Blog posts from 2022

Health Canada labs are using genomics, a cutting-edge field in biology, to study why foodborne germs make us sick.

In the spring of 2022, cases of monkeypox/mpox began appearing in Canada and other countries where the disease hadn’t been observed before.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every major city in Canada established a wastewater testing surveillance program.

Scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) are working to understand the extent of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Canada.

Radon is a radioactive gas that is produced naturally by the breakdown of uranium in the ground. It can seep into your home through cracks, openings or gaps in the foundation walls or floors.

Pop quiz! What foodborne parasite has infected approximately a third of the world’s population?

The Chemistry Section at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Dartmouth Laboratory in Nova Scotia is responsible for testing fish and other foods for a variety of trace elements and veterinary drug residues. Testing for a long list of compounds involves a variety of methods and instruments, and their effective operation, maintenance and troubleshooting requires specialized skills and expertise.

Have you ever wondered about how infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19 and monkeypox are investigated? It’s no easy task, but the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) field epidemiologists playing a leading role in many outbreak investigations.

Research from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) is offering new insights into how common the hepatitis D virus is in Canada and who is infected.

Ever wonder what it might be like to put on an airtight suit and walk through the interlocking bioseal doors of Canada’s highest containment laboratory in Winnipeg? Behind its doors are some of the deadliest pathogens in the world – we’re talking about Ebola virus, Hendra virus, Nipah virus and more.

All Canadians have a role to play in protecting plants in Canada from invasive insects and plant species. This includes reporting findings of plant pests to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Invasive plants, insects, snails, slugs and pathogens all have the potential to negatively impact Canada’s agriculture, forestry and environmental resources.

Dr. Ashu Dastoor, a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, explains how computer models together with observations from fieldwork have helped to identify the sources of airborne mercury found in the Arctic.

The effects of climate change increase heat-related risks for all residents of Canada. In general, heat waves increase the number of deaths and a spike in admissions to the emergency room.

When researchers first began studying the rates of HIV transmission in Nairobi sex workers, they discovered that many people who were exposed to HIV multiple times never ended up contracting the disease. But why?

As the weather heats up around the country, we don’t often pause to think of the effects heat can have on our bodies. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat in their homes, which can have a devastating impact on their health and, in extreme cases, even lead to death.

When you reach for an apple in the grocery store, do you choose a crisp sweet blushing Ambrosia^TM, a juicy aromatic Salish®, or a tart bright red and green McIntosh? Is it taste that guides you, colour, or something else?

Canada is home to the largest intact forest and wetland ecosystem remaining on planet Earth: the boreal forest. The people of the Essipit Innu First Nation have lived in the southern fringe of that vast forest in the province we now call Québec—part of which the Innu call Nitassinan, or “our land”—since time immemorial.

Residents of British Columbia won’t soon forget the summer of 2021. What we now call the western heat dome was the deadliest weather event in Canada to date. In fact, the BC Coroners Service confirmed that there were 619 heat-related deaths during the heat dome, which took place from June 25 to July 1.

What do you see when you look up at the night sky? A few constellations, the North Star, or maybe the moon. We tend to think about space from our perspective on the ground, but what about looking down from space to earth? This is the perspective through which a special team of researchers at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) study our world, using space technology to track diseases.

Dr. Myrle Ballard has joined Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to form the department’s first Indigenous Science division. While on a year-long work exchange from the University of Manitoba, she is leading a permanent team at the department to advance reconciliation in ECCC’s science and research activities. ECCC is the first federal government department to launch such a division, and Dr. Ballard tells us about her exciting and important work.

Many would have been discouraged by the pouring rain and cold winds that settled in southern Ontario on April 21, 2022. But a dedicated team of specialists was undeterred and eager to get to work on some important research on hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) - an aphid-like insect pest that attacks and kills hemlock trees.

The ocean is full of bacteria. So how do you know the seafood you eat is safe? Dr. Swapan Banerjee, Research Scientist at the Vibrio Laboratory at Health Canada’s Food Directorate, helps us understand what’s under the surface of the sea.

Biodiversity, a wide and robust variety of plants and animals in a given area, is usually an excellent indicator of the good health of an ecosystem.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is always looking for ways to enhance food safety. Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) can provide a unique perspective on what’s in food and is extremely useful in investigations into food safety, quality and potential fraud.

Variants of concern have dominated international headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. A small team of Government of Canada employees, called Genomics Liaison Technical Officers (GLTOs), have been instrumental to Canada’s identification and tracking of the variants.

Many of Canada’s rivers no longer flow freely due to dams and other barriers restricting the movement of our native species. Watersheds have become degraded by human development to the point where many rivers are cut off from their floodplains, affecting many of the critical services provided by healthy ecosystems.

Dried blood spot (DBS) testing, a technology used by scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), is innovating how we screen for transmissible diseases in Canada.

Astronauts heading to space undergo a series of physical and mental preparations to ensure they can withstand the pressures that come with the job. But did you know that they also get a radiation checkup?

Janice Wong’s interest in science started with a simple chemical reaction to create a household staple: aspirin.

In the last two weeks of February, the 55th session of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-55) brought together government representatives and scientists to review and approve the summary of a report of 3675 pages.

Viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses, are an ongoing concern in many West African countries. Scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) are working with some of these nations to build their capacity to detect emerging pathogens through international collaboration.

We are exposed to numerous chemical substances as we go about daily routines. How do we know they are safe?

Do you tune out the world by listening to your favourite music, podcasts or movies with your headphones? Listen up and make sure you’re taking care of your hearing.

Time spent making crafts and playing with toys is a large part of childhood. But how safe are the craft supplies and toys that our kids play with every day?

When there is increased demand for COVID-19 testing capacity, driven, for example, by the increase in Omicron cases, a cross-country network of surge capacity testing sites springs into action. Most recently, these sites were used as part of the response to the Omicron wave, which led to a sudden surge in testing needs in Canada.

The unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a decline in human activity during various provincial restrictions. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) researcher, Nancy Mahony collaborated with many partners on a comprehensive study led by the University of Manitoba to ask the question whether or not reduced human activity impacted birds. She talks to us about this collaboration.

The air quality in our homes is important to our general health. As part of the Government of Canada’s investment in understanding and improving air quality, Health Canada worked with First Nations communities in the Sioux Lookout Zone and other partners to measure indoor air quality, and to examine links with high rates of respiratory infections seen in the region’s First Nations children.

When a new COVID-19 variant appears, such as the most recent Omicron variant of concern, scientists want to learn as much about it, in as short a time as possible.

For many Canadians, trips to the local rink are part their weekly routine. In Canada, more than 2,000 indoor ice arenas are used regularly by hundreds of thousands of people for activities such as hockey, figure skating, ringette and public skating.