Health info is online

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TERRACE-Northern residents are now able to examine health information about local restaurants, water systems, and public swimming pools online.

The information is being posted there by the Northern Health Authority's environmental health inspectors.

Visitors to their Web site will find public health notices and land-use notices, sampling results, and hazard ratings for food, drinking water and recreational water operations. The site contains information about food premises' food safety programs and about smoke-free environments.

This information has been available through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, but now it will be much easier to obtain through the health authority's health protection and safety program, said Doug Quibell, environmental health officer for the Northwest region.

The program's mission is "to protect the health of northern communities through education and inspection strategies designed to reduce health risks to the public."

Its responsibility is to reduce illness and injury in northern British Columbia.

"From time to time, there may be operators who don't have a favorable report," said Quibell. "We'll be sure to post follow-up reports, to show the work they've done to correct any slips in standards."

More information can be found on the public health protection page on the health authority's Web site at www.northernhealth.ca and at www.healthspace.ca/nha.