Prescription for a Healthy Canada

Many Canadians will find it disturbing to learn that their country has fallen behind in protecting its citizens from environmental threats to their health.

While most developed countries have adopted national health and environment strategies, Canada has not.

Each year, millions of Canadians become ill or disabled after being exposed to environmental contaminants linked to asthma, gastrointestinal illness, poisonings, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, developmental disorders, birth defects, and reproductive problems.

No one can put a price on the pain, the suffering, the diminished quality of life, and the loss of life caused by illnesses and death. However, we do know that environmental contamination costs Canada billions of dollars each year due to health care expenses, school absenteeism, decreased intelligence, and lost productivity.

The good news is that we can prevent the majority of the adverse environmental effects on our health.

Canada could join other world leaders in protecting public health by embracing the recommendations in Prescription for a Healthy Canada for reducing air pollution, protecting water quality, improving food safety, addressing threats posed by consumer products, and banning the most hazardous substances currently being used. 

Download a summary or the full research report of Prescription for A Healthy Canada

Unlike the U.S., Australia, and the European Union, Canada lacks both a national program to monitor children’s exposures to environmental contaminants, and a national system to track diseases and deaths caused by environmental contaminants.

Some weaknesses in Canada’s environmental health policies include:

• A lack of legally binding national standards for air quality and drinking water quality.
• Allowing the use of pesticides banned in other countries for health and environmental reasons.
• Allowing higher levels of pesticide residues on our food than other nations
• Allowing toxic substances, including polybrominated diphynel ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
• Weaker regulations for toxic substances such as radon, lead, mercury, arsenic, and asbestos.

Preventing environmental impacts on our health is crucial to relieving the pressure on Canada’s health care system and to fulfilling the David Suzuki Foundation’s vision of achieving sustainability within a generation.

The David Suzuki Foundation calls on the federal government, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, to adopt a national environmental health strategy for Canada. These five priority areas for a national environmental health strategy are explained in more detail in the report.

1. improve monitoring and research
2. strengthen laws, regulations, and policies
3. build professional capacity and raise public awareness
4. protect vulnerable populations
5. promote environmental health on the international stage.

Canada must stop exporting toxic substances that are banned in Canada. We must support international laws that are designed to phase out the production, use, and release of toxic substances – such as asbestos – instead of obstructing such laws.


Prescription for A Healthy Canada is the fifth in a series of environmental health reports. See www.davidsuzuki.org/health for more info.

Click here for an abstract of The environmental burden of disease in Canada: Respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and congenital affliction ,
by David R. Boyd (author of Prescription for A Healthy Canada) and Dr. Stephen J. Genuis

Click here for the media release of the Boyd/Genius paper.