Dalla Lana School of Public Health

How an OEH practicum placement helped this new grad unearth a passion for mining safety

May 30/2025

Spring 2025 graduate Danica Pring discovered her passion for mining safety during a summer OEH practicum placement in Nunavut. She was recently hired as the Hygiene Advisor for a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories.

By Bonnie O’Sullivan

For Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) graduate Danica Pring, it became clear by the end of her undergraduate program that she did not want to become a doctor. “I was at the point where I was doubting if medical school was right for me,” she says. However, she still wanted to find a job that she would love and that incorporated her background in molecular biology.

That is when she discovered DLSPH’s OEH program at a career fair. “It’s very multidisciplinary,” she explains. “It combines health sciences, engineering, math and physics. All the courses I really enjoyed.”

OEH’s program provides a solid foundation for its students to pursue careers in occupational hygiene, preparing them to “anticipate, identify, assess, and manage risks to health posed by hazardous materials, agents and processes.”

Pring’s career path came into focus during her summer OEH practicum in 2024 when she travelled to Nunavut to measure and interpret vibrational hazards of long-haul truck drivers and mechanics at a gold mine.

“The major ones are hand and arm vibrations, and these vibrations are most commonly from the use of handheld power tools. Then there’s whole body vibrations which are from contact with your feet, buttocks and back.”

Pring explains that vibration is a form of energy transfer, and so energy travels through to the individual from the point of contact. It can impact the circulatory, muscular and skeletal systems with symptoms that may include tingling, pain, and even vibration-induced white fingers. “It’s blanching of the person’s fingers that is typically triggered by the cold and they will turn white because the blood vessels are damaged.” Pring says that when she would speak to the workers, they would remark that they knew someone living with this condition.

“Often in health and safety, you feel like the bad guy. You feel like you are slowing people down.” Pring says this wasn’t the case at the mine where the drivers and mechanics welcomed her expertise. “I feel like my purpose is to really advocate for workers.”

After returning from her placement in Nunavut, Pring is pursuing a career as an occupational hygienist. This spring, she was hired as the Hygiene Advisor for a diamond mine and will be returning to northern Canada, this time to the Northwest Territories. “When people go to work, they just want to go to work, but in doing that, they’re implicitly placing trust in their employers to protect them. I think that’s where I come in.”