Smoke from Prairie fires prompts special weather statement in Ottawa
The special weather statement, issued at 4:48 p.m. Wednesday, also covers areas of the province located south of the capital city as well as a large swath of western Ontario.
For the latest conditions and the map of affected areas, click here.
The air quality is expected to improve Thursday morning into Thursday afternoon, according to the weather agency.
The smoke may pose health risks, Environment Canada said, advising people in affected areas to limit time outdoors and to consider rescheduling outdoor activities.
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Medscape
18 minutes ago
- Medscape
Keep Canada's Health Data Safe and in Canada, Experts Say
Canada must move quickly to safeguard its health data, experts say, adding that the need has become urgent in today's changing political climate. 'Health data are critical to health systems in Canada, but the potential of these data to be accessed and used by foreign entities for surveillance purposes without consent is concerning,' Michael Geist, professor of law and Canada research chair of internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, and coauthors wrote in a commentary published on July 28 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Kumanan Wilson, MD 'Health data are going to be extremely valuable going forward, not just for the provision of care, but also for the emerging health artificial intelligence [AI] industry,' co-author Kumanan Wilson, MD, CEO of Bruyère Health Research Institute and internal medicine specialist at the Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, told Medscape Medical News . A Multipronged Approach Canada's health system mostly relies on US providers to manage electronic medical record systems for hospitals. These providers store encrypted data on servers that, though in Canada, are owned by US companies. 'We need to develop a sovereign Canadian cloud server, and that will take time, because it will have to provide the same functionality as the American servers. Those companies are giants because they are very good at what they do. Our ability to meet the standards that they provide is not here now,' he added. The US currently can use Canadian health data. 'For example, the recent US Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act allows US law enforcement to access data held by US companies in other countries and could be a threat. We would rather see the US be unable to use our data. Canadian companies must have access in a privacy-secure way to support Canadian industry,' said Wilson. 'We also need to have AI algorithms that are based on our population. We can't be importing an algorithm built in the US and applying it to the Canadian population, because it's not the same as our population,' Wilson added. The authors suggest the following multipronged approach to addressing these issues: Ensure that health data are secure by requiring encryption by default. Require health data to be hosted on Canadian soil. Strengthen Canadian privacy laws against the disclosure of data to foreign countries without consent. Invest in and support the creation of Canadian cloud servers to ensure that data are held in Canada by Canadian providers. Encryption: No Panacea Victoria Lemieux, PhD, professor of archival science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, agrees that Canadian health data must be protected. But she is not convinced by the solutions that the authors have proposed. Victoria Lemieux, PhD 'Encryption does not solve the problem entirely, as we are now on the brink of quantum computing that has the potential to break standard encryption,' Lemieux told Medscape Medical News . 'Overreliance on encryption as a solution risks overlooking the need to ensure that all encryption used is quantum-safe. Rather than recommending encryption as a solution, I would prefer to see a recommendation that a range of privacy-enhancing technologies be employed to protect our health and other data,' Lemieux said. However, she does support investment in a Canadian cloud infrastructure. 'We face the same issue that Europe does, since we have become overly reliant on US technology firms. If we don't hold and store the data in Canada on Canadian servers run by Canadian companies, then we aren't really in control,' said Lemieux. 'A partnership with European cloud providers might help us move away from our reliance on US tech and help us develop secure and scalable alternatives.' Health data can be kept in the locations where it originates and be shared freely, when necessary, Lemieux continued. 'I have developed such technology, which currently is applied to archives and cultural heritage, but there's no reason it cannot be applied in healthcare as well.' But focusing on cloud technology development overlooks Canada's overreliance on US tech firms for AI, Lemieux noted. 'We need to ensure that the models we are using preserve privacy, comply with our Canadian values and how we want our data to be used, and do not divulge sensitive Canadian data to unauthorized parties,' she said. 'AI bots, whether from the US, China, or elsewhere, should not be allowed to range freely over our data, extracting value and information that does not come back to benefit Canadians. We must do more to protect ourselves from these bad data practices,' Lemieux added. More protection in Canadian privacy laws about disclosure to foreign jurisdictions is needed, said Lemieux, but these laws must be strengthened for the digital age. 'A law is only as good as a government's willingness to enforce it. If we take the recent Canadian government's bowing down to the US on the Digital Services Tax [a 3% tax on certain revenues of large digital service providers], I question whether we have the geopolitical clout to enforce such laws. But that's not an argument not to put the laws in place. We're better with them than without them.'
