Tag: ABC News

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Russian authorities told it that no cases ‌of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week.

In a statement to CBC News, the WHO said Russia had informed the agency on Tuesday that the woman’s illness appeared to be a “typical acute respiratory viral infection,” but that “no case of plague has been recorded in Irkutsk, either in her or in anyone else.”

Authorities in Irkutsk previously said the 28-year-old woman, identified in Russian media as Darya Shipilova, died on Friday from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, leading to speculation she had been infected with pneumonic plague — a virulent form of the bacteria-borne illness.

Shipilova was reported to be a technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East.

The WHO said it had requested further information from Russian authorities about which pneumonia-causing pathogen is believed to have led to the woman’s death.

Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian government’s public health and consumer watchdog, also said in a statement that no infectious diseases ​had been reported among the staff of the same plague research institute in Irkutsk over the past 10 days and that extensive testing had found no microorganisms in the deceased woman’s body linked to her ​work.

“A comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures was immediately organized and implemented in full in accordance with public health ⁠legislation,” the watchdog said.

“This included ⁠identifying the widest possible circle of individuals who had been in ‌contact with the patient and arranging for them to be placed under medical observation in hospital with daily laboratory tests.”

It said the results had revealed two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection, but that no pathogens causing other infectious diseases had been detected.

“None of the contacts showed any changes in their state of health ⁠associated with infectious disease.”

Locals not phased by plague rumours

Elena Sofina, deputy head of the Shelekhov district near Irkutsk, where a local hospital was placed under quarantine, said what she called a “dangerous diagnosis” had not been confirmed.

She added that 60 per cent of those placed under quarantine as a precaution had already ‌been released. Local media said around 200 people had previously been quarantined.

Locals in the town said their lives had ​barely been disrupted, although they said some people in shops had initially worn surgical face masks as a precaution.

A resident who gave ​her name only as Anna said ⁠the situation was calm and that people had been prepared for restrictions to be introduced, but that life had gone on pretty much as usual.

“Everyone had face masks at home and wore them for no more than 24 hours,” she told Reuters.

Denis, another resident, said news of the lab worker’s death had been widely discussed in the town and that the local hospital had temporarily stopped doing diagnostic tests but ⁠had since resumed normal business.

A May 2025 satellite image shows the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, where 28-year-old Darya Shipilova before her death last week. According to Russian officials, Shiplova died from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people and causing public health fears on social media. (Google/Airbus/Handout/Reuters)

Kremlin thanks Trump for offer to help

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed appreciation for an offer of help on Monday from Trump, although without making clear if Moscow planned to accept it.

“It’s always good when mutual assistance is offered,” Peskov told reporters.

Trump on Monday described the situation as a “big problem for Russia.” ​U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday it was incumbent on Moscow to share more information.

Health Canada told CBC News it is also monitoring the situation, though it sees no risk to Canada at this time.

WATCH | Questions, concern surround death of Russian anti-plague lab technician:

What we know about the suspected plague death in Russia

Two-hundred people have been placed under medical observation in Siberia, Russia, after a laboratory worker died after a reported accident at a plague research facility. The World Health Organization says the public health risk remains low.

Ontario’s medical regulator is proposing sweeping changes to prescribing safer supply drugs, The Canadian Press has learned.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is looking to clamp down on the practice and is set to hold a board of directors meeting next week to decide on the proposed changes.

Safer supply refers to prescribing medications as an alternative to opioids obtained on the streets to those who are at high risk of overdose.

The most common form of safer supply is hydromorphone, a powerful opioid often prescribed for pain but significantly less potent than fentanyl and its derivatives that dominate the illicit drug supply chain. Fentanyl is often found laced with other drugs such as benzodiazepines, a depressant, and xylazine, often used to tranquilize animals. 

One change the regulator has proposed in a document tucked away on its website is that “physicians must only prescribe safer supply medications in conjunction with opioid agonist therapy.” The therapy uses medications such as methadone to treat opioid addiction.

The college is also proposing an eight-week time limit for physicians to prescribe safer supply, and mandating that it be consumed in front of health-care professionals. 

The regulator previously made changes to its drug prescription policy in May that mandated physicians to perform an in-person assessment before prescribing narcotics for safer supply, as well as making it mandatory for doctors to offer opioid agonist therapy before prescribing safer supply drugs and perform follow-ups every three months.

The rationale behind the new proposed changes centres largely on diversion of patients’ prescription pills to the black market.

