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Justifiably, there are many emotional responses related to this topic that include grief, fear, anger and frustration. Before you engage with this statement, we encourage you to take a moment to regulate your nervous system in any way you know works best for you (here are some suggestions). As many of us continue to struggle with compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious trauma, we stress the importance of caring for you so you can care for others.
Trinity College’s Integrated Sustainability Initiative hosted Women’s Healthy Environments Network (WHEN) in their largest Wannabe Toxic Free (WTF): Awareness, Agency, and Collective Action fair on January 26, 2024 at the College. Led by Honour Stahl (WHEN Executive Director and Trinity’s Ethics, Society & Law program graduate) and Professor Nicole Spiegelaar (Academic Director of the Integrated Sustainability Initiative), the fair brought together a diverse set of educators, students, activists, and local businesses to raise awareness on the intersectional effects of environmental risk on women’s health, as well as ways to address them.
The Government of Canada’s approach to regulating talc as a toxic substance demonstrates how the current risk assessment and risk management processes do not adequately consider vulnerable populations (specifically women) and highlights the need to integrate an intersectional analysis (i.e. GBA+) into these processes.
At the 4th UN World Conference on Women (1995), Canada signed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and committed to conducting GBA on all future legislation, policies, and programs.
WHEN is a strong advocate for the use of GBA+ when government initiatives are being developed, implemented or evaluated because GBA+ provides an intersectional feminist lens through which inequities can be identified and addressed.
As October brings with it Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many of us are thinking about ways to embrace the season by engaging with overall wellness. Scented candles frequently find their way into our homes this time of year, but could be leading us down a path of potential adverse health effects.
Today is World Environment Day and this year’s theme is #BeatPlasticPollution.
With human health at risk, government must do better at getting plastics off the shelves and out of healthcare settings where possible. With the recent success of a modernized Canadian Environmental Protection Act that will – for the first time in federal law – include the right to a healthy environment, reducing plastics is not only possible but a right to be acknowledged for the sake of human and planetary health. But action cannot stop there.