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
A warmer, humid world where ticks thrive is increasing spread of Lyme and other diseases
People in entertainmentFacebookTweetLink Follow This year, people are seeking emergency care for tick bites in the highest level since 2017, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and reported cases of Lyme disease have continued to rise through the years. Experts say the increases are driven by warmer temperatures due to climate change and the expanding presence of ticks in more areas in the US and Canada — including places where people are less familiar with the risks and how to prevent disease. 'When we first started doing this [in the mid-1980s], there were very few cases of Lyme disease reported in Canada. Lyme disease is pretty well established in Canada at this point,' said Dr. Thomas Daniels, the director of the Louis Calder Center, Fordham University's biological field station. Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks are mostly active when temperatures are above 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and they thrive in areas with at least 85% humidity, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. 'It likes to be in humid areas, not wet areas, but humid areas,' said Daniels. 'If you sample on a lawn that gets baked in the sun all day, you're not going to find ticks. You go 20 feet into the woods where it's shady and the temperature's generally lower and there's more ground cover, you will find ticks.' The threat from ticks and mosquitoes, which drive transmission of diseases such as West Nile, dengue and malaria, is already increasing. 'Because of increases in temperature that we've already seen, because of human impacts on the climate, the temperature is already getting more suitable for transmission of disease here in the United States and North America,' Dr. Erin Mordecai, an associate professor of biology at Stanford University, said at a news briefing on Monday. And while climate change is contributing to the expansion of tick habitats, it's not the sole driver. Human changes to landscapes also shape where ticks are found. 'It's never just one factor, right?' Dr. Jean Tsao, a professor at Michigan State University who studies disease ecology, said at a news briefing. 'In the continental US, most of the changes in the range is probably due to land use change affecting wildlife communities. Also management of wildlife populations, such as the white-tailed deer. That plays a major role for many of these ticks.' Deer ticks, also known as black-legged ticks, are the primacy ticks that carry Lyme disease. During the nymph stage, when they are most active, the ticks are about the size of a poppy seed and are easy to miss. As they feed on blood, they can transmit pathogens, including the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease. This transmission occurs through the tick's saliva, which enters the host's bloodstream during feeding. Brian Fallon, director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University, told CNN on Friday that infection can cause a range of multisystem symptoms. Once in the bloodstream, the bacteria can go to various parts of the body including the heart, central nervous system, the brain or peripheral nerves. The onset of Lyme disease may also present in different ways. 'Most people think of the Lyme rash as a bull's-eye target rash. In fact, that's not the most common presentation,' said Fallon. 'The most common presentation is more of a pinkish, reddish rash. But the main thing is that it expands in size from a small rash to five centimeters or larger.' Fallon notes that some people may also see more than one rash on different parts of their body. As the disease develops without treatment, more serious symptoms may emerge. Symptoms may last for months or even years, said Fallon. 'It's recognized mainly by the rash early on, if you're lucky enough to see it, and then later, by symptoms such as the neurologic symptoms that may manifest as a facial palsy or a meningitis causing severe headaches with stiff neck or shooting pains or severe stabbing pains,' Fallon said. There may be cardiac symptoms such as palpitations or slow rhythms; muscle pain and fatigue. 'It can be profoundly debilitating,' he said. Daniels says that although there are measures that can be taken to decrease the likelihood of a tick bite, prevention methods are not foolproof. The most important protection against Lyme disease is tick removal as soon as possible, he said. 'The key is to get the tick off you as quickly as possible. None of these [tick-borne] pathogens are transmitted very quickly, except for Powassan virus, which can be transmitted in as little as 15 minutes. But the infection rate for [humans] is very, very low,' said Daniels. 'For Lyme disease, you've got a 24 to 48 hour window of opportunity there to get the tick off, because it takes some time for the tick to gear up through its feeding to actually transmit the bacteria.' Daniels advises people to wear more clothes in the summertime. 