Dr. Nayab Sultan – Occupational Health & Silica Risk Advisory

About – nayabsultan.com/about

Thirty-five years. One consistent focus.

Dr. Nayab Sultan is a globally recognized advisor working at the intersection of occupational, environmental, and public health systems. He specializes in silica exposure, silicosis prevention, silica-induced diseases, and the long-latency occupational diseases that claim workers' lives years or decades after the exposure that caused them. His clients are the organizations – governments, corporations, global agencies, and research institutions – that need to understand exposure risk at the system level and build the frameworks to manage it. His work spans national OHS policy design, international standards governance, field-level research, and the advisory relationships that knowledge translation into operational change.

The Work

Where the problems are hardest, the work is most needed.

The field is where occupational health is ultimately tested. Dr. Sultan has spent three decades in it – in the tunnels of the Channel Tunnel construction project, in the oil and gas fields of Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan, across the mining communities of Southern Africa and South America, and in the government offices of the Caribbean, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, and Namibia where national OHS systems were built, sometimes from nothing.

The consistent thread is the gap between what regulations say and what systems actually do. Silicosis is preventable. So are pneumoconiosis, asbestosis, and the occupational lung diseases that kill workers who followed the rules their employers gave them. Public and families are also affected directly and indirectly by exposures.

Prevention requires systems that function – not just policies that exist. That is the work. That is why it matters.

"The gap is not regulation. The gap is system design."

Credentials

International Standards & United Nations
ISO45001/TC 283 DCCG Co-Convenor
Developing Countries Coordination Group (DCCG) – representing 80+ developing nations via the Canadian Standards Association and Standards Council of Canada
United Nations Expert Rosters (5)
UN Secretariat · UNDP · ILO · Commonwealth Secretariat · CARICOM
Awards & Recognition
Society of Occupational Medicine (SOM)
Outstanding Contribution to the Global Development of Occupational Health – 2025 · Royal College of Physicians, London
SOM Special Mention
Outstanding Contribution to Occupational Health Research – 2024
CorporateVision Awards
Leading Silica Dust Management Expert 2025 · Safety & Environmental Consultancy of the Year, Vancouver 2025
Honorary Doctorate
Services to Education in Malawi – Awarded by the Minister of Education
Research & Grants
CIHR Research Grant
CAD $600,000 · AI early detection for silicosis and TB · UBC / University of Cape Town / SAMA · 2022–2027
AIHA Microgrant
USD $3,500 · Body mapping for epidemiological pattern detection · 2025–2026
SAMA Senior Consultant
Senior Consultant, Environmental & Occupational Diseases · Southern Africa Miners Association · 2020–Present · Partners: AMIMO, MFOMIWA, NEAWAZ, SAEC, EWEMAZ, EMAM, SWAMMIWA
Academic Appointments & Service
Academic Appointments
Research Fellow, University of Birmingham · Visiting Professor: King Fahd University (Saudi Arabia), University of Malawi, Vietnam · Visiting Faculty: PCU-WHS Canada, University of Fredericton, Canada · Guest Lecturer, British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)
Academic Service
Research & Ethics Committee (Canada) · Program Advisory Committee (Canada) · Editorial board and peer reviewer, multiple international peer-reviewed journals
Field Experience
Field Experience
Channel Tunnel 1989–1991 · Shell Nigeria & Georgia 1992–1995 · Caribbean Safety Development Programme 1995–2002 · National OHS Advisor, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1995–2002 · Botswana Department of Occupational Health and Safety - Ministry of Labour 2011–2016 · Fraser River Development (Highway 99 Programme) BC 2022–2023 · Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) Director of HSE 2021–Present

Selected Publications

Five from a body of work spanning four decades.

Feb 2026
Improving Safety: From Global Standards Down to a Single Shift
Tunnelling Journal (pages 24–25)
2023
Pleural Pathology – Chapter: Pathologies Related to Asbestos Fibre
ISBN 978-0-85014-259-4 · Strumfa, Garcia, Sultan N.
2020
Silicosis: Origins and Consequences
Brazilian Journal of Occupational Medicine · Delgado-Garcia D., Sultan N., et al.
2019
Silicosis and Smoking: Intrinsic Phenomenon in the Respiratory System
Lambert Academic Publishing · Delgado D., Rimarez O., Sultan N.
2000
Safety and Health in Construction: A Code of Practice for Developing Countries
ILO-aligned · Sultan N.