Environmental health

Social Impact Assessment in the Environmental Sector: health network support guide

Taking account that the social aspects allows to measure the human consequences of intervention projects on the environment. However, in Quebec, not a lot of legal guidelines, administrative or consensual suggest how to investigate these social situations.

This guide was developed by the scientific team on the environmental assessments of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec. It represents an abbreviated version of the guide published in French. The objective of this publication is to enable different actors involved in the process of impact assessment to understand the key elements and stages of the procedure for the assessment of social impacts. This guide helps to evaluate a social impact assessment, or to advise the implantation of the process so that they are robust and efficient.

The first chapter defines the concept of social impact by exploring its features and illustrating the words with concrete examples. This chapter outlines the social change…

Opioid-related Poisoning Deaths in Québec: 2000 to 2009

Prescription opioid use has increased in Québec in recent years. In view of the serious consequences stemming from drug misuse in this pharmacological class, it is possible that the increase has affected the temporal trend in opioid-related poisoning deaths.

Objectives

Determine the opioid-related poisoning death rates in Québec and describe the temporal evolution of the phenomenon by age, gender of the deceased, manner of death, and type of opioid involved.

Method

Type of study and population

A retrospective trend analysis of poisoning-related death rates from 1990 to 2009 in the population 20 years of age or over.

Data

The death registry of the Registre des événements démographiques and the computerized database of the Bureau du coroner en chef du Québec.

Statistical analysis

A Joinpoint Regression analysis used to determine whether significant chang…

Summary Analysis of the Impact of the Romaine Hydroelectric Project on the Health of the Population: Monitoring the Situation in the Municipality of Havre-Saint-Pierre

The Romaine project offers a good illustration of all the risks of implementing major development projects in northern Quebec. The first major hydroelectric site in many years to be established so close to a small community, this project is opening the way for many other large-scale projects. Havre-Saint-Pierre is one of the eight municipalities which, along with the two Aboriginal communities of Ekuanitshit and Nutashkuan, constitute the Regional County Municipality (RCM) of Minganie on the North Shore. Havre-Saint-Pierre is the central point of Minganie and the seat of the RCM and of many governmental, municipal and regional services. The local economy, traditionally centered on fishing, has branched out in recent years.

Hydro-Québec's Romaine project is aimed at the development of a 1 550 MW hydroelectric complex on the Romaine river north of the municipality. Construction work on this complex consisting of four generating stations began in May 2009 and should continue un…

Estimation of environmental exposure to ground-level ozone: an example of modelling for the Québec population

Ozone (O3) is a gas that is one of the normal components of the atmosphere. In the stratosphere, it forms the ozone layer and protects the earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays. However, in the troposphere, ozone does not provide this same protective effect; it is instead identified as being a greenhouse gas and one of the main components of smog. This gas could therefore constitute certain risks to human health.

The aim of this document is to present approaches to modelling the environmental exposure of populations to ground-level ozone, specifically the approaches carried out on Québec's population by the Chair on Air Pollution, Climate Change and Health at the Université de Montréal. The ultimate purpose of the work carried out in Québec is to better estimate the health risks represented by this pollutant, and to provide scientific knowledge to professionals and decision makers in public health to further protect Québec's population.

Therefore, to brief…

Health Impacts of Particles from Forest Fires

The Government of Quebec's 2006–2012 Climate Change Action Plan, Quebec and Climate Change: A Challenge for the Future, brings together several Quebec government departments and agencies. The Green Fund, financed by a levy on fossil fuels, is mainly being used to fund 26 measures focused on two key objectives: greenhouse gas emission reductions and adaptation to climate change.

The Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) is responsible for the health component of Action 21, which targets the implementation of mechanisms to prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate change on health. It has committed to address six areas for action targeting Quebec's adaptation to climate change, with each area including several research or intervention projects.

This study's objective is to provide an overview of existing epidemiological knowledge on particles from forest fires and interventions that have been evaluated to reduce the related health impacts. Th…

Environmental Health Competency Framework for Public Health in Québec

Environmental health is a rapidly evolving field, and people working in this field have to deal with increasingly complex situations. Many environmental health practitioners need to develop new professional practices and update their competencies continuously in order to adapt to the new realities in the field. A group of public health experts set out to develop this environmental health competency framework in order to give practitioners an opportunity to engage in a process of continuing education.

To provide a common language and approach that will optimize the success of interventions, all of the professionals in a multidisciplinary team are expected to develop certain competencies related to public health as well as environmental health. That, moreover, is the raison d'être of this competency framework, which is intended for all members of the multidisciplinary team, whether their specialization is in health or a complementary field.

The framework is comp…

Urban Traffic Calming and Air Quality: Effects and Implications for Practice

This summary is the second in a series of five short documents based on a literature review published in 2011. In what follows, we first present the mechanisms of action underlying traffic-calming strategies, as these mechanisms help to explain and predict the effects of calming interventions on air pollution produced by traffic. Next, we summarize the results of studies having evaluated two approaches to traffic calming. Lastly, we consider the implications of such results for public health actors.

 

Life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts resulting from the implementation of urban heat island mitigation measures

The Institut national de santé public du Québec (INSPQ) decided to draw on the expertise of the CIRAIG to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) of ten urban heat island mitigation (UHI) measures applicable to the residential sector. The goal was not to compare or evaluate the effectiveness of these measures, but rather to assess the other potential environmental impacts that result from their implementation and maintenance during a specified period. The options were therefore analyzed on an individual basis (implementation of a particular measure), without taking into account their temperature reduction potential.

This assessment was intended to:

  • Make it possible to individually compare the UHI mitigation measures applicable to the residential sector with a baseline situation, which corresponds to the status quo (i.e. taking no action).
  • Permit, if possible, a ranking of certain comparable measures according to their potential overall environme…

The St. Lawrence Food Guide

The goal of the St. Lawrence Food Guide is to communicate information on aquatic resources of the St. Lawrence. This guide concerns commercial species of fish, mollusk and crustacean from the St. Lawrence river, estuary and gulf which are sold in Québec' s supermarkets and fisheries. The food guide gives information on nutritional and organoleptic qualities of these species. Also, a delicious recipe, easy to prepare, is presented for each species.

Presence of asbestos fibres in indoor and outdoor air in the city of Thetford Mines: estimation of lung cancer and mesothelioma risks

In the autumn of 2007, the Association des victimes de l'amiante du Québec (AVAQ – a Québec association for asbestos victims) and the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs du Québec (MDDEP – Québec ministry of sustainable development, the environment and parks) published studies on the asbestos concentrations measured in indoor and outdoor air in Thetford Mines. The findings motivated the public health authorities in Chaudière-Appalaches and Estrie to request the assistance of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ – Québec institute of public health) to conduct an assessment of the risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma of the pleura in this population.

Asbestos is divided into two families: amphiboles (crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite) and serpentines (chrysotile). The three main diseases associated asbestos exposure are asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma of the pleu…