2026	January /
2025	January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
2024	January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
2023	January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
2022	January / February / March & Memo / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
2021	January / March / April / May & Memo / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
2020	January / April / July & Memo / October
2019	June

Reminders

 

Policies/Guidelines

Respiratory Illnesses [e.g. Influenza (flu), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), COVID-19, and etc.

EHS provides resources for managing respiratory illnesses such as flu, RSV, and COVID-19, and etc. These include guidelines on vaccination, self-screening tools, informational posters, procedures for illness management, and protocols for returning to campus. For further questions, please reach out to EHS.

 

Legionella Testing

We encourage interested JHSCs to regularly check the Water Testing Schedule for the most up-to-date information on legionella testing in their building and to contact EHS if a JHSC worker member is interested in attending the beginning of legionella and/or ventilation testing. You can find it on our website here. For more information regarding legionella, you can visit our Legionella FAQs page.

 

Reporting an Incident/Accident & Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Concerns

If you have any health and safety concerns, please report them to your supervisor. Supervisors have responsibilities for health and safety in the workplace, and workers are responsible for reporting hazards to their supervisors. EHS has an Online Accident/Incident eForm that should be completed and submitted by the worker’s supervisor in the event of an incident or injury. If there is thermal discomfort in office/department, local facilities group (St. George, UTM, and UTSC) can be contacted directly.

Additionally, EHS is available to provide support by conducting assessments to identify workplace hazards and providing recommendations to address concerns including office ergonomics and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). JHSC members who are approached by workers about health and safety concerns should also encourage workers to report their concerns to their supervisors and/or EHS directly.

 

Asbestos Management Program

Type 3 asbestos abatement air sampling results are available on the Asbestos Data website. For more information, please see Type 3 Asbestos Abatement Information.

 

Emergency Preparedness

The University of Toronto’s Emergency Preparedness website provides essential resources in responding to crisis or emergency situations for students, faculty, librarians, staff, and affected community members.

This platform outlines the University’s comprehensive emergency response with its UTAlert, Campus Status & Important Contacts, Responding to Incidents, During an Emergency, and Emergency Preparedness.

 

Eyewash Inspection

It is the responsibility of the lab to conduct regular eyewash flushing and documentation. For more information, please see University of Toronto Safety Eyewash and Shower Standard.

 

Administrative Resources

Facilities & Services (F&S) Alerts

To receive Facilities & Services (F&S) alerts for building related-services (e.g. service outages, shutdowns, Type 2 and 3 asbestos work), please subscribe to F&S Alerts. Please note: Subscription to F&S alerts is currently available only for St. George at this time.

 

JHSC Information

Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) website contains many information and resources:

• All 200+ health & safety boards, its location list, and the required postings items
• Health & Safety Policy
• Policy with respect to Workplace Harassment and Workplace Violence
• JHSC building coverage
• AED Locations for St. George, UTM, and UTSC campus

 

EHS Occupational Health & Safety Training

The University offers numerous training courses for its workers, specific to their workplace context (Administration/Facilities, Lab Environments, JHSC Training, etc.) and regularly updates the training courses on an ongoing basis. We encourage the JHSCs to review our training offerings relevant to their specific work and welcome the JHSCs to provide us with any feedback regarding training content. If you have any questions regarding relevant training required for your specific work, please speak with your supervisor. If you have any questions regarding EHS-offered training courses and related University-developed training content, please contact EHS.

 

EHS JHSC SharePoint & Distribution

All JHSC members can view and download minutes, workplace inspections, etc., via SharePoint and will receive an email when minutes and/or workplace inspections are uploaded. Notices for hygiene testing, reports, etc., are sent to the JHSC via the JHSC co-chairs. Co-chairs are encouraged to distribute information according to internal committee processes and, where applicable, consider membership representing different areas, employee/ union groups, etc. All JHSC members can also access notices, reports, etc., via the JHSC SharePoint website. Please click here for a tutorial on how to use the new EHS JHSC SharePoint. JHSCs are reminded to regularly send relevant documents to EHS for upload.

 

Workplace Inspections

JHSCs are required to conduct workplace inspections each month so that the entire workplace is inspected by the end of the year. EHS offers various resources such as: online training (EHS415 JHSC Workplace Inspection), Workplace Inspection Report Template, and Workplace Inspections Tips for Before and After – full listing and resources are available through the EHS site under “JHSC Listing & Resources”.

It is the area supervisor’s responsibility to correct any items noted in the workplace inspection report by completing the right side of the table and submitting a completed copy to EHS JHSC. For re-occurring hazards, please include projected timeline for corrective action in the applicable section.

Please review the Process Table and FAQs regarding workplace inspections.

 

Interested in joining a JHSC?

Please contact your JHSC for any vacancies. As a reminder, in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), worker members are appointed by their respective union. For more information, please see JHSC FAQs. Alternatively, you can contact EHS or your union directly.