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Findings of chemical contaminants in breastmilk samples should not dissuade mothers from breastfeeding. As noted by the US Surgeon General, breastmilk is one of the most important contributors to infant health.

British Columbia embraced a concept called “product stewardship” in 1993, and has developed the most comprehensive list of products subject to such stewardship systems of any state or province in North America.

From the Washington Post, an article worth reading on a subject that’s depressingly well-known to Canadians, but probably unfamiliar to most Americans: the mountain pine beetle outbreak devastating forests in British Columbia. The damage has been colossal: Surveys show the beetle has infested 21 million acres and killed 411 million cubic feet of trees—double the annual take by all the loggers in Canada. In seven years or sooner, the Forest...

Interesting: a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control has determined that recent US immigrants are healthier than native-born US citizens: Overwhelmingly, the study found, … immigrants have lower rates of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure; have less disability; and are less likely to acknowledge having mental health problems. I’ve often heard it claimed that British Columbia’s good health, relative to the Northwest US (longer life spans,...

According to the latest figures, life spans in British Columbia are still on the rise. In 2005, life expectancy for newborns topped 81 years for the first time ever, up a little over two months from 2004: To me, the most remarkable thing about this chart is that life expectancy growth has been so steady—the increases have been almost linear—and is showing no signs of slowing down. Which suggests that...

The world is celebrating an announcement in Vancouver on Tuesday that the government of British Columbia finally signed on to a new vision for a region of the province nicknamed the Great Bear Rainforest—a vast, nearly roadless forest of cedar and hemlock stretching along the coast from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to Alaska. A Google News search that night turned up 137 stories published around the world about...

  Oh, Canada … The country that prides itself as the social-policy soul-mate of Scandinavia—with universal health care, progressive drug policies, gay marriage, and yes, even legalized swingers’ clubs, of late—has elected as its leader a former oil-and-gas man from Alberta, the Canadian equivalent of Texas. Huh? On Monday, Canada’s Conservative Party won the majority of seats in parliament, ousting the once-formidable Liberal Party from power for the first time...

Washington’s leaders have been making a lot of noise about cleaning up Puget Sound. Governor Gregoire wants to boost Sound restoration dollars by $42 million, or about 50 percent. It’s earning the governor heaps of glowingmediaattention. But the media has turned a blind eye to the astronomical number of cruise ships poised to foul local waters. A single line, Holland America, just announced that it will be increasing its cruises...

Editor’s note: This is by Gordon Price, former city councillor for Vancouver, BC, Director of the City Program for Simon Fraser University, and Sightline board member. In my 15 years on City Council in Vancouver, I read a lot of reports. Ninety percent of them were not exactly stimulating: lane pavings, grant approvals, appointment of the external auditor … all the things that keep a city going. Occasionally, a report...

The Northwest Federation of Community Organizations just published its annual job gap study, looking at the share of jobs that actually pay a living wage (defined as one that puts healthy food, acceptable housing, and other basic living expenses within financial reach).  Not too surprisingly, it found that only about a quarter of the jobs in the Northwest pay a living wage for a single-parent family with two kids. (See...