Canadian Occupational Safety – The United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 has partnered with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health at Laurentian University and Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers to work to change Ontario’s legislation for diesel particulate exposure in the mining industry. The USW Diesel Particulate Project is advocating for the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development to change the mining OEL for diesel engine exhaust to 20 µg/m³, which is the level recommended by both CAREX Canada and the Occupational Cancer Research Centre.

Read more »

Public Health Agency of Canada – Public health officials provide an important public service responding to community concerns around cancer and often receive requests to investigate patterns of cancer incidence and communicate findings with citizens. In this study, procedures were identified for Canadian public health officials (PHOs) to follow when investigating reports of cancer clusters, and the challenges officials have faced when conducting risk communication with communities were explored. Differences in practices used to investigate suspected cancer clusters by PHOs were revealed. Establishing pan-Canadian guidelines could improve procedural consistency across jurisdictions and offer enhanced opportunities to compare cluster responses for evaluation. A reporting system to track reported clusters may improve information sharing across all levels of governments.

Read more »

University of Calgary – A new multidisciplinary study shows that people who act quickly to test for and mitigate radon gas in their homes are at a much lower risk of developing lung cancer long-term. The study found that people who act quickly to learn about, test for, and reduce exposure to radioactive radon gas in their homes could reduce their lifetime risk of lung cancer by as much as 40%, compared to those who do not. The researchers determined that, for a variety of reasons including economic barriers (i.e affordability) and delaying behaviours, three in five Canadians continue to live in homes with known high radon, despite being aware of the associated health risks.

Read more »

Statistics Canada – After smoking, radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in Canada. In 2021, 56% of Canadian households reported that they had heard of radon, up from 54% in 2019. Of these, 69% were able to identify the correct description of radon when asked to pick from a list of possibilities, while 13% chose an incorrect description, down from 18% in 2019. The remainder had only heard of the term. In 2021, 9% of non-apartment households that had heard of radon indicated that they had tested for radon at some point in the past. Of these households, 86% had tested within the previous 10 years. About 10% of households that had tested their home reported that a problem had been found.

Read more »

National Institutes of Health – Women who used chemical hair straightening products were at higher risk for uterine cancer compared to women who did not report using these products, according to a new study from the National Institutes of Health. The researchers found no associations with uterine cancer for other hair products that the women reported using, including hair dyes, bleach, highlights, or perms. The study data includes 33,497 US women ages 35-74 participating in the Sister Study, a study led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The women were followed for almost 11 years and during that time 378 uterine cancer cases were diagnosed.

Read more »