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Public Consultation Process to Begin
Lambton County, ON – The Community Health Study Board is moving forward with Phase II of a Community Health Study for Lambton County.
“We recently received $75,000 in additional funding from the Province of Ontario and combined with funding raised through the community, we are now at a position to begin Phase II of this study,” said Board Chair and Lambton County Warden Jim Burns. “The public will have an important role to play in this phase as the Board will hold several Town Hall style meetings to gather information, and complete random telephone surveys.”
The anticipated outcomes of Phase II include:
- Undertaking of comprehensive literature review of studies of manufactured petrochemical industrial environmental exposures in communities.
- Community engagement.
- Determining what are the questions / health concerns about the petrochemical industry.
- Determining resident health related questions believed to be relevant.
- Establishing health related research questions suitable for future studies, having regard for scientific rigor and methodological limitations.
The Board will also develop a website during Phase II so that all of Lambton’s residents can monitor the progress of the health study.
“To complete a health study, the Board must examine the incidence of specific diseases in Lambton County, and if the results show Lambton is different from other areas, then it must examine if the differences have a relationship to the presence of the petrochemical manufacturing industries in Lambton,” said Warden Burns. “The study should focus on exploring the uniqueness of Lambton. There are other communities with petrochemical industries and we need to determine if we are different from them, and if so, how?”
The Health Study Board includes representatives from government, First Nations, health, labour, and the environment.
The next meeting of the Community Health Study Committee will take place on November 6, 2008.
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Contact:
Jim Burns
Community Health Study Board Chair / Lambton County Warden
Telephone: 519 845-0801
email: jim.burns@county-lambton.on.ca
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