U of M researcher helps assess older drivers
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, a University of Manitoba researcher is involved in a national study to develop methods that would allow physicians to assess the driving abilities of older individuals.
Dr. Michelle Porter, a professor of kinesiology, said that during a five-year period, the project will monitor the driving habits and physical heath of 1,000 drivers aged 70 and older in seven cities across the country, including Winnipeg.
“We want to come up with simple tests physicians can do in their office,” to determine if an older person is fit to drive, Porter said.
According to Porter, most provinces require that physicians report individuals who are not physically fit to drive, but many physicians are hesitant to do so as they lack adequate assessment tools.
Porter said that she will work with 135 older drivers in Winnipeg. These drivers will have devices installed in their vehicles to monitor the number of trips taken and the distance traveled.
Less Arctic ice means polar bears eat each other
As reported by the Toronto Star, scientists say that less Arctic ice means that polar bears are more likely to eat young cubs.
“When [bears] are very hungry, they go looking for something to eat,” biologist Ian Stirling said Friday. “There’s nothing much to eat along the Hudson Bay coast in the fall other than other bears.”
Scientists have reported that anywhere from four to eights cases of male polar bears eating young cubs and other bears has occurred in the polar bear population around Churchill, Man..
“That’s a very big number,” said Stirling, a retired Environment Canada scientist, who has studied the Churchill population for 35 years. “I worked there well over 30 years and never saw a single case of cannibalism.”
The bears lose up to 30 per cent of their body mass in summer and autumn waiting on land for the sea ice to refreeze so they can walk out and hunt seals.
At one time, the sea ice froze by early November, but now it takes even longer to freeze up. With the arrival of December, the ice still is not solid enough for the bears to walk on.
Bill Watkins, a zoologist with Manitoba Conservation, reports he hears about one or two cases of cannibalism a year. He said he suspects that climate change may be to blame.
“We would really need several years of data like this to confirm that something unusual is going on,” he said. “While it’s very suggestive of an impact of climate change, it’s a little early to confirm that definitively.”
MB looking a little younger
According to a recent Stats Can report, more international immigrants, a higher fertility rate and fewer young people leaving the province made Manitoba a slightly younger province compared to the rest of the country, reported the Winnipeg Free Press.
The report showed that the median age in Manitoba decreased slightly to 37.7 on July 1 2009 from 37.8 the previous year, compared to the average across Canada, which rose from 39.3 to 39.5 years of age.
“We’re definitely changing. We’re a younger province,” said Jacqueline Storen, head demographic and social statistician with the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics.
Manitoba was equal with Saskatchewan for the second-youngest province in the country second only to Alberta — its median age at 35.6.
Storen said that people immigrating to Manitoba tend to be young with young children combined with fewer young people moving to other provinces and a higher fertility rate among Aboriginals and immigrants to the province.
The report also said Canada’s youngest population was in Nunavut, where the median age is 24.2 years and children under the age of 15 make up almost a third of the population.
