Ontario Health Study coming to North Bay this week

A health study going on across Ontario stops in North Bay on Thursday.

Dr. Mark Purdue the study’s executive scientific director says they are looking for participants between the ages of 35 and 69 and the purpose of it is to find out more about environmental issues that may affect your health.

If you are interested in taking part you’re encouraged to go to www.ontariohealthstudy.ca and fill out an on line survey.

Dr. Purdue says they will be at the North Bay LifeLabs Patient Service Centre at 1221 Algonquin from 8 am to 5 pm on Thursday.

He says the online survey is just part of the information they are looking for.

Dr. Purdue says they are going to communities throughout Ontario because they are collecting blood and physical measurements of participants.

He says they’re trying to better understand the factors that cause cancer and other chronic diseases.

Questions in the study include how much participants smoke, how much they drink, levels of physical activity and sun exposure.  Dr. Purdue says over 225,000 people have taken part so far.

He says researchers used blood specimens to assess internal environmental pollutants and identify proteins that could reflect an early disease that hasn’t yet been diagnosed.