Ellen Venner-Hiltz knew her two-month-old son wasn’t focusing as well as her other children had, but when she lay Griffin next to his newborn cousin, the difference was obvious. Her week-old nephew looked steadily at objects, but Griffin’s eyes were darting around, as if he couldn’t decide what to look at. His eyes were unsteady and shaking, something they would later learn was nystagamus, just one of a host of eye problems caused by his ocular albinism.
“I think he’s blind, he’s really not seeing me,” her husband, Dartmouth dentist Greg Hitlz, told her. They asked Griffin’s paediatrician to take an extra look.The pediatrician immediately noticed something wrong. Sunlight was shining in from an open window in the practice and she caught a glimmer of red in the retina. It was then she realized Griffin didn’t have pigment in the back of his eye.
Around this same time, in early 2006, Venner-Hiltz took her daughter Madeline, who had just turned three, for her first eye exam. The optometrist, Dr. Ralph Rosere, noticed something wrong with her eyes as well. “He said to me ‘I think I’m seeing some strange mottling in the back of her eye…do you have a family history of ocular albinism?’ I had no idea what he was talking about,” Venner-Hiltz says.
Even with a background in special education and two kids under her belt, Venner-Hiltz says nothing prepared her for what lay ahead. The family was immediately referred to the pediatric ophthalmic team at the IWK, the children’s hospital in Halifax. What they learned was Griffin had x-linked ocular albinism, a genetic disorder he inherited from his mother, and that Madeline was a carrier. They have since learned their youngest child, one-year-old Broden, is also affected, though it’s too early to tell how severely.
For Griffin, the condition means difficulty focusing, eye fatigue and higher levels of frustration. “He isn’t able to express to us what cues he’s missing,” says Venner-Hiltz, “so, especially being a 3½-year-old, we get a lot more tempter tantrumming.”
Griffin, and to some extent his family, have been followed by the eye team at the IWK ever since. The team consists of a pediatric ophthalmologist, a number of students, an orthoptist, an electrodiagnostian, various technicians and, when necessary, a genetic counsellor. Because the emergence of the condition is unpredictable and because it has been difficult to get a handle of the true range of his vision, Griffin has been seen regularly since his initial diagnosis.His development is watched closely in case surgical correction becomes and option and he visits the low vision clinic where he is learning to use tools that help with activities like reading and watching TV.
According to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) ocular albinism affects one in 150,000 males. (Only males develop ocular albinism, but females can pass the gene on to their children.) People with ocular albinism can experience congenital nystagmus, reduced visual acuity (from 20/60 to 20/400, sometimes as good as 20/25 in people of African descent), hypopigmentation of the iris pigment epithelium and the ocular fundus and foveal hypoplasia. Significant refractive errors are also common, as are reduced or absent binocular functions, strabismus and photoaversion.
Now nearly four, Griffin is quite a contrast in behaviours. He is naturally a sunny, happy child who loves people and, despite his vision problems, is good at puzzles and is fascinated by toys with small pieces. The eye issues are ever present however. Because of them, Griffin gets frustrated and is often tired, making even simple tasks difficult for the whole family. Selecting a favourite toy before a car trip can leave Griffin in tears, Venner-Hiltz says. In the rush to get out the door, it’s easy to forget Griffin may not even be able to see his special teddy bear.
Griffin’s repeated eye exams also wear on him. During a routine exam last year, Griffin was asked to identify shape after shape as the technicians tried to assess his eyes. He had done the tests before. He was bored and tired. As a tantrum set in, a technician made the mistake of getting down too low in her attempts to cajole him, and was kicked in the face. There was no major damage to the technician, who was used to working with children. Still, Venner-Hiltz laughs at the memory the “very difficult” note that went on her son’s file.
While she laughs now, Venner-Hiltz is frustrated by the shortage of pediatric ophthalmologists at the IWK, means long wait times and little chance to get her questions answered. It’s meant keeping Griffin at the clinic through nap time and snack time, raising stress levels and the likelihood of tantrums. They now ask for earlier appointment times to accommodate naps and meals, and have asked for less student involvement while he is still so young. She says the eye team has been very accommodating and the changes have made Griffin a much more pleasant patient.
