Resources

Educational Resources

Best Start by Health Nexus is a bilingual health promotion organization which supports practitioners and provides information for parents about healthy pregnancy and early child development.
http://en.beststart.org/

  • Health Before Pregnancy - Environmental Issues [Website]

  • Health Before Pregnancy Workbook [PDF]

  • Health Before Pregnancy [Website]

Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE) website is an excellent source of information and resources for professionals and parents. The site provides an overview of Children’s Environmental Health (CEH), including First Nations CEH, as well as simple recommendations for parents, resources for professionals, and multilingual brochures with teaching guides. www.healthyenvironmentforkids.ca/

  • Creating a Healthy Environment for Kids [PDF]

  • Your child’s skin may act more like a sponge than a shield [PDF]

  • Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs: What to do if one breaks [PDF]

The Health Canada website provides a variety of services, information, and resources on healthy living in English and in French, including some focusing specifically on pregnancy, on environmental health, and on First Nations.

  • Your Health at Home: What you can do! An Environmental Health Guide for First Nations [PDF]

  • Guide to Healthy Pregnancy [website]

  • Health and the Environment [website]

Environmental Hazards in Pregnancy, handout by the Durham Region Health Department.

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment has an excellent website providing resources relevant to both practitioners and parents. Resources include fact sheets, news updates, toxins database, and many relevant publications and statements. Though not all content is prenatal specific, be sure to take a look at their webinars and partnership calls. www.healthandenvironment.org/

Healthy Child, Healthy World website is a resource well-suited to parents, and provides easy tips on creating a healthier home. Look under the ‘Lifestage’ tab to find resources specifically for pregnant mothers.
http://healthychild.org/

Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at eh University of California San Francisco provides general and clinical resources about potential environmental hazards during pregnancy in different contexts: toxic matters, work matters, pesticides matter, and food matters. https://prhe.ucsf.edu/info

Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia website hosts a useful consumers’ Guide to Less Toxic Products

Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database gives people practical solutions to protect themselves and their families from everyday exposures to potentially toxic chemicals in personal care, cleaning products, food and much more. Skin Deep lists easy-to-navigate hazard ratings for nearly 70,000 products and 9,000 ingredients on the market.

Videos

Publications & Reports

Abelsohn, A, Stieb, D., Sanborn, M. D., & Weir, E. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 2. Outdoor air pollution. CMAJ, 166(9), 1161–1167. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12000251

Abelsohn, Alan, Gibson, B. L., Sanborn, M. D., & Weir, E. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 5. Persistent organic pollutants. CMAJ, 166(12), 1549–1554. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC113803/pdf/20020611s00023p1549.pdf

Abelsohn, A, Sanborn, M. D., Jessiman, B. J., & Weir, E. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 6. Carbon monoxide poisoning. CMAJ, 166(13), 1685–1690. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12126326

Buka, I., Rogers, W.T., Osornio-Vargas, A.R., Hoffman, H., Pearce M., Li YY. (2006) An urban survey of Pediatric environmental health concerns: Perceptions of parents/guardians and health care professionals. Paediatrics & Child Health, 11, 235-238.

Chedid, R,A, Terrell, R.M., Phillips, K.P. (2017). Best practices for online Canadian prenatal health promotion: A public health approach.Women and Birth. 2018 Aug;31(4):e223-e231.

Chedid, R.A., Phillips, K.P. (2019). Best Practices for the Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Prenatal Health Programs. Matern Child Health J. 2019 Jan;23(1):109-119.

Crighton, E. J., Brown, C., Baxter, J., Lemyre, L., Masuda, J. R., & Ursitti, F. (2013). Perceptions and experiences of environmental health risks among new mothers: a qualitative study in Ontario, Canada. Health, Risk and Society, 15(4), 295–312.

Crighton, Eric J., Abelsohn, A., Blake, J., Enders, J., Kilroy, K., Lanphear, B., Marshall, L., Phipps, E., Smith, G. (2016). Beyond Alcohol and Tobacco Smoke: Are We Doing Enough to Reduce Fetal Toxicant Exposure? Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 38(1), 56–59.

Laferriere, K. A., Crighton, E. J., Baxter, J., Lemyre, L., Masuda, J. R., & Ursitti, F. (2016). Examining inequities in childrens environmental health: Results of a survey on the risk perceptions and protective actions of new mothers. Journal of Risk Research, 19(3), 271–287.

Laferriere, K., & Crighton, E. J. (2017). “During pregnancy would have been a good time to get that information”: mothers’ concerns and information needs regarding environmental health risks to their children. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 55(2), 96–105.

Lanphear, B., Phipps, E., Crighton, E., & McElgunn, B. (2014, November 22). Common toxins make big difference in brain development. The Toronto Star, pp. 1–3. Retrieved from

Marshall, L., Weir, E., Abelsohn, A., & Sanborn, M. D. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 1. Taking an exposure history. CMAJ, 166(8), 1049–1055. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12002983

Sanborn, M., Grierson, L., Upshur, R., Marshall, L., Vakil, C., Griffith, L., … Cole, D. (2019). Family medicine residents’ knowledge of, attitudes toward, and clinical practices related to environmental health. Canadian Family Physician, 65, e269-277.

Sanborn, Margaret D, Abelsohn, A., Campbell, M., & Weir, E. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 3. Lead exposure. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 166(10), 1287–1292.

Sanborn, M D, Cole, D., Abelsohn, A., & Weir, E. (2002). Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects: 4. Pesticides. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 166(11), 1431–1436.

Stotland, N. E., Sutton, P., Trowbridge, J., Atchley, D. S., Conry, J. A., Trasande, L., … Woodruff, T. J. (2014). Counseling Patients on Preventing Prenatal Environmental Exposures - A Mixed-Methods Study of Obstetricians. PLoS One, 9(6), e98771. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098771

Wine, O., Buka, I., Day, A., Terris, S., Clarkes, M.A., Osornio Vargas, A., Kovacs Burns, K. (2019). Building a children’s health and environment research agenda in Alberta, Canada: A multi-stakeholder engagement process. Gateways: Int J Comm Res Engage, 12(1), 1-16.