Chemical Exposures and Women’s Health NNEWH is committed to understanding the conditions and diseases that are unique to and more prevalent in women, affect women differently, and are becoming more common for women. The Women’s Health Strategy declares that, “environmental risks are increasingly significant for women, as they may react differently than men to environmental contaminants.” Almost a decade after releasing the Strategy, research has confirmed the unique and detrimental relationship between environmental risks and women’s health. For example, the Public Health Agency of Canada has identified environmental contaminants and environmental air quality as risk factors for cancer, especially in women.
Studying environmental factors in health specifically and independently in the context of women's health is essential because it cannot be assumed that the environment will affect men and women in the same way. Men and women’s lives, family roles and work can result in significant differences in environmental exposure and, women's lives involve hormonal and metabolic changes that create opportunities for differential effects of similar environments on women as compared to men. Research and policy work on chemical exposures and women’s health specifically, is important because if hazards to women’s health are identified, they are preventable, often through collaborative action including regulation and policy change. NNEWH’s projects focus on the influence on health of chemical exposures from contact with air, water, soils and dusts, from drinking water and food, and from using products containing biologically active chemicals. |
NNEWH’s current projects: |
Survey on Chemical Exposures and Women's HealthThe National Network on Environments and Women's Health, in collaboration with the Canadian Women's Health Network, is conducting a survey on people's daily exposures to chemicals. We are trying to gather information from as broad a range of people in Canada as possible, with a particular interest in responses from women. The survey will be on line until March 24th. Please fill it in and encourage others to do so as well (it only takes a few minutes). The results from the survey, which we will make known to Health Canada, will be published on our websites some time later in the spring. Here are the links to the surveys in English and French.
English
www.surveymonkey.com/s/PBGRWGC French
www.surveymonkey.com/s/PBPPJTM More information on the Government of Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan
CMP Backgrounder “Consuming” Chemicals: Engaging Women with Policy ChangeThis project is designed to involve women much more directly in the decisions being taken under the government’s new Chemicals Management Plan, and in particular to draw attention to the importance of the decisions being made under that scheme to women’s health in the long term. NNEWH will assemble a panel of speakers for a public event that can address the diversity of issues relevant to the chemical substances under consideration in a specific “batch”, such as available epidemiological evidence and its significance for women’s health, the uses of the chemicals and/or products in question and the availability of alternatives. Speakers addressing the political economy of the proposed decisions will also be involved, including information about how different industries (e.g. those manufacturing the substance in question, and those who may manufacture an alternative) will be affected by increased regulation of the chemical. Further, NNEWH is interested in exploring both the human and economic ‘costs’ of continued exposures, in terms of women’s health and quality of life.
The evidence and perspectives generated in the public engagement event will be presented to policy decision-makers through a targeted policy brief on a highlighted substance under consideration for proposed risk management measures. Consuming Chemicals: Implications for Women’s Health - Paper SeriesNNEWH commissioned 7 papers exploring the relationship between exposures to chemicals and women’s health. These papers explored both the processes that ‘produce’ chemicals and chemical pollution, and ...
Read More "Consuming" Chemicals: Implications for Women's Health - Policy ForumBased on deliberations from the Gender & Envrionmental Health Symposium and federal priorities, NNEWH hosted a closed policy forum in February 2009. This forum emphasized the importance of a gender-based analysis in research, policy and practice in relation to women's chemical exposures. The critical areas discussed included emerging evidence around endocrine disruption, xenoestrogens and breast cancer, food contamination, chemicals and addiction, plastics recycling, and the trend towards “precautionary consumptionism”. “Modernizing” the Hazardous Products ActThe purpose of the Hazardous Products Act (HPA) is to protect the health and safety of consumers by prohibiting or regulating the sale, advertising or import of hazardous or potentially hazardous consumer products, and to ensure the protection of Canadians from the adverse effects of hazardous materials through the provision of precautionary labeling and material safety data sheets. However, the current HPA is outdated and does not incorporate recent research findings. NNEWH has created a comprehensive policy brief based on Bill C-6 (An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Products, 2009) which sets out priorities for action from a gender perspective. Chronic Pollution in Sarnia’s “Chemical Valley”This on-going project applies gender-based analysis to the problem of chronic pollution, looking in particular at long-term, low dose exposures. The case study focuses on Sarnia’s “Chemical Valley” and its suspected role in the skewed sex ratio on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve.
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