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Background: Mobile phones are considered as an indispensable handheld item in society today. Frequently used, these devices are a “high-touched” commodity. Previous research has demonstrated that E. coli and other environmental contamination are responsible for the contamination of mobile phones. This study will measure the level of contamination (or sanitation) of mobile phones at an educational institution. Method: The Hygiena MicroSnap Coliform and E. coli Enrichment Swab and the Coliform and E. coli Detection Swabs were used to detect the presence (or absence) of E. coli and total coliforms on subjects’ mobile phones. The Hygiena UltraSnap ATP Surface Test was used to detect levels of ATP. The SystemSURE Plus Luminometer generated readings in RLUs that determined the level of sanitation. In addition, each subject answered two questions regarding their gender and whether or not they have touched their phones while using the toilet within the past week. Results: No presence of E. coli or total coliforms were detected (0 RLUs). A one-tailed paired T-test confirmed that the ATP levels sampled from participants that touched their phones while using the toilet within the past week was statistically significant (P=0.008390). A two-tailed paired T-test confirmed that ATP levels was not statistically significantly different between males and females. Conclusions: Based on the results, touching mobile phones while using the toilet contributes to increased ATP levels found on mobile phones. There were no differences in ATP levels found between males and females. Future studies are required to confirm this.

Background and Purpose: Although the number of recyclers and amount of accepted materials and their contaminants has increased over the decades, the adequate provision of hand washing equipment to mitigate the transfer of infectious agents at recycling depots has not been well studied. Minimal Standard (MS) depots and STAR-Rated (SR) depots are inspected by Encorp Pacific (Canada) auditors, not health inspectors, and claim to provide adequate hand hygiene equipment. This study compared the adequate provision of essential hand washing equipment at MS and SR depots in Metro Vancouver to determine if they met public health standards. Methods: Inspections of presence/absence of essential hand washing equipment (tap with running water, soap in soap dispenser, hand drying equipment and signage) were carried out at 35 depots throughout Metro Vancouver (Vancouver West End to Abbotsford). Depots recorded with all components were assigned a Pass grade; depots with any one missing component or more were assigned a Fail grade. MS/SR and Pass/Fail grade was analyzed using Chi-squared test on NCSS 9 Statistical Software (NCSS). Results: Of the 35 depots surveyed, fails were present in both MS depots and SR depots. Very few depots had signage. Main reasons for Fails included broken hand dryers and lack of soap. All depots with hand wash stations had running water. Pearson’s Chi-square results for observed Pass/Fail and MS/SR depots compared to expected values were unable to reject null hypothesis (P-value 0.911 > 0.05) even when provision of signage was excluded as a criterion (P-value 0.537 > 0.05). Conclusion: There was no association between depot standard rating and provision of essential hand washing equipment. Lack of signage failed 74.3% of depots but excluding signage from the criteria failed 34.3% of depots. Hand washing is important in mitigating risk of infection from hand contamination from household recyclables and those sorted from waste. Inspecting depots and educating operators from a public health viewpoint may increase provision of essential hand washing equipment and increase hand washing compliance in public users.

Background: Knowledge translation (KT) is the process of using the best available knowledge to inform decision-making. Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) are tasked with the critical responsibility of protecting public health. However, there is little data available about how effective and consistent current methods of distributing information to professionals across Canada are. The efficacy of KT has implications on the PHI profession and ultimately, public health protection. Objective: The purpose of this research is to identify how PHIs across Canada take evidence and incorporate it into practice. Methods: A survey was created with questions focused on determining what information PHIs use when making public health decisions, how PHIs go about finding the information required, and the level of trust invested into each source of data. Questions were formulated with guidance from the National Collaborating Centre of Environmental Health (NCCEH). It was distributed electronically to PHIs via social media and BCIT. Results: PHIs use evidence-based information to advise their decisions and actions always (43%) or often (46%) in daily practice. Government agencies, professional organizations, peer-reviewed literature, and colleagues are most often used and deemed as reliable resources. Although very frequently used, the internet was seen as neither reliable nor unreliable. 77% of respondents cited that barriers exist that impede their access to evidence-based information. The most common barriers listed were time constraints, costs, and lack of relevant information. Conclusions: The internet is becoming an increasingly popular means by which knowledge is delivered. However, web-based public health resources need to be more concise, easily accessible, PHI-specific and facilitated by reliable entities to effectively address barriers to practice. Increased communication of evidence, practices, and standards are required between health authorities, government agencies, and PHI professionals to ensure consistent and cohesive protection of public health.

