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Purpose: Evidence from systematic reviews suggests that adult immigrants living in areas of higher immigrant density (areas with a higher proportion of foreign-born residents) tend to experience fewer mental health problems—likely through less discrimination, greater access to culturally/linguistically appropriate services, and greater social support. Less is known about how such contexts are associated with mental health during childhood—a key period in the onset and development of many mental health challenges. This study examined associations between neighbourhood immigrant density and youth mental health conditions in British Columbia (BC; Canada). Methods: Census-derived neighbourhood characteristics were linked to medical records for youth present in ten of BC's largest school districts from age 5 through 19 over the study period (1995–2016; n = 138,090). Occurrence of physician assessed diagnoses of mood and/or anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and conduct disorder was inferred through International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic codes in universal public health insurance records. Multi-level logistic regression was used to model associations between neighbourhood characteristics and odds of diagnoses for each condition; models were stratified by generation status (first-generation: foreign-born; second-generation: Canadian-born to a foreign-born parent; non-immigrant). Results: Higher neighbourhood immigrant density was associated with lower odds of disorders among first-generation immigrant youth (e.g., adjusted odds of mood-anxiety disorders for those in neighbourhoods with the highest immigrant density were 0.67 times lower (95% CI: 0.49, 0.92) than those in neighbourhoods with the lowest immigrant density). Such protective associations generally extended to second-generation and non-immigrant youth, but were—for some disorders—stronger for first-generation than second-generation or non-immigrant youth. Conclusions: Findings suggest there may be protective mechanisms associated with higher neighbourhood immigrant density for mental health conditions in immigrant and non-immigrant youth. It is important that future work examines potential pathways by which contextual factors impact immigrant and non-immigrant youth mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Canada was a major global asbestos producer and consumer. Geographic patterns of Canadian asbestos use and mesothelioma, a highly fatal cancer linked to asbestos exposure, have not been previously reported. This study summarized key trends in mesothelioma incidence by geography and time in two Canadian provinces, Ontario and British Columbia (BC), and explored how past workforce characteristics and geographic trends in asbestos production and use may shape variations in regional rates of mesothelioma. Methods: We report trends in mesothelioma incidence (1993–2016) for Ontario and British Columbia using population-based incidence data that were age-standardized to the 2011 Canadian population. Historical records of asbestos production and use were analyzed to geo-locate industrial point sources of asbestos in Ontario and BC. The prevalence of occupations in regions with the highest and lowest rates of mesothelioma in Ontario and BC were calculated using labor force statistics from the 1981 Canadian Census. Results: Regional mesothelioma rates varied in both provinces over time; more census divisions in both Ontario and BC registered mesothelioma rates in the highest quintile of incidences during the period 2009 to 2016 than in any prior period examined. Certain occupations such as construction trades workers were more likely to be overrepresented in regions with high mesothelioma rates. Conclusion: This work explored how studying asbestos exposure and mesothelioma incidence at small-scale geographies could direct cancer surveillance and research to more targeted areas. Findings indicated that regional variations in mesothelioma could signal important differences in past occupational and potentially environmental exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its establishment as a Euro-Canadian settlement in the mid-nineteenth century, the marine ecology surrounding Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, has been negatively impacted by urban development, habitat destruction, poor fisheries practices, and pollution. Focussing on forage fish – herring, smelt, and eulachon – we present the results of an extensive meta-analysis including an archaeological, ethnohistoric, and scientific/regulatory literature review of Indigenous and commercial fisheries' harvesting records to track the early historic collapse of these fisheries from about 1885–1920 CE. We identify significant reductions in the major forage fish fisheries around Vancouver within decades of the initial Euro-Canadian settlement. These severe negative effects occurred long before scientific description of local ecosystems had begun, and the magnitude of these effects went generally unrecognized and/or are poorly understood. We argue that this is a case of the shifting baseline syndrome (SBS): each generation of researchers mistakenly assumes that modern ecological conditions they encounter approximate their natural pre-contact state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]