a ruling that the company’s activities related to the shipping …

If a worker is injured in the office, plant, factory or other area controlled by the employer, that injury is usually covered by workers’ comp. But what if a worker suffers an injury while working from home?

After several incidents in which syringes were found in clothes in stores in Sherbrooke, the CSST warned employers whose workers are required to handle or inspect goods in which potentially contaminated syringes could be found to take various preventive measures. For example, workers who inspect …

A worker performing repairs in the combustion chamber of a furnace for heating asphalt was using an arc welder to repair cracks at the bottom of the firebox when fumes from brake cleaners ignited, causing an explosion that collapsed the furnace and fatally crushed the …

IRSST researchers released a first profile of Québec workers exposed to carcinogenic circumstances or substances. They compiled exposure estimates for 38 known and probable carcinogens and then estimated the number of workers potentially exposed to each by industrial sector. They concluded that the ten substances …

On Feb 10, 2005, Alain Daoust, a mechanic at a car dealership in Québec, suffered second and third degree burns while removing gasoline from a tank that needed repair. He was using compressed air and a handmade “gas guzzler” because the actual guzzler had been …

The Act respecting Occupational health and safety permits the reassignment of a pregnant worker and payment of CSST benefits if she can’t be reassigned and must cease work. An occasional substitute teacher became pregnant and got two certificates stating that her working conditions could represent …

Two workers were buried in a trench while doing excavation work in a Montréal suburb. Firefighters were able to free one worker, but there were problems reaching the second one. Wood panels had to be installed around the site to protect firefighters involved in the …