Results tagged “health”

Everybody panic! It's the H1N1 über-lethal supermegavirus plague! Actually, it's just the regular ol' flu, but simply a mutation that is infecting more people because most of us don't have sufficient built-in immunity for it. And while health authorities started the flu season wondering how they were going to convince people to get themselves vaccinated, the tragic death of twelve-year-old Evan Frustaglio may have been the tipping point that immediately clogged clinics and depleted vaccine supplies. Though enough vaccine is being produced, the bottleneck is in getting the vials filled and shipped quick enough, as well as prioritizing people in higher-risk demographics. Meanwhile, as all of this is going on, corporate executives are paying $2,300 each to step to the front of the line at Toronto's private Medcan Clinic, according to the Star. With three thousand doses of the H1N1 vaccine shipped to Medcan so far, these corporate clients are getting the shot as part of their "enhanced annual checkups," immediately, in the comfort of a warm doctor's office instead of waiting hours in a line with the commoners. Pay-for-privilege bypasses Ontario's single-tier health care laws for procedures considered "medically unnecessary," in the same way Ontarians can pony-up $500 for a quickie MRI across the border in Buffalo.

It's sick season again, but in the wake of scary-sounding names like swine flu and H1N1, there is increased skepticism around the subject of vaccination. Anti-vaccination activists claim that the materials used in vaccines may cause autism, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and even—in the case of the HPV vaccine—cervical cancer, and that their widespread promotion is motivated by corporate profiteering. Vaccination proponents say that the fear-mongering anti-vaccination campaigns are rooted in bad science and misinformation, and that the increasing hysteria is leaving schools and workplaces alarmingly vulnerable to serious, often life-threatening diseases. In some facilities, like hospitals, seasonal vaccination is mandatory, and while the vast majority of medical and science professionals say that the safety of vaccination is not even worth debating, there are still people who are convinced that vaccines are nothing but trouble.

Last month we reported on the activities of an alliance of individuals and community groups called The Clean Train Coalition, who at that time were just beginning their effort to promote public awareness of some of the environmental hazards, including increased air pollution from diesel exhaust, posed by a rail expansion plan by Metrolinx, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area's new regional transit authority. The plan, currently in its third round of public "open house" commentary periods, will receive community input until the close of its provincially mandated public assessment period on July 30. If the plan were to go ahead unchanged, the result would be the addition of enough tracks to the rail corridor between Union Station and Malton to enable carriers to increase VIA, GO, and freight train traffic to several times current levels. The plan would also would establish a convenient rail link between Union Station and Pearson Airport, to be operated by a private carrier.

No-one's perfect. Darren O'Donnell, for instance, is a spectacularly creative and interesting Torontonian responsible for some of the city's most thrilling projects. As he admitted in Eye's cover story about him from the beginning of April, he's also “paranoid...It’s a mental-health issue. I just think everyone hates me because I hate myself. So it’s very difficult to project that over everyone and everything all of the time.” According to the article, written by Eye's newest staff writer, Chandler Levack—an article significantly less charitable to its subject than you might imagine—O'Donnell's seeing a therapist, and, "in 1993, he spent three days in the psych ward of Toronto General, suffering from delusions that included believing that he could cure AIDS, that 'the universe was magical,' and that he could radiate dangerous high-energy beams from his eye sockets."

Quick, everyone panic! According to the Globe, four "individuals...from the Toronto area [who] had recently travelled to Mexico" have been confirmed to be infected with the swine flu virus. You can find out a lot more about swine influenza from the World Health Organization, including answers to frequently asked questions, but it's worth noting that, according to 680 News' Breaking News email, all the Toronto cases are "mild." How mild? We don't know yet, but the Globe says that the two men confirmed to be infected with the swine virus in Alberta, both mild cases as well, didn't need hospital visits; one man has "already recovered," and another "has shaken off most of his symptoms."

Tea, cupcakes, crafts, and folk music are always a relaxing and satisfying combination on a weekend afternoon. But this Sunday at the Resistor Gallery on College Street, they're also a way to bolster a good cause. The Hibiscus and Rosehips collective, spearheaded by local folk songstress Erin Lang, will be providing a feast for your tongue, ears, and eyes with a family-friendly tea party, bake sale, art show, and live music performance in support of the Hibiscus Fund for Hope, which helps cancer patients and their families.