For its part, the IWK understands the Hiltz family’s frustrations. The hospital has been scouring the world for another pediatric ophthalmologist. The problem is not limited to Nova Scotia. Dr. Robin Walker, vice-president of medicine at the IWK, says the specialty is a very small one and Canadian schools aren’t training as many as are needed. “We know there is no one in Canada right now who’s trained and available,” he says. The hospital also admits the impact on patient care is not good. The current specialists are left to triage the young patients and only see the worst cases, referring the rest to waiting lists or community optometrists or ophthalmologists. “You always worry that there’ll be something missed, that some child that presented with something that looks very minor that can wait will turnout to have a eye tumour or something catastrophic like that. It’s going to be very rare, but something like this is going to occur,” Dr. Walker says, noting that many specialties face these problems. All the same, “it just feels worse to recognize you are having to treat children in this way,” he says.
It’s also frustrating for Venner-Hiltz to know she unwittingly gave ocular albinism to her children. “I had always worn contact lenses and been seen by an optometrist, but no one ever told me I had this condition,” she says. During her life, she’s been examined by optometrists in five different provinces, yet the condition was never identified. An unusual spot on her eye did send her to an ophthalmologist five years ago and he noticed the condition, even calling it ocular albinism, but told her not to worry. “He looked and he just made some flip comment about it,” says Venner-Hiltz, adding he asked if her kids had any vision problems (at the time she had only two, both under the age of three). When she said no, he dismissed it altogether. “I just thought it was almost like a minor birth defect,” she says. “Nothing was explained to me at that point. I was completely shocked to discover…there was actually an implication for the children.”
Dr. Ian MacDonald, chair of ophthalmology at the University of Alberta, says the condition in an affected male is fairly apparent, but picking it up in women can be trickier. “In the female carrier there may be some signs,” he says. “The carrier would have some lack of pigmentation in the back of the eye.” Depending on the overall pigmentation, female carriers may show iris translucency and a patchy hypopigmentation or a grayish ‘mud-splattered’ discoloration of the peripheral fundus. Dr. MacDonald adds it’s important for the affected patient to be referred for genetic counselling.
Jill Beis, a genetics counsellor at the IWK, agrees. Because ocular albinism can have a generational impact, Beis says, “I think it would be a useful thing to refer that person to say ‘if this is a sign that you are a carrier of ocular albinism here is potentially the risk to your children and if you have children now maybe they should go for a screening.’” The gene mutation is found on the X chromosome. A boy born to a female carrier will either be affected or unaffected, while a girl can be unaffected or become a carrier. Any girls born to an affected male will be carriers, but none of the males will be affected.
Venner-Hiltz says knowing she was a carrier wouldn’t have changed her decision to have kids, but understanding the implications before hand would have made Griffin’s diagnosis much less difficult. Her fourth child is also affected, and understanding the condition has made things less stressful.
The Hiltz children are a rarity with three out of the four either affected or carriers of ocular albinism, but their mother says they’re thriving. Griffin finished his first year of pre-school. A bit of extra time with a book before story time helped, as did sitting directly in front of teacher as she read. Now he’s learning to use the visual aids he will need for school, and Venner-Hiltz is even getting him ready for the French school his siblings attend.
Griffin, who is on the low end of vision for ocular albinism, will probably never drive a car, but the eye team is being careful not to define his potential too narrowly. “They caution me about that when I try to understand what he can and can’t see,” says Venner-Hiltz, “I make statements like would he be able to learn to ski, they would shrug their shoulders and say ‘sure why not, he might, he might struggle with it, who knows?’”
For now, Griffin is facing life’s challenges and adapting as needed. His sunny personality shines through and he’s fearless in keeping up with his siblings and cousins. His parents worry about the social impacts of starting school and making and keeping friends on the playground when even picking out familiar faces in a crowd is difficult. Venner-Hiltz hopes the foundation they’ve given Griffin at home will see him through those challenges. “He’s confident and happy and well loved,” says Venner-Hiltz. “I do believe that as third-born child with a very sunny disposition, he’s unlikely to suffer too much. Generally speaking, he doesn’t seem to care too much about what people think. He does his own thing, to his benefit.”
Visit www.opticalprism.ca for links to resources for patients with ocular albinism.
Resources for Patients with Ocular Albinism
The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) www.albinism.org
The Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired (BC) http://www.prcvi.org/
Family Connect – an online community for parents of children with visual impairments http://www.familyconnect.org/parentsitehome.asp
Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority www.apsea.ca
Canadian National Institute for the Blind www.cnib.ca
The Ontario Foundation for Visually Impaired Children http://www.ofvic.org/
Colorectal Cancer: Curable if you catch it early.:
Lynne FitzGerald hadn’t even hit her 55th birthday when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. It was devastating news. A single mom with stage four cancer— meaning the cancer had spread from her colon and multiple tumours now riddled her liver—she was given a year to live.
