Wanted, Men Who Work In Northern BC
Prince George, B.C. – Wanted, a few good men who happen to work in Northern B.C.
The Canadian Cancer Society, Northern Health, Cancer Agency and UBC are working together to better serve men in the north as part of the workplace wellness initiatives.
To make that happen, the search is on for men who are willing to take part in a research study.
"We want to talk to men from a variety of sectors" says Dr. Charisse Seaton, Research Coordinator UBC Okanagan. "We are trying to come up with programs that will help improve the health of men in the North who , typically, aren't as healthy as their counterparts who live in the southern part of the province."
The sessions will help develop what Dr. Seaton calls "a menu of program options" as she realizes a program can't be a one size fits all considering the differences in the work men do. "For example at a sawmill, we might encourage an employer to have workers take part in a challenge to see who can do the most stair steps, but that won't work for a trucker. So the sessions are really about finding out what kinds of things men would be willing to respond to ." She says having a suite of "recommendations on how to improve mens' health " will mean nothing, if the improvement program doesn't fit the lifestyle of the men you are trying to help.
Dr. Seaton says a pilot project could be ready to roll as early as September. The program's effectiveness will be measured with a survey of particpants before the program starts and one when the pilot project ends "We will be asking things about how active they are post pilot, and their eating habits before and after".
The ideal candidate for one of these feedback sessions, works in northern B.C. in trucking, a sawmill, pulp and paper, road maintenance, shipping terminals.
There will be two sessions for such candidates to take part, the first is happening tomorrow from 6:30 to 8:30 pm and the other is set for Friday from 1-3 p.m.
As an added incentive, participants will receive a $50 dollar honorarium and some free food. But you can't just show up, in order to find out where the sessions are taking place, you will have to speak with Dr. Seaton first, and you can connect with her via email cherisse.seaton@ubc.ca or by phone 250-649-7138
Comments
unfortunately they are stereotyping truckers out there. A lot of truckers need to sling 60 lb straps to fly 12 feet high over a load to be tied down. Sure they may not be able to do stairs. but they have to get on and off their decks, 3 to four feet off the ground.
I think the biggest problem with being a trucker is that they need to sit on the job a lot, which means poor circulation. The next worst thing is what they throw in their mouth. Too many sandwiches and greasey spoon diners.
Seems like pretty short notice to get anyone to attend.
Where would these people come from to be available on a working day???
It will be interesting to see what kind of a turn out they get.
Ironic that the Cancer society wants to do a study on pulp mill workers. Perhaps improvement on air quality with in the mill environment. That would be the #1 solution.
In general, most of the workers in the sawmill, pulpmill, shipping and road maintenance puts on a lot of steps in the course of the day. Pretty sure they are well over 70,000 a week.
What we all need to be encouraged to do is more physical exercise to improve our Cardio and core strength. This includes me and every other middle aged men. I don’t believe in this BMI crap. I think its OK to pack around an extra 10-15 lbs. So if you do get cancer, your body does have a bit of reserve to fight back, if your all skin and bones, you have a lot less chance,(my opinion). That chemo crap beats the crap out of you.
So for better health, exercise regularly and get the old ticker thumping hard a few times a week. Don’t worry about the aches and pain, soon you won’t even feel them.
I don’t get from the article the connection with Cancer too. There are lots of open research areas in cancer from bone, blood cancer to Hodgkin lymphoma. Are these part of the research? What angle they look at the problem? Is there any genomic component or it is just a survey of health habits.
The forefront of cancer research is in personalized treatment by study of the pathology of cancer cells, and their death cycle (apoptosis) and enhanced chemotherapy. Are we doing any of these stuff in PG? why not?
why does the study not include women who work in those occupations…is Northern Health just interested in men?
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