City could be forced to open safe injection site

The city of Ottawa could be forced to open supervised drug injection clinics if the province says to — much like it did back in 2007 with the safe inhalation program for crack addicts.

“City council voted to end the crack pipe program and it was ended. And then the province stepped in and forced the city to reopen it,” said Chris Grinham of Safer Ottawa.

“So if the Premier’s office says you have to have it, then the city is going to have to fight it but ultimately may have no choice, and that’s very worrisome.”

Grinham and his wife, Lisa, live in Lowertown.

In 2006 they began cleaning up discarded drug equipment in their neighbourhood after children in the area were picking up dirty needles.

A study suggesting Ottawa should open two injection sites was released from St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto on April 11.

While the goal is to reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis C, Police Chief Charles Bordeleau and Mayor Jim Watson don’t support the sites.

The province won’t be opening supervised injection clinics, according to the Premier.

“I want all Ontarians to know that we won’t be moving forward with any specific proposals,” Premier Dalton McGuinty wrote in a letter to the Toronto Sun.

“As experts continue to be divided on the value of the sites, this isn’t currently a priority for our government.”

Public health dollars, McGuinty said, will go elsewhere.

“When it comes to health care, our government prides itself on making decisions based on evidence. We listen to the experts — it’s how we make sure Ontarians have access to the very best care and that we get good value for our taxpayer dollars,” said McGuinty.

Associate medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches calls injection sites a complicated issue.

“It’s not just a public health issue. There are federal levels, questions and involvement on the provincial level,” said Etches. “This is about healthcare services, so there’s many players and partners that need to be involved.”

Currently, the safe inhalation program operates out of the Somerset West Community Health Centre.

Its mobile program, supplying free, clean crack pipes to addicts, has been running since summer 2008.

The program was originally developed in April 2005 by Ottawa Public Health.

In July 2007, the Board of Health withdrew its support, canceling the program.

Following a proposal by community agencies, the program was reinstated five months later by the province.

kelly.roche@sunmedia.ca

@ottawasunkroche

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/04/14/city-could-be-forced-to-open-safe-injection-site

Chris Grinham of Safer Ottawa.

Needle hunting season

Ottawa Public Health officials insist steps are being taken to clean up discarded drug paraphernalia after dirty needles were recently dumped in a Byward Market restaurant toilet and a six-year-old boy was pricked in Carlington.

“Every time we talk to someone who’s using drugs, we counsel them about safe disposal of their equipment,” said associate medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches.

For addicts who pick up supplies, “we give them safe disposal boxes, so they get biohazard containers to put their needles in,” said Etches.

“What businesses can do is they can contact us at 311 and they can ask about needle disposal and we’ll provide them with those biohazard boxes.”

Working with community partners, OPH ensures there are black boxes around the community for proper disposal, said Etches.

It’s also needle hunting season.

Since 1998, needle hunters have been working the streets of the ByWard Market/Lowertown, Centretown, Hintonburg, Vanier, and Carlington from April 1st to November 30th each year, seven days a week.

“Those people can be dispatched where there’s need, but they have regular routes as well,” said Etches.

In addition, the city has an integrated strategy for collection.

“So any city staff person, whether it’s a bus driver, or a garbage collector, or a public health person — they are all trained and equipped to pick up needles,” Etches said.

If you see a needle or pipe, call 311.

kelly.roche@sunmedia.ca

@ottawasunkroche

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/04/14/needle-hunting-season

Injection sites a junkie’s dream

Supervised injection sites enable addicts and will bring more drugs into the city via ‘no-go’ zones where drug laws won’t be enforced, says the co-founder of Safer Ottawa.

Chris Grinham, who helps clean up spent drug paraphernalia cleanup in Lowertown, predicts a five-block radius will be filled with dealers, who’ll start carrying a low supply.

“Rather than walking around with 20 rocks of crack, they’ll walk around with four, sell the four, go back, get more, and that’s how it runs,” he said.

“And if they get stopped, they’ll just simply say, ‘We’re on our way to site,’ and not get arrested,” said Grinham, adding it’s happening in Vancouver at the Insite program.

