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Sound is a common feature of many cities. But unwanted, persistent and loud sound can become noise and affect our health. Exposure to noise pollution is associated with significant health hazards, including hearing loss, cardiovascular impacts such as heart disease and high blood pressure, metabolic disease, attention and memory loss, sleep disturbance, depression, and decreased quality of life. Those with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to live in areas where they experience higher levels of noise pollution, putting them at greater risk of its health impacts. However, cities don’t have to be noisy. There are steps they can take to mitigate noise pollution and reduce its health burden.

This webinar will:

• Discuss prevalence of noise pollution in Canada
• Discuss how excessive noise affects health
• Discuss how cities can address noise and mitigate its health effects

About the Speaker

Dr. Oiamo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research in environmental health geography focuses on exposure assessment through the development of environmental models of noise and air quality, novel population exposure metrics, and simulation systems to assess health impacts of urban change. These efforts complement research activities that aim to further our understanding of environmental determinants of health as well as health and disease risks in vulnerable urban populations. Through collaboration with public and private sector partners, these research activities are applied and oriented towards environmental decision-making and policy. Dr. Oiamo also teaches on topics related to environmental decision-making, sustainable development, demography and environmental health.

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The health effects of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) continue to be of important public health interest. Assessing exposure to TRAP is challenging because TRAP is a complex mixture of particulate matter and gaseous pollutants and exhibits high spatial and temporal variability. Following its well-cited 2010 critical review, the Health Effects Institute (HEI) appointed a new expert panel to systematically evaluate the epidemiological evidence regarding the associations between long-term exposure to TRAP and selected adverse health outcomes. The panel used a systematic approach to search the literature, select studies for inclusion in the review, assess study quality, summarize results, and reach conclusions about the confidence in the evidence.

This webinar will:

• Discuss patterns of exposure to traffic-related air pollution around the world, and which populations are most exposed to TRAP
• Review the health impacts of increased exposure to long-term exposure to TRAP
• Discuss strengths and weaknesses of the evidence, and future research needs

About the speaker:

Hanna Boogaard has more than 15 years of experience in air pollution epidemiology. She is a Consultant Principal Scientist at the Health Effects Institute (HEI) in Boston, MA, an independent research organization with balanced funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency and motor vehicle industry. She received a PhD in 2012 in air pollution epidemiology from Utrecht University, Netherlands. She studied health effects of traffic-related air pollution, and the effectiveness of traffic policy measures. At HEI, she is involved in research oversight and review of studies investigating the health effects of air pollution and studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to improve air quality and public health. In addition, she is involved in developing and overseeing new research programs on non-tailpipe traffic emissions, studies assessing adverse health effects of long-term exposure to low levels of ambient air pollution, and studies on health effects of traffic-related air pollution. Furthermore, she is working very closely with an expert HEI panel to systematically evaluate the evidence for the associations of long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution with selected health outcomes. She holds a MSc in Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences (2005) from Maastricht University, Netherlands.

She has been advisor of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, World Health Organization, Health Canada, and other national and international bodies. She is associate editor for Environment International and on the Editorial Review Board for Environmental Health Perspectives. She is co-chair of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Europe Chapter, and member of the ISEE Policy Committee.

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How healthy you are can depend a lot on where you live. But how should cities and towns approach transforming the built environment to improve residents’ health? The Community Wellbeing Framework, developed by the Conference Board of Canada and DIALOG, is an evidence-based methodology to design for community wellbeing made up of five domains, 18 indicators, and 48 metrics. The Framework defines and evaluates the built environment’s contributions to community wellbeing and helps guide conversations toward a shared vision and actionable decision making, with tangible value, on how the world around us can and should be designed.

Join us for a webinar with Antonio Gomez-Palacio to learn how the Framework is being used by communities and decision-makers to support physical, mental, environmental and social wellbeing.

