I’m not in the business of sticking up for one region of New Brunswick or the other but a number of posters to this blog have been suggesting that the health of Saint John residents is being severely impacted by industry.
I don’t think the data indicates that. From Statistics Canada’s community health survey, Saint John (Region 2) has a considerably lower rate of Asthma compared to Fredericton or Monton and the people rate themselves high for both overall health and mental health.
A few stats:
Self rated health ranked #2 out of 7 NB health regions
Mental health ranked #2 out of 7 NB health regions
Asthma – ranked #3 out of 7 NB health regions (ahead of Moncton and Fredericton)
Diabetes – well below the provincial average
Has the highest number of disability days of the 7 health regions
Below the national average for injuries
I don’t have the cancer data at my fingertips and we can’t cut the data to areas within the region. The recent Vitality report on Saint John may have better data on this stuff but I don’t see that industry in SJ has had an overly significant negative impact on the population.
Unless industry is subsidizing those juicy hamburgers (they have the second highest rate of obesity in the province).