Addressing the environmental, community and health impacts of resource development: Challenges across scales, sectors and sites

Work that addresses the cumulative impacts of resource extraction on environment, community, and health is necessarily large in scope. This paper presents experiences from initiating research at this intersection and explores implications for the ambitious, integrative agenda of planetary health. The purpose is to outline origins, design features, and preliminary insights from our intersectoral and international project, based in Canada and titled the “Environment, Community, Health Observatory” (ECHO) Network. With a clear emphasis on rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, environments, and health, the ECHO Network is designed to answer the question: How can an Environment, Community, Health Observatory Network support the integrative tools and processes required to improve understanding and response to the cumulative health impacts of resource development? The Network is informed by four regional cases across Canada where we employ a framework and an approach grounded in observation, “taking notice for action”, and collective learning. Sharing insights from the foundational phase of this five-year project, we reflect on the hidden and obvious challenges of working across scales, sectors, and sites, and the overlap of generative and uncomfortable entanglements associated with health and resource development. Yet, although intersectoral work addressing the cumulative impacts of resource extraction presents uncertainty and unresolved tensions, ultimately we argue that it is worth staying with the trouble

Les approches écosystémiques de la santé dans la francophonie

Les problématiques liant environnement et santé issues, notamment, de la sur-utilisation de nos écosystèmes ont mené à des enjeux de plus en plus complexes nécessitant de nouvelles approches et stratégies d’action. Dans ce contexte, les approches écosystémiques de la santé ont émergé de la nécessité de développer des pratiques de recherche et d’intervention qui permettraient de répondre à ces problématiques et à leurs enjeux. Pour l’essentiel, ces approches visent des changements concrets et ..

Exposure to manganese and lead disrupt the human placental serotonergic system

International audienc

A benchmark concentration analysis for manganese in drinking water and IQ deficits in children

Background: Manganese is an essential nutrient, but in excess, can be a potent neurotoxicant. We previously reported findings from two cross-sectional studies on children, showing that higher concentrations of manganese in drinking water were associated with deficits in IQ scores. Despite the common occurrence of this neurotoxic metal, its concentration in drinking water is rarely regulated. Objective: We aimed to apply a benchmark concentration analysis to estimate water manganese levels associated with pre-defined levels of cognitive impairment in children, i.e. drop of 1%, 2% and 5% in Performance IQ scores. Methods: Data from two studies conducted in Canada were pooled resulting in a sample of 630 children (ages 5.9–13.7 years) with data on tap water manganese concentration and cognition, as well as confounders. We used the Bayesian Benchmark Dose Analysis System to compute weight-averaged median estimates for the benchmark concentration (BMC) of manganese in water and the lower bound of the credible interval (BMCL), based on seven different exposure-response models. Results: The BMC for manganese in drinking water associated with a decrease of 1% Performance IQ score was 133 μg/L (BMCL, 78 μg/L); for a decrease of 2%, this concentration was 266 μg/L (BMCL, 156 μg/L) and for a decrease of 5% it was 676 μg/L (BMCL, 406 μg/L). In sex-stratified analyses, the manganese concentrations associated with a decrease of 1%, 2% and 5% Performance IQ in boys were 185, 375 and 935 μg/L (BMCLs, 75, 153 and 386 μg/L) and 78, 95, 192 μg/L (BMCLs, 9, 21 and 74 μg/L) for girls. Conclusion: Studies suggest that a maximum acceptable concentration for manganese in drinking water should be set to protect children, the most vulnerable population, from manganese neurotoxicity. The present risk analysis can guide decision-makers responsible for developing these standards

Meaning in the face of changing climate risks: Connecting agency, sensemaking and narratives of change through transdisciplinary research

