Introducing the EduTox Video Challenge!

The Sandbox Project’s EduTOX Video Challenge officially opens on January 21, 2016

At last November’s Prenatal Environmental Health Education (PEHE) Forum, a core recommendation was that the focus of Environmental Health education efforts must go beyond pregnant women and include students and young adults to raise awareness of issues that could have significant impacts on the health of their future children and their own health over the long term. To engage youth on health-environment linkages, a national video competition was proposed whereby participants would be invited to produce short videos communicating key Environmental Health messages.In partnership with the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE), the David Suzuki Foundation, the Lung Association of New Brunswick, Pollution Probe, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the University of Ottawa, Yellow Pages Canada and the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health, we are proud to introduce the EduTox Video Challenge.

Clearing the Air Summit: We can make tomorrow a brighter day

the YCRH’s Stephanie Bertolo shares her 2015 Summit experience

On May 5th, World Asthma Day, I attended the second annual Clearing the Air Summit hosted by the Asthma Society of Canada. The full day event, attended by leaders of government, industry, academic and non-profit organizations was most certainly an enlightening experience, providing a unique perspective on the impacts of climate change. Commonly, when people give presentations on global warming, there is a strong fixation on the effects on the natural environments: increased natural disasters, decreased biodiversity, rising temperatures, and the likes. Though at the Clearing the Air Summit, they focused instead on exposing the harsh realities of global warming’s impact on human health.

Clearing the Air: the 2nd Annual Conference of the Asthma Society of Canada

The Asthma Society of Canada announces its 2nd Annual Clearing the Air Summit

The Asthma Society of Canada is holding its Second Annual Conference on May 4th and 5th, 2015 at the Courtyard by Marriot Downtown in Toronto. By bringing together leaders from government, industry, academia, and the not-for-profit sectors, they will examine asthma and respiratory allergies in a time of climate change and issue a call-to-action for decision makers. 

Clearing the Air is an opportunity to demonstrate that health and the environment are inextricably linked. Asthma and allergies, including both the social and economic impacts of climate change on respiratory health demand more attention from policy makers and the public.  

The Asthma Society of Canada is pleased to announce the keynote speaker will be the Honourable Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change.

CHILD Study: 3,500 Children Could Change Canada’s Approach to Fighting Chronic Diseases

Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study examines how a child’s environment during pregnancy, and in the first few years of life, can interact with genetics to affect the risk of developing allergies, asthma, type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases

If just 24 children can help scientists discover that Caesarean sections and formula feeding may deprive babies of the protective gut bacteria needed for lifelong health, just imagine what will be discovered by collecting a wide range of health information from some 3,500 children. Scientists believe it will influence everything from health policy and building codes to parenting decisions for decades to come.

Those 3,500 children, along with their mothers and about 2,600 fathers from Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and several communities in Manitoba, are on the front-lines of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, a national birth cohort study funded in part by the Allergy, Genes and Environment Network (AllerGen).

New online course helps educators to keep allergic kids safe at school

Anaphylaxis Canada has launched a new online course to help teachers, administrators and educational staff to keep allergic students safe at school

Anaphylaxis in Schools: What Educators Need to Know is a free, bilingual resource available to schools across the country. The course incorporates graphics, audio narration, practice scenarios, and step-by-step visual guides to help educators prevent and manage emergency situations at school.

AllerGen researchers awarded CIHR grants

CHILD research team awarded five-year CIHR grant

Dr. Malcolm Sears, an AllerGen research leader and a professor of medicine at McMaster University, together with a team of CHILD researchers from across Canada, has received a five-year operating grant, valued at over $1 million, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health. The CHILD Study application was ranked first among 65 proposals reviewed by the respiratory committee in the March 2014 competition.

Canada’s “Clean Air Champions” win the 2013 International Olympic Committee’s Sport and Environment Award

Charity led by various Canadian Olympians becomes first Canadian recipient of coveted IOC award

SOCHI – Yesterday, Canada’s Clean Air Champions (CAC) were awarded the 2013 International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Sport and Environment Award at the IOC World Conference on Sport and the Environment. This win makes CAC the first Canadian charity to win the esteemed international award, granted to individuals, groups and organizations that have shown initiative and taken action to drive environmental change within their communities.

The Sandbox Project calls for support for the CHILD Study

The Sandbox Project’s Environment Working Group writes a letter to encourage the continuation of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study

Dear Honorable Minister,

On behalf of The Sandbox Project, we wish to draw your attention to, and encourage your support for, the continuation of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, an internationally recognized, longitudinal population-based birth cohort investigating the origins of chronic childhood illnesses.   The CHILD Study represents a key tool for understanding the impact of the environment on children’s health, and the epidemic of asthma, allergy and many other chronic diseases of later childhood and adulthood in Canada. The mission of The Sandbox Project is to make Canada the healthiest place on earth for kids to grow up – what can be learned from the CHILD Study is critical if we hope to succeed.