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Home > Projects
Climate Change & Waterborne Diseases: Atlantic Provinces Case Study
This case study is part of the larger project Links Between Climate, Water and Waterborne Illness, and Projected Impacts of Climate Change. The working title is: Impact of climate and agriculture on enteric illness in Atlantic Canada: toward a climate change adaptation strategy
Prince Edward Island has the highest incidence of E.coli O157:H7 (1/10,000) in Canada and is 3rd for reported cases of Campylobacter. In a 1996 study of sewage and drinking water in Canada, Giardia was detected most frequently in samples from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador (Wallis et al., 1996). Nova Scotia and Newfound and Labrador also had the highest number of positive samples for Cryptosporidium. Current climate change scenarios project slight increased summer temperatures, extreme weather events such as storms that bring heavy rainfall, increased thaw and freeze cycles that can cause ice dams and flooding that damage water treatment infrastructure and increased flooding due to sea level rise by the year 2050. Such changes in climate may have an adverse affect on water quality and health in the Atlantic provinces (Charron et al., unpublished).
The case study in the Atlantic provinces will attempt to answer the following questions:
§ How much waterborne illness in Atlantic Canada is attributable to agricultural practices?
§ How much additional waterborne illness can be attributed to climate variability?
§ How might climate change alter the vulnerability or risk of disease in Atlantic Canada?
The results of this study will help identify geographic areas and populations vulnerable to an increased risk of enteric illness. Climate change scenarios will be applied to the findings to gain a better understanding of how communities in Atlantic Canada may be at increased gastrointestinal vulnerability to the impact of global climate change. This national project will allow Canadian policy makers to better understand and manage current risks of waterborne enteric illness, and to devise strategies to adapt to an uncertain climatic future and the potential for more extreme weather events.
The hospitalizations discharge data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) have been obtained for years 1992-2000. Data for 2001 and 2002 are pending. Access to the notifiable disease records for each Atlantic province is being negotiated with the provincial epidemiologists for the pathogens E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Data on weather parameters have been secured from Environment Canada. Weather stations have been identified for PEI and NB and other stations are currently being identified. Agriculture data from the Census of Agriculture are in hand for years 1991, 1996 and 2001 through the TriUniversity Data Resource Centre (TDR). Appropriate methods are currently being investigated. Water quality/quantity data will be derived from several sources. The National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, is advising on this issue.
Descriptive analysis will be completed by September 2004. By late fall, analysis of relationships between weather parameters, agricultural indicators, water quality and quantity variables and health outcomes will be completed.
| Team | Principal Investigator: James Valcour Dept of Population Medicine University of Guelph |
| Funding | Funding support was received from the Health Policy Research Program, Health Canada. The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or official policy of Health Canada. |
| Collaborators | Committee Members:
David Waltner-Toews
Dominique Charron
Olaf Berke Special thanks to:
Jeremy Kerr
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