CPHA - A History of Environmental Health
Over the years, CPHA has been involved in a wide range of activities associated with occupational and environmental health. This background knowledge and experience places CPHA at the centre of discussion on human and ecosystem health.
In the early 1990s, CPHA set up a Task Force to study the issue of human health and global ecological change. This report, entitled Human & Ecosystem Health: Canadian Perspectives, Canadian Action, laid a solid basis for further work in the area of human and ecosystem health.
CPHA members have since actively participated in discussions and studies on environmentally related topics such as: nitrous oxide and volatile organic compounds; the development of a national pollution inventory; waste management and environmental health indicators; arsenic exposure from mining activities to workers and members of the community in Yellowknife and Hay River, Northwest Territories; fluoride emissions affecting plant workers and the community in Long Harbour, Newfoundland and toxicology of the Great Lakes Water and its effect on population.
In addition, CPHA members have passed motions and resolutions over the years, related to environmental health issues. Some of these are listed below:
- In 1970, CPHA members passed a resolution on pesticide use which called for the immediate controlling of the sale of, or use in Canada of persistent pesticides.
- A 1981 CPHA resolution requested that the Government of Canada amend the Act governing the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety to increase the health and safety of Canadian workers.
- A 1988 resolution addressed the urgent need to document the hazards faced by Canadian farm families including chemical hazards resulting from pesticide use.
- n 1999, CPHA passed a resolution on the Precautionary Principle with regards to the environment and a motion on Children’s Environmental Health.
CPHA was also a member of the National Multistakeholder Committee to Advise the Minister of the Environment on the national consultation process regarding the Federal Government’s Green Plan for Canada’s environmental future. CPHA and its Provincial/Territorial Branches and Associations took part in regional and national consultations on the Green Plan. Later, in 1998, CPHA submitted a brief to the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development regarding the review of Bill C-32.
In recent years, CPHA has been very active on committees and in meetings and workshops concerned with health and the environment. For example, CPHA has been represented on the Advisory Committee for the Preparation of a Report on Human Health and the Canadian Environment since 1996. We were involved in a consultation meeting on ozone-depleting substances and their alternatives in October 1996 and a stakeholder consultation workshop, Towards a SMOG Plan for Ontario, in June 1996. We took part in a workshop on acid rain in May 1997 and a meeting on The Air Children Breathe in November 1997.
In 1997, CPHA endorsed the Public Health Workers’ Statement on Climate Change which was circulated by the David Suzuki Foundation. CPHA provided copies of the statement to all its members and encouraged them to sign it.
Finally, CPHA is currently represented on a number of national committees including:
- Canada-Wide Standard for Benzene
- Canada’s Environmental Assessment Standard National Consultation
- Consumer Chemical Harmonization Task Force
- Mercury Canada-Wide Standard Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group
- Joint Core Advisory Committee on Particulate Matter (PM) and Ozone