Protecting healthcare workers protects us all:

Canadian coalition gets overwhelming support backing stronger protections for healthcare workers in updated CSA respirator standard

TORONTO, Aug. 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian healthcare workers deserve the same on-the-job protections as workers in every other sector — and new national standards may finally deliver them.

More than 1,700 physicians, nurses, scientists, engineers, occupational health specialists, civil society groups and individuals representing the immunocompromised, people living with long COVID and those who care about public health, have signed a statement supporting proposed updates to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z94.4 worker respiratory protection standard.

Key support also came from the Canadian Labour Congress and its individual and provincial affiliates (representing more than three million workers and most of the country’s unionized healthcare workers, including the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions), along with Quebec healthcare unions and National Nurses United, representing 225,000 unionized U.S. nurses.

The statement, co-ordinated by the Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition (CATC), calls the revisions a critical step toward protecting healthcare staff from airborne hazards such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza, wildfire smoke and other air quality threats.

“These revisions to the CSA standard will strengthen protection for healthcare workers as well as patients,” said Dr. Dick Zoutman, a retired infectious disease physician and professor at Queen’s University. “It’s an important contribution to Canada’s overall preparedness for future pandemics.”

The proposed changes would:

• Ensure respiratory protection standards clearly apply to healthcare settings.
• Require specific assessments for airborne pathogens to determine minimum respiratory protection.
• Recognize the ethical obligation to apply the precautionary principle — acting early rather than waiting for full scientific certainty.
  

“Canada is on the threshold of setting a world-leading standard which we in the UK can, at present, only dream of,” said David Osborn, executive member of the UK COVID Airborne Transmission Alliance.

Evidence shows stronger measures are urgently needed in healthcare. Surveillance data from Canada’s hospitals in the past two years found between 25 and 50 per cent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were infected inside healthcare facilities.

“Simply counting hospital-acquired infections and outbreaks in long-term care is not enough. We must do better to prevent them from harming patients, staff and the wider community,” said Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, retired emergency physician and CATC member who treated the first SARS-1 case in B.C.

“Strengthening protections for healthcare workers has a direct impact on the immunocompromised community,” says Michelle Burleigh, Co-Chair of the Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network (CIAN). “Every additional safeguard for frontline staff helps reduce the risk of infection reaching vulnerable patients.”

The CSA process was a three-year multidisciplinary effort aligning health and safety practices with the latest science on aerosols (invisible particles in the air) and airborne transmission. The proposed updates recognize that many respiratory pathogens — including COVID-19, flu, RSV, measles and tuberculosis — spread primarily through the air.

CATC says adoption of the standard would mark a turning point for occupational health and safety in healthcare, setting a professional standard of care and avoiding the mistakes of both SARS-1 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Broader pandemic preparedness action is still needed, including improved ventilation and filtration to provide clean, healthy air in all indoor settings.        

For interviews, please contact:

English:

Dr. Dick Zoutman (retired infectious disease MD; Professor Emeritus, Medicine, Queen’s University): 613-583-4325

Dr. Lyne Filiatrault (retired B.C. emergency physician): 604-779-0410

Michelle Burleigh (Founder, Immunocompromised People are not Expendable/IPANE; Co-chair, Canadian Immunocompromised Advocacy Network/CIAN): 416-276-8366

Français:

Stéphane Bilodeau (Ingénieur, PhD, Professeur associé, Département de bioingénierie, Université McGill/Engineer, PhD, Adj. Professor, Bioengineering Department, McGill University) : sbilodeau@th2b.com

More information:        

Canadian Aerosol Transmission Coalition (e-mail): aerosoltransmissioncoalition@gmail.com

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