Mortality from lung cancer was greater in Ontario uranium miners than in the general male population of Ontario (observed = 152, expected = 67.6, standardised mortality ratio 225, 95% confidence interval 191-264). Part of the excess of lung cancer may be because the proportion of men who are smokers or have smoked is greater in uranium miners than in Ontario men. Smoking does not explain the whole excess. Mortality from lung cancer in Ontario uranium miners is clearly related to exposure to short lived radon progeny. The excess relative risk of lung cancer from the same degree of exposure to short lived radon progeny is greatest five to 14 years after exposure and less subsequently. It is greater in men under the age of 55 years and less in older men. Part of the excess of lung cancer mortality in Ontario uranium miners is probably also due to exposure to arsenic that occurred earlier in gold mines. In Ontario uranium miners, the lung cancer mortality from exposure to arsenic increases as the intensity of exposure to short lived radon progeny increases. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that the risk of lung cancer from exposure to arsenic is enhanced by exposure to other carcinogens. In Ontario uranium miners, the proportion of lung cancers that are small cell carcinomas is greater than in the general population. The proportion of small cell carcinomas is especially great five to 14 years after exposure to short lived radon progeny and in men who die from lung cancer at younger ages.

OBJECTIVE: To examine back and neck hospitalizations in the Province of Ontario and Washington State. Because of their different organization and financing, there has been considerable interest in comparing healthcare systems in Canada and the United States. Features of healthcare systems might be expected to result in greater variations in care for elective than urgent conditions. DATA SOURCE: Automated hospital discharge databases. STUDY DESIGN: Previously developed algorithms were used to identify surgical and nonsurgical hospitalizations for back and neck problems in the administrative databases. We compared overall rates of hospitalization and lengths of hospital stay in Ontario and Washington as well as small area variations within the province and state. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Surgical back and neck hospitalizations were three times as common in Washington, but medical hospitalizations were twice as common in Ontario. Provincial lengths of stay were longer for both surgical and nonsurgical hospitalizations. Admission rates varied substantially and significantly among small areas in both Washington and Ontario. Variations in hospital length of stay were greater in Ontario, particularly for nonsurgical back and neck hospitalizations. CONCLUSION: The two jurisdictions had very different patterns of hospital utilization for one of the most common health problems seen by physicians. Our results suggest that the global controls on hospital budgets and access to technology in Ontario were associated with lower rates of surgery...

BACKGROUND: There is relatively little information available on recent population-based trends in the outcomes of patients who have had an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We, therefore, conducted a study of temporal trends in the outcomes of AMI patients in Ontario, Canada, between the 1992 and 1996 fiscal years. METHODS: 114,618 AMI patients were discharged from hospitals in Ontario between Apr. 1, 1992, and Mar. 31, 1997. After specific exclusion criteria were applied the final sample of 89,456 patients was divided into 5 cohorts according to the fiscal year of discharge. As part of the Ontario Myocardial Infarction Database project the linked administrative data pertaining to these patients were used to examine cohort characteristics, cardiac procedures used and mortality rates for each of the 5 cohorts over time. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in the percentage of patients in Ontario receiving coronary angiography, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (p < 0.001) after an AMI between 1992 and 1996. In addition, the overall 30-day risk-adjusted mortality rate declined from 15.5% in 1992 to 14.0% in 1996 (p = 0.001) and the 1-year risk-adjusted mortality rate declined from 23.7% in 1992 to 22.3% in 1996 (p = 0.017). Virtually all of the improvement occurred within 30 days of admission. The absolute decline in 1-year mortality rates was significant for patients under the age of 65 (2.3%...

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the associations of individual mental health disorders, self-rated mental health, disability, and perceived need for care with the use of outpatient mental health services in the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was employed. Data came from the 1990 US National Comorbidity Survey and the 1990 Mental Health Supplement to the Ontario Health Survey. RESULTS: The odds of receiving any medical or psychiatric specialty services were as follows: for persons with any affective disorder, 3.1 in the United States vs 11.0 in Ontario; for persons with fair or poor self-rated mental health, 2.7 in the United States vs 5.0 in Ontario; for persons with mental health-related disability. 3.0 in the United States vs 1.5 in Ontario. When perceived need was controlled for, most of the between country differences in use disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: The higher use of mental health services in the United States than in Ontario is mostly explained by the combination of a higher prevalence of mental morbidity and a higher prevalence of perceived need for care among persons with low mental morbidity in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of self-reported cardiovascular disease and risk factors among Ontario women aged 50 and older. DESIGN: Analysis of the 1990 Ontario Health Survey, a population-based, cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Ontario communities. PARTICIPANTS: Residents of Ontario communities during 1990 who responded to the 1990 Ontario Health Survey (61,239 respondents in 35,479 households), weighted to represent the population of Ontario. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reported heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, height and weight, physical activity, and smoking habits. RESULTS: Nearly 11% of women aged 50 and older report "heart disease"; 24.9% hypertension, and 5.4% diabetes. Women were less likely than men to smoke daily, to smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day, and to be overweight, but were more likely to have lower levels of physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of self-reported heart disease and medical and lifestyle risk factors for heart disease is relatively high among Ontario women aged 50 and older. Physicians and public health officials must keep women in mind when designing or implementing programs or services for heart disease.

The first confirmed outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus infections in North America was caused by A/turkey/Ontario/7732/1966 (H5N9); however, the phylogeny of this virus is largely unknown. This study performed genomic sequence analysis of 11 avian influenza isolates from 1956 to 1979 for comparison with A/turkey/Ontario/7732/1966 (H5N9). Phylogenetic and genetic analyses included these viruses in combination with all known full-genome sequences of avian viruses isolated before 1981. It was shown that a low-pathogenic avian influenza virus, A/turkey/Ontario/6213/1966 (H5N1), that had been isolated 3 months previously, was the closest known genetic relative with six genome segments of common lineage encoding the polymerase subunits PB2, PB1 and PA, nucleoprotein (NP), haemagglutinin (HA) and non-structural (NS) proteins. The lineages of these genome segments included reassortment with other North American turkey viruses that were all rooted in North American wild waterfowl with the HA gene originating from the H5N2 serotype. The phylogenies demonstrated adaptation from North American wild birds to turkeys with the possible involvement of domestic waterfowl. The turkey isolate, A/turkey/Wisconsin/1968 (H5N9), was the second most closely related poultry isolate to A/turkey/Ontario/7732/1966 (H5N9)...

The objective of this study was to characterize H1N1 and H1N2 influenza A virus isolates detected during outbreaks of respiratory disease in pig herds in Ontario (Canada) in 2012. Six influenza viruses were included in analysis using full genome sequencing based on the 454 platform. In five H1N1 isolates, all eight segments were genetically related to 2009 pandemic virus (A(H1N1)pdm09). One H1N2 isolate had hemagglutinin (HA), polymerase A (PA) and non-structural (NS) genes closely related to A(H1N1)pdm09, and neuraminidase (NA), matrix (M), polymerase B1 (PB1), polymerase B2 (PB2), and nucleoprotein (NP) genes originating from a triple-reassortant H3N2 virus (tr H3N2). The HA gene of five Ontario H1 isolates exhibited high identity of 99% with the human A(H1N1)pdm09 [A/Mexico/InDRE4487/09] from Mexico, while one Ontario H1N1 isolate had only 96.9% identity with this Mexican virus. Each of the five Ontario H1N1 viruses had between one and four amino acid (aa) changes within five antigenic sites, while one Ontario H1N2 virus had two aa changes within two antigenic sites. Such aa changes in antigenic sites could have an effect on antibody recognition and ultimately have implications for immunization practices. According to aa sequence analysis of the M2 protein...

Il est connu que le vieillissement de la population canadienne va augmenter la demande d’aide à domicile et qu’un soutien insuffisant du secteur public accroît l’implication des réseaux informels et privés. En s’appuyant sur les données de l’Enquête nationale sur la santé de la population (ENSP) et de l’Enquête sur la santé dans les collectivités canadiennes (ESCC), cette recherche analyse les tendances et déterminants de l’utilisation de l’aide à domicile subventionnée par le gouvernement au Canada et en Ontario entre 1996-1997 et 2009-2010. Il en ressort que la proportion de bénéficiaires âgés de 65 ans et plus est en diminution, passant de 9,9% à 9,2% au Canada (1996-1997 à 2005) et de 10,2% à 8,8% puis 9,6% en Ontario (1996-1997, 2005, 2009-2010). Les compressions sont particulièrement ressenties dans les services de maintien à domicile, dont l’aide pour les travaux ménagers (de 51% à 34% en Ontario). Les personnes âgées, les femmes, les gens vivant seuls ou qui ont besoin d’assistance pour accomplir certaines activités de la vie quotidienne (AVQ) ou activités instrumentales de la vie quotidienne (AIVQ) reçoivent de moins en moins d’aide publique à domicile. En conclusion, le présent système de santé...

In much of Canada, the number of children in child welfare care has been increasing significantly in recent years. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the permanent ward population doubled in size over the decade ending in 2005, according to the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (Gail Vandermeulen, personal communication, January 6, 2006). Ontario law asserts that it is preferable for children who are permanent wards with no access to their biological parents to leave care via domestic adoption rather than remain in fostering arrangements (Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, 2000). Nevertheless, rates of adoption for these children in Ontario actually declined over the past ten years according to the former government minister of the Ministry of Community and Social Services (Marie Bountrogianni, personal communication, February 23, 2004). The purpose of these investigations was two-fold: to profile the population of children who were legally available for domestic public adoptions while developing a theory about the decision-making processes of adoption applicants as they consider available children with and without disabilities. In the first study a representative sample of over 20% of the files of children who were permanent wards of the state on December 31...

The purpose of this project was to design an accessible, research-based resource for parents1 of children with learning difficulties in the French Immersion (FI) program in Ontario. The resource aimed to provide parents with current, empirical information relevant to the topic of students with learning difficulties in the FI program; to identify the most effective, pedagogically sound remediation strategies for parents to use at home to support their children’s learning; and, to provide a compilation of resources to enhance parents’ involvement and confidence in their ability to support their children’s special learning needs in the FI program. The Overlapping Spheres of Influence model was used as the framework for this project; the model indicates that a child’s development at home and at school overlap and a strong, positive relationship between parents and a school can have a positive impact on student achievement (Epstein, 2001). Information for this resource was collected through a careful selection and analysis of documents, including a variety of handbooks for parents of children in the French Immersion program in Ontario and relevant Ontario Ministry of Education documents. The Backwards Design model was used to inform the structure and design of the resource. Components for the resource were modelled after parent engagement kits developed by the Council of Ontario Directors in Education (C.O.D.E)...

This project is a quasi-experimental study involving eight classrooms in two senior elementary schools in St. Catharines, Ontario which received a Project Business Program and were pre- and post-tested to determine the growth of knowledge acquisition in the area of business concepts. Four classrooms received a Project Business treatment while four classrooms acted as a control. The Project Business Program is sponsored by Junior Achievement of Canada; it occurred during a twelveweek period, February to May 1981, and is run by business consultants who, through Action, Dialogue and Career Exploration, teach children about economics and business related topics. The consultants were matched with teacher co-ordinators in whose classrooms they taught and with whom they discussed field trips, students, lesson planning, etc. The statistical analysis of pre- and post-test means revealed a significant statistical growth in the area of knowledge acquisition on the part of those students who received the Project Business Program. This confirms that Project Business makes a difference. A search of the literature appears to advocate economic programs like Project Business, whfch are broadly based, relevant and processoriented. This program recommends itself as a model for other areas of co-operative curricular interactions and as a bridge to future trends and as a result several fruitful areas of research are suggested.

The origins of the Welland County Fair date back to the founding of the County of Welland in 1852. A provincial charter was issued in 1853 to create the Welland County Agricultural Society that was to operate the Fair. In 1970, the Welland County Fair became the Niagara Regional Exhibition, and the Society became known as the Niagara Regional Agriculture Society. The Society seeks to “encourage interest, promote improvements in and advance the standards of agriculture, domestic industry and rural life”. The Welland Festival of Arts was developed in 1986 in order to revitalize the town’s economy. An “outdoor art gallery” was created by painting murals on buildings that depicted the town’s heritage, a concept successfully adopted by the town of Chemainus, B.C. The first mural was completed in the summer of 1988, and by 1991 there were a total of 28 murals around the city. The endeavour proved successful: in the years that followed the creation of the Festival, two new hotels were constructed, a third was expanded, and there was an addition to the Seaway Mall to accommodate the increased tourist traffic. Optimist International is a non-profit organization that strives to “bring out the best in kids” . The first Canadian club was formed in Toronto in 1924. The Welland branch of the Optimist Club was founded in 1937. The first Welland County General Hospital opened in 1908. As the population increased...

With scientific consensus supporting a 4oC increase in global mean temperature over the next century and increased frequency of severe weather events, adaptation to climate change is critical. Given the dynamic and complex nature of climate change, a transdisciplinary approach toward adaptation can create an environment that supports knowledge sharing and innovation, improving existing strategies and creating new ones. The Ontario wine industry provides a case study to illustrate the benefits of this approach. We describe the formation and work of the Ontario Grape and Wine Research Network within this context, and present some preliminary results to highlight the opportunities for innovation that will drive the successful adaption of the Ontario grape and wine industry.; Thank you to all our partners in The Ontario Grape and Wine Research Network. The support of the Ontario Research Fund for Research Excellence Funding (Round 5), Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc., the Wine Council of Ontario, the Grape Growers of Ontario, and the Winery and Growers Alliance of Ontario is gratefully acknowledged.

The Niagara River Remedial Action Plan was part of an initiative to restore the integrity of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem. In 1972, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was signed by both Canada and the United States to demonstrate their commitment to protecting this valuable resource. An amendment in 1987 stipulated that Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) be implemented in 43 ecologically compromised areas known as Areas of Concern. The Niagara River was designated as one of these areas by federal and provincial governments and the International Joint Commission, an independent and binational organization that deals with issues concerning the use and quality of boundary waters between Canada and the United States. Although the affected area included parts of both the Canadian and American side of the river, Remedial Action Plans were developed separately in both Canada and the United States. The Niagara River (Ontario) RAP is a three-stage process requiring collaboration between numerous government agencies and the public. Environment Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority are the agencies guiding the development and implementation of the Niagara River (Ontario) RAP. The first stage is to determine the severity and causes of the environmental degradation that resulted in the location being designated an Area of Concern; the second stage is to identify and implement actions that will restore and protect the health of the ecosystem; and the third stage is to monitor the area to ensure that the ecosystem’s health has been restored. Stage one of the RAP commenced in January 1989 when a Public Advisory Committee (PAC) was established. This committee was comprised of concerned citizens and representatives from various community groups...

The Ontario Winter Games began in 1970. This four day sporting event features amateur athletes from across the province, with the majority of the athletes being between the ages of 14-18. The event is held every two years and averages 3,500 participants, including athletes, coaches and officials. It provides an opportunity for young athletes to showcase and develop their skills, often preparing them for sports competitions at the national and international level. The 1985 Ontario Winter Games were held in St. Catharines, Ontario, from March 14-17.; This archive is part of the larger Ontario Editorial Bureau Fonds (OEB) housed at Brock University. The records contain information about the 1985 Ontario Winter Games, held in St. Catharines, Ontario. The bulk of the material is correspondence, media releases, meeting minutes, and promotional material.

Fonds contains materials related to the St. Catharines Office of the Ontario Editorial Bureau, from the early 1950s to 1990. All invoices and personal documents (life insurance plans, T4 slips, vacation pay, doctor's notes etc.) have been removed from this collection. Resumes have been removed and, if appropriate, placed in the biographical file. Duplicates have been removed. Any publications were removed (except for a small number in employee information) and either added to the Special Collections or discarded if already present, and noted in the separated materials section. Only a sampling of promotional materials was retained within the collection. Some were relocated to the "brochures and pamphlets" within the Archives (arranged by city). Some photographs were moved to appropriate collections, as noted in related materials.; This archive is part of the larger Ontario Editorial Bureau fonds (OEB) housed at Brock University. The bulk of the collection is correspondence relating to The St. Catharines Office. Clippings, media releases, speeches and addresses make up the remainder of the collection. Representative examples of promotional materials were also retained.

This study has three purposes: to establish a chronologically controlled vegetational history for a number of sites in south Southwestern Ontario; to utilize the resulting data to support and/or add to the current understanding of Quaternary geology and stratigraphy, and the glacial and postglacial history of the Great Lakes in south Southwestern Ontario; and to attempt to propose a possible explanation for the extinction of the mastodon in Southern Ontario. Palynological and geochronological analyses were conducted on material collected from eleven sites (east to west): Verbeke Mastodon Site, Woloshko Mastodon Site, Walker Pond II, Pond Mills I, Lake Hunger Bog, Bouckaert Site. Mabee Site, Cornell Bog. Colles Lake I, Folden Mastodon Site and Forest Pond. Individual geochronologically controlled (where possible) vegetational histories were reconstructed for each of the sites investigated. The results of the individual studies, when considered in overview. indicated the existance of an established closed boreal forest throughout south Southwestern Ontario by 10,000 years B.P. This evidence for a significant climatic change coincident throughout south Southwestern Ontario supports the proposed age of 10,000 years B.P. for the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary (Terasmae...

Increasing numbers of international students are attending high schools in Ontario. These students are tuition-paying adolescents coming to Ontario unaccompanied, living with Canadian families, and studying in English-speaking high schools. Although few studies have examined adolescent international students, many studies have been conducted on mobile students and immigrant students who face many similar challenges. These studies provided the starting point for defining the kinds of supports that could be present in programs designed for unaccompanied adolescent international students. One purpose of this current research was to assess the range and scope of this educational phenomenon by looking at International Student Programs (ISPs) offered in Ontario by publicly-funded school boards. After surveying the school board web sites, I determined which publicly-funded English-language school boards accepted international students. I compared the size of 18 programs. I invited the 16 school boards that were members of Ontario Association of School Districts International (OASDI) to participate in the study. I conducted one set of telephone interviews with the managers of eight of the 16 international student programs (ISPs), and received two written responses to the interview questions. I then conducted three longer face-to-face interviews with the managers from three diverse school boards. Two orientation manuals were analyzed as a part of this study. I examined the supports that 10 programs provided for international students. Some of the participating boards had well-developed ISPs that provided academic supports...

Despite a long history of multicultural education initiatives in Ontario (Chan, 2007), Harper (1997) argues that “racially motivated violence, gender and sexual harassment, and cultural and class conflict that continue to occur in Ontario schools” demonstrate the need for new and better ways to respond to student diversity (p. 203). The Ontario Ministry of Education responded to these inadequacies by mandating that school boards develop equity and inclusive education policies, as specified in Policy/Program Memorandum No. 119 (2009) Developing and Implementing Equity and Inclusive Education Policies in Ontario Schools. Still, a considerable and observable gap exists between the goals of policy and the realities of practice in many Ontario schools. A necessary starting point in analyzing this gap is to examine the development of equity education policy in Ontario as documented in PPM No. 119 (2009). Relying on document analysis and policy analysis as the sole methods of data collection, I documented the ideological, socio-cultural, political, legal, and economic context from which PPM No. 119 (2009) developed in order to understand what groups of stakeholders were included in the development of PPM No. 119 (2009) and whose values the policy document ultimately represents. Collected documents that represent both the federal and provincial level of policymaking and a variety of regional stakeholders and policy actors illustrated that...

Background: The amount of time that it takes to get a breast cancer diagnosis is very important to patients. The Ontario diagnostic assessment unit (DAU) is designed to improve the quality and timeliness of care during a breast cancer diagnosis. This study described and examined the association between the length of the diagnostic interval and DAU use in Ontario, Canada. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study among all breast cancer patients diagnosed between Jan 1st, 2011 and Dec 31st, 2011 in Ontario, Canada. DAU use and diagnostic intervals were described. The association between DAU use and the diagnostic interval was examined separately in a cohort of 2499 screen-detected patients and a cohort of 4381 symptomatic patients. Study data sources included administrative databases available at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Cancer Care Ontario (CCO). The diagnostic interval was defined as the time from the index contact to the cancer diagnosis. DAU use was determined based on the payment record within the organized screening program as well as the hospital where patients were diagnosed. Multivariate median regressions were used to control for possible confounders. Results: On average, Ontario breast cancer patients waited 4.6 weeks to be diagnosed. Forty-eight percent were diagnosed in a DAU and 52% were diagnosed in the usual care route. In screen-detected patients...