Linking Environment and Health

Your genes are not your destiny! Identical twins look different (at least to those who know them) and do not necessarily succumb to the same diseases. Key differences lie in environmental exposures at home, school, work and play, in their air, water, food and what is absorbed through the skin. Increases in environmentally-linked conditions, and geographic hot-spots for disease, are signs that environmental protection is failing, and that safer choices are necessary.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 governs most environmental exposures, and is being amended with Bill S-5: Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act. For pesticides, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency is undergoing “Transformation,” including amendments of the Pest Control Products Act, 2002.

As you will see, this is none too soon!

Serious environmentally-linked conditions are increasing in Canada

• Once exceedingly rare, prevalence of type 2 diabetes now exceeds that of type 1 diabetes in Canadian children. In Manitoba, where rates are up to 20-fold higher than in some other areas of Canada, type 2 diabetes increased from 9 to 21 per 100,000 children <18 years of age between 2006 and 2011.¹ Type 2 diabetes is also increasing rapidly in Ontario children.² Clues to potential causes include a prospective nurses’ study that describes associations between plasma levels of persistent toxicants and diabetes, as well as interactions with weight changes (fatty tissue is presumed to be protective via sequestration of “fat loving” or lipohylic toxicants).³

• Obesity increases risks for about a dozen cancers here and here.^4,5 In Canada, smoking-related cancers are decreasing as smoking rates have fallen, but obesity- and endocrine-related cancers are on the increase;⁶

• The “obesity paradox” where adipose tissue appears to be protective has been noted for cancer (with cautions regarding analytical complexities),⁷ heart failure and mortality in patients with diabetes,⁸ and increasing population-adjusted rates of certain cancers, many of which are hormone-related.⁶ Storage of toxic chemicals in fat and increased blood levels of toxicants with weight loss may underlie numerous adverse conditions here, here and here;^9,10,11

• Male genital birth defects clustered in agricultural regions of Nova Scotia, while non-endocrine mediated congenital abnormalities were not clustered;¹²

• In Manitoba, lymphoid leukemia incidence in children increased between 1984 and 2013, with variations by geographic area;¹³

• Autoimmune disease is increasing rapidly in developed countries;¹⁴ Canada ranks globally among the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children, driven by increasing incidence in the youngest children of 6.5% annually;¹⁵

• Inflammatory bowel disease predisposes to colorectal cancer, which is increasing 7% annually in Canadian adolescents and young adults;¹⁶

• Neurological development can be impacted by many toxicants,¹⁷ such as metals lead,¹⁸ mercury ¹⁹ and manganese,²⁰ and endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol-A (BPA),²¹ to name a few. Increases in prevalence and incidence of treated attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were not uniform across Canadian provinces, suggesting non-uniform environmental contributors to the condition;²²

• Recent research reviews life-changing biological impacts of volatile chemicals and the myriad of scented products in daily use;²³ and

• Extensive basic research illuminates interacting mechanisms²⁴ of cellular signalling here and here,^25,26 gene expression (epi-genetic effects)²⁷ and metabolism (including oxidative stress), as a result of environmental exposures and the microbiome,^28,29 from pre-conception and across the life span.³⁰

This is but a small sample of clear evidence of environmentally-linked serious diseases. This represents the tip of the iceberg, that has been investigated. The current practice of restricting harmful exposures only after research like this has been done, and then been replicated, is unethical and ineffective protection of public health. We must do better. Take ACTION today.