By Ariel Root

Air pollution, green space, and wind turbines. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, and cancer. Formal training in statistics, and epidemiology. And partnerships across mathematics, chemistry, geography, and biological disciplines. Paul Villeneuve reflects back on an inspirational co-op work term at Health Canada during his statistics undergraduate training. He was required to apply statistics to better understand specific health issues, but found it much more appealing than theoretical statistics. “I guess,” he laughs, “that’s when I thought epidemiology would be more fun.”

Villeneuve is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, and cross-appointed to the School of Mathematics and Statistics at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. He is also an Affiliate Scientist at the Ontario Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) in Toronto, Senior Editor for the Canadian Journal of Public Health, and an Associate Editor for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada.

From the beginning of his time at the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control at Health Canada in 1988, Villeneuve has been involved in controversial health issues that are interwoven with political implications, such as the taxation of cigarettes. Being part of such a strong team of epidemiologists, Villeneuve recalls their high caliber research on topics including physical activity, pesticide use, exposure to radon, and cigarette smoking, including second hand exposure. “It generated a lot of attention [because] we didn’t understand the risks like we do now. These things were extremely relevant to many developing policies; it was easy to become excited about the research.”

Today, Villeneuve’s primary research interests assess the link between environmental and occupational exposures on the health of Canadians. His combined expertise in epidemiology and biostatistics have resulted in close collaborations with Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the OCRC, Cancer Care Ontario, and academic researchers across disciplines in both Canada and the US.

“Much of my work [focuses] on the health impacts from long-term exposure to air pollution, and the health benefits of green space in urban areas.” His expertise has been applied to several large-scale cohort studies examining the association between ambient air pollution and green space, and chronic diseases. Specifically, associations between outdoor air pollution and the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes; air pollution and its role on oxidative stress mechanisms related to dementia and neurodegenerative disease; urban green space access and its association with obesity and physical activity; the built environment and development of chronic disease; wind turbines and the potential health impacts and implications; and occupational causes of cancer.

Villeneuve’s research is influenced by stakeholder concerns, and the emerging literature. His health research continues to strengthen his belief that multi-disciplinary research teams are critical in developing in-depth health research perspectives and skills. “Think of all the many projects that involve clinicians, statisticians, geographers… you always need to draw from different disciplines. The nice thing is that people bring different perspectives, and you can then adapt [your research] as you learn from others. I’ve been able to work with many different researchers over long periods of time, and feel lucky to have developed both professional and personal relationships with them”. At ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, both the Department of Health Science and The CHAIM Centre combine disciplines, providing opportunities for continuing his engagement in existing and emerging collaborations with various health researchers.

Community engagement and involvement has heavily inspired his research passions. Villeneuve recalls his twenty-year involvement in evaluating the relationship between occupational exposure to radon and lung cancer among Newfoundland fluorspar miners. “We went into communities, talked with and engaged people, including the miners, and did the analysis.” Villeneuve recalls this as one the first projects that he felt truly excited about his work, “because for the first time, it was more than just looking at data. It was [about] going out and talking to people, and hearing of their stories.” A cemetery across the street from the museum of the Newfoundland Fluorspar miners contained many of the individuals who were included in the research.  “My visit there taught me that there are important stories behind the lines of data that I typically run across in an office in Ottawa. Hearing first hand of some of these struggles, and the interest in re-opening the mine because of potential impacts of its closure provided me with a different perspective on how my research could matter at a local level.”

In fact, Villeneuve identifies this as one of the most satisfying results of his research; “interacting with communities, actual residents.” Publications as academic acknowledgement and recognition are satisfying, but “explaining the research— what it means, getting [community] feedback… that level of engagement” is more rewarding for Villeneuve. The general public “doesn’t usually read our papers, so town-hall meetings or workshops that bring together more senior community members is important”.