“My life had just been turned upside down,” says FitzGerald. Unable to work through debilitating rounds of chemo and recovery from surgery, FitzGerald was forced to cash in her RRSPs and ended up on welfare. Four years later, she has beaten back the cancer and is now surviving on a disability pension and hoping to return to work. Even with all the pain and heartache associated with her story, she still says she’s one of the lucky ones. “I was a no-hoper and I’m still alive.”
Last year, nearly 2,000 people in Atlantic Canada were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. It killed 815. Colorectal cancer is second only to lung cancer as the most fatal cancer in Canada. Rates in Atlantic Canada are higher than the rest of the country.This part of the world has 9% of the annual colorectal cancer patients, with only 7% of the population. Rates inNewfoundland and Labrador are particularly worrisome, being significantly higher than the national average.
Colorectal cancer is slow-growing and there are often few symptoms. If caught early, it is one of the few cancers considered curable, but at its later stages is deadly. A Health Canada study showed two-year survival rates above 90% when caught at the first and second stages. At stage four rates dropped to less than 30%.
It’s those numbers that have led to much of the work on screening. FitzGerald’s surgeon told her the cancer had probably been in her colon for up to 10 years. Early screening would likely have caught it. Like regular pap tests and mammograms, the Canadian Cancer Society recommends regular screening for colorectal cancer. It claims there is convincing evidence the death rate can be reduced dramatically by such a program, predicting a 17 percent reduction in colorectal cancer deaths is 70 percent of people aged 50 to 74 were regularly screened.
“In Nova Scotia, you can go to your doctor and get what’s called a fecal occult blood test and be screened,” says Erika Nicholson, manager of the Colorectal Cancer Prevention Program with Cancer Care Nova Scotia. “The challenge is that that’s not happening, and people who are at average risk are not being screened.”
Risk for colorectal cancer is calculated at two levels. Those at high risk are people who have a history of colon cancer or an immediate relative with a history of colon cancer. Anyone with inflammatory bowel disease or some inherited syndrome is also at high risk. Everyone in this category is probably already being watched by their family doctors and offered colonoscopies when appropriate. The rest of the general population is considered at average risk.
A few provinces, Alberta, and Ontario included, have recently implemented screening programs. Nova Scotia is poised to be the first Atlantic province to offer screening. A pilot project is underway and the province hopes to be offering screening to the general public within a year. The $3-million program will offer testing to all Nova Scotians between 50 and 74 every two years.
The Nova Scotia screening tests will not be offered through family doctors; instead, they will be mailed directly to homes. Participants will be asked to take their own stool sample and smear a portion onto a provided card. They will then mail the test directly to the lab in a biohazard envelope. “We want to make it as easy as possible for people to participate,” says Nicholson. She says a number of studies and surveys showed this was the best way to approach mass screening. “People like that this is not a blood test. People like that they could do this in their own home.”
The test looks for blood in the stool. If evidence is found of a problem, the patient goes for a colonoscopy, a procedure in which a long, flexible tube with a camera at the end is used to look inside the colon. The technicians look for tumours, or, in the early stages, for abnormal tissue growth called polyps that may turn into cancer. “If you remove the polyp before it even becomes cancerous, and that’s done through the colonoscopy, you prevent the cancer in the first place,” says Barry Stein, president of the Colorectal Association of Canada and America. Stein is a stage-four colorectal cancer survivor. “That’s why we say it’s really the only cancer you can prevent before it even becomes cancer.”
Currently Nova Scotia is the only Atlantic Canadian province with a screening program underway, though the other provinces are looking at establishing their own programs. It is work Ann Marie Kerr is happy to see being done, but wishes it would happen faster. The cancer-survivor-turned-activist says a screening program could have saved her a lot of pain. Four years ago, at age 55, she was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer. “There’s really no need of anyone dying from colorectal cancer,” says Kerr, a Saint John, NB, resident. “If it’s caught early, it’s almost completely curable.”
When Kerr began to look for the best surgeons to treat her advanced cancer, she found world class care right here in Atlantic Canada.Her liver surgeon, Halifax’s Dr. Geoff Porter, was recommended as one of the finest anywhere.
