Your Health and a Changing Climate Newsletter, Volume 5, December 2006

Publications and Conferences

• Your Health and a Changing Climate: Information for Health Professionals

  This Health Canada publication consists of nine background documents and eleven fact sheets that summarize what's known to date about climate change and its impacts on human health. Each document is a stand-alone product that can be reproduced and distributed to interested audiences. It also includes four case studies that highlight some of the innovative measures adopted by provinces, municipalities and others in Canada and abroad. The publication is available in printed or CD format. Individual fact sheets can also be ordered from Health Canada.

  >>> For more information, email climatinfo@hc-sc.gc.ca.

• Our Climate - Our Health
  

  This Health Canada DVD is designed to be an information resource that provides an overview of the impacts of climate change on human health. It consists of a long version (approximately 6 minutes) and a short version (approximately two and a half minutes) and is suitable for the classroom, for public outreach events, or for the doctor's office.

  >>> Free copies can be obtained by contacting climatinfo@hc-sc.gc.ca

• Health Canada recently released a new fact sheet, Extreme Heat and Your Health, in the It's Your Health series which provides information on how to cope with heat waves which are likely to increase with a changing climate.
  

  >>> To view this information, visit http://hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/index_e.html

• World Disasters Report: Focus on Information in Disasters
  

  This publication of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies focuses on information as a life-saving resource. It discusses early warning systems and the idea of putting people, not just technology, at the centre of warning systems. Once fed and sheltered, disaster survivors are hungry for information on how to get back to work, participate in reconstruction, how to influence recovery operations, etc.

  Published annually since 1993, the World Disasters Report brings together the latest trends, facts and analysis of contemporary crises - whether 'natural' or human-made, quick-onset or chronic.

  >>> To order a copy of this report, email kpbooks@kpbooks.com

• Issue #11 - Health Policy Research Bulletin

  This Health Canada publication is dedicated to Climate Change: Preparing for the Impacts and includes a time line of climate change and health initiatives in Canada and internationally, as well as policy perspectives on vulnerable groups, surveillance, and adaptive actions.

  >>> Copies are available electronically at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/sr-sr/pubs/index_e.html.

  Hard copies can be ordered by emailing climatinfo@hc-sc.gc.ca

• The Atlas of Climate Change (Kirsten Dow and Thomas E. Downing) examines the signs of climate change - glacial and polar melting, rising sea levels, erratic weather patterns - and explains how global warming is being driven by the emission of greenhouse gases. It looks at the serious implications of these changes for food and water supplies, human health, sensitive ecologies, vulnerable cities, and cultural treasures, especially in those countries lacking the resources to adapt.
  

  The book also provides insights into contentious climate-change politics as it reviews current response efforts: the progress being made in meeting Kyoto commitments, the development of emissions trading, patterns of funding, and the contributions being made by local action.

  >>> Copies are available from  www.amazon.com

• Perspectives from Inuit in Canada - Putting the human face on climate change. (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments at Laval University and the Ajunnginiq Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization)

  This book presents the results of a series of workshops held from 2002 to 2005 that focused on environmental change and what it means for communities in the four Inuit regions of the Canadian Arctic.

Upcoming Conferences

The 7th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Integrating Environment and Human Health

February 1-2, 2007
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center,
Washington, D.C.
Please visit  www.ncseonline.org

Emergency Preparedness and Seniors International Workshop

February 7-9, 2007
Winnipeg, Manitoba
For more information, email ann-marie_kuiack@phac-aspc.gc.ca

International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE),

June 10 -15, 2007,
Vancouver, B. C.
 http://www.iuhpeconference.org

Health promotion has evolved in response to the need to take action on the broad determinants of health. In 1986, the Ottawa Charter established the fundamental guiding principles and values of health promotion and described five strategic action areas to address these determinants. Canada 2007 will serve to renew the Ottawa Charter and be an international venture that will take into account the needs and concerns of health promotion at a global level and encourage members to come from all corners of the world to celebrate the renewal of the Ottawa Charter.

The Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness World Conference on Disaster Management

July 8-11, 2007
Toronto Metro Convention Centre, South Bldg.
Toronto, Ontario
For more information, or to register go to  www.wcdm.org

For more information on Climate Change and Health visit:
www.healthcanada.gc.ca/cc or email us at: climatinfo@hc-sc.gc.ca