Dr. Irena Buka Children's Environmental Health Legacy Award
The Dr. Irena Buka Children's Environmental Health Legacy Endowment is named in honour of Dr. Irena Buka, who established the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic (ChEHC) at the University of Alberta in 1997. She was and continues to be powerful voice for children at risk. The Endowment grew over the past twenty years with small amounts from different sources. In 2016, the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic officially became a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Children’s Environmental Health.
The impacts of environmental factors on the health and well-being of children are becoming increasingly important. Emerging evidence clearly shows how prenatal and early childhood exposures affect lifelong health. As the severity of environmental issues grows, public awareness of the full impacts of children’s environmental health on the community is growing.
Environmental health is an emerging field that links the complicated roles of exposures to human health. These range from day-to-day air pollution to unpredictable events like wildfire smoke, chemical exposures from food and water, living near traffic or industry, heatwaves and cold snaps, and how they impact people at different ages and developmental stages. Access to greenspace and other potentially beneficial factors also need to be explored.
The Dr. Irena Buka Children’s Environmental Health Endowment supports actions to address child health concerns through research and education. This award aims to support individuals doing research through summer studentships with ChEHC that address child health concerns and community-driven local and global problems such as:
- Air pollution
- Wildfires
- Climate change
- Prenatal exposures
- Pesticides
- Chemical exposures
Donors
Dr. Irena Buka & Covenant Health
Value
Approximately $1,800
Application/Nomination Procedure
Applications are submitted via Google Form and then assessed by a selection committee consisting of members of the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic.
Please note to be eligible for this award you must be completing a summer studentship with the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic. You can fill out an application using the link below.
For more information regarding this award, please contact Autumn Moronchuk at pedaward@ualberta.ca