Mayor Jim Watson and Police Chief Charles Bordeleau are also opposing the notion after a study released Wednesday from St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto recommending Ottawa house two sites.

The aim is to reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis C.

Proponents argue the sites push addicts in the right direction — a concept Grinham sees problematic.

“One, you don’t need an injection site to guide people toward treatment, and number two, there’s no treatment to guide them to,” said Grinham.

“The beds are full. The waiting list is 12 to 18 months. There’s nowhere for them to go.”

If the sites do come to town, “There’s no question. One will go down in Lowertown, probably on the edge of the Byward Market,” said Grinham.

Associate medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said Ottawa Public Health currently “has no plans to work on opening a (supervised injection) centre.”

“I think we’ll look to what the evidence is telling us, and we’ll look to what our partners in the community are discussing about what’s needed,” said Etches.

OPH is interested in the study’s findings, “but we’re interested in the whole picture, right? So it’s a complex problem,” she said.

“There’s social questions and implications, there’s legal questions, financial questions, and so all of those need to be addressed in deciding what’s appropriate for our community.”

Grinham is strongly opposed.

“We’ll end up with addicts coming from Hull, from Montreal, from New York. These are a transient population,” said Grinham.

“They’re all going to flock to Ottawa because in these areas around these sites, they can’t get arrested. They won’t go to jail. They won’t be forced into treatment services, and it’s not that they don’t want them.”

 http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/04/12/injection-sites-a-junkies-dream

Sens doc a survivor

As Dr. Donald Chow lay on a hospital bed clinging to life, he was paged for his own surgery.

His face, covered in blood, wasn’t recognizable to his colleagues at the Civic hospital’s trauma unit.

“I guess when I got to the hospital, I must’ve looked like a Sens fan, with my face all painted red,” joked Chow, the Senators team doctor.

One of Canada’s top orthopedic surgeons, Chow spoke at the Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s Hope and Heroes event at the Westin hotel on Tuesday that drew a crowd of 550.

The night raised more than $45,000 for the hospital’s rehabilitation centre.

Chow talked about his recovery from a devastating motorcycle accident in August 2010 on Fisher Ave. that sent him to the Civic.

He was on his way there to perform surgery, filling in for a colleague who had asked for the shift off to watch his child play soccer.

“From that day, I went from being an orthopedic spinal surgeon, trauma surgeon, to being a trauma patient,” said Chow.

He had more injuries than his fingers could count.

Along with head trauma and a dislocated right hand, “I had (a) badly bruised heart and lung on the left side with approximately 10 broken ribs, I believe, on the left side, and five broken ribs on the right side,” said Chow.

There’s more: A collarbone fracture, separated shoulder, and bruised leg and hip, all on the left side of his body.

Initially, he lost his memory.

“But it did come back after a couple of weeks that I could start to remember again,” he said.

Chow hasn’t fully returned to work.

Chow’s wife, Angela, is “extremely happy” with the acute and rehabilitative care her husband has received.

“We’re very fortunate to have those facilities in the community. You know, it’s been that, and prayer, have gotten us through,” she said.

His son, Andrei, 28, vividly recalls the day of the crash.

“It just so happened that en route to the hospital was the scene of the accident,” he said.

“I was stopped by police, and I said ‘I’m the son.’ And I sort of just fell to my knees seeing the pool of blood, and I just asked, ‘is he alive?’ and they said ‘yes, he’s alive, but it’s rough.’ And then I met my family at the hospital, and the rest is history.”

Chow bought his first motorbike when he was 15 and rode to relieve stress.

“I’ll probably get back on, more than anything else, to see if my balance is still there. But whether I ride or not will depend on whether or not I enjoy it and I’m not nervous,” he said.

kelly.roche@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @ottawasunkroche

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/02/21/sens-doc-a-survivor

City probing hookah health risk

The public health department plans to test air quality in hookah bars this year to see if there is a health risk.

Restaurant owner Charbel Karakouzian finds the idea amusing.

“If they’re talking about air quality, go stand (at the) Rideau Centre where we have the city buses killing people from the smoke coming out of their pipelines, and come and sit in the restaurant when somebody’s smoking shisha,” said Karakouzian.