International audienceThis paper contributes to the body of knowledge associated with the analysis of transdisciplinary research. We use a narrative centered approach, focusing on hybridity, sensemaking and the potential for transdisciplinary research to foster agency.When confronted with changes, people – as individuals – and local communities – as groups – make sense of them in the light of their own knowledge, beliefs and experiences. The process by which communities make sense of changing institutional and natural environments can be defined as the interaction between their own frame of reference and the perception of the situational demands inherent to changes, together with their interpretation of these changes. Such a dynamic process of sensemaking constantly redefines the boundaries of the narratives that community members can call on to give meaning to their past, present and future. In this paper we use five case studies to analyze how this sensemaking plays out in situations of changing climate risk and changing frames of reference associated with the presence of transdisciplinary scientists. We identify the central challenge of ambiguity. We define ambiguity as situations where narratives of change assign different meanings to the changes observed. In such situations, we observe three potential outcomes in our case studies: (1) communities appear to be forced into inaction – as a consequence of agency-depriving senselessness; (2) communities appear to be cornered into maladaptation – as a consequence of a misguided sense of agency; and (3) communities try to resolve ambiguity and effectively move forward – as knowledge-based agency-fostering exercise. In light of these results, we argue that by contributing to the clarification of such ambiguities, climate science may contribute to increases in local agency, thus enhancing adaptive capacities. We conclude by proposing that climate science be place-based and community–centered. The purpose of such a shift would be aimed at building the agency-enhancing sensemaking of local communities

Protected Shores Contamined with Plastic from Knowledge to Action

International audienceAs the rate of plastic production increases globally, we see the problem of plastic debris in oceans and coastal zones also increasing, even in areas under rigorous environmental protection. Drawing from a case study situated within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, this chapter shares the example of an ongoing, collaborative partnership between community members, researchers, and decision makers, working together to confront the problem of plastic pollution locally. Since plastic debris is a complex global issue, it cannot be resolved at the local level alone. Here we also introduce a burgeoning regional working group, Communities-Based Observatories Tackling Marine Litter (COASTAL). The goal of COASTAL is to coordinate community-based efforts underway to address plastic pollution at various sites within the larger North Atlantic–Mediterranean system, and thereby expand our understanding of the plastic debris problem, and its potential solutions, at regional and local scales

Defective NOD2 peptidoglycan sensing promotes diet‐induced inflammation, dysbiosis, and insulin resistance

Abstract Pattern recognition receptors link metabolite and bacteria‐derived inflammation to insulin resistance during obesity. We demonstrate that NOD2 detection of bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan (PGN) regulates metabolic inflammation and insulin sensitivity. An obesity‐promoting high‐fat diet (HFD) increased NOD2 in hepatocytes and adipocytes, and NOD2−/− mice have increased adipose tissue and liver inflammation and exacerbated insulin resistance during a HFD. This effect is independent of altered adiposity or NOD2 in hematopoietic‐derived immune cells. Instead, increased metabolic inflammation and insulin resistance in NOD2−/− mice is associated with increased commensal bacterial translocation from the gut into adipose tissue and liver. An intact PGN‐NOD2 sensing system regulated gut mucosal bacterial colonization and a metabolic tissue dysbiosis that is a potential trigger for increased metabolic inflammation and insulin resistance. Gut dysbiosis in HFD‐fed NOD2−/− mice is an independent and transmissible factor that contributes to metabolic inflammation and insulin resistance when transferred to WT, germ‐free mice. These findings warrant scrutiny of bacterial component detection, dysbiosis, and protective immune responses in the links between inflammatory gut and metabolic diseases, including diabetes

Les approches écosystémiques de la santé dans la francophonie

Ce numéro spécial de [VertigO] – La revue électronique en science de l'environnement « Les approches écosystémiques de la santé dans la francophonie » présente différents écrits (articles, essais et billets) sur la pratique des approches écosystémiques de la santé à travers la présentation de ses défis, ses réalités et ses réalisations. Peu de publications valorisant l’apport important des francophones à ce courant ont été développées. Ce numéro spécial vise donc à offrir des publications en français qui permettront une meilleure diffusion de ces approches. Ce projet a été entrepris par la section Québec-Acadie-Atlantique de la Communauté de pratique canadienne sur les approches écosystémiques de la santé (CoPEH-Canada) en collaboration avec la Communauté de pratique Écosanté pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du centre (CoPES-AOC), le Groupe de recherche en épidémiologie des zoonoses et santé publique (GREZOSP) et l’École des Hautes Études en santé publique (EHESP) de Rennes