At a maximum security mental hospital named Coalinga in California, according to an article by the BBC, sex offenders—including "some of the state of California's more serious paedophiles and rapists"—are given a test called a "plethysmograph," which features "a device...put around the subject's penis to measure his sexual arousal as he's shown a variety of images." Some of those images, the BBC says, "are pornographic images of consenting adults, while some are deviant such as violent sex or suggestive images of children eating fruit and running around in bathing costumes. Then there are non-suggestive images to establish a baseline of non-arousal." And whatever are those non-suggestive images? They're, uh, "photos of the Canadian city of Toronto." There you have it: Toronto is officially less sexy than children eating fruit. [Hat tip to Mathew Ingram.]

A flip through the pages of any Toronto newspaper published around 1900 reveals numerous pitches for castor oils, kidney pills, liver pills, trusses, nerve tonics, Asian catarrh treatments, and assorted cures for ailments that might not be believed when taking a sick day at the office ("I can't come to work today due to tired blood!"). The advertising for Hutch, a remedy for indigestion, was among the most graphic of the time, as today's samples testify. This poor fellow's hallucinatory images while in the depths of his agony are the stuff of literary masters of horror.

When was the last time you heard about Africa's development troubles? Not too long before the global economic disaster hit, the issue had finally permeated the mainstream media, which increased aid to the continent; since then, wealthy nations and the Western media have re-focused on their own problems. But it should come as no surprise that Africa's struggles have persisted—and in some cases deteriorated even further. Of these, access to medicines remains a prominent dilemma: Canada took a lead role in finding a solution to this debacle earlier this decade, but our work ultimately proved futile because the legislation we passed (Bill C-9, now known as Canada's Access to Medicines Regime or CAMR) was much too limiting. Following the tabling of Bill S-232 in the Senate this past Tuesday, though, that may no longer be the case.

Many are up in arms over the anonymous, dramatic posters about Laila being plastered on hydro poles and mailboxes, even in neighbourhoods far away from the actual restaurant on Bloor Street West. Each and every one reads:

LAILA'S KILLS

Continue reading "Laila, Darling, Won't You Ease My Worried Mind?"

Yes, there are Torontoist writers who remember York's 2000/01 CUPE walkout a little too well. So when 2008 rolled around, and students were once again barred from classes for the duration of a ridiculously protracted strike, certain impressions of a scholastically bereft university flooded to mind: lots of beer, lots of hangovers, tumbleweeds blowing through Vari Hall, and a gleeful student body celebrating sweet, hedonistic sloth.

Music and deafness haven't always been strangers. Rumour has it that Ludwig van Beethoven played on a legless piano so he could feel the vibrations of different notes when he lost his hearing. Today, he is celebrated not only for his musical achievements and timelessness, but for overcoming his disability, triumphing over something that could have otherwise muted his great masterpieces. But even Beethoven is merely one man.

Photo by guspim.

Girl Guide cookies just keep evolving. First they went nut-free [PDF] in 2005 due to allergy concerns. Now, in an effort to appease a health-obsessed society, come spring 2009 the Girl Guides of Canada are unrolling 90 percent trans fat-reduced classic chocolate and vanilla cookies and chocolate-mint cookies. In case you didn't know, trans fats are the really bad kind of fats, so hated that they were banned in Calgary at the start of 2008.

You may have noticed that an inordinate number of Toronto guys are now sporting staches. It's no coincidence: men around the world have come together this month for Movember, a multi-national moustache campaign that originated in Australia and raises money for a number of diseases and conditions that affect men. For the duration of the four-week campaign, participating males grow moustaches and ask their friends and co-workers to donate to charities in return for interminable jokes and mockery. Here in Canada, the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation has been designated as the campaign’s primary beneficiary partner, but other charities have also been involved and more are encouraged to join.

No apologies for the pun, but this is a concrete example of how to really get your message across. Forget pink ribbons, pink bracelets, and pink bumper stickers. What you need is a pink, twelve-wheel, ready-mix truck. St Marys CBM’s mighty Macks are usually grey, but this one—doing its thing at a construction site outside the CIBC on the corner of Dundas Street and University Avenue—has been repainted in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Every Saturday morning Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Photo taken just after midnight on Friday by Jonathan Goldsbie. The "For Renovations" part of the sign has since been torn off.

