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      Climate Change, Health, and Vulnerability in Canadian Northern Aboriginal Communities

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          Abstract

          Background

          Canada has recognized that Aboriginal and northern communities in the country face unique challenges and that there is a need to expand the assessment of vulnerabilities to climate change to include these communities. Evidence suggests that Canada’s North is already experiencing significant changes in its climate—changes that are having negative impacts on the lives of Aboriginal people living in these regions. Research on climate change and health impacts in northern Canada thus far has brought together Aboriginal community members, government representatives, and researchers and is charting new territory.

          Methods and Results

          In this article we review experiences from two projects that have taken a community-based dialogue approach to identifying and assessing the effects of and vulnerability to climate change and the impact on the health in two Inuit regions of the Canadian Arctic.

          Conclusions

          The results of the two case projects that we present argue for a multi-stakeholder, participatory framework for assessment that supports the necessary analysis, understanding, and enhancement of capabilities of local areas to respond and adapt to the health impacts at the local level.

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          An Approach for Assessing Human Health Vulnerability and Public Health Interventions to Adapt to Climate Change

          Kristie L. Ebi, R Sari Kovats, Bettina Menne (2006)
          Assessments of the potential human health impacts of climate change are needed to inform the development of adaptation strategies, policies, and measures to lessen projected adverse impacts. We developed methods for country-level assessments to help policy makers make evidence-based decisions to increase resilience to current and future climates, and to provide information for national communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The steps in an assessment should include the following: a) determine the scope of the assessment; b) describe the current distribution and burden of climate-sensitive health determinants and outcomes; c) identify and describe current strategies, policies, and measures designed to reduce the burden of climate-sensitive health determinants and outcomes; d) review the health implications of the potential impacts of climate variability and change in other sectors; e) estimate the future potential health impacts using scenarios of future changes in climate, socioeconomic, and other factors; f) synthesize the results; and g) identify additional adaptation policies and measures to reduce potential negative health impacts. Key issues for ensuring that an assessment is informative, timely, and useful include stakeholder involvement, an adequate management structure, and a communication strategy.
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            Human health implications of environmental contaminants in Arctic Canada: A review.

            U Gill, H Kuhnlein, G Bondy … (2005)
            The objectives of this paper are to: assess the impact of exposure to current levels of environmental contaminants in the Canadian Arctic on human health; identify the data and knowledge gaps that need to be filled by future human health research and monitoring; examine how these issues have changed since our first assessment [Van Oostdam, J., Gilman, A., Dewailly, E., Usher, P., Wheatley, B., Kuhnlein, H. et al., 1999. Human health implications of environmental contaminants in Arctic Canada: a review. Sci Total Environ 230, 1-82]. The primary exposure pathway for contaminants for various organochlorines (OCs) and toxic metals is through the traditional northern diet. Exposures tend to be higher in the eastern than the western Canadian Arctic. In recent dietary surveys among five Inuit regions, mean intakes by 20- to 40-year-old adults in Baffin, Kivalliq and Inuvialuit communities exceeded the provisional tolerable daily intakes (pTDIs) for the OCs, chlordane and toxaphene. The most recent findings in NWT and Nunavut indicate that almost half of the blood samples from Inuit mothers exceeded the level of concern value of 5 microg/L for PCBs, but none exceeded the action level of 100 microg/L. For Dene/Métis and Caucasians of the Northwest Territories exposure to OCs are mostly below this level of concern. Based on the exceedances of the pTDI and of various blood guidelines, mercury and to a lesser extent lead (from the use of lead shot in hunting game) are also concerns among Arctic peoples. The developing foetus is likely to be more sensitive to the effects of OCs and metals than adults, and is the age groups of greatest risk in the Arctic. Studies of infant development in Nunavik have linked deficits in immune function, an increase in childhood respiratory infections and birth weight to prenatal exposure to OCs. Balancing the risks and benefits of a diet of country foods is very difficult. The nutritional benefits of country food and its contribution to the total diet are substantial. Country food contributes significantly more protein, iron and zinc to the diets of consumers than southern/market foods. The increase in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease has been linked to a shift away from a country food diet and a less active lifestyle. These foods are an integral component of good health among Aboriginal peoples. The social, cultural, spiritual, nutritional and economic benefits of these foods must be considered in concert with the risks of exposure to environmental contaminants through their exposure. Consequently, the contamination of country food raises problems which go far beyond the usual confines of public health and cannot be resolved simply by risk-based health advisories or food substitutions alone. All decisions should involve the community and consider many aspects of socio-cultural stability to arrive at a decision that will be the most protective and least detrimental to the communities.
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              The effects of changing weather on public health.

              J A Last, J Patz, D Engelberg (1999)
              Many diseases are influenced by weather conditions or display strong seasonality, suggestive of a possible climatic contribution. Projections of future climate change have, therefore, compelled health scientists to re-examine weather/disease relationships. There are three projected physical consequences of climate change: temperature rise, sea level rise, and extremes in the hydrologic cycle. This century, the Earth has warmed by about 0.5 degrees centigrade, and the mid-range estimates of future temperature change and sea level rise are 2.0 degrees centigrade and 49 centimeters, respectively, by the year 2100. Extreme weather variability associated with climate change may especially add an important new stress to developing nations that are already vulnerable as a result of environmental degradation, resource depletion, overpopulation, or location (e.g. low-lying coastal deltas). The regional impacts of climate change will vary widely depending on existing population vulnerability. Health outcomes of climate change can be grouped into those of: (a) direct physical consequences, e.g. heat mortality or drowning; (b) physical/chemical sequelae, e.g. atmospheric transport and formation of air pollutants; (c) physical/biological consequences, e.g. response of vector- and waterborne diseases, and food production; and (d) sociodemographic impacts, e.g. climate or environmentally induced migration or population dislocation. Better understanding of the linkages between climate variability as a determinant of disease will be important, among other key factors, in constructing predictive models to guide public health prevention.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Environ Health Perspect
                Title: Environmental Health Perspectives
                Publisher: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
                ISSN (Print): 0091-6765
                Publication date (Print): December 2006
                Publication date (Electronic): 11 July 2006
                Volume: 114
                Issue: 12
                Pages: 1964-1970
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments, Public Health Research Unit, Centre hospitalier Universitaire du Québec –Centre hospitalier Université Laval, Department of Political Science, Laval University, Québec City, Quebec, Canada
                [2 ] Climate Change and Health Office, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
                Author notes
                Address correspondence to C. Furgal, Department of Indigenous Studies and Department of Environmental Resources Studies/Science, Gzowski College, Trent University 1600 East Bank Dr., Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8. Telephone: (705) 748-1011, ext. 7953. Fax: (705) 748-1416. E-mail: chrisfurgal@ 123456trentu.ca

                The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

                Article
                Publisher ID: ehp0114-001964
                DOI: 10.1289/ehp.8433
                PMC ID: 1764172
                PubMed ID: 17185292
                SO-VID: 9567efbe-d498-497c-9eee-0035b96ec7ed
                Copyright © This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original DOI
                History
                Date received : 17 June 2006
                Date accepted : 11 July 2006
                Categories
                Subject: Research
                Subject: Mini-Monograph

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Keywords: arctic,vulnerability,climate change,aboriginal,inuit,adaptive capacity
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health
                Keywords: arctic, vulnerability, climate change, aboriginal, inuit, adaptive capacity

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