That level of care is the subject of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program in Nova Scotia. The $1.5 million population-based study, using data that has been already collected, is looking at the spectrum of colorectal cancer care, from early symptoms through to palliative care. “We’re trying to find those areas where we need improvement,” says project coordinator Robin Urquhart. She says problems can arise when a patient moves through the system from their family doctor to a surgeon, and then to the cancer clinic.
If the data says that many people, in the last month of their life, are going to emergency for care, “then we would say, based on the literature, that that might be an indicator of poor quality.” Once the 20-member team has analyzed the data and identified areas that can be improved, the findings will go to the provincial department of health.
Once complete, the work will apply to other cancers, but for now, since research shows colon cancer survival rates can be improved by access to timely medical services, the study is focusing on colorectal care.
While rates of colorectal cancer in Atlantic Canada are high, it is Newfoundland that is most affected. Rates are 27% higher than the national average. Researchers at Memorial University in St. John’s are hoping to discover why those rates are so high, and, in particular, why there are so many families in the province with multiple cases of colorectal cancer. More than 30 researchers in two provinces from a variety of fields, from medicine to genetics to nutrition, are engaged in the work. A team in Ontario will compare results with the team in Newfoundland. To date, data from 750 colorectal cancer patients has been collected and is being analyzed.
Taking a close look at the genes of those Newfoundlanders is the job of genetics professor Dr. Michael Woods. He’s trying to identify a genetic mutation responsible for the high numbers of hereditary colorectal cancer in the province. Causes have been identified, but Woods says that since they don’t explain many of the cases found in Newfoundland families, there are still more genetic mutations to be found. “We’re narrowing it down, but we haven’t pinpointed where the gene is yet. It’s quite tricky because colorectal cancer can be caused by a number of different things,” he says. “If you have a large family, just because a number of people have colorectal cancer doesn’t mean it’s all caused by genetics. It happens in the general population quite frequently, too, and there could be large environmental effects like someone’s diet and things like that, which make it a bit more difficult to asses what the hereditary components are.”
All of this is work Lynne FitzGerald hopes will keep other from going through what she did. FitzGerald went as far as saying goodbye to all her friends, fully expecting to die before her year was out. “The fear was terrible,” she says, crying as she remembers the pain and heartache. “It was terrible. It was all because there was no testing. I go every year for a pap smear. I go every year for a mammogram, faithfully. If there had been a test for colon cancer, I would have gone for that every year, too, and I wouldn’t have ended up in the mess that I ended up in.”
Signs and symptoms
One of the big problems with colorectal cancer is that there are few symptoms. In most cases, symptoms often only appear once the tumour is big enough to cause damage. Possible symptoms include:
diarrea, constipation or a change in bowel habit
blood in the stool
abdominal discomfort (gas pain, bloating or cramps)
anaemia (symptoms include feeling tired generally)
The prevention key
While colorectal cancer can strike anyone, lifestyle habits can make a big difference. “Prevention through lifestyle and diet is incredibly important. There’s no question about that,” says Dr. Desmond Leddin, director of gastroenterology at Capital Health in Halifax. Dr. Leddin says weight is key. “Being overweight or obese is a major risk factor for colon cancer. The reason for that may be that being overweight drives up certain hormones that may make pre-cancers grow.”
Other prevention measures include:
eat green, leafy vegetables,
eat a high-fibre, low-fat diet,
reduce consumption of red meat,
exercise regularly, vitamin D,
calcium, folic acid and selenium may reduce the risk, but the evidence isn’t considered strong enough to recommend regular supplements, aspirin and some arthritis medications may reduce the development of polyps, but Dr. Leddin cautions there are still a lot of problems associated with these drugs so care is advised.
Overall, Dr. Leddin says preventing colorectal cancer is about controlling body weight and living a healthy life. “My own personal rule is I never eat things smarter than my dog and I have a really stupid dog. I’m a chicken, fish, and vegetable kind of guy.”
Mead Finds a Growing Audience in Atlantic Canada Good Taste Magazine, November/December 2009
For many, the word mead brings to mind medieval feasts or Viking plunder.It implies a rough and pagan drink that seems out of place in this modern world.The image, however, is far different from reality.Now considered a specialty drink with a growing audience, Mead is a surprisingly delicate and smooth wine that can be matched with anything from curry to sushi to chocolate.
At its most simple, Mead is wine made from honey.It has a long tradition and is believed to be the oldest fermented drink in the world.Still found in Europe, its availability in North America is mostly limited to local producers and some specialty wine shops.
