Life habits

Food policy councils are voluntary bodies made up of stakeholders from across the food system collaborating to find practical solutions to the challenges presented by the food systems on a local and national level. The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy published this briefing note conceived by Wendy Mendes to familiarize public health actors with the food system concerns and the contribution of the food policy councils in the formulation of healthy food policies.

As we use it, the concept of traffic calming refers to engineering measures (speed humps, curb extensions, etc.) and implementation strategies (30-km/h zones, meeting zones, etc.) that reduce speeds and/or motorized traffic volumes on existing public roadways. The many intervention strategies used by public authorities can be classified into two categories. One can be designated the black-spots approach, and the other the area-wide approach. Following our definition, the strategies based on…

The work on traffic calming that we are publishing includes two series of documents and an evolving index of traffic-calming measures and strategies, also to be posted on a section of our website. The first series of documents allows us to present the results of our review of the literature on the effects of traffic calming on certain population health determinants. The second series is intended to provide some conceptual background and policy references.

In this document, belonging…

The concept of built environment refers to the human-constructed aspects of the living environments of populations. Together these constructed elements form an important part of human habitats, in that they affect the manner in which the places we inhabit are organized and populated. This document presents a reference framework to contextualize the concept of “built environment” while linking it to the actions of public health authorities in Canada.

The living conditions of…

This statement was adopted by the Collège des médecins du Québec, the Ordre des dentistes du Québec, the Ordre des hygiénistes dentaires du Québec, the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec, the Ordre des optométristes du Québec, the Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec, the Ordre professionnel des inhalothérapeutes du Québec, and the Institut national de santé publique du Québec.

The effects of smoking on health are undeniable. For many years, tobacco use has been one of Québec’s…

Obesity's increasing prevalence is of concern because of its impacts on the population health and its associated costs. To promote healthy public policies, this scientific advisory documents the influence of economy-based agri-food policies that can affect the population's diet and weight. To this end, the following economic measures are reviewed: agricultural subsidies, trade policies, agricultural research and development programs, agricultural promotion programs, agricultural initiatives…

The Coalitions Linking Action and Science for Prevention (CLASP) project is an initiative of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC). Through this project, seven coalitions have been funded to integrate and build upon their practices to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases with similar determinants. The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) is a partner in one of these funded coalitions, Healthy Canada by Design. The principal goal of this coalition is…

We gathered data from the scientific and grey literature and from Canadian actors involved in addressing obesity to document the effectiveness of nutrition-labelling policies, as well as their unintended effects, equity, cost, feasibility, and acceptability. Presented here is a broad outline of the results.

The nutrition-labelling policies studied target pre-packaged foods or restaurant menus, and require them to display nutrition information either in a detailed format (Nutrition…

This document is a summary version of the report, Public Policies on Nutrition Labelling: Effects and Implementation Issues – A Knowledge Synthesis, produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP). For readers who would like to learn more about the knowledge synthesis method used as well as the knowledge gathered and the full bibliographic references, we invite you to consult the full report.

Nutrition labelling on pre-packaged foods and on…

This opinion relates to a project submitted by the National Public Health Director to amend the Regulation respecting the quality of drinking water of the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs (MDDEP – Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks) to include a mandatory minimum standard for fluoride of 0.7 mg/l for all Québec municipalities with populations of 5,000 or more.

Tooth decay and its consequences are a major public health…