Presentations

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-…

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…

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 webinar examines how transportation planning decisions affect social equity and public health, ways to evaluate these impacts, and better align transportation policies with community goals. Equity and health policy analysis can be challenging because there are several impacts to consider, and various ways to measure them. Horizontal equity assumes that people with similar needs and abilities should be treated equally; vertical equity assumes that disadvantaged groups should receive a greater share of resources. Social justice addresses structural inequities such as racism and sexism. This webinar will explore various perspectives and impacts, and practical ways to incorporate equity and public health goals into policy and planning analysis. 

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps expand the range of…

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:

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-…

Health Canada published the revised lead drinking water guideline in 2019. The document included recommendations for sampling protocols to assess lead exposure such as random daytime and fixed stagnation time sampling. The selection of a sampling protocol will depend on the objective of the sampling (e.g. typical exposure) and building type (e.g., single-family dwellings, large buildings, schools) and factors such as plumbing configuration and water use/consumption patterns. Indigenous Services Canada conducted a sampling survey in Alberta Region to determine community lead levels in schools and daycares ahead of the guideline changes, to identify potential sources of lead, and to evaluate compliance with the updated guideline.

France Lemieux Head, Materials and Treatment Section Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada

France Lemieux is the Head of the Materials and Treatment Section in Health Canada’s Water and Air Quality Bureau. She holds a Bachelor's degree…

Abstract

Almost two years since the start of the pandemic, significant psychosocial impacts are still observed in the Canadian population. The results of various surveys, as part of a study carried out by Université of Sherbrooke with the collaboration of international universities, have depicted the association between various risk/protective factors and mental health in times of pandemic. The most recent survey was conducted in October 2021 (in Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland) among a large and representative sample of adults. Special attention will be paid to the evolution in anxiety and depression and its associated risk/protective factors, as well as to a newly explored concept called “pandemic fatigue”. In addition to these results, some interesting comparisons between the attitudes, perceptions and responses towards the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change will be made. Lessons in disaster risk management learned over the past two years can indeed be utilized to…

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…

The population of adults aged 60-plus is growing rapidly around the world, expected to more than double to more than two billion by 2050, and the World Health Organization has declared 2020-2030 the “Decade of Healthy Ageing” in response to this demographic shift. Although much of the conversation around healthy aging has focused on individual risk factors and health behaviors, the built, natural, and social environments all play significant roles. This webinar will describe indicators of age-friendly environments at the community level, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and in rural settings, as well presenting findings from an indicator-development effort within the global Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study (PURE). In light of the increased vulnerability to COVID-19 at this stage of life and the additional restrictions on social interactions that have resulted, we’ll also discuss what is known about roles for community design in reducing social…