January 29 | 2018

Human Health Risk Assessment for Gasoline Exhaust

Prepared by: Fuels Assessment Section Water and Air Quality Bureau Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch Health Canada November 2017

http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/sc-hc/H144-52-2017-eng.pdf

Excerpt from Executive Summary

Gasoline, or spark ignition, engines are used throughout Canada, representing 92% of on-road vehicles and 87% of off-road engines or equipment. It is reasonable to assume that exposure to gasoline engine exhaust (GE) is nearly ubiquitous, particularly for Canadians living in urban areas or in close proximity to a major roadway: it is estimated that approximately 2 million people live within 50 m of a major road in Canada. GE is a highly variable and complex mixture of particulate and gaseous pollutants, the composition of which depends on numerous factors, including fuel quality, engine and pollution control technologies, vehicle operating conditions and ambient temperature. GE is an important source of criteria air contaminants (CACs) associated with adverse effects on human health, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ground-level ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO). In addition, GE constituents include air toxics that are recognized internationally as carcinogens, such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Gasoline fuel, vehicles and engines are subject to multiple federal regulations that have successfully reduced air pollutant emissions from gasoline mobile sources, representing a major success in the management of air quality in Canada and the protection of human health. However, given the number of vehicles and engines in use, the age structure of the in-use fleets, and the vehicle kilometres travelled by Canadians, gasoline engines remain a key source of air pollution. The adverse health effects of individual pollutants in GE or produced secondarily in the atmosphere from primary GE emissions (e.g. PM2.5, O3, NO2, benzene and PAHs), are well characterized in the scientific literature and include increased risk of cardiorespiratory mortality and morbidity and of cancer, among other outcomes.

This report is a comprehensive review and analysis of the potential adverse health effects associated with gasoline fuel use in Canada. Two distinct approaches are used. Part A provides an evaluation of scientific studies that have examined the health effects associated with exposure to GE as a mixture. Studies on the health effects of individual GE constituents, such as PM2.5 and benzene, were not considered, as these substances have been extensively reviewed by Health Canada elsewhere. Part B provides a quantitative assessment of the contribution of on-road and off-road gasoline mobile source emissions to individual air pollutant concentrations in Canada and the population health impacts associated with that incremental contribution. The health impact analysis in Part B, which is based on well-established quantitative estimates of risk of adverse health impacts associated with incremental changes in air concentrations of individual pollutants, is complementary to the traditional risk assessment approach presented in Part A.

Measuring Walkability and Urban Sprawl – Opportunities and Challenges | February 28 | 2018 | VIDEO AVAILABLE

February 28 | 2018

9am – 10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern

 

VIDEO AVAILABLE

 

The rise of physical inactivity and associated chronic health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease) are a national challenge for Canada, both in terms of costs to healthcare systems and human suffering. This burden has prompted interest improving the active living friendliness (e.g., walkability) of Canadian communities to support daily physical activity as a population-level health intervention.

While many datasets and studies offer local perspectives on the human, health and economic impact of active living environments, national-level data is sparse. This webinar will discuss the potential of national indices recently developed by CANUE members as well as challenges for their use to study associations with health outcomes.

 

 

Dr. Dan Fuller and Dr. Henry Luan

Drs. Fuller and Luan will discuss the highlights from the November 2017 Walkability Workshop and provide an update on directions and research plans for the CANUE Neighbourhood Factors team in 2018.  They will provide an update of the upcoming Canadian urban sprawl and urban density measures being developed for CANUE. The presentation will focus on the development process and challenges with creating urban sprawl and density metrics.

Dr. Nancy Ross and Thomas Hermann

Introducing Can-ALE – the new Canadian Active Living Environment Index. Can-ALE is a recently released dataset of geographic-based active living friendliness measures for Canada. Hear about the work undertaken to produce the dataset, findings that may inform future data creation activities, and potential uses for research and policy.

 

Daniel Fuller is Canada Research Chair in Population Physical Activity in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University. His research is focused on using wearable technologies to study physical activity, transportation interventions, and equity in urban spaces. He focuses his methodological work on methods for natural experiments, and machine learning.

 

 

Hui (Henry) Luan is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University. His research focuses on spatial and spatio-temporal modeling of health-related phenomena using Bayesian approaches. The main aim is to detect spatial and spatio-temporal clusters of these phenomena and identify risk factors that contribute to the geographical disparities.