“It’s nothing. There’s no nicotine, no tar, there’s nothing whatsoever.”

His establishment, the Garlic Corner at the corner of York St. and Dalhousie St., offers herbal hookah and Karakouzian says he’s never been caught using tobacco in its place.

Other hookah places have, and the testing is all part of the mission for smoke-free air.

Ottawa Public Health has teamed up with by-law services and the ministry of revenue to enforce the city’s 20 or so known hookah bars.

“We’ve been quite firm and aggressive in the last year in doing inspections and spot checks,” said medical officer of health Dr. Isra Levy.

Last summer, four bars were fined more than $30,000 for illegally selling tobacco and supplying it to customers who appeared to be under 25 years old.

A couple of places have since closed shop.

“I’m sorry to learn that they’ve shut down but I’m not sorry to learn that we’ve got a 20% reduction in what we know were establishments that were serving tobacco, frankly illegally, to young people and youth,” said Levy.

2011 CRACKDOWN

• 27 blitzes done by tobacco enforcement officers and ministry of finance inspectors in May, July and October
• 20 businesses issued 35 notices (including selling tobacco without a licence and supplying tobacco to people appearing to be under 25 years old)
• More than 30 kg of contraband tobacco water-pipe products seized
• $75,000 in fines issued
• 75 fire code violations reported
• Two bars have closed, one has cancelled “hookah night,” and one has stopped selling shisha

— Source: Ottawa Public Health

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/02/11/city-probing-hookah-health-risk

Hookah crackdown too much: Owner

SEE VIDEO http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/02/11/hookah-crackdown-too-much-owner

A downtown business owner says the public health department’s crackdown on tobacco is warranted, but not if it’s intended to stop all forms of smoking.

“I think they’re going a step too far. It’s becoming Communist within a country like Canada,” said Charbel Karakouzian.

He co-owns the Garlic Corner shawarma restaurant in the Byward Market, which offers hookah or water-pipe smoking.

Unlike many shisha bars which use tobacco and claim it’s herbal, he says his product is entirely natural, and those places have given bonafide businesses like his a bad rep.

“I would support closing down these places, giving them fines, shutting them down from business, like the alcohol and gaming commission do with bars,” Karakouzian said.

Herbal or not, Karakouzian may be outnumbered.

An Ottawa-based tobacco expert wants public health officials to curb the growing popularity of hookah smoking by following the lead of other cities.

“Vancouver and other municipalities have banned smoking of anything — not just tobacco — in restaurants, bars and cafes,” said Rob Cunningham, a lawyer and senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.

“You do not have any water-pipe, hookah smoking in Vancouver. We shouldn’t have any in Ottawa.”

At the board of health meeting on Feb. 6, a three-year clean-air strategy was given the thumbs up.

The board approved a recommendation to ban smoking on all city property, including outdoor festivals, fruit and vegetable markets, parks, patios and beaches.

Businesses offering hookah or shisha, however, allow smoking indoors and are excluded from the ban.

A long-time public health advocate is looking to see the playing field levelled.

“If the city prohibits smoking on patios, surely it isn’t right to allow the same harmful chemicals to be inhaled inside, just because the tobacco or herbs being smoked are heated instead of lit,” said Janice Forsythe.

“To paraphrase an old adage, where there’s smoke, there’s health damage.”

Local health officials are recommending hookah bars fall under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act.

“From the perspective of regulating it, there are a few technical elements that need to be worked on at the provincial level and at the federal level,” said Ottawa’s medical officer of health Dr. Isra Levy.

There’s a misconception, Cunningham says, about hookah being safe.

“Often, there’s a claim that there’s no tobacco in the mixture, but there really is. And consumers want that, because there’s nicotine, and they want nicotine to satisfy their addiction,” said Cunningham.

At the Garlic Corner, “we’ve never had tobacco products. The inspectors come here all the time,” said Karakouzian.

The city’s media relations department did not respond to the Sun’s request to confirm this information.

@ottawasunkroche

Health board puts the squeeze on smokers

Ottawa’s patios, parks, and beaches are one step closer to being smoke-free.

