Rural health will get a good checkup as 300 speakers give presentations at five different but related conferences in Saskatoon Oct. 18-23.
About 500 delegates from 22 countries in North America, Europe and Australia are registered for the fourth international symposium on rural health and safety.
During the week the first international conference on rural nursing is scheduled and the Canadian Coalition for Agricultural Safety and Rural Health has slated its fourth annual conference.
Other companion conferences are: Ecosystem Health and Humanity, presented by a research group that has been studying health of people and land around Swift Current, Sask.; Health and Safety Needs of Rural Children; and Industrial Hygiene and Control Technologies, which will examine farm hazards such as dust, gases and microbes.
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The conferences are designed for fact-finding and networking, not policy making, said Dr. Jim Dosman of the Centre for Agricultural Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
Dosman said 23 percent of Canadians are rural residents and their health is affected by the complex machinery and chemicals used by farmers and the limited access to health and other services. While American figures show farm fatalities are decreasing, farming remains an occupation with 10 times the risks of other industries, said Dosman.
Canadian statistics are now being gathered.
