Food Insecurity

Paul Caron, a former food inspector with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) began speaking out this week about the weakness of our nation's food security, specifically regarding our vulnerability to cases of bioterrorism or future outbreaks of naturally occurring diseases (eg Salmonella, Lysteriosis).

When probing for details, it's hard not to agree with him that the status quo is inadequate and embarrassing, especially given the high level of awareness generated during last year's Maple Leaf Foods fiasco. Examples of vulnerabilities cited, in the context of meat, include:

- Where the US inspects all meat entering their borders, Canada not only pre clears meat imports before they're even at the border, but gives exporters at least three days notice whether their shipments will be checked or not checked.

- Once crossing the border, it's not just that only 1/10 shipments are sent to inspection facilities for a closer look, but of that 1/10 - the foreign company that sends its meat to Canada can hand pick which specific facility will 'inspect' their product. Pretty independent, huh?

Moral of the story, in the absence of new measures, one can smuggle just about anything into Canada via meat shipments.

-BH-

What happens to seized contraband?

On Monday, The Canadian Press shed some light on the findings of a recent audit of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and specifically, what the heck happens to the guns, drugs, and other contraband that are seized.

Most seizures end up in Quebec or Ontario (Toronto, Windsor regions). Among the more ridiculous findings ...

- Meth, hash, steroids, blow, etc are all ending up in landfills because guards don't know that they are supposed to be destroyed

- In addition to drugs, guns & ammuno are sent to storage facilities/warehouses with either substandard or non-existent inventory controls

- Of 68 inspection sites, physical security was substandard for half of the interior facilities and for all of the exterior facilities. For example: 70% of warehouses were not continuously monitored (by guards, camera's or motion detectors); 15 sites, there was no control of access by non-government persons; and 23 sites had no inventory controls whatsoever.

Recognizing the potential goldmine this is for organized crime - I would love to also read a similar report of what happens to goods seized by police officers, to see if security or destruction practices are just as shotty. Both CBSA and police forces love to report on how much contraband they "remove" from the streets - but given reports like this, how certain can we be that they are actually staying off of the streets! While they often receive endless credit for removing such items from the market, rarely ever do we think about those numbers critically and ask for them to be put into a more meaningful context.

Going forward, it's time we start demanding much more transparency and accountability from our police and border services about the proportion of seized contraband that are actually being destroyed, and/or being stored in high security facilities with low risk of finding their way back to market.

-bRygUy-


Link to CBSA audits/evaluations: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency-agence/reports-rapports/ae-ve/menu-eng.html

Tobacco & Health, v2: CTCRI Funding Cuts

A letter from Dr Roberta Ferrence, in response to news that the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative will no longer accept applications after 01 April 2009:


Dear Colleagues,

We were all deeply disappointed by the recent news that the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative will not be accepting new applications after April 1. We are grateful to Roy Cameron, Cheryl Moyer, Marie Chia and numerous other staff, as well as the funding partners, CIHR, NCIC (CCS), Health Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, who brought CTCRI into being and nurtured it for the past decade. During that time, we have grown from a small community of researchers and a few students to several hundred active and committed tobacco control researchers, practitioners and decision makers. We are optimistic that this community will continue to contribute in a major way to public health in Canada.

At this week's Ottawa Workshop, Best Practices to Target 12% by 2011, sponsored by Health Canada and CTCRI, we heard from Marie Chia about the implications of the CTCRI decision and potential next steps. At that time, OTRU offered to coordinate efforts to ensure that tobacco control research and capacity building will continue to garner funding from alternative sources that understand its importance.

To support this process, we will pull together information on alternative sources of funding for investigator and student research, conference travel and workshops, and identify specific programs that may provide support for the specific initiatives funded by CTCRI. This will be distributed shortly as an OTRU update.

We will also bring together contact information for key individuals and suggestions for content to support individual letter writing, so that you can communicate your own stories about the benefits of tobacco specific funding programs.

We will in touch soon and look forward to working with you.


Best regards,
Roberta

--

Roberta Ferrence, PhD,
Executive Director,
Ontario Tobacco Research Unit
University of Toronto and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

MAC

I had a nice little visit to good 'ol H-town yesterday ... always feels like a fun homecoming when i step on campus! minus the TP and kegstands, of course=)

In all seriousness - it was great to have the opportunity to drop in on a couple classes, which in more ways than one helped inspire some of my own thoughts about how to develop a class or two in the not too distant future.

A big shoutout is in order to KT and the the students of 4JJ3 & 4TT3 - you all have enormous futures, and I can't wait to hear about what's next!

~BH