Chatelaine_April_May_2019

APRIL/MAY 2019 • CHATELAINE 55

health CLIMATE CHANGE

Plan outdoor activities for cooler times of day, and wear loose-

fi tting, light-coloured, breathable clothing and a wide-brimmed

hat. Stay hydrated by drinking water before you feel thirsty, and

prepare meals that don’t need to be cooked.

You can also heatproof your home by closing curtains or

blinds during the day, running an air conditioner and even plant-

ing a tree to block the sun and create some shade. If you can’t

modify your home, spend time in public places with air condi-

tioning (in extreme heat events, your municipality may open

cooling stations). “You only really need three or four hours of

cooling to reset your body,” Berry says. “It really helps prevent

heat illness.”

Pests are plaguing us

Outdoor enthusiasts need to be on the look-

out for more disease-carrying pests. The

warming climate allows insects and ticks to

put down roots in new regions and speeds up

their life cycle, helping them thrive.

“Generally, our winters keep out a lot of

bugs,” says Nicholas Ogden, director of

Public Health Risk Sciences at the Public

Health Agency of Canada. “As it gets warmer,

these insects and ticks can move farther

north, and we may get more bug-carried dis-

eases coming into Canada from the U.S.”

Blacklegged ticks are already marching

into parts of Canada they haven’t been

seen in before, bringing Lyme disease with

them. Today, ticks can be found in wooded

or grassy areas in southern parts of British

Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and

New Brunswick, and all over Nova Scotia.

By 2020, researchers predict 80 percent

of people in Central and Eastern Canada

will be at risk of exposure to Lyme disease.

(The number of new cases of the disease

reported in Canada skyrocketed from 144

in 2009 to 2,025 in 2017.)

A tick burrows its head into your skin

and feeds for several days, but because its

bite is usually painless and it’s as small as

a poppy seed , you may not notice that it’s

there. And if the tick was infected with

Ly me, you could develop fl u-like symptoms

and a rash at the site of the bite within three

to 30 days.

Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics, but if it’s not

caught early you may experience severe headaches, facial

paralysis, heart palpitations, confusion and arthritis. It’s

also diffi cult to diagnose, and some people experience symp-

toms for years. Avril Lavigne, who has publicly shared her

experience with Lyme disease, says doctors struggled to

diagnose her and she was bedridden for two years with

extreme fatigue.

Warming weather is also allowing new mosquito species to

migrate north, putting Canadians at risk of West Nile virus and

other mosquito-borne diseases. Since 2002, when the fi rst case

of West Nile in Canada was confi rmed, more than 5,600 cases

have been reported, mainly in urban areas of Southern Ontario

and Southern Quebec, and rural parts of the Prairies and

British Columbia. Most people infected with West Nile have no

symptoms or have mild fl u-like symptoms, but in about one in

150 cases, the virus can lead to a serious neurological infection,

such as encephalitis or meningitis.

With continued warming, Ogden warns, we may see new

species of mosquitoes and ticks in Canada, along with the dis-

eases they harbour. For example, over the past three years,

authorities have found the Asian tiger mosquito, which carries

the Zika virus, in Windsor, Ont. “It used to be that you didn’t

need to worry about getting a mosquito bite

in Canada, but now we really need to pro-

tect ourselves,” Ogden says.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

When you’re in an area frequented by ticks

or mosquitoes, wear clothing that covers

your arms and legs, and apply insect repel-

lent containing DEET or icaridin. Light-

coloured clothing deters mosquitoes and

makes it easier to spot ticks. To keep mos-

quitoes away from your home, make sure

there’s no standing water around and put

screens on your windows.

If you’re hiking, stick to the trails and

inspect clothing and gear when you’re done.

Once home, wash clothing in hot water or

put it in the dryer on high for 10 minutes to

kill any ticks. Have a shower and thoroughly

check yourself, your children and your pets,

paying attention to easy to miss places like

around the ears and in the armpits. If you

fi nd a tick, remove it with tweezers by grasp-

ing its head and pulling it straight out.

Removing a tick within 24 to 36 hours of a

bite usually prevents infection. Save the tick

and bring it to your health-care provider or

send it to your provincial public health

authority for testing.

In the future, we may be able to proactively

protect ourselves: A French company is

working on a vaccine for Lyme disease, which

is being fast-tracked by the U.S. Federal

Drug Administration, and research on a

West Nile vaccine is underway in Oregon.

Pollen production is on the rise

Spring signals the end of cold and fl u season, but if you’re among

the approximately 20 percent of Canadians who suff er from sea-

sonal allergies, the sniffl es and congestion can continue for

months. If your seasonal allergies seem to be getting worse, it’s

not your imagination—it’s climate change.

Warmer weather and higher carbon dioxide levels may help

your garden grow, but they spur pollen production, too. Climate

change also makes the weather more erratic, which in turn

makes the pollen season less predictable. Research has also

shown that air pollution can prompt an increase in pollen pro-

duction and even make pollen more potent.

THE EFFECTS OF

EXTREME WEATHER

Floods are washing people

out of their homes in the

Prairies, tornadoes are

touching down in southern

Canada and hurricanes are

hurtling across the Atlantic

provinces. Climate change

is causing an increase in

extreme weather events that

can have a profound eff ect

on human health. Damage to

buildings and infrastructure

leads to injuries, illness and

death. Clean water can be

compromised. People are

sometimes forced to leave

their homes, causing stress

and exacerbating mental

illness. The best way to

protect yourself is to know

the risks, make a plan and

prepare your home and an

emergency kit (for tips on

what to pack, check out

getprepared.gc.ca).