June 1, 2020
The Workers’ Health and Safety Legal Clinic continued its partnership with first year engineering students at the University of Toronto by participating in U of T Engineering Strategies & Practice Course, and the 2019-2020 Multidisciplinary Capstone Design Course.
Proposed by Clinic volunteer, Edward Liu, this year’s project looked to address one of the most common injuries in the workplace - lower back pain. Statistics show that almost 1 in 4 workers will experience some form of injury because of repeated lifting and transporting of heavy materials. Currently, there is no solution that eliminates or directly minimizes the risk of of work-related injury where users must have the loads carried exclusively on their person.
To improve the manual package handling of loads of up to 25 kg, the students developed a Weight Redistributing Harness. This design would help the redistribution of weight away from the worker’s lower back.
Learn more about this year’s project findings by reviewing the poster and final report.
Previous projects from the Engineering Strategies & Practice Course (ESP) and the U of T Capstone Design Course include:
2017-2018: Preventing Workplace Chemical Exposure: Making Personal Protective Equipment More Accessible (Capstone)
2016-2017: Mercury Handling Protocol for Occupational Health & Safety - Protocol Instruction Manual (Capstone)
2015-2016: Instrumentation and Data Tracking System for Measuring Helmet Impact Forces - Final Report (Capstone)
2015-2016: Instrumentation & Data Tracing System for Airborne Chemical Substances - Final Report; Poster (Capstone)
2015-2016: “Operation Rainbow” Experiment - 2016 04. Final Presentation Team 67.pptx; 2016 04. highschool chem rainbow exp UofT ESP Team 67.pdf; 2016 04. Final Presentation Team 102.pdf; 2016 04. highschool chem rainbow exp UofT ESP Team 102.pdf (ESP)
2014-2015: Improving Fume Hood and Glove Panel Safety - Final Design Specifications (ESP)
2014-2015: Chemical Transfer Design Project - Final Design Specifications (ESP)
2014-2015: Fermentation Reactor Design Project - Final Design Specifications (ESP)
2013-2014: High-Rise Building Window Design - Project Final Design Specifications (ESP)
2013-2014: Fuel Gas Fixture Protection - Project Final Design Specifications (ESP)