The effects of climate on the environment and human health impacts have been increasingly observed with some negative health outcomes shown through mortality and hospitalization data. Warning systems are put in place by public health authorities to intervene during episodes of extreme weather events. In Quebec, the SUPREME system that was developed by the Institut National de Sante Publique du Quebec (INSPQ) has been used for a decade to document relevant and real-time information for Quebec’s extreme weather hazards and their associated heat and all-cause mortality. However, other extreme events such as cold in Nordic regions or air pollution in large cities are also important to study. It is therefore important to adapt this system using appropriate methodologies so it can be applicable to specific health impacts that may be linked to other extreme weather hazards. In this presentation, Dr. Fateh Chebana will focus on cold-mortality and hospitalisation data in Quebec, as well as…
Le CCNSE offre régulièrement des présentations dans le cadre d’activités liées au secteur de la santé environnementale tenues partout au Canada, et il organise des ateliers ainsi que des réunions sur divers sujets. Vous trouverez ici une liste de certaines présentations faites dans le cadre de conférences et de webinaires d’organismes externes, en plus de présentations tirées de notre Série de séminaires sur la santé environnementale.
Food systems are the complex web of activities and interactions that include food production, transportation, processing, retailing, preparation, and finally disposal. While these food systems are generally thought of as largely agricultural or rural, Pothukuchi and Kaufman’s landmark paper in 1999 highlighted the importance of urban food systems in particular, and encouraged urban planners to incorporate food system considerations into municipal and regional plans. Areas of focus included: preserving agricultural land, preventing and processing food waste, environmental outcomes related to food production, processing, distribution, and storage, and ensuring adequate access to healthy food. This webinar will be an overview of food system planning interventions that have been implemented and evaluated since 1999, with a specific focus on outcomes related to environmental sustainability, economic development, availability of healthy food, individual food behaviours, and nutrition-…
Urban areas are the hot spots of global warming. Extreme heat, alongside flooding and wildfire, is a key risk to the health and well-being of Canadians. The situation is growing more dangerous, driven by irreversible climate change— Canada is warming, on average, at twice the global rate.
Urgent action is required now to manage risk and avoid worsening impacts – and ultimately fatalities.
The good news is that heat-related illness and death are largely preventable with knowledge, education, and adaptive action. However, resilience to extreme heat cannot be achieved by relying on air conditioning alone.
This presentation will provide an overview of new national guidance, representing input from over 60 subject matter experts, outlining practical actions that Canadians can undertake to reduce risks from extreme heat including:
changing behaviour (non-structural) working with nature (green infrastructure) improving buildings and public infrastructure (…In the past decade, climate change-exacerbated landscape disturbances such as wildfires and floods have threatened water security by altering not only water availability, but also source water quality and consequently treatability. An international panel convened by the Canadian Water Network and the Water Research Foundation in 2014 concluded that sole reliance on in-plant treatment technologies for mitigating such risks is inadequate.
Algae blooms—especially cyanobacteria—pose some of the greatest associated challenges to drinking water treatment. Cyanobacteria blooms can reduce drinking water treatment process efficiency, leading to service disruptions, inability to meet community demands, and even outages. Moreover, they can produce toxins that expensive advanced treatment not found in most conventional treatment plants.
Traditional source water protection approaches are alarmingly inadequate for managing these threats, especially in a changing climate. These…
This presentation will highlight the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health’s (NCCIH) collaboration on the 2022 national assessment titled the Health of Canadians in a changing climate: Advancing our knowledge for action, produced by Health Canada’s Climate Change and Health Innovation Bureau. This comprehensive study of current and projected risks from climate change to the health of Canadians included a chapter dedicated to climate change and Indigenous Peoples’ health in Canada. Contributing author, Donna Atkinson will provide an overview of the key findings of this chapter; a summary of specific climate change risks to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples’ health; the role of Indigenous knowledges and rights in climate change adaptation, research and policy; and knowledge gaps for future research.
