Education Workshop Find out More About Hidden Environmental Contaminants & Creating A Healthy Environment For You And Your Family

Developed by Exposure Pathways Education Project Sharon MacKenzie Public Health Nurse Public Health Services A Shared Service of Cape Breton District Health Authority (CBDHA) & Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority (GASHA)

Icebreaker Getting To Know You!

Public Health Services Who Are We? Shared Service Cape Breton District Health Authority Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority

Who Are We? Our Team consists of an interdisciplinary group of professionals working at the community, district, provincial, and national levels of the health care system.  Public Health Nurses  Licensed Practical Nurses  Dental Hygienists  Health Educators  Nutritionists  Support Staff  Managers  Medical Officer of Health  Tobacco Reduction Coordinators

What We Do ? Public Health Services Focuses on the following six (6) functions:  Assess the Health of Populations  Health Surveillance  Population Health Advocacy  Health Promotion  Disease and Injury Prevention  Health Protection

Who Are We ? Public Health Services, following a “Population Health Approach” works in partnership with communities, families and individuals to prevent illness, protect and promote health and achieve well being

Who Are We? We do so by advocating for healthy public policy and encouraging action around the “determinants of health” ( Source: Health Canada)  Income and Social Status  Social Support Networks  Education  Employment/Workin g Conditions  Social Environments  Physical Environments  Personal Health Practices and Coping Skills  Healthy child development  Biology and Genetics  Health services  Gender  Culture

Overall Purpose Of Today’s Workshop: To increase participants understanding of 1.Environmental Contaminants 2.Pathways of Exposure 3.Ways to reduce or avoid Exposure

By the End of Today’s Workshop, Participants will 1.Understand the properties of 5 environmental contaminants 2.Understand how contaminants travel from a source,through the environment into people (Exposure Pathways) 3.Identify ways to help reduce/avoid exposure to contaminants

To help understand the risk(s) posed by environmental contaminants, we will first explore these terms and what they mean to people

Activity 1 Explore what these words mean to the group Environmental Contaminants

Am I At Risk? Are my Children At Risk?

Activity 2 Purpose of the activity is to explore how you Rate your Risk of exposure to several environmental contaminants. Not a test, nobody else will see it. Complete Side A only

Definition Of Risk In relation to environmental contaminants, risk can be defined as: the likelihood that an adverse health effect will occur in a person (group) that is exposed to a particular level of a harmful substance Source:Health Canada: Health and the Environment Handbook

Definition of Risk Risk is a measure of:  Harm that can result from exposure to a contaminant  The likelihood that harm will occur Source:Health Canada:Shared Responsibilities, Shared Vision, Reviewing the federal health protection legislation, 1998

Environmental Contaminant  A Substance(s) that has the potential to be harmful.  Contaminants can get into our food, water, air or soil.  Pollutants

Contaminants Contaminants can exist:  naturally (forest fires, volcanoes, natural geology) or  created by: human activities (industry, garbage, chemical spills)

What puts us at risk of becoming exposed to an environmental contaminant?

Exposure Pathway Link between Source and Receptor A) Source B) Pathway C) Receptor

Exposure Pathway  Exposure- exposure means you do not have shelter or protection.  any contact between a substance and an individual  Exposure Pathway-the pathway a contaminant may take to reach humans or other living things (Link)

An Exposure Pathway Consists of 5 Elements Source Transport Point of Exposure Route of Exposure Receptor Population

Source Where the harmful substance is coming from:

Transport Media What things the harmful substance can get into and how it moves Air Water Food Soil

Point Of Exposure A place where contact with the contaminant could happen: Home Workplace School

Exposure Route How the harmful substance gets into or contacts your body: 1.Breathe/inhale 2.Swallow/ingest 3.Skin contact/touch

Receptor Population The people that could come in contact with the harmful substance: children, families, workers:

What environmental contaminants are we at risk if being exposed to in our daily lives ?

Activity 3 Purpose: To identify the environmental contaminant on the Activity 3 Worksheet To become familiar with the information in the brochures

Arsenic

Coal Ash

Lead

PCBs

PAHs

Activity 4 Rate Your Risk Side B

Questions ?

Evaluation Forms & Thank You