For the owners of one of Nova Scotia’s newest wineries mead was an experiment gone right.“Some friends up the road knew we made wine and they offered us honey to try,” says Les Wade of Lawrencetown’s Beavercreek winery.He adds it’s hard to say no “hen someone drops 60 pounds of honey off and says ‘here would you like to try to make mead?’“It’s quite an expensive experiment for us if we had to buy it, so we tried it.”
The result was a dry, smooth wine that offers the palette only mild shades of its main ingredient, honey. The Beavercreek Mead is considered a naked mead, composed of just honey, water and yeast. Now into her third year producing the mead, winemaker Paulette Wade say the interest from the public has been surprisingly good considering most people have never heard of the wine.“I was amazed.There are a lot of people wanting it.”
Les Wade describes the Beavercreek Mead as a nice after dinner drink. “I find it very refreshing just to drink it.I don’t find it overly sweet.I just find it a nice relaxing sipping wine.”
The Honeymoon Wine offered by the Lunnenburg County winery, another naked mead, is also recommended as a sipping wine but also claims to go well with curries and Asian foods.The Lunnenburg mead has a sharper finish owner Heather Sanft calls quite floral.
“I always talk about the floralness first,” says Sanft.“I sometimes I’ll say do you like Earl Grey tea, do you like Jasmine rice, and if they say yes, I’ll say try this and think of all the flowers the bees went to visit.”The Lunnenburg County Winery has been making the mead the called Honeymoon Wine for nearly 15 years.The name of the wine is a tribute to the Northern European tradition of giving a bride and groom a month’s supply of mead in the hopes of producing a male child.The practice is the root of the modern word ‘honeymoon.’It also makes the wine a popular one for weddings.
Now enjoying a resurgence in North America, Mead has a rich and varied history. It was called ambrosia in Roman times and believed it was sent by the Gods, Norse warriors expected to find women with mead in the afterlife of Valhalla.There is even some suggestion it goes back as far as Neanderthal man, some 30,000 years ago.
For centuries it was the one of the most popular drink in most European countries, with the exception of perhaps France and Italy who have a long tradition of grape wines, but fell out of favour in the 1500s when processed sugar from the New World became widely available.
“When people could get sugar suddenly honey was considered déclassé,” says Vicky Rowe, owner of Gotmead.com, the world’s largest website devoted to Mead.Rowe says over the last 15 years the number of meaderies in North America has almost tripled.
“Mead is like wine in that you can have something that’s as dry as a bone, all the way up to mind numbingly sweet,” says Rowe.The result depends on how it is made.“Mead is all about how it’s crafted.”
Mead is also a highly versatile wine. It can be made with straight honey like those produced at the Beavercreek and Lunnenburg County wineries or it can be matched with almost anything. “You can add things like spices, you can add fruit, you can have strawberry meads, you can have Christmas spice meads,” says Rowe. She says she’s even tasted one made with Beets.It’s “not my favourite food, but it was a very well done mead, it was nicely balanced and for people who like beets it would probably be pretty good.”
Rossignol Winery on Prince Edward Island makes a Blackberry Mead that has been very well received by Island Chefs.Winemaker John Rossignol says the award winning mead is a sweet dessert wine that goes beautifully with chocolate.Rossignol describes his mead, available through the Island Liquor Commission, as fruity but earthy.
“The blackberry mead has become, locally anyway, one of the favourite dessert wines to work with it.You’ll find on some of the wine menus on the island now,” says Rossignol. It’s also been winning awards.The Rossignol Blackberry Mead took gold in the 2009 Atlantic Canadian Wine Competition and in the 2008 All-Canadian Wine Championships in the fruit category.Citing a growing interest in meads, the competition has since added a category just for the honey wines.“There are a lot of people that really don’t like grape wine so they’re looking for an alternate,” says Beverly Carnahan who runs the competition.“The mead wines are really improving and have a growing audience.”Many of the meads made in Canada are taking medals at international competitions as well.
Even so, mead is still an unknown quantity for many wine tasters.Vicky Rowe does marketing for meaderies and says education is still the biggest hurdle.“Introducing them to mead is always an adventure because you get people that are willing to step outside the box and you get other people that just think merlot is the end all be all of wine.”
Atlantic Canadian producers say their biggest success still comes from visitors willing to try a taste and leave with a few bottles. This year the Beavercreek Winery has doubled its production of mead and plans to do so again next year.Les Wade thinks the simplicity of the drink is what attracts people.He sees it as an every man’s drink.“I put a fire on the back deck a lot of times, sit out with a glass of mead, and just relax, nothing too pretentious.”