Donna Atkinson, MA, National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health
Donna Atkinson is the Manager of the National Collaborating Centre for…
Rising temperatures are one of the biggest global health threats of the 21st century. They underscore a critical need for ambitious adaptation and advancement of protective measures to safeguard the health of populations. The threat of rising temperatures is even greater in Canada because the country is warming 2-3 times faster than other regions. The record-setting heat dome that engulfed western Canada in late June 2021 was associated with at least 740 excess deaths among older Canadians, and it strained provincial health services to a near breaking point. This catastrophic event followed on the heels of record-breaking temperatures in 2020, which capped the hottest decade ever recorded in Canada and the planet. While the negative health impacts of heat are predictable and largely preventable, improving population health outcomes requires that policy makers, frontline clinical staff, health managers, and others have comprehensive knowledge of factors affecting heat-vulnerable…
There is increasing evidence that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) may adversely impact cognitive performance. Wildfire smoke is one of the largest sources of PM2.5 today and concentrations are likely to increase under climate change. However, little is known about how short-term exposure impacts cognitive function. We aimed to evaluate the associations between daily and hourly exposure to PM2.5 and wildfire smoke and cognitive performance in adults. Scores from 20 plays of an attention-oriented brain-training game were obtained for 10,228 adults in the United States (US). We estimated daily and hourly PM2.5 exposure through a data fusion of observations from multiple monitoring networks. Daily smoke exposure in the western US was obtained from satellite-derived estimates of smoke plume density. We used a longitudinal repeated measures design with linear mixed effects models to test for associations between short-term exposure and attention score. Results were…
Les répercussions sur la santé de l’élévation du niveau des océans ne sont pas bien documentées, ni au Canada ni ailleurs. Ce projet visait donc à améliorer notre compréhension de ces répercussions et à démontrer les effets atténuants de l’incorporation de mesures communautaires axées sur la santé publique aux plans d’adaptation. Le premier rapport de cette série de quatre caractérise les zones géographiques côtières canadiennes les plus vulnérables à l’élévation du niveau des océans. Le deuxième établit les enjeux de santé connexes à cette élévation à partir d’une revue de la littérature, et le troisième résume les résultats d’une analyse des documents de planification communautaire pour déterminer si et comment ces enjeux sont abordés. Enfin, devant la faible importance habituellement accordée à la santé publique dans la planification de l’adaptation au changement climatique, et plus particulièrement à l’élévation du niveau des océans, le quatrième rapport propose des façons d’…
Les inondations ont d’importantes répercussions à long terme sur la santé mentale et le bien-être psychosocial des collectivités. Pour permettre le rétablissement en santé psychosociale et mentale après un épisode d’inondation, les intervenants d’urgence en santé publique doivent travailler aux côtés des communautés sinistrées. Pendant ce webinaire, Maxine Myre et Nicole Glenn de PolicyWise for Children & Families présenteront les expériences, les défis et les priorités du rétablissement communautaire après une inondation et décriront les pratiques de santé publique qui peuvent être adaptées et appliquées partout au pays. Elles animeront ensuite une table ronde avec des spécialistes de tout le pays sur l’intérêt des pratiques recommandées et les façons de les adapter à différents contextes. Les panélistes comprendront des professionnels ayant des postes de gestion au gouvernement et dans des organismes sans but lucratif pour appuyer les interventions et le rétablissement en…
Le changement climatique nuit à la santé de millions de personnes dans le monde. Des catastrophes à évolution lente aux phénomènes météorologiques et climatiques extrêmes, le changement climatique se répercute sur tout ce qui nous est cher. Cette présentation dévoilera les constats de santé du dernier rapport du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC) sur les effets du changement climatique et l’adaptation, et fera des liens avec la COP27 et la COP28 (Conférence des Parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques). Sherilee Harper, qui figure au nombre des auteurs principaux du rapport du GIEC, fera ressortir les liens entre les processus d’évaluation de la science internationale du GIEC et les négociations entre les pays pendant les COP.
Sherilee Harper est Chaire de recherche du Canada sur les changements climatiques et la santé, diplômée du programme Kule Scholars, et professeure agrégée de l’École de santé…