Disaster Research Response Development in Canada

Abstract

The 2016 Alberta wildfires, which destroyed entire neighbourhoods of urban Fort McMurray and the 2013 Lac-Mégantic, Québec train derailment and explosion illustrate that Canadian communities are not immune to environmental public health (EPH) disasters. Disasters expose the population, responders and volunteers to a range of contaminants and stressors, which may harm physical and mental health. When disasters strike, the initial focus is on life saving interventions such as clinical care and measures aiming at minimizing population exposure including evacuation, sheltering in place and do-not-consume advisories. Afterward, attention shifts toward community re-entry, rehabilitation and health studies to address potential delayed and long-term health effects.Exposure science and environmental epidemiology resources can play a vital role in supporting response authorities to reduce the health risks from the release of hazardous chemicals. They may contribute to the timely identification, determination of concentrations and dispersion of released substances, designing questionnaires and initiating registries, and evaluating the value of biological sampling. Further, EPH disasters typically offer a brief window of time to collect ephemeral exposure data, biospecimens and to start scientific research that could improve both health outcomes and capabilities for future response.This discussion will highlight the efforts of the Canadian Disaster Research Response (CanDR2) Steering Committee to develop a Pan-Canadian framework aiming at enhancing the integration of EPH scientific and research assets into disaster management. Three EPH focus areas will be presented: (1) Establishing a disaster response community of practice or network (2) Generating and transferring disaster knowledge, and (3) Enhancing timely data sharing, sample collection and health research execution.