This webinar will:

• Review the elements of the built environment that contribute to physical and mental health and wellbeing
• Provide an overview of the evidence-based Community Wellbeing Framework
• Present case studies of how the Community Wellbeing Framework is being used in community projects that promote health and wellbeing

About the speaker:

Antonio Gomez-Palacio is an urban planner and founding partner with DIALOG, one of Canada’s leading design firms. Antonio’s professional experience and research focus on the intersection of architecture, planning, and urban design. He’s internationally recognized for transforming cities into vibrant urban places that respond to their social, economic, and environmental contexts. Antonio has worked on a wide range of projects focused on urban intensification, master planning, mixed-use, transit, heritage, economic development, and sustainability. His project work includes light-rail transit (LRT) projects for Mississauga, Brampton, and Edmonton, downtown plans for Halifax and Regina, and campus plans for Seneca College and Laurentian University.

In addition to impacting communities through his professional practice, Antonio has acted as chair of the Toronto Society of Architects and the City of Vaughan’s Design Review Panel. He is involved with several industry initiatives and organizations, including the Canadian Institute of Planners, the Royal Architectural Institute of

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Transportation is an integral part of our daily lives, giving us access to people, education, jobs, services, and goods. Our transportation choices and behaviours are influenced by four interrelated factors: the land use and built environment, infrastructure, available modes, and emerging technologies/disruptors. These factors influence how we move ourselves and goods, and are modifiable. In turn, these factors impact various exposures, lifestyles and health outcomes. Understanding how transportation can be both beneficial and detrimental to health is crucial for policy- and decision-makers aiming to prioritize and improve public health in their cities.

This webinar will:

• Summarize pathways that link transportation to health
• Review how pathways between transportation and health intersect with equity
• Show quantitative health impact assessments of these pathways from cities across the world
• Overview data and methodological gaps in health impact assessments of transportation decisions
• Discuss how understanding the pathways, health impacts and co-benefits can inform decision making about transportation and public health

About the speaker:

Haneen Khreis is a Senior Research Associate in the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge and is an Associate Scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. She is a cross-disciplinary researcher broadly studying the health impacts of transport planning and policy with a special interest in cities. She is trained in transport planning and engineering, vehicle emissions and air quality monitoring and modelling, systematic reviews, health impact and burden of disease assessment. She also has expertise in policy options generation and the science-policy link. Haneen has worked extensively with air pollution and asthma in particular, doing epidemiological, burden of disease assessment and monetization studies.

She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, chapters and technical reports, with a large media impact, and edited three books on integrating human health into planning, transport and health, and traffic-related air pollution and health. Haneen recently developed a cross-disciplinary course titled “Traffic-Related Air Pollution: Emissions, Human Exposures, and Health.”. She is dedicated to improving human health and equity through supporting relevant education, workforce development, and evidence-based healthy and just planning.

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This summer was one of the hottest on record – especially in Canadian cities – and the accelerating rate of climate change means future summers will be hotter for longer, leading to increased heat-related deaths and health issues. By the middle of the century, the number of days over 30℃ will double in Canada. One of the key ways cities can respond to climate change and mitigate the effects of extreme heat in cities and promote better health is to create more green space, which cools the air and promotes better physical and mental health.

This webinar will:

1. Review the physical and mental health impacts of green space
2. Discuss how green space can help cities adapt to the effects of climate change
3. Explore policies and investments cities could enact to accelerate the expansion of green space

About the speaker:

Matilda van den Bosch is an Associated Researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain and an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia.

She investigates how environmental exposures, for example, urban green spaces, can influence various aspects of human health and how we can create healthier cities.

Activities in her lab include regulating urban ecosystem services, such as heat reduction with an impact on heat-related morbidity and mortality, as well as cultural services from urban nature, for example, increased physical activity and stress recovery. Much of the research focuses on linkages between various types of land-use data and health mediators or outcomes. Another project is looking at the mental health impacts of deforestation in low-and middle-income countries.

As co-leader of the greenness team within the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE), she is part of a team developing greenness metrics across Canada for linking to various health cohorts.