The longer nights, colder days, and turning leaves are all evidence that a special time of year is upon us. No, not fall, but Movember!

You may know Movember as it more commonly used name of 'November' but after this year you will never make that mistake again. Over the next month you will notice many moustaches popping up around Vancouver and at SPPH as men join together to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and other men's health issues. Mike Marin and Alden Blair have started a SPPH Movember Team and hope that you will consider supporting or joining us. As UBC's School of Population and Public Health, we have a duty to have the best team around if only for the public health implications!

About Movember:
Starting Movember 1st men commit to growing the most amazing moustache possible, be it the 'sheriff,' 'handlebar,'Dali,' or one of many other types. At the start of the month men shave their facial hair and agree not to shave their moustache again for the next 30 days.

During this time they seek sponsors to help encourage them along and fund prostate cancer research. They also use any and all inquiries into their moustaches to help spur discussion about often less talked about issues in men's health. Last year over $22.3 million dollars was raised in Canada alone during Movember!

Joining the SPPH Movember Team:
Join our team directly by going to www.movember.com/ca/register/details/team_id/286894 and signing up. Also send Team Captain, Alden Blair, an email (aldenblair@gmail.com). During the month he'll keep you informed about events, moustache grooming techniques and info about the Movember Canada gala on the 30th.

From there, it's easy, just shave on Movember 1st and grow the best moustache you can!

Supporting the SPPH Movember Team:
The best way to support the SPPH Movember Team is to continually complimenting us on how wonderful our moustaches look over the course of the month. (Please try to use words such as 'debonaire' 'dapper' or 'manly' and not 'sketchy' or 'ridiculous.')

The second best way is to convince your friends to join the SPPH Movember Team and grow moustaches of their own. And then, of course, complimenting them (especially through the early awkward growing stages).

The third best way is to make a donation to either the team as a whole, or to individual members through the Team's site at Movember Canada.

You can also consider sponsoring a moustache or Movember team by committing to donate to an organization promoting, treating, or researching into men's health issues.

Any and all of those things can really helps to keep us away from shaving tools during the month as we know that we are helping make a difference if we can get through to the 30 day mark.promoting, treating, or researching into men's health issues. This really helps to keep us away from shaving tools during the month as we know that we are helping make a difference if we can get through to the 30 day mark.

You can either talk to a member of the SPPH team about sponsoring them, email Alden, or visit ca.movember.com for more info.

Also visit the SPPH Movembers page on the School's site.

 "Kiwis, Cars and Woodsmoke - Air Quality Exposure Research from New Zealand"

Dr. Ian Longley, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, New Zealand

New Zealand's countryside may be clean and green but its towns and cities harbor a dirty secret. Kiwis can't stop driving their ageing gas guzzlers whilst burning wood to heat their leaky homes. Public skepticism surrounds attempts to introduce vehicle emission legislation and limit woodsmoke emissions.
The National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is charged with providing the science to assess, understand and address the risk that air pollution poses to health in New Zealand. Dr Ian Longley will present an overview of research into exposure to traffic pollution and woodsmoke in urban neighbourhoods, in the home and during transport; plus the wider science and policy context in which this work sits, and consider the air quality side-effects of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Dr Ian Longley has been the Senior Air Quality Scientist at NIWA (based in Auckland) for the last 5 years. Previously he worked at the University of Manchester (UK) where he gained a PhD in Atmospheric Physics in 2003. Nearly all of his research has focussed on exposure to traffic pollution, especially ultrafine particles. He also frequently acts as a consultant to the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Students, Faculty and Staff are invited to gather in the SPPH lobby to enjoy an evening of Hollywood entertainment. Popcorn will be provided, but feel free to bring snacks for everyone to enjoy.

Movie: How To Train Your Dragon

Presentations from Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residents

Presenters:

• Brian Ng: Chlamydia Epidemiology in Recent Chinese Immigrants to Richmond: A Population-Based Study


• Karin Goodison: Epidemiology and Prevention of Fall Incidents in Licensed Residential Care Facilities within a Health Authority in British Columbia, Canada


• Althea Hayden: Obstetric Anal Sphincter Rupture and Episiotomy in British Columbia 2004-2007


• Audrey Campbell: Health Promotion as Practiced by Environmental Health Officers: The BC Experience


• Piotr Klakowicz: Impact Assessment of Shale Gas Extraction in British Columbia


• Raina Fumerton: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning – A Chart Review of British Columbia’s Drug and Poison Information Centre

Title: The urban speed paradox: time pressure, cars and health

Speaker: Paul Tranter, PhD
Visiting Scholar, University of New South Wales

Presenter: Dr.  Salim  S.  Abdool  Karim   Professor  of  Clinical  Epidemiology,  Columbia  University;  
pro  vice-­‐chancellor  (Research),  University  of  KwaZulu-­‐Natal;   Director  of  Centre  for  the  AIDS  Program  of Research  in  South  Africa.

