Search

Under the Arms Trade Treaty, state parties must assess the extent to which the export of conventional arms might contribute to, inter alia, serious violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. The stated aims of Canada's arms export licensing decision-making process are, similarly, to assess such risks on a case-by-case basis. This paper examines Canada's ongoing arms transfer arrangements with Saudi Arabia in light of health-related international humanitarian and human rights law considerations enumerated in the Arms Trade Treaty. It assesses available information suggesting serious violations that implicate acts of commission by the Saudi-led coalition in the conflict in Yemen. The article centers on questions about the potential health-related consequences of Canadian-made, Saudi-coalitionused arms for people in Yemen and how risks are being assessed in export decision-making processes. Ultimately, it argues that Canada is failing to meaningfully take into account the possible negative impacts of its arms exports on people's health and health care in Yemen. It counters the government's approach to risk, which it argues is serviceable to exporter interests, with a health-based precautionary approach to exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study assessed systematic bias and the effects of data set error on the validity of food environment measures in two municipal and two commercial secondary data sets.Design: Sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV) and concordance were calculated by comparing two municipal and two commercial secondary data sets with ground-truthed data collected within 800 m buffers surrounding twenty-six schools. Logistic regression examined associations of sensitivity and PPV with commercial density and neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation. Kendall's τ estimated correlations between density and proximity of food outlets near schools constructed with secondary data sets v. ground-truthed data.Setting: Vancouver, Canada.Subjects: Food retailers located within 800 m of twenty-six schools RESULTS: All data sets scored relatively poorly across validity measures, although, overall, municipal data sets had higher levels of validity than did commercial data sets. Food outlets were more likely to be missing from municipal health inspections lists and commercial data sets in neighbourhoods with higher commercial density. Still, both proximity and density measures constructed from all secondary data sets were highly correlated (Kendall's τ>0·70) with measures constructed from ground-truthed data.Conclusions: Despite relatively low levels of validity in all secondary data sets examined, food environment measures constructed from secondary data sets remained highly correlated with ground-truthed data. Findings suggest that secondary data sets can be used to measure the food environment, although estimates should be treated with caution in areas with high commercial density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)