Canada

Cut children's fluoride exposure, report to Health Canada urges

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

An expert panel Health Canada commissioned to study the risks of fluoride exposure says the government should cut the recommended amount in drinking water, encourage the use of low-fluoride toothpaste by children and have makers of infant formula reduce levels in their products. The panel recommended reduced fluoride exposure because it was worried children might be getting too much of the chemical from diet, water and toothpaste, placing them at increased risk of fluorosis, said Steven Levy, a panel member and a research professor at the University of Iowa's College of Dentistry.

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Land deal may save endangered B.C. caribou herd

Posted by Shemuses from CBC

The federal government and Nature Conservancy Canada have announced a plan to preserve 550 square kilometres of remote valleys, mountains and lakes in the southern interior of British Columbia that may save an endangered herd of mountain caribou. The acquisition of the property, known as Darkwoods, is one of the largest single private conservation project ever undertaken by a Canadian non-profit organization, the Nature Conservancy said in a statement released Thursday. Craig Pettitt of the Valhalla Wilderness Society said the plan is superior to the one put forth by the B.C. government last fall because it gives the 45 members of the South Selkirk mountain caribou herd a decent shot at survival.

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Indigenous Land: Canada’s Toxic Storehouse

Posted by Shemuses

Lurking behind these efforts, so far away you can barely see it, there is a massive health crisis in Canada. According to a Treasury Board of Canada Inventory on contaminated sites, there are 4,464 toxic sites within the treaty territories of Indigenous People in Canada. That's roughly 1.5 sites for all of Canada's 2,720 Reserves - though in reality, some reserves have upwards of a dozen sites, where others have none. Here's the link to the inventory and directions on how to navigate.

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Wanted: A Real Climate Change Vision

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

What Campbell gets wrong, that ordinary BCers have right. British Columbia's carbon tax holds the potential to inspire a new vision: to transform the economy from the brown, carbon-based solutions of the past to the clean, green sustainable solutions of the future. The citizens of British Columbia understand how crucial this transformation is. Poll after poll

that British Columbians and Canadians are worried about global warming and want action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. British Columbians want to change; they just need some leadership.

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Smoking ban considered for Vancouver beaches

Posted by Shemuses from CBC

Having a smoke at the beach may soon be an illegal act, if staff at Vancouver Coastal Health get their way.

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'The Wisdom of Whores'

Posted by Shemuses from The Tyee

"Mother Theresa. She's a saint. Did she ever do anything to change the situation of people, to make it less likely that people were in need of rescuing? No. It's all over the Bible that you help people who are sick. But for some reason we do not translate that into it being compassionate to stop people from getting sick in the first place. "It's sin, retribution, redemption. It's associated with this deep-seated Judeo-Christian morality, but we also see it in the Muslim tradition. We don't see it in Buddhist countries, for example -- they've been extremely pragmatic for the most part in their response to HIV -- and we don't see it in Confucian societies.

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Aboriginal designer calls Miss Universe Canada’s 2008 costume “offensive”

Posted by Shemuses

Wearing a Cree-inspired, fringed leather bikini encrusted with rhinestones and a feathered war bonnet, the woman representing Canada at the Miss Universe pageant 2008 in Vietnam appeared before more than one billion global TV viewers on July 13. Samantha Tajik, 26, who was born in Iran, grew up in Vancouver, and now lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Yesterday, however, one of Canada's foremost aboriginal designers called Tajik's national costume "offensive". Dorothy Grant told the Georgia Straight that sexualizing the war bonnet is tantamount to sexualizing another cultures' spiritual symbol.

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