The Canadian Network for Human Health and the Environment (CNHHE) is concerned with broad human health-related environmental issues relating to air, water, soil, food, climate change and consumer products. Membership is open to non-governmental, research, and healthcare professionals, government policy-makers and individuals who are interested in the connections between human health and environmental exposures. At the present time, the primary focus of the network is to engage members in the Chemicals Management Program (CMP) of Health and Environment Canada.
The Network was originally established in 2007 with a grant from the Safe Environment Program of Health Canada (SEP). The former provided a mechanism to increase co-operation between the Government of Canada and the health NGO sector, increase the opportunity for dialogue among all stakeholder groups in the network throughout the entire public policy process, provide an NGO lens for policy development and reviews conducted by the federal government, and provide information that is more readily available and accessible in order to increase the understanding of one another’s broad policy objectives.
With the present focus on the CMP, the CNHHE’s primary activity is to inform members about substances being assessed by the Government of Canada via e-mail, the website, and social media, and to engage them in the CMP’s public comment opportunities. This is achieved through free online webinars about the particular substance attended by participants possessing varied degrees of knowledge, from none to a great amount, about the substance being discussed. Comments and questions are then summarized and sent with individual anonymity to the appropriate office of the Government of Canada.
To learn more about the CNHHE, click here.