Background: Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are becoming increasingly common in healthcare settings in an effort to control communicable bacteria, viruses and fungi of health significance. Much research has been done on the effectiveness of alcohol-based hand sanitizers but few studies look at the effectiveness when combined with more typical usage, such as varying application times and amounts. Methods: We looked at the efficacy of the microbial killing power of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when used in a series of 5 applications. ASTM E2755 was used with the modification of a shorter application time (8 seconds from the recommended 30 seconds) of the sanitizer to better reflect actual healthcare worker usage. Results: We found an increase in the amount of indicator bacteria on the gloved hands of the subjects after repeated applications. However the increase was not significant enough in that a 2-log reduction of indicator bacteria was still achieved. Using a One Sample T-Test we found a very low probability value (

Background An estimated of 4 million Canadians (one in eight people) become ill every year from a food-borne illness (Thomas et al., 2013). The economic and social burdens of these illnesses are vast. As restaurants are a big sector of the food industry, improving their food safety would reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses. Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are on the front line, educating restaurant operators in order to improve food safety. In Metro Vancouver there are many different types of ethnicities and types of restaurants; this provides a challenge for EHOs to know where to allocate their time and resources. Methods The author analyzed 150 Fraser Health inspection reports in the Burnaby, New Westminster and Surrey municipalities. The restaurants fell into three different categories: i) Independently owned ethnic, ii) Independently owned, non-ethnic and iii) chain non-ethnic restaurants. Hazard ratings, number of critical and number of non-critical violations from their latest inspection report were compared. Each violation code was also recorded to identify any infraction trends that exist. Results Analysis of the number of critical violations identified ethnic, chain non-ethnic, and independent non-ethnic restaurants as not being significantly different (p=0.09). The number of non-critical violations was different (0.033), with ethnic restaurants having the most. The number of critical violations, when treating each ethnicity as its own category, is however significantly different (p=0.044) between restaurant types. There was a significant association between hazard rating and restaurant type, with independent ethnic restaurants having the worst hazard rating (p=0.017). Conclusion The type of ownership (independent vs chain) and the restaurant type were not a factor when looking at number of critical violations that a restaurant commits. Independent ethnic restaurants had a slightly higher mean number of critical violations. Japanese restaurants had the highest number of critical violations out of the three ethnicities studied. These findings suggest a slight disparity in risk to public health between ethnic and non-ethnic restaurants.

Introduction: Cellphone usage has increased leaps and bounds over the past decade. With the growing popularity of cellphones come numerous studies on the effects of mobile radiation on human health. Cellphone radiation has been associated with many health implications such as: sleep deprivation, hearing loss, slower sperm, cancers and tumors to name a few; however, more research is needed to confirm these claims. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the Bluetooth impact on radiation levels when it is paired with a cellphone. This is a two-fold process: firstly, to determine radiation levels emitted by the pairing of a cellphone and a Bluetooth headset and comparing it to a control group of the cellphone alone and secondly, comparing the radiation emissions of a paired cellphone with the associated paired Bluetooth headset. Methods: An Extech RF EMF strength meter was used to measure the radiation emission levels (μW/cm2) of various phone types by Apple and Samsung when they were unpaired and paired with a LG HBM-220 Bluetooth device. The radiation emissions of the paired Bluetooth were also measured. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in radiation emissions (μW/cm2) observed in a cellphone paired with a Bluetooth when compared to an unpaired cellphone. This was statistically significant as the p-value (0.00026) was less than the 0.05 and 0.01 values and the power was near 100 % (99.8%). When comparing the paired cellphone with the associated paired Bluetooth, the Bluetooth emitted much more radiation than the cellphone. This data was statistically significant as well as the p-value was at 0.00000 and the power at 100%. Discussion: The findings in this study suggest that Bluetooth headsets increase radiation emissions; however, it is important to note that only one Bluetooth headset model (LG HBM-220) was tested. The results also conflict with Health Canada claims that Bluetooth headsets decrease radiation emissions. More research is needed to confirm the results found in this study. A key limitation of this study was that only Samsung and Apple Inc. brands were tested. Additionally, the equipment used to measure radiation levels (Extech RMF meter) was subject to background radiation sources. Conclusion: The pairing of a LG HBM-220 Bluetooth to a cellphone increases radiation emissions in both the cellphone and Bluetooth when compared to an unpaired cellphone. These increases in emissions when paired would results in additive effects to one’s body.