“The proposed amendments build on targeted changes introduced in May and respond to ongoing concerns about the diversion of safer supply medication and the resulting risks to patients and communities,” Mickey Cirak, spokesperson for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, wrote in an email.

“In response, the college has proposed amendments intended to strengthen oversight of safer supply prescribing and enhance safeguards related to physician prescribing practices, consistent with its role as Ontario’s medical regulator.”

WATCH | Fifth Estate dives into Canada’s opioid crisis:

Canada’s opioid crisis has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, costing the health and justice systems billions. Many health providers say there were solutions that could have helped. We reveal how politics got in the way.

Health minister supports changes

The college said it has consulted with a broad range of people and organizations, including physicians, municipalities and health-care partners, as well as the office of Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore.

Moore’s office did not respond to a request for comment or an interview. Moore has never granted The Canadian Press an interview about the province’s opioids crisis, despite more than a dozen requests since he took the role in 2021.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons said the initiative to change safer-supply prescription rules is its own and did not come from the provincial government.

WATCH | Ontario ends funding for supervised drug consumption sites:

Moss Park drug consumption sites to close as Ontario ends funding

Two supervised drug consumption sites in Moss Park received letters on Friday from the Ontario Ministry of Health saying that their provincial funding will end in 90 days. CBC’s Ali Chiasson spoke to advocates who are concerned this could lead to more open drug use in the area.

Cirak said the college also received feedback from doctors with expertise in addiction medicine.

The proposal has the support of Health Minister Sylvia Jones.

“Our government does not and will never support the distribution of illegal drugs, including the illicit use of hydromorphone masked as ‘safer supply,’” said Satnam Grewal, a spokesperson for Jones.

“We welcome any action from Ontario’s 27 regulatory colleges who set standards and obligations for health-care professionals, including the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, to crack down on the predatory prescribing of addictive drugs.”

Changes ‘dangerous’: harm reduction worker

Ontario has moved to an abstinence-based model under Premier Doug Ford in its approach to the ongoing opioid crisis. The province closed provincially funded supervised consumption sites and passed a law banning them within 200 metres of schools and daycares. 

The province has since opened 29 homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, which the government calls HART hubs. It has spent more than $500 million on that plan, which offers primary and mental health care, addiction services and peer supports. 

Word of the proposed changes has reached some people who depend on safer supply, said Lorraine Lam, an organizer with the Shelter and Housing Justice Network and a longtime harm reduction worker. 

WATCH | ‘HART’ hubs replace supervised drug consumption sites:

Ontario opens homelessness and addiction hubs, replacing consumption sites

After passing a law closing numerous supervised consumption sites, the province opened nine of its HART hubs on Tuesday. But critics say Ontario’s new approach is off to a bumpy start. Shawn Jeffords explains.

“The changes are really dangerous and very destabilizing,” Lam said. 

“People are really, really scared and people are really, really anxious and very angry.”

She said some people using safer supply got jobs or returned to school and she’s worried what will happen to them when they’re cut off.

“The reality is people who are on safe supply are going to be de-prescribed really, really quickly, which will increase the chances of people turning to the street unregulated supply, which will then therefore increase the risk of overdoses and deaths,” Lam said.

The college’s board of directors is set to meet on Oct. 13, when it is expected to vote on the proposed changes.

Kenyan authorities on Tuesday confirmed the country’s first imported Ebola case from Congo, making Kenya the latest country affected by the fast-moving outbreak.

Health Minister Aden Duale said a Kenyan citizen who arrived in the country on Saturday from Congo, via its neighbour Uganda, had been isolated and treated at Nairobi Hospital, where he tested positive for the Ebola virus and died late Monday.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding and clothing.

The current outbreak was declared in mid-May, months after it had been spreading in a remote part of eastern Congo. At least 8,400 cases have been recorded, including more than 4,000 deaths, according to government data, making it the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history.

Kenya had never had an outbreak of Ebola, according to the Kenya Medical Research Institute. Dozens of contacts have either been identified or are being traced.

Duale said Kenya was well-prepared to respond to Ebola cases, having trained nearly 5,000 health workers across the country on prevention and management.

Kenya is the fourth country to record an Ebola case in the current outbreak.

Tracing of flight passengers begin

Uganda has recorded 20 cases and France one. Before Kenya reported its case, there had been no active cases outside Congo since Uganda declared its outbreak over in late August.

Health authorities in Kenya have placed the country’s border points on high alert and are monitoring for possible additional cases.

