Occupational health research is not worth very much if it never gets implemented. Â Usually there is a ‘research to practice gap’ between academics discovering something new and when it actually get implemented as policy and improved workplace practice. Â It can be tough to get an audience with industry decision makers, since they are busy with conducting their business.
So, I was happy when the Saskatchewan Pork council called and asked me to speak at their annual conference.  Lots of managers, supervisors, and some front line workers will be there, and the company I worked with over the summer has given their permission for me to present the results (including naming them as a collaborator).  I thought this would be a short talk in a break out section, but the Sask Pork Symposium is serious business.  Their conference materials look really professional, and they asked me to do a 60-minute talk and submit a 10-page proceedings paper.  Not even the International Ergonomics Association has 10-page proceedings!  This all takes a bit of time, but hopefully they will find it useful and it may open the door to future collaboration – I am hoping to convince folks to participate in a standardized injury record data collection that they can use to track their safety performance (and I can use for province-wide surveillance research!)