Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew today announced the Government of Canada is allocating $1 million over the next year to fund cutting-edge research on the human health impacts of air pollution in support of the Georgia Basin/Puget Sound International Airshed Strategy, one of three pilot projects under the
Canada-United States Border Air Quality Strategy.
"We are collaborating with our partners to safeguard the health of citizens on both sides of the border," said Minister Pettigrew. "We especially need to protect those most vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution, such as pregnant women and children. This research will help us determine the best approach."
Environment Minister David Anderson said, "This is an important step toward the commitment of both Canadian and U.S. governments to address air quality issues in transboundary airsheds. Because air pollution does not respect national boundaries, this will improve the health and environment for Canadians."
Health Canada is working with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, and the Universities of British Columbia, Victoria and Washington to determine exactly how much air pollution individuals are exposed to in their day-to-day lives.
"This research will help us pinpoint the negative impacts of air pollution on our health and lead to a more informed understanding of air quality impacts on human health, particularly in relation to vulnerable populations," said Dr. Ray Copes, Medical Director for Environmental Health at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
Researchers will use an innovative method developed by European researchers, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Brauer of the University of British Columbia, to determine exposure levels by postal code for the study area. In urban areas this represents less than one city block. The research team will consider factors such as measured air quality; population density; traffic data; emission sources such as local industry and wood smoke; prevailing weather conditions; and the topography of the land. All of this information will be then sorted by postal code in a computerized database so that health impacts in each local area can be compared to local air quality conditions. Previous methods of assessing human exposure to air pollution relied on sparsely located air quality monitoring stations, which do not accurately reflect exposure at the local level. This is because they do not take into account factors such as local traffic or small neighbourhood sources that might lead to a higher local concentration of pollutants.