 

 

Nancy Ross is a Professor in the Department of Geography, associate member of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the Institute for Health and Social Policy, and the School of Environment, Associate Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation at McGill University and is a Canada Research Chair.  Her research interests include how social and built environments affect human health. She currently oversees a broad range of research, including studies which analyze the relationship between neighbourhood-level built design, food environments and health outcomes.

 

Thomas Herrmann is a research assistant and recent graduate of McGill University (BA Geography). Over the past year, Thomas was involved with the creation of Can-ALE, a national database of GIS-derived measures of the active living friendliness of Canadian communities. Presently, his work centres on analyzing the relationship between characteristics of the built environment and population health through data linkage with national health surveys.

Travel Awards for CPHA | Montreal May 2018

Post-doctoral, graduate and undergraduate students who are developing data for CANUE, or who have used our data to produce new research are eligible to apply for a student travel award.

We will provide up to $1,250 toward the cost of travel, hotel, and registration fees for selected events. Applications will be reviewed by a Committee of CANUE members.

The Canadian Public Health Association Annual Meeting  May 26-30, 2018 | Montreal, Ontario

January 15 | 2018

The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium – a protocol for building a national environmental exposure data platform for integrated analyses of urban form and health

Jeffrey R. Brook, Eleanor M. Setton, Evan Seed, Mahdi Shooshtari, Dany Doiron and CANUE – The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium

BMC Public Health BMC series https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-5001-5 Published: 8 January 2018

Abstract

Background

Multiple external environmental exposures related to residential location and urban form including, air pollutants, noise, greenness, and walkability have been linked to health impacts or benefits. The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) was established to facilitate the linkage of extensive geospatial exposure data to existing Canadian cohorts and administrative health data holdings. We hypothesize that this linkage will enable investigators to test a variety of their own hypotheses related to the interdependent associations of built environment features with diverse health outcomes encompassed by the cohorts and administrative data.

January 8 | 2018

Respiratory and cardiovascular responses to walking down a traffic-polluted road compared with walking in a traffic-free area in participants aged 60 years and older with chronic lung or heart disease and age-matched healthy controls: a randomised, crossover study

Rudy Sinharay, MBBS, Jicheng Gong, PhD, Benjamin Barratt, PhD, Pamela Ohman-Strickland, PhD, Sabine Ernst, MD, Prof Frank Kelly, PhD, Prof Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, PhD, Prof Peter Collins, MD, Prof Paul Cullinan, MD, Prof Kian Fan Chung, DSc

Co-first authors contributed equally

The Lancet.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32643-0 Published: 05 December 2017

Summary

Long-term exposure to pollution can lead to an increase in the rate of decline of lung function, especially in older individuals and in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), whereas shorter-term exposure at higher pollution levels has been implicated in causing excess deaths from ischaemic heart disease and exacerbations of COPD. We aimed to assess the effects on respiratory and cardiovascular responses of walking down a busy street with high levels of pollution compared with walking in a traffic-free area with lower pollution levels in older adults.

January 1 | 2018

Evaluation of daily time spent in transportation and traffic-influenced microenvironments by urban Canadians

Carlyn J. Matz ,David M. Stieb, Marika Egyed, Orly Brion, Markey Johnson

Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health pp 1–12|  First Online: 30 November 2017 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-017-0532-6

Abstract

Exposure to traffic and traffic-related air pollution is associated with a wide array of health effects. Time spent in a vehicle, in active transportation, along roadsides, and in close proximity to traffic can substantially contribute to daily exposure to air pollutants. For this study, we evaluated daily time spent in transportation and traffic-influenced microenvironments by urban Canadians using the Canadian Human Activity Pattern Survey (CHAPS) 2 results. Approximately 4–7% of daily time was spent in on- or near-road locations, mainly associated with being in a vehicle and smaller contributions from active transportation. Indoor microenvironments can be impacted by traffic emissions, especially when located near major roadways. Over 60% of the target population reported living within one block of a roadway with moderate to heavy traffic, which was variable with income level and city, and confirmed based on elevated NO2 exposure estimated using land use regression. Furthermore, over 55% of the target population ≤ 18 years reported attending a school or daycare in close proximity to moderate to heavy traffic, and little variation was observed based on income or city. The results underline the importance of traffic emissions as a major source of exposure in Canadian urban centers, given the time spent in traffic-influenced microenvironments.