This week, Sunnybrook Hospital launched its Let's Face This campaign which coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week. The campaign is designed to disseminate information to the public about mental illness as well as document lives affected by mood and anxiety disorders, Alzheimer's, and other neurological conditions. Operating a bit like an internet version of AA, the site offers an online support group, where participants can post a photo of themselves and offer some encouraging words to others afflicted. It was created in response to the more than ten million Canadians dealing with various forms of mental illness, as a chance to raise awareness and funds to try to tackle both the maladies as well as the stigmas associated with persons hobbled by psychological ailment.

At just about noon today, Jesse Ship was walking along Spadina on his way to lunch with a friend when he spotted something slightly less appetizing in the window of Happy Seven restaurant, at 358 Spadina: a rat. He snapped the photo above, of the rat conspicuously beside a Toronto Public Health DineSafe Pass, and sent it to us and to BlogTO immediately, and recorded the video above on his cellphone. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one to see something: CityNews got footage of not one but three rats roaming the store, presumably taking a break from teaching fine cooking to the clumsy but ultimately endearing cooks.

As you strut into Extreme, indie-electro is blaring, beautiful twenty-somethings are chugging from flasks and sipping on vodka redbulls, and sushi is offered to all guests on a platter. Attendants dressed in all black-and-white wait in the washroom, eager with hand towels and breath mints. Bars line the perimeter of the underground mecca, a rare place where both hip teens and once-hip businessmen can gather to sip on the same poison. The DJ is Paper Magazine's 2007 Best DJ of the year, Dim Mak Records head, clothing line owner, and blogger (but who isn't) Steve Aoki a.k.a. Kid Millionaire. It's eleven-thirty, and the club shows no signs of slowing―that is, 'till the clock strikes midnight, and all the beautiful princesses must return home, before their Jimmy Choos turn back to Nikes, their Rock and Republics become Lululemons, and this nightclub reveals its true self―a fitness club. An Extreme Fitness club.

The CBC is reporting that Cheese Magic has had to throw out $1,000 worth of cheese and are currently being investigated for listeria contamination, after a pregnant woman allegedly ate cheese from the store and contracted listeriosis. According to Cheese Magic's Establishment Inspection Report from Toronto Health, the store was given only a conditional pass on Tuesday's inspection for a whole host of problems. (Slashfood was in the store yesterday, noting that "the long expanse [of cheese] that is usually 2–3 rows deep and a few feet tall was just gone....So much for room-temperature cheese.") Torontoist's Jonathan Goldsbie also spotted new conditional passes on Global Cheese and Mendel's Creamery—two other cheese shops in Kensington—as of Wednesday night, and spotted CBC's cameras outside of Global Cheese this morning. The cheesepocalypse is nigh!

Why travel? Especially in a city like Toronto, where we can experience so many cultures just by walking through any of the dozens of ethnically-diverse neighbourhoods? What, at its essence, makes traveling to Italy different than drinking prosecco in Little Italy? What’s the difference, really, between hanging with the Dutch and eating Dutch chocolate ice cream?

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Opposition critics are calling the review of the controversial provincial health tax a sham, pointing out how Dalton McGuinty has already acknowledged that the tax would not be eliminated and the review was going forward only because it's required by law. The premier at first denied the charge, but upon hearing it repeated, said, "Oh, I thought you said 'scam'. Yes, the review is definitely a sham."

Happy Simcoe Day, formerly known as the Civic Holiday until the powers-that-be decided it would be more more festive to name your undeserved day off after an English man than a Japanese car. Malls and liquor stores are open, banks and Canada Post are closed, so you can get drunk but you can't get mail.

Get little Timmy and Cindy-Lou on the horn, stat! Health Canada has contradicted last week's warnings from Toronto Public Health that children should reduce cell phone use, saying that the science doesn't support the conclusion that your kids' brains will mangled and cancerfied by cell phone heat and radiation. Well, except for this study. And this one. Oh, and these ones.

Toronto Public Health's Antoine Nikolopoulos has gotten back to us; he's the Entertainment District's Environmental Health Officer, and yesterday he inspected Second Cup's 307 Queen Street West location after Kate Bowen spotted a mouse inside the store on Sunday morning and sent photos along to us.

Singers, singer-songwriters, comedians, rappers, and good-deed-doers came together Tuesday night at the Drake Hotel for It’s Always Something Else, an evening aid of Gilda’s Club Toronto, the organization named for Gilda Radner that offers free cancer support to those afflicted by the disease.