It can be a scary world out there. We're bombarded with messages about
dangers to our health and happiness from what seems like all corners these
days. Rates of diseases like cancer, asthma and chronic diseases are
allon the rise and then we're told culprits can range from our food to the toys
our kids play with to the very homes we live in. The tenuous control we
hold over our lives can often seem very fragile indeed.
More and more people are looking for ways to bring some of that control back
into their lives. Whether it’s through things like physical exercise or
choosing organic foods we want to know we're making the right choices for
ourselves and our families. Now some people are looking beyond
their own bodies and into the environment around them as a way to control
what's happening to our fragile bodies.
When Greg Muzatti and his family decided to
build a home in MahoneBay they searched for a
contractor that would let them make the decisions about the environment the
family would be living in.
"It was made the way we wanted it to
be," says Muzatti, "even down to the point of having them not smoke
in the building when it was under construction." He spent months
researching everything from the non-toxic insulation to the solar heating
panels to the electric furnace. He says the result is a four-bedroom,
2,800-square-foot house he says he can feel confident will help keep his family
healthy.
"I feel much more confident our kids
won't develop asthma or some malady down the road due to off-gassing,"
says Muzzatti. Owner of an online retail business and a stay-at-home dad, he
admits he wanted control over his environment and says a contractor willing to
look at non-toxic construction methods gave that to him.
"We don't have any particular health
concerns in our house as far as asthma or allergies go," he says,
"but I'm not comfortable with fibreglass insulation. I don't like fumes from
an oil furnace."
Muzzatti opted for ICF construction, which
uses Styrofoam blocks filled with concrete, and p2000 insulation in the
ceilings. He says the result has been impressive temperature control.
"Just as an example, recently at 34°C outside our temperature inside
the house remained at 24.5°C." He also has no worries about formaldehyde
in the insulation. No method is perfect, and most building
materials have some chemical content, but Muzzatti says he has more confidence
in his home than the traditional plywood structure.
More
and more people are looking for alternative says Richard Lind of the Canadian
Home Builders Association. The Lunnenberg County Builder says interest
has increased over the last five years and he says the industry is responding.
When he built a home for a client with environmental sensitivities nearly 15
years ago he says the products he neededwe scarce and hard to find. “What
I’venotice is that since then many of the things that were really leading
edge and innovative at the time are becoming much more common place.”
“There has been a steady movement towards
healthier materials,” says Lind. He says materials like flooring supplies
and paint have much lower levels of chemical off-gassing than just 10 years
ago.
The
problem is the science has not kept up with the public interest. Dr.
Virginia Salares, a senior researcher at the Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation, says we really don’t know what the cemicals in our air do to our
bodies. “What it actually does to people, we don’t know enough,”
but as Canadians spend about 90% of their time indoors, she says it’s prudent
to take precautions.
While the link between
respiratory problems and environmental sensitivities and air quality is still
being studied, we do know more people are reporting problems. Jyl
Bishop-Veale, a naturopath in Wolfville,NS,
she says a quarter of her patients have some kind of sensitivity to their home
or work environment. Shesays people react to all kinds of chemicals in their
homes but the worst offenders are mold and dust-mites. "People don't
really understand what's in the walls," says Bishop-Veale. "People
live under the assumption these products are safe and they don't worry about
it. I don't think they do know. That would be one of my questions if someone
came in feeling unwell,what's new in your environment? Have you recently
renovated? Have you moved into a new place?"
Bishop-Veale says formaldehyde is a big
offender when it comes to environmental sensitivities. She says when people
come in complaining of non-specific symptoms like lethargy, fatigue or malaise
she often looks to the patient's kitchen, saying new cabinets, if not made of
solid wood, can be a problem because of the potential formaldehyde
content.
Exposed particle board is a concern for the
CMHC’s Dr. Salares. “If you’ve got particle board exposed, you’ve got a
high potential for gasses to be released,” she says. Salares recommends
using solid wood where possible and choosing plywood rather than composite
materials like MDF because there’s less exposed glue.
Another
big concern for Salares is humidity. She says basements are at high risk
for developing mould. She says the best option is to go with out a
basement or crawl space but admits, “there’s a lot of resistance to this
concept.” She says if you really feel you need an underground space at
leastmake sure it’s heated. Leaving the area cold can result in
condensation she says and “that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Humidity is something Jorn Schroder looked
at seriously when he built his home in Tatamagouche,
NS.