The board of health gave the greenlight to a three-year clean air strategy during a meeting at City Hall Monday night.

The strategy aims to protect children and non-smokers from second hand smoke and help smokers quit.

The report includes a recommendation to ban smoking at all city properties, including City Hall.

Almost 20 public delegates signed up to speak at the meeting, and all but one were in favour of the move.

“I was encouraged to see this,” said Dr. Isra Levy, the city’s medical officer of health.

“I think that the people of Ottawa do want their health protected and they do want to enjoy their public spaces.”

In Ottawa nearly 1,000 smokers and non-smokers die prematurely of tobacco related illness each year.

In addition, almost $40 million is spent on hospitalization for smoking-related illnesses annually.

The plan is for the bylaw to kick in April 2 and be enforced starting July 2.

“Our goal is not to lay charges,” said bylaw chief Linda Anderson.

The strategy will continue Ottawa’s leadership on smoking, said Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes, chairwoman of the board.

And it goes beyond cigarettes.

As part of the recommendations, the board will ask the province and feds to make changes to laws to give the city more power to regulate the use of hookah or water pipes and products.

“We have a real issue with the smoking of tobacco, or quite frankly, any substance in the hookah pipes,” said Levy.

“Certainly, from a health perspective, I’d recommend against it. I think it’s got a whole lot of downsides to it.”

The recommendations will be discussed at the community and protective services committee on Feb. 15, then at council on Feb. 22.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/02/06/health-board-puts-the-squeeze-on-smokers

Sledding? Protect yourself with a helmet, doc says

SEE VIDEO http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/01/20/sledding-protect-yourself-with-a-helmet-doc-says

Between hockey, ski and bicycle helmets, there’s no clear winner when it comes to protecting your head while tobogganing, according to a new study from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute released Friday.

The study, co-authored by CHEO neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Vassilyadi, was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, comparing three types of helmets commonly used by children ages seven and under.

“First of all, it’s important for children to wear helmets while they’re engaging in winter sports and this is something that was identified,” said Vassilyadi.

“The other thing that was identified was that there’s not one particularly good helmet. There are helmets out there which are satisfactory.”

Last year, 21 kids were taken to the emergency department at CHEO for sledding-related injuries. Four of the injuries were serious, ranging from a skull fracture to hemorrhage in the brain, said Vassilyadi.

“The worst type of sleds are the round ones or the tubes because they rotate and as they rotate, they build up a lot of speed,” he said.

In Canada, roughly 2,000 kids are injured each year while sledding, said Harry Zarins, executive director of the Brain Injury Association of Canada.

To go down a hill without protective headgear is “like playing Russian roulette, really,” said Zarins. Yet there isn’t a certified winter recreational helmet in Canada.

The study found the hockey helmet is the most protective during lower-velocity impacts of 2-6 metres/second. The bicycle helmet fared best during high-velocity impact of 8 metres/second. Despite its warm lining, the ski helmet had limited effectiveness — something Vassilyadi calls surprising.

“I think the hockey helmet is the one I would recommend because it also has the option of a cage or a facial shield, and most of the kids we do see in emergency have facial injuries as a result of an impact to a tree, to a pole, to a fence,” said Vassilyadi, noting they often wind up with cut lips and broken noses and teeth.

Vassilyadi said he recalls one child dying from tobogganing injuries while another, with a severe head injury, needed a long stay in hospital.

“It happens because there’s a moving body that hits a stationary object, in this case, a tree, and when that happens, I guess the tree wins,” he said.

Financially speaking, “a hockey helmet is probably the least expensive,” said Zarins, adding parents should also wear helmets.

“That is the perfect way to set an example.”

kelly.roche@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @ottawasunkroche

Feds spend wads to combat rising rate of STIs

Sexually transmitted infections are at their highest rates since the early ’90s, and the federal government is trying to combat STIs in Canada’s youth by investing six figures in a new study.

The Canadian Sexual Health Indicators Survey is the first of its kind and will collect data from 18 to 20-year-olds across the country for a national report.