'The longer we can keep the tick on the outside of our bodies and not on our skin, the less likely it is to find a place to attach.' Clothes can also be treated with permethrin, an insecticide that repels ticks. When hiking, Fallon advises people to stay on the trail, as ticks roam in leafy areas and wood piles. Daniels advises people to conduct a 'tick check' for themselves and each other if they're in an area with ticks. 'It's helpful because the ticks may go behind your knee, or they may go and bite you in the back, and you can't see your back or reach your back. Take a shower at the end of the day, because that may help to wash off some ticks that haven't fully attached yet,' he said. If a tick is attached for a prolonged period of time, Fallon says that it would gradually 'blow as big as a raisin' from continuously sucking blood. If you do find a tick, experts advise people to use tweezers to take out the tick from underneath its body. 'Don't try to burn it off with a cigarette. Don't try to put anything toxic on it. Remove it with a tweezer,' he said.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Raging wildfires force several Avalon communities to evacuate, others on alert
Wildfires burning out of control on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula have forced hundreds of people from several communities to flee their homes and others to be ready to leave if the call comes. On Monday, residents in the Conception Bay North communities of Small Point–Adam's Cove–Blackhead–Broad Cove and Kingston were told to evacuate due to a burning wildfire near Kingston. Then, around 11:30 p.m., the town of Western Bay was told to evacuate, with the people in nearby Ochre Pit Cove being told to get ready to flee if necessary. A new fire near Holyrood prompted partial evacuation of residents, and the Town of Conception Bay South also evacuated the area of the Conception Bay Highway west of Seal Cove Road. "We've had an interesting fire season, to say the least," provincial fire duty officer Jeff Motty told CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show on Tuesday. He said the fire burning near Kingston — last reported to be 150 hectares in size — is now 258 hectares and is still out of control. Crews were fighting the fire until late on Monday and he said they had hoped to see a break in fire behaviour in the evening due to increased humidity, but instead there was increased fire behaviour around 7:30. "We've seen drought-like conditions since the start of the season and we started our season early," said Motty, pointing to the fire in May that forced an evacuation of Adam's Cove residents and destroyed 12 homes and 45 other structures. Motty said the plan for Tuesday morning is to assess the fire and determine the best way to fight it, adding they will have crews, water bombers and helicopters on the scene. But he couldn't say if the fire had damaged anything in the communities. Motty also said the fire's cause is currently under investigation, adding there's been lightning in the area but that fire can be human caused — possibly alluding to suspicions CBC News has reported from Conception Bay North residents who believe it could be arson. "I'm not making a judgment call, one way or another," said Motty. Motty said the two fires, one near Kingston and the other near Holyrood, are close enough they can share resources as needed. He said as of Monday the Holyrood fire is 20 hectares in size and it is still burning out of control. "That one there did jump up and it did burn quickly. At the point of mapping it was two kilometres long," he said. Like with the Kingston fire, Motty said crews will be back on site early Tuesday to make a plan of attack. Motty added it's too early to say when the evacuation order could be lifted in either fire area. 'More erratic' The current dry conditions are also making the current fire fighting season challenging, said Motty. "The lack of precipitation is definitely not helping. It's not only making it easier for fires to start, it's making fire behaviour more erratic." Motty said people need to be vigilant and understand their responsibility to prevent wildfires from starting in the first place. The provincial fire hazard map has the Avalon Peninsula between a very high and an extreme risk of fire, which puts a fire ban in effect in those regions. Motty urged people to follow the fire bans, adding responding to "nuisance fires" takes resources away from fighting wildfires. Meteorologist Justin Boudreau said there is some good news coming for firefighting conditions, as Tuesday's temperatures are expected to reach a high of 22 degrees, with a northeast wind shift in the afternoon which he said should bring temperatures down. "Which should push the fire kind of back over itself," said Boudreau. But he said the downside is that it's expected to blow the smoke back toward the land, adding there is an Environment Canada special air quality statement for St. John's and portions of the northern Avalon Peninsula. Boudreau advised people impacted to reduce the time they spend outdoors. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
