2024 AIHA BC Yukon AGM Feature Speaker
Laurence Svirchev, CIH
Presentation Topic
“Preventing Vision Loss from Occupation: Findings from a Report by the International Labour Organization”
Presentation Brief Description
Clear and accurate vision is an essential precondition for the vast majority of workers to accomplish almost all tasks. It doesn’t matter if the worker is a radiologist analyzing medical images, a senior quality control stitching inspector in a garment factory, an agricultural worker tea leaf picker, or an articulated forklift operator picking orders from tall racking. Safety, productivity, and business integrity depend on clear and accurate vision.
In 2023 the International Labour Organization published a report Eye Health & World of Work. In 2020, approximately 13 million working-age people were living with vision impairment of occupational origin. This places work-related vision impairments as the third largest causal factor of vision-related conditions.
Eye Health & World of Work contains appendices on the hierarchy of controls and the main NIR, mechanical, chemical and ergonomic hazards to the eyes which all OEHS professionals are trained in.
Based on Eye Health & World of Work, today’s presentation concentrates on the prevention programme for protecting vision (including in the aging work force), and interdisciplinary collaboration between the OEHS and Eye Health Medical professions through Health Promotion Campaigns. The presentation also explains the role of the ILO, a tripartite body of the United Nationals Organization (UNO).
Biography
Laurence Svirchev, CIH, has a 40 year career in Occupational Health and Safety. He holds an MA in Disaster and Emergency Management from Royal Roads University and a BSc in Occupational Health and Safety from the Montana School of Mines. He spent a decade in Occupational Epidemiology at the BC Canada Cancer Agency (Canada), fifteen years at WorkSafeBC as an Occupational Hygiene Officer and Fatalities Investigations. Since 2010, he has worked as Hygiene-Safety-Environment-Social Manager for Chinese international infrastructure construction companies in China, Indonesia, Fiji, and the Niger Sahel region of Africa. In the years of COVID-19, has been a COVID Compliance Officer in the Film industry. Mr. Svirchev has authored and co-authored 17 peer-reviewed articles in the industrial hygiene, disaster management, and geology literature. He is an active member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and Past-Chair of its International Affairs Committee. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of The Integrated Bioscience and Built Environment Consortium (IBEC) as well as an active member of the Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition.