Category Archives: Health

Campbell River Hospital Lab Needs Your Support

(Editor’s note: The following press release from Citizens for Quality Health Care mentions matters of concern to residents of the entire Greater Campbell River Health Area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and other Discovery Islands.)

Citizens for Quality Health Care – the North Vancouver Island health care advocacy group whose petitions and actions helped bring about new hospitals in Campbell River and the Comox Valley and free parking at both hospitals – is asking people to take action regarding an urgent and serious situation at the Campbell River Hospital Lab.

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Clinical Pathology Lab Work At Campbell River Hospital Threatened

(Editor’s note: The following opinion article was originally published on Decafnation and mentions matters of concern to residents of the entire Greater Campbell River Health Area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and other Discovery Islands.)

By Barbara Biley

As a result of changes made by the Vancouver Island Health Authority to lab services in the Campbell River Hospital, the lab itself is in peril and the lab at the Comox Valley Hospital is also in danger.

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Avoid Wood Smoke

By Roy L Hales

According to the Daily Mail, “Wood-burning stoves emit six times as much pollution as a diesel truck.” The Environmental Protection Agency states wood smoke contains several toxic air pollutants including: benzene; formaldehyde; acrolein, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Health Canada claims, “In communities where wood heating is common, wood smoke can be responsible for as much as 25% of the airborne particulate matter.” They advise people to avoid wood smoke.

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Air Pollution As Bad As Cigarettes

By Roy L Hales

Chronic lung disease rates are increasing. The University of Washington, Columbia University and the University at Buffalo have just published the results of an 18-year-long study made to determine why. They concluded that air pollution is as bad as cigarettes.

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Drug Literacy

Today, I woke up and much of the day I spent thinking about how I was going to get my drug-of-choice packed up for my upcoming trip. How much do I need? What could I leave behind in order to fit my drug-of-choice into the one little bag that would last me a month? What would happen if I ran out? My drug of choice happens to be a particularly fine earl grey tea and why I like to think I am not addicted, when I think about going without the warmth and ritual of my morning cup, my heart starts to race and I snap at my children. There are few people I know that aren’t dependant on some sort of drug as part of their daily routine: caffeine, tobacco, marijuana, alcohol or the harder-to-get and less acceptable ones that are prescribed, gotten on the streets, or otherwise come by illicitly. I’ve noticed in my life, it’s often the people who once struggled with illicit drug use themselves that have the most nuanced understanding drug literacy and the varying relationships people have with psychoactive drugs.

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