The German immigrant and architectural consultant says he has little confidence
in the traditional North American method of building plywood homes with a
vapour barrier over fiber insulation. "No contractor is able to close in a
plastic foil so that there is no moisture going into that wall
construction," says Schroder. "I don't want to live in a plastic
bag"
Using European methods Schroder used a
mixture of timber frame and frame construction with cellulose insulation. He
says everything is vented to the outside of the home to prevent moisture
build-up. Schroder also used clay for the interior walls. He says
the walls absorb or release humidity as needed and limit the chance of mould
build-up. "We never had foggy mirrors in the bathroom when we take a
shower."
Ian Startup says he, too, is starting to
see more interest in non-toxic methods of building and in more environmentally
friendly living. The Queens County R-2000 home builder and designer promotes the
idea of green building. To
back up his efforts he established Hawthorne Hill, a 45-acre lot in MahoneBayhe's selling as a green neighbourhood. The
subdivision has rules about environmentally responsible building and living, it
bans things like chemical
pesticides and dryer sheets, and sets aside green space for its residents.
"Some people are very interested in a
healthy lifestyle, they want to exercise, they eat organic food," says
Startup. "I get responses to my website all the time from people who are
just so enthusiastic about this concept."
Startup
says the idea came from his wife Margo Kleiker's naturopathic practice. He says
many of her patients suffered because of things like indoor pollutants, moulds
and chemicals. Startup says many people just don't know what is in the air
they're breathing at home.
"I think they'd be stunned, I think they'd be astonished. I built a home
in MahoneBay last
fall. I had several people stop by to observe the house under construction and
several of them commented that
the house didn't have that new house smell," says Startup. He says the
smell they refer to is, in fact, "all these off-gassing products, all the
off-gassing chipboard and particle board and paint and caulking, all of those
products just weren't in the house so it didn't have that 'new house'
smell."
Startup says he chooses to build with materials he says are less toxic and
kinder to the human body. He uses tinted plaster instead of gyproc and paint,
and lumber instead of particle board or plywood.
"One of the things that I've noticed about the construction of the homes
is that it doesn't really increase the cost. A lot of these modern building
materials that do have a high toxic load have been developed primarily
for the convenience of the builder. The builder really has to take a step back
and start to making choice that are going to result in a healthier environment
for the occupants of the home and not think about his own convenience first.
Lumber is cheaper than plywood so choosing a healthier product is going to save
money. However, there is more skill required in putting the lumber in place, so
the labour component is a little bit higher, but it's compensated for by the fact
that materials are cheaper."
That's not true in all cases, though. Hugh McGoldrick operates 1850 House in Nova
Scotia's AnnapolisValley, a business that
takes down and reuses wood from antique homes and other buildings. He claims
the wood is much healthier because it was cut before the era of industrial
pollution. "It's just like a human being. What if a human being just kept
sucking all this pollution into their body, which is what is happening to
people. After a while, they develop illnesses, cancer, leukemia. It's the same
thing with trees."
McGoldrick admits building a home with an antique frame and all antique wood is
expensive but he claims it will last several lifetimes. He says that's not the
case with many homes being built today. "It's all about the healthy wood.
If you're building a structure with unhealthy materials, what are you going to
get? You're going to get an unhealthy structure."
He says there is a lot of interest in his product but most of his sales are not
taking place here in the Atlantic Provinces. Instead he says much of the
interest is from the United States and Western Canada. "I have a huge
demand but unfortunately here in the Maritimes it's a learning curve, it's
about a mature market."
But interest is growing says Greg Muzzatti. He says he was impressed with just
how much of the material he wanted to use for his home was available locally.
"We used pine siding on our home from a local mill, then we put a stain on
it that's environmentally friendly. We applied it ourselves. That was available
also in Halifax. All these technologies were very readily available in Atlantic
Canada, so it has a real good Atlantic Canada flavour."
As for cost, Muzzatti says some things were more expensive but in the end he
figures the overall cost was on par with the average price of building a new
home. His research was extensive but he says the result was worth it. After a
year living in his new home he has confidence it's a healthy environment for
his two young kids. "I'm not worried about (chemicals) absorbing in the
walls and ceiling and it's all affordable," says Muzzatti. "I just
found I needed a contractor that was flexible and willing to look at new
technologies."
Knowing if your four-year-old is ready for
school.