“Increasing our knowledge may allow for the creation of more effective strategies, policies and programs to promote sexual health and to prevent sexually transmitted infections,” said Public Health Agency of Canada spokeswoman Sylwia Gomes.

Since 1997, STIs have risen — especially among 15 to 24-year-olds — and chlamydia is the most commonly reported STI in Canada, followed by gonorrhea.

The majority of reported chlamydia and gonorrhea cases are among Canadians aged 15 to 29, said Gomes, with around 80% of chlamydia cases and 70% of gonorrhea cases in the 18 to 20 group.

Ottawa has the highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV and syphilis in Ontario, according to an Ottawa Public Health report released two months ago.

In 2010, there were 2,926 cases of reportable STIs in Ottawa and 80% of them were chlamydia.

OPH is launching a campaign to dramatically increase condom distribution and use.

The average age to have sexual intercourse for the first time is between 16 and 18, according to Statistics Canada.

Collecting data on the sexual health of 18-to-20-year-olds, who are over that age, is “the first step in increasing our understanding of the factors related to increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections among youth,” said Gomes.

A call for tenders is underway to assemble an academic research team, who will survey at least 9,000 young people from coast to coast.

A pilot project was conducted from 2008 to 2010 to define and validate the survey.

The new survey follows the World Health Organization’s definition of sexual health and will include one’s physical, mental, emotional and social well-being; approaches to sexuality and relationships; access to education and services; use of contraception and barrier protection; and sexual experiences, including violence, coercion, and homophobic bullying.

“This data will provide a baseline for youth aged 18 to 20 years and an opportunity for re-surveying this age group in the future in order to evaluate programmatic and policy responses,” said Gomes.

It is expected to begin in March with a completion date of February 2014.

kelly.roche@sunmedia.ca

@ottawasunkroche

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/01/16/feds-spend-wads-to-combat-rising-rate-of-stis

Hospital execs’ big bucks contracts now public

SEE VIDEO http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/01/03/hospital-execs-big-bucks-contracts-now-public

Hospitals came clean Tuesday, revealing executives’ big salaries and perks.

The Ottawa Hospital’s CEO Dr. Jack Kitts tops the list, earning $517,700 with an additional $12,000 annual car allowance.

Kitts also doesn’t pay into his pension — it’s covered by the hospital.

“People like Dr. Kitts are really important to the system. We believe that in light of their contribution, the salaries that we provide are very reasonable,” said Carole Workman, chair of the board at TOH.

Workman says TOH executives earn less than their counterparts across Ontario.

“For the senior executives in particular, we compare ourselves to the large academic centres in the province like Sunnybrook and Toronto University Health Network or Hamilton Academic Centre,” said Workman.

Over at Montfort Hospital, president and CEO Dr. Bernard Leduc’s annual salary is $391,990.

Last fall, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario president and CEO Alex Munter inked a five-year deal worth $330,000 each year.

Queensway Carleton Hospital president and CEO Tom Schonberg is bringing home $312,092.35 annually.

Nepean-Carleton Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod is critical of the wide range pay.

“So Alex Munter makes $330,000 when Tom Schonberg makes less than that,” said MacLeod.

“You really wonder what is the big difference in the job?”

Volunteer hospital boards decide on CEOs’ salaries.

Workman said TOH spends a “very, very, very small amount on executive salaries. And I think that their contribution to actually making the hospital work effectively more than compensates for what might be perceived as greater salaries than the average,” she said.

The Ottawa Hospital invited reporters to discuss the contracts — the other hospitals did not.

All contracts are posted online.

Leduc’s contract, however, is in French.

The Sun asked Montfort for an English copy, but the request was denied.

“The decision was made by the senior management team not to translate general documents originally written in French,” said spokeswoman Cindy Demontigny.

As of Jan. 1, Ontario hospitals became subject to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act. The Ontario Hospital Association advised its 151 members to make contract details, board minutes, financial plans and other documents available online.

Proactively disclosing the information “signals a strong commitment to transparency, accountability, and the importance of building the trust and confidence among the people they serve,” OHA head Tom Closson said in a statement Tuesday.

New Democrats want the province to cap the hospital CEOs’ salaries at $418,000 annually.

@ottawasunkroche