Public Health and the Built Environment in Ontario

Public Health and Land Use Planning: How Ten Public Health Units are Working to Create Healthy and Sustainable Communities (232 page pdf, Kim Perrotta, Clean Air Partnership, April 2011)

Today’s focus is on a report that reviews of factors in the built environment and in land use planning affecting health, including a summary of the different approaches used by rural, urban and suburban public health units across the province of Ontario (with over 10 M population).



Key Quotes (on air pollution aspects):

“across Canada in 2008, seven common air pollutants contributed to approximately:

• 2,682 premature deaths occurring from short-term elevations in air pollution (1,000 in Ontario); 42 per cent of them related to cardiovascular disease and 11 per cent to respiratory conditions;
• 18,318 premature deaths from long-term exposure to air pollutants (8,500 in Ontario);
• 11,000 hospital admissions; 60 per cent related to cardiovascular conditions and 40 per cent due to respiratory conditions;
• 92,000 emergency room visits;
• 620,000 doctor's office visits; and
• Over 20 million minor illnesses (CMA, 2008)”

“the cost of these health effects at $8 billion in 2008 “

“on average, for every 10 ug/m3 increase in long-term air levels of PM2.5:

• Mortality from all causes increases by approximately 10 per cent; and
• Mortality from cardiovascular disease increases by 3 per cent to 76 per cent with some groups, such as women and obese individuals, having greater risks than members of the general population (Brook et al, 2010)”

“The lowest income populations in Toronto and Montreal were 3.5 and 2.8 times, respectively, more likely to live within 200 metres of a highway than the highest income populations; and

Twenty-five per cent of people from the lowest income populations in Canada's urban regions live within one kilometre of a pollution-emitting facility while only seven per cent of people from the highest income populations do”

“the City of Toronto has estimated that 190 premature deaths could be avoided, and $900 million in health benefits could be realized, each year, if vehicle emissions in Toronto were reduced by 30 per cent by encouraging a shift to other modes of travel”

“A review of 15 different studies conducted by the World Health Organization found that concentrations of air pollutants along traffic corridors were 1.2 to 2.3 times higher than background levels in those urban areas”

"The most susceptible (and overlooked) population in the US subject to serious health effects from air pollution may be those who live near major regional transportation routes, especially highways…."

“a doubling of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, central Canada could experience a five-fold increase in air masses that bring smog episodes, high temperatures and high humidity..heat-related death rates in the Toronto area could increase to between 9.63 and 33.65 per 100,000”

Related articles

• Proximity to Traffic Air Pollution and Birth Outcomes (pollutionfreecities.blogspot.com)
• Economic Impacts of Air Pollution from Asthma (pollutionfreecities.blogspot.com)
• Population Exposure Modelling in Canada (pollutionfreecities.blogspot.com)
• Modelling Exposure to Health Risks from Air Pollution (pollutionfreecities.blogspot.com)
• Healthy Communities Are No Accident (epa.gov)
• Polluted Air and Poor Health in UK Cities (pollutionfree.wordpress.com)
• Forget sidewalks, your built environment needs expensive gyms! (weightymatters.ca)