Today is one of those
historic public health days. The US
Supreme Court will determine the constitutionality of providing health care to
all Americans. Put differently, it gets
to decide whether it is legal to let some 20% of our southern neighbours die
prematurely because of their personal financial barriers to health services, or
if there is anything to be said about the “We” in “We the people…. ”.
More on the decision in a future blog.
It was with concern
and dismay that the February stroke of Canada’s first and only Chief Public
Health Officer was announced several months after the event. Fortunately his quick mind, biting wit and perseverance
for Canada’s public health was not affected, the stroke limited to motor
functions in one of the lower limbs, or so the media reports say. May all of public Health wish David
Butler-Jones a full and fulfilling recovery.
For those following
the movement of key public health folks will note that Andrea Corriveau has
returned as the CMHO for the Northwest Territories after a three year stint in
a similar position in Alberta. James Talbot
has moved from deputy to CMHO for the province in a deserving career step that
has had its share of Albertan propensity to see public health folks move in and
out of favour.
Manitoba remains under
the leadership of Margaret Fast since the untimely departure of one of Canada’s
solid public health leaders in Joel Kettner.
No doubt there are other recent movements as well of lifelong public
health contributors to be celebrated.
Quebec has joined with
most of the other provinces in suing tobacco firms for unnecessary and
preventable health care costs associated with misrepresentation of the tobacco
product. In this case $60B. The story
in French at Lapresse
on Quebec tobacco law suit
Have you noticed the surge in advertising
related to gambling? No doubt one of
the next logical targets for public health advocates is to begin to constrain
this addiction, and government addiction to the revenue carried on the backs of
their citizens. The story from Ontario
about advertising that suggests that to get away from family you should go to
the casino hit a few raw nerves Forget
your family - The Star.
The Ontario College of Family Physicians
released an updated literature review on the impacts of pesticides in the
ongoing efforts to limit toxic effects OCFP and
pesticides. This group has been one
of the leading driver of pesticide reduction efforts in the country and clearly
has been effective in Ontario. There
efforts did not however sway the BC government committee that dismissed certain
scientists and used anecdotal evidence on the failure of weed management
strategies in a couple of situations as
sufficient rationale to recommend against a cosmetic pesticide regulation for
the province BC
cosmetic pesticide committee report.
The truth likely lies somewhere between this extreme positions. The Scandanavian “substitution” principle
adopted in Europe nicely handles the debate more than the much debated
“precautionary” principle. Substitution
principle
No comments:
Post a Comment