Our Health and the Environment

People often ask: "If we think there is a problem in the environment, then why don’t we do a health study to learn more about it?" Well, it is difficult to study the effects of exposure due to contaminants in the air or water for a number of reasons. It is difficult to show that exposure to a contaminant in air or water causes health effects because everyone is exposed to many different contaminants which may cause similar health effects. As well, environmental exposures may be so low that they do not cause immediate and identifiable health problems. There is often a long period of time between the exposure and the health effect, such as cancer.

In small communities, it is also difficult to say that diseases are because of a certain contaminant because the cases of disease are relatively rare. If you want more information about local epidemiological studies, call the Region of Waterloo Community Health Department at 883-2000