Thursday 13th February - Saturday 15th February 2003
Copenhagen, Denmark

Session 6: Development, health & Disorders

Christa Foley & Shirley Thompson
Defining the Impacts of Development on Cultural Health of Aboriginal Communities
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

In Canada, many First Nations reserves have been seriously affected by development. High levels of mercury contamination are typically found in Aboriginal communities near pulp mills or hydro development. According Health Canada’s 1997 report: “People in Aboriginal communities may be accumulating toxic chemicals at greater rates that the Canadian general population” and “One in five Aboriginal people tested between 1970 and 1992 and 22 percent of umbilical cord blood samples, in prenatal screening, had blood methyl mercury above the 20ppb [parts per billion] considered safe”.

Working with the First Nation community of Shoal Lake in Ontario, Canada provides the opportunity to define health differently and recognize the harmful impacts of development. To Western society, health is commonly viewed in relation to the presence of disease. In First Nations culture, health is explained in a more complex manner where disease is seen as an outcome of social, cultural, spiritual, and physical dysfunctions. The focus of my paper is the differences in how aboriginal views of environmental health and development from non-aboriginal views within the Canadian context.

Ivan Ivanov, Roberto Bertollini, & Angela Mertig
Public Concerns, Attitudes and Behaviour Related to Environment and Health in the Post-Communist Societies
World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, Regional Office for Europe, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

This paper presents the results of transactional survey research conducted by WHO and Gallup International in 2001-2002 in nine former communist countries (Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). The relationships between (1) concerns about certain environmental hazards and diseases, (2) attitudes toward national and local environmental management, and (3) political behaviour about environmental health problems have been examined along with the influence of some socio-economic variables on beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. The results show that in these countries individual political behaviour, such as signing petitions and participation in protests is low, and is not determined by environmental health concerns and attitudes. However, more educated persons as well as those who belong to ethnic and religious minorities are somewhat more active politically when it comes to health problems caused by the environment.

Shirley Thompson
Environmental Justice in a Toxic Community: Community Struggles with Environmental Health Disorders in Nova Scotia
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

The impoverished communities of Whitney Pier and Pictou Landing in Nova Scotia are struggling against a toxic economy that degrades human and environmental health. Proponents of environmental justice see these communities as part of a larger pattern, in which the poor and people of colour are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards from toxic development and technology.

In the United States, considerable research shows a strong correlation between environmental health risk and the social positions of race and class. In Canada, however, prior to this study, no comparable empirical research had been conducted. Through two approaches -- statistical and descriptive -- the relationship, between equity and technological risk, was determined to be similar to that in the US. However, Aboriginal reserves and industrial towns, including pulp and paper and steel towns, appear more at risk, rather than inner cities.

Environmental health risks, specifically abandoned waste disposal sites, hazardous facilities and toxic emission scores, were statistically significantly greater for: reserves (p<0.05), poor communities (p<0.01); and minority or Aboriginal communities (p<0.05). This research found reserves to be in "double jeopardy", suffering from both race and class barriers. These findings were used to build on the Healthy City Model by adding another key input -- equity -- to create a new model called the Equitable Health Community Model.

In addition to the statistical investigation, interviews with community activists provide recommendations for ecosystem-based policies relating to human health and political economy. Case studies for Pictou Landing Reserve and Whitney Pier in Sydney, were contrasted with three white middle class communities in Halifax finding differences in government responsiveness and other areas.