Dr.  Abdool  Karim  is  a  clinical  infectious  diseases  epidemiologist  who  has   made  distinguished  contributions  in medicine  and  public  health,  specifically   the  prevention  and  treatment  of  HIV/AIDS.  He  recently  led  the  NIH-­‐funded   HPTN  035  microbicide  trial  which  revealed  the  potential  of  anionic  polymer   in  preventing  HIV  infection in  women.

SPPH's Dodgeball team, Public Stealth, takes on Terminal Ballocity at 8:30 p.m. in SRC2, followed by Pop Pop at 9:30 p.m.

For more information click here

"Obesity and Women's Fertility Trajectories"

Michelle L. Frisco, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
Pennsylvania State University

Abstract:
This study asks whether obesity is associated with young women’s life course childbearing experiences. Weight is a physical status with important biological and social components that is linked to several proximate determinants of fertility. As such, negative consequences of obesity may accumulate over the life course leading obese young women to be stratified into disadvantaged positions for childbearing. This leads to hypotheses that obese young women have fewer children, a higher risk of remaining childless and later timing of first birth than their non-obese counterparts. Twenty-three years of data from a sample of NLSY79 female respondents who were 20 - 24 in 1981 are analyzed to test these hypotheses, which are all supported. In fact, obese women’s predicted probability of remaining childless is almost the same as their probability of winning a coin toss. Their estimated probability for giving birth in each study year is even lower. Results confirm obese young women’s position of disadvantage for childbearing and suggest that negative consequences of obesity accumulate across a life domain that is incredibly important for the vast majority of American women.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Michelle L. Frisco is an Associate Professor of Sociology & Demography at Penn State University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and was a Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2003-2005. Her research focuses on intersections between family life, education, and health/health risk-behavior during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Much of her previous scholarship identifies the ways that family structure, family structure transitions, and different aspects of parenting influence adolescent health and well-being. Her most recent research, has examined the consequences of body weight for adolescent mental health and family formation trajectories with an eye towards understanding the complexities in these associations. This work has been supported by the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Penn State BIRCWH Scholars Program (a U.S. National Institutes of Health-supported career development award focused on interdisciplinary research on women’s health and gender differences in health). She is also part of a team that was recently awarded a program project grant from NICHD to examine the health and well-being of children of Mexican immigrants. Her work with colleagues on the project will identify different contextual features of U.S. and Mexican society that contribute to childhood obesity among this group.

Please join us for lunch and an exciting talk by Damon Barrett, international drug policy and human rights legal scholar. Damon will be discussing one of Canada's most important recent legal cases: the battle over the legality of Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection facility, and its implications on global drug policy.

Pivot Legal Society lawyer, Scott Bernstein, who represented Pivot at the Supreme Court on the Insite case, will speak to his experiences in this landmark ruling, and Damon Barrett will speak about harm reduction and drugpolicy on a global scale. The talk will be followed by a question and answer period

Time: Thursday November 10th from 12:30 – 2pm (Lunch Provided)
Location: Allard Hall (the new UBC Law building), Room 106

Speaker biographies:

Damon Barrett is recognised for his leading work on the development of a human rights based approach to drug policy at the international level. He has worked to raise the profile of drug policy issues at the UN Human Rights Council and among the UN human rights treaty bodies. He has authored numerous reports and articles on human rights and drug policy, and has spoken internationally and delivered trainings on human rights, the UN system and rights based approaches. Damon was a member of the UK delegation to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in 2008 where he helped to argue through the first ever human rights resolution adopted by the Commission. He was again a member of the UK delegation to the CND in 2009 and 2010.

He currently works as the Senior Human Rights Analyst for the International Harm Reduction Association in London. Damon holds an LL.B. in Law as well as a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Human Rights and Drug Policy.

Scott Bernstein
After a career in computer consulting and much world travel, Scott returned to school in 2003 and received an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin and a JD from UBC Faculty of Law. As a law student employed at the litigation firm Arvay Finlay, Scott worked on notable constitutional cases including the Insite case at the BC Supreme Court and Court of Appeal levels. Upon being called as a lawyer in 2010, he started his own social justice and environmental oriented law practice and continued his involvement with the Insite case, representing the Plaintiffs as co-counsel at the Supreme Court of Canada. In February of 2011 Scott became a staff lawyer at Pivot Legal Society and currently provides legal support for Pivot’s Health and Drug Policy and Housing campaigns.

The School of Population and Public Health will be closed on Remembrance Day.

The UBC Remembrance Day ceremony will be held on Friday, Nov. 11th in the War Memorial Gym. The event is open to all and doors open at 10 a.m. It will be an opportunity to honour and remember all those who served in times of war, military conflict and peace.