The excitement, the nervous stomach, the
feeling of never wanting to let go; the first day of school is unforgettable,
at least for parents.While they’re
hiding in the mini-van trying to talk themselves out of watching through the
window all day, most of the kids have moved past their initial reservations and
are happily making new friends.
This year, however, there are a whole new
set of reasons to worry.Thanks to a
change in the province’s age of entry regulations, 2100 new four year olds will
be added to the classroom.The new age
cut-off, December 31st, brings Nova Scotia in line with most other
provinces, but that doesn’t change some parents’ very real fear that their little
one may just not be ready.
When Kingston
mother-of-two Kim McMahon moved to the province last year ago she thought she
had lots of time to prepare her three year old for school.It wasn’t until that September she learned
her November born daughter Kyla, then enrolled in a pre-school with other three
year olds, would be headed for ‘big school’ in just under a year.
“My main concerns were her social skills,”
says McMahon of her generally shy child, “just being ready to interact with a
large class, being able to have the stamina for the full day.”
McMahon’s not alone.In September, there will be four year olds
starting primary with kids who are nearly six and, as parents will more than
one child know well, kids mature at widely varying rates.While school may be just what some four year
olds needs, for others, the idea of sitting quietly in circle time or spending
most of the day away from mom or dad may be too much.The province has said parents unsure about sending
those kids to school can choose to hold back a year, but how does a parent
really know what’s best?
Developmental psychologist Dr. Robert
Coplan of Carleton University says parents need to look at the child’s social development.A child who is bold and relaxed is not going
to have much trouble adjusting but parents of one who is quiet or anxious might
want to examine the situation closely.“It
might not be the worst thing in the world for them to have an extra year of
experiences to draw on,” says Dr. Coplan.At the same time, Coplan cautions parents against overprotecting kids,
saying some will benefit from being pushed a bit out of their comfort zone.
A school psychologist with the Halifax
Regional School Board, Bill O’Leary says, when making the decision to hold a
child back a year, it’s important to consider what would change over that time.
“The question to solve is will another year
at home eliminate the concern the parent has,” he says. He says often the issue
is less about age and more about how the child has been prepared for
school.O’Leary recommends teaching
social skills like sharing, empathy and getting along.He says expensive pre-school don’t have to be
the answer, instead recommending community groups like sparks or cubs or local
play groups to provide the needed skills.
Joseph Howe school primary teacher Alice
Moriarty admits there may be some young ones who might not be ready.She says if a child doesn’t have much in
terms of verbal skills or if they are having trouble with toileting there may
be some valid concerns but overall the child who is truly not ready is pretty
rare.“I’ve seen a lot of range of
readiness for skills, but they all get there through the year.”
“As a parent the first thing I would do is
take a look at the classroom, it would tell me everything I need.”Moriarty says any child can learn in a child
centered classroom.She says parents
should look for different stations like craft areas, sand and water tables,
imaginative play opportunities like play houses and dress up as well as lots
and lots of books.
She says kids don’t all have to be at the
same stage to start school.“They don’t
all need to look the same, walk the same and talk the same they just need to be
succeeding and growing.”
And that’s what Kim McMahon hopes she’s
offering her daughter.In the end she
decided to enrol Kyla in a second pre-school with other kids getting ready for
school to help her adjust to the expectations of bigger classrooms and longer
days. “Now she even asks to go to preschool on the weekends,” says McMahon.
“I think she’ll still have her challenges
because she is a shy child,” says McMahon but she says the growing confidence
she sees will help her handle the new challenges ahead.
School psychologist Bill O’Leary says McMahon’s
solution may not be the answer for every child but he says a proactive approach
to help a young child get ready is the right approach.
O’Leary says parents who are concerned
should consult with the school but he says other provinces have had a December
age cut-off for years and “if having kids go to school at this age was a
problem… we would have heard about it.”
What Your Child Should Know When Starting
Primary: One Teacher’s Advice
Children enter school at all stages of
development but Joseph Howe’s Alice Moriarty says there is a baseline of
knowledge that will make it easier to meet the outcomes expected by the end of
the year.
Letters: It’s not just about singing the alphabet song; kids
should be able to recognize at least some of the letters in both lower and
upper case.
Numbers: should be counting to at least five.
Name: should be able to recognize their name with the first
letter capitalized and the rest in lower case letters.
Bathroom skills: should be able to go to the toilet on their
own.
Verbal skills: need to be able to interact with the teacher and
other students.
Dressing skills: should be able to put their boots on and perhaps
how to put on a coat.
