While fewer people may live on the streets of Metro Vancouver overall, significant gaps remain in the availability of primary health care for B.C.'s homeless, according to new data presented at Vancouver's Health of the Homeless Summit on Tuesday. Read more…

A suicide prevention organization based in Victoria has received enough funding to remain open until the end of December, but NEED2 is still waiting for a long-term solution to its funding crisis. Read more…

B.C.'s Ministry of Health announced today the start of a new program devoted to providing vulnerable new mothers with the support they need to prepare for parenthood. The Nurse Family Partnership Program pairs public health nurses with young, first-time mothers with low incomes and who are still in the early stages of their pregnancies. Read more…

If you've ever stayed up late into the night with a toothache, or spent weeks ignoring dental pain, there may only be one thing to take solace in: you are not alone.

Azar Mehrabadi, an organizer with Alliance for People's Health, has spent her afternoons and weekends over the past months collecting stories about people's teeth and their access to dental care. Read more…

When he was health minister, Kevin Falcon defended a Lower Mainland hospital using a Tim Horton's as space for patients. This week he was in a franchise of the doughnut shop chain serving coffee for charity. Read more…

MONTREAL - Heroin-related debris, like discarded needles, dropped 46 per cent in a Montreal neighbourhood after an injection clinic opened there in 2005, a newly published study suggests. Read more…

VANCOUVER - It started with an innocent walk across the street. George Kripner was hit by a vehicle driven by an alleged drunk driver, setting off a lawsuit which involves neither Kripner, nor the man behind the wheel. Read more…

The British Columbia government is moving ahead with plans for a study that will look at how using fracking to extract natural gas may affect human health. Read more…

The Harper government has not decided whether to extend or end federal support for Vancouver's supervised injection site, a lawyer told the Supreme Court of Canada today. Read more…

Researchers have found Downtown Eastside residents infested with bedbugs that carry drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA and VRE. Read more…

Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and five of his predecessors called on the federal government today to reconsider its opposition to the Insite safe injection facility. Read more…

Green Leader Elizabeth May says Plains All American, parent company of Plains Midstream Canada, which owns the pipeline that leaked a massive amount of oil in northern Alberta, was fined $3.25 million last year for 10 separate crude spills in the U.S. Read more…

A golf industry spokesperson is pushing back against a proposal for an anti-pesticide law in British Columbia, even though the draft legislation explicitly exempts golf greens. Read more…

A day before the B.C. New Democratic Party planned to put forward a bill to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, Premier Christy Clark said she supports just such a ban. Read more…

The British Columbia government is close to announcing continued funding for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Read more…

Another peer-reviewed study has confirmed that Insite, a supervised injection facility on the downtown East Side, has saved many addicts from deaths by overdose. Read more…

On the same day that Burnaby saw the gala opening of its first dispensary for medical cannabis, and in the wake of a recent Ontario court ruling that struck down Canada’s pot prohibition as unconstitutional, supporters of Vancouver pot activist Marc Emery, imprisoned for selling mail-order marijuana seeds, learned that the United States government had denied his application for a transfer from the US to the Canadian prison system. Read more…

A local citizens' initiative aimed at highlighting the health threats posed by sour gas wells in B.C.'s energy-rich Peace River region appears to be gaining momentum, but whether or not it will result in a public inquiry remains to be seen. Read more…

A run on potassium iodide pills over radiation fallout fears has B.C.'s top doc trying to quell the panic.

City pharmacists say pills intended to fight radiation are flying off the shelves over fears of a possible post-quake meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Read more…

Health officials know that a lack of fresh, nutritious food is contributing to higher rates of obesity and diabetes in northern communities, including those in B.C. It's a problem compounded by the fact that unhealthy food options are typically cheaper. A new campaign launched this month by the Northwest Territories government is trying to tackle one of the biggest culprits: pop Read more…