Students of SPPH 598 present case studies in occupational and environmental hygiene from their summer work placements to the local chapter of the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
6:30 - 7:00 refreshments and networking
7:00 - 9:00 presentations

Dr. Thomas Boyce is the Sunny Hill Health Centre/BC Leadership Chair in Child Development in the Human Early Learning Partnership and the Centre for Community Child Health Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also Co-Director of CIFAR's Experience-Based Brain and Biological Development Program and a member of Harvard University's National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

Title: Opportunities and limitations of technology for drinking water: implications for rural Canada and India/Bangladesh

Speaker: Kristian Dubrawski, PhD candidate
Chemical Biological Engineering
Liu Scholar, Liu Institute for Global Issues
Alumnus, The Bridge Program
Joel Bert Award Winner 2011

Following initial denials that the disease was a problem in China, Beijing has now taken a more proactive role in addressing the spread of HIV/AIDS. But many tensions remain, some left over from the period of denial. Wan and his organization exposed the spread of HIV through widespread commercial transactions in blood, and supported those infected in seeking redress and compensation. His talk will outline this history, and discuss current government controls and monitoring of HIV/AIDS activists, as well as human rights violations committed against these activists and those infected with HIV through official negligence.

Wan Yanhai graduated from Shanghai Medical University School of Public Health 1994. He worked at the China National Health Education Institute in Beijing. In 1994, he founded the Beijing Aizhi Action Project, an independent NGO working on issues around HIV/AIDS. This project subsequently became the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, which works on HIV/AIDS, health and human rights, engaging with marginalized groups that official programs often do not reach. Dr. Wan is now a visitor at the Centre for Chinese Research.

Sponsor: Centre for Chinese Research and Amnesty International UBC

Faculty, staff and students in SPPH are invited to a pancake breakfast to raise funds for the UBC United Way campaign.

Cost is $5 (minimum), with all proceeds going to United Way.

Faculty volunteers will be flipping pancakes from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. There will be a gluten-free station, fruit and drinks served. Please bring your own utensils, a plate and cup if possible.

This 1-day customized, interactive workshop will focus on developing effective professional writing skills.

Through a blend of lecture, discussion, hands-on practice and group work, participants will refine existing skills and add new ones to their repertoires to produce well-written documents and reports that convey information efficiently and effectively. By the end of the session, participants will have the tools they need to confidently edit and write business documents that are clear, concise and persuasive.

Presenter: Stephen Birch

Stephen Birch is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of CHEPA at McMaster University. He is a previous recipient of the Faculty of Health Sciences Rose Levy Rosenstadt Award and a research scholarship award under Health Canada's National Health Research and Development Program. He received his doctorate in economics at the University of York in the United Kingdom. His main research interests are in methods for economic evaluation of health interventions, equity in health care resource allocation and the relationship between health and environments. He is senior editor, health economics for Social Science and Medicine. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network. Birch also has academic appointments in the School of Medicine at the University of Manchester, U.K., and the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

SPPH Faculty Meeting

Join us to celebrate the School of Population and Public Health students who graduated in UBC Fall convocation ceremonies on November 21-22, 2011.

Title: Adventures in public health law

Speaker: Laurie Soloway, MEd, LLB
Health & Social Services Group, Ministry of Attorney General

Presenter: Dr. Susana López Charreton Professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Co-recipient of the Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology (UNESCO, 2001)

Dr. López Charreton is a prominent Mexican virologist specialized in rotaviruses. She holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in basic biomedical research from the UNAM and currently works for the Institute of Biotechnology of the same university. She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar since 2000. Dr. Lopez has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of virus host cell interactions, particularly, of the early events of rotavirus cell.

Population health intervention research (PHIR) aims at improving the effectiveness of interventions to achieve population health outcomes. To date, population health has been a largely descriptive enterprise involving the detailed characterization of (unequal distributions of) social and community determinants of individual, public, and population health. Population health intervention research builds on this strong empirical foundation by designing, implementing, and evaluating practices, programs, and policies to address these larger determinants of health.

The goal of population-level health interventions is to "shift the distribution of health risk by addressing the underlying social, economic and environmental conditions" that foster the patterns of illness and disease we experience (Hawe and Potvin 2009). A key aim of PHIR, then, is to generate evidence to help support policy decisions to alter the distributions of health risks and outcomes.

In this presentation, Dr. Robert explores the complex intersection of ethics, evidence, and policy action in the domain of PHIR. My starting point is a deceptively simple one: Why do we engage in population-level health research in the first place? For some, the description of patterns of health inequities due to social organization leads to an ethical imperative, namely to redress those inequities in the name of justice - reason enough to proceed. But for others, it would be at best supererogatory, and at worst misguided and wasteful, to attend to health inequities at the population level - health inequities affect other people, and are not of general concern. What, if any, is the morally appropriate response to the description of patterns of population health? More generally, what does it mean to build healthier communities through population health intervention research and what, if any, is the ethical rationale for such efforts?

Dr. Jason Scott Robert is the Franca Oreffice Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Life Sciences and the Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Biotechnology and Medicine at Arizona State University, where he also directs the Bioscience Ethics, Policy, and Law Program. Dr. Robert works at the intersection of bioethics and the philosophy of science, with a special interest in population and public health research, practice, and policy.

MEETING THE U.N.’S MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL FOR HUNGER: PROSPECTS, CHALLENGES AND THE
ROLE OF UNICEF
Arnold Timmer, Senior Advisor, Micronutrients, UNICEF
5-6:30 pm, Wednesday, Novbember 30, 2011
Green College Coach House