Kenya’s Health Minister Aden Duale holds a news conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, announcing the first case of Ebola in the country. (Monicah Mwangi/Reuters)

Duale said 28 contacts, including family members and health workers who cared for the patient, had been identified. Another 23 passengers who travelled on the same flight from Uganda were being traced.

He said the patient had been living in Congo for the past seven years and fell ill about a month ago. He was treated at various hospitals before travelling by road to Kampala, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi, arriving on Saturday afternoon.

The contacts will remain in isolation for 21 days and will be released after testing negative for the virus, the Health Ministry’s director, Patrick Amoth, said.

WATCH | Congo’s record Ebola outbreak :

Ebola outbreak now deadliest in Congo’s history

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is officially the deadliest in the country’s history, and health officials worry the crisis will only get worse when children return to school.

The patient’s relatives later took him in a private vehicle to Nairobi Hospital, where he was immediately isolated. He will be buried within 24 hours in accordance with recommended public safety protocols.

The minister said Kenya had tested 267 samples at five laboratories across the country since May before this first case was detected.

Congo’s outbreaks ‘like fighting a megafire’

In Congo, where the outbreak has spread to seven provinces, conditions are difficult. Responders have faced attacks on health teams, misinformation about the virus, a failure by locals to report symptoms and rebel violence that has limited access to treatment centres.

While cases have slowed in Ituri province, the epicentre, the outbreak is spreading in emerging hot spots in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

“It is like fighting a megafire. Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations,” Stephanie Hoffmann, with Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. 

The World Health Organization has warned this could surpass the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which erupted more than a decade ago and killed some 11,000 people in West Africa.

An Indigenous health leader in Niagara is hoping that a deep-seated fear that many Indigenous people feel in hospital is something that is being chipped away. 

Charity Beland, who is a member of Six Nations of the Grand River, Mohawk, Turtle Clan, is the manager of Indigenous Health Services and Reconciliation at Niagara Health, which operates three hospitals and two urgent care centres. There, she leads a team who make it their mission to create hospital settings where Indigenous people feel safe and valued.

The ongoing efforts by Niagara Health to improve Indigenous patients’ experience has earned the acknowledgment of a major Indigenous umbrella group in Ontario, with the caveat that there is still a long road ahead to regain trust.

It was the death of Heather Winterstein in 2021 at Niagara Health’s hospital in St. Catharines — now known as the Marotta Family Hospital — that led the hospital system to embark on a process of self-examination on the experience of Indigenous patients.

At the coroner’s inquest into her death earlier this year, testimony revealed that Winterstein, 24, sought care for extreme pain on two consecutive days but ended up collapsing after languishing for hours in the emergency department waiting room.

The inquest jury ruled she died from septic shock due to sepsis with delayed treatment, caused by a bacterial infection.

Testimony at the inquest suggested treatment decisions by some hospital medical staff may have been influenced by Winterstein’s Indigenous background, her history of substance use and anxiety. 

Ingrained racism a reality, expert says

Suzanne Shoush, a family physician who examines the experiences of Indigenous people trying to access care, testified at the inquest that bias in the healthcare system, where fewer than one per cent of doctors are Indigenous, makes many Indigenous people fearful of seeking care.

For generations, many Indigenous people have felt a sense of dread if they had to seek treatment for a medical condition at a Canadian hospital, where they often came face-to-face with anti-Indigenous bias or outright discrimination, says Shoush.

Shoush, Indigenous faculty lead at the University of Toronto’s department of family and community medicine, said that ingrained racism contributes to shorter lifespans, increased chance of preventable death and longer wait times for Indigenous people.

She stressed that cultural safety training must apply to everyone working in a hospital, from security and housekeeping staff, to top management and board members.

After Winterstein’s death, Niagara Health conducted an internal review and initiated an independent, third-party emergency department review that resulted in recommendations such as instilling cultural safety throughout Niagara Health’s staff, physicians and volunteers; promoting an Indigenous patient navigator team; seeking out Indigenous representation for governance; working on recruiting and retaining Indigenous employees, doctors and volunteers; and creating a separate Indigenous space for reflection and gatherings.

Niagara Health accepted all the recommendations.

In 2024, Niagara Health launched its first Indigenous health services plan to improve hospital services and experiences for Indigenous patients and their families.

The plan includes initiatives designed to improve access to healthcare services, enhance cultural safety, promote traditional healing practices within the hospital, strengthen relations with Indigenous groups, outