Here, There and Everywhere: Environmental Chemicals and Contaminants

Every day, we are exposed to chemicals and pollutants - in our air, food and water. There are chemical substances in the products we use at work, at home and at play. While chemicals play an essential role in our daily lives, some chemical substances can negatively affect our health and the environment if poorly managed.

Hosts Megan Beahen and Alex Newman sit down with Tyler Pollock, PhD, Scientist with the Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau at Health Canada, to discuss lesser-known facts about environmental chemicals and contaminants.

They chat about the chemicals that surround us, potential exposures, and how this all comes into play in our day-to-day lives.

About the Canadian Biomonitoring Dashboard: https://health-infobase.canada.ca/bio...

Risk assessment of chemical substances: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad...

Environmental Contaminants: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad...

Exposure and health effects of chemicals: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad...

Human Biomonitoring of Environmental Chemicals: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad...

Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS): https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/survey/h...

MIREC - A research study on early life exposure to environmental chemicals: https://www.mirec-canada.ca/en/

Northern Contaminants Program: https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en...

Contents of this video
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Disclaimer
01:18 Guest introduction/background
03:18 Changing world of environmental chemicals
04:28 Definition of environmental chemicals
05:10 Environmental chemicals vs. environmental contaminants
06:04 Risks to health
08:23 Common environmental contaminants
13:56 Are all chemicals bad?
16:43 Testing for exposure/risk
19:31 Chemical levels in people in Canada
23:51 How to reduce your risk
26:28 Emerging concerns
28:40 Being informed
32:53 Don’t microwave plastics
34:38 Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau
36:26 Conclusion