Villeneuve notes that online articles have become a very important and widely used method of knowledge translation “that wasn’t there 10 to 15 years ago”.  He also acknowledges the evolution of the epidemiology field, especially in air pollution research. Satellites can now estimate ground level concentrations of pollution, and GPS and other apps provide better estimated exposures at an individual-level. As “the field continues to evolve, we continue to do things better and better, and [it continues to be] something that appeals to me”; an appeal that he doesn’t see fading out anytime soon.

Here for contact information for Paul Villeneuve

Chances are that most people know someone who has been affected by cancer in some way or form. In his November 6 talk at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, Dr. Christopher Wild, Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), shed light on this global issue. An agency of the World Health Organization, IARC collects data on cancers, provides quantitative assessments of risks and evaluates preventative measures.

It is estimated that approximately 32.5 million people are living with cancer. Analysis of data collected by IARC shows that 1 in 8 men and 1 in 12 women will die from cancer. Some areas in the world have higher rates of death due to cancer, such as China (26.9%), Europe (21.4%) and East/ Central Asia (17.3%). An emerging trend is increased cancer rates in developing countries. Some 57% of all cancer cases and 65% of cancer deaths come from l countries lacking the capacity to diagnose and treat advanced cancers.

Wild argued that cancer prevention requires attention to how cancer rates and correlates differ from place to place. There are different factors associated with cancer rates and deaths depending on where people live. There are also differences within populations. For example, Wild cited newly-published research demonstrating that incidence rates of breast cancer were higher among non-Indigenous women in many regions (roughly equal rates in Canada), but that cervical cancer was more common among Indigenous women, including in Canada.

Preventing cancer is important for many reasons. But for those who are most influenced by the financial implications, productivity loss due to cancer is a huge burden on the economy. The IARC studied productivity loss in 30 European countries and estimated a loss of €75 billion ($107 billion).

Cancer is a common disease in today’s world, but it is also a complex disease that differs from place to place, person to person, and type of cancer. Its impact is not only at the individual level but also globally. Wild emphasized that it has become such a vast and complex issue and that we cannot simply treat our way out of the problem.

What we need to know and how to take action

Wild went on to say that if we cannot treat our way out of the cancer problem then we must adopt a balanced and integrated approach to prevention, early detection, and treatment. To improve prevention the world needs to know more about the risk factors associated with cancer. A few of these risks include tobacco, alcohol, occupation, infections, diet and obesity. IARC has evaluated multiple agents and their possible carcinogenic effects. For example, processed meat, air pollution, and diesel exhaust. By discovering which factors have carcinogenic effects we can limit or screen for exposure to harmful substances.

Primary cancer interventions would apply the knowledge we already have to avoid potentially harmful habits. For example, IARC estimates that worldwide, 3.6% of all recent cancer cases are due to obesity. Interventions to improve diet and exercise can be deployed to reduce this risk. In the end, the majority of cancers in the fully developed market economies are associated with diet and personal choices (e.g. smoking) and some viruses for which vaccines exist suggesting that they are, in fact, preventable. We need to apply what we know and take action.

Secondary methods of prevention include screening for early detection, mammography, cancer awareness, breast examinations, and colonoscopies. Cancer prevention may be highly effective; it just takes a lot of time and effort at both the individual, systems, and global level.

Research into the incidence, distribution and control of cancer is still ongoing, and is most effective when bringing together information from multiple disciplinary perspectives. For example, by identifying specific risk factors, such as stress or diet, we may be able to isolate biological or molecular changes or markers of exposure, which in turn could lead to controlled interventions that contribute to development of personalized treatment.

The cancer problem is complex in the way it manifests differently worldwide. By looking at the causes within populations we can identify the risk factors and work on preventative techniques. But we can also learn by making comparisons across regions globally. To relieve the cancer burden we must combine prevention and treatment efforts, adopt interdisciplinary approaches that guide research directions, and work globally toward diminishing incidence and mortality rates associated with cancer.

On November 6, Dr. Christopher Wild delivered a public lecture on the Global Cancer Burden: Necessity is the Mother of Prevention.  If you missed the lecture, you can watch it on .

Dr. Christopher Wild will be delivering a public lecture at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University in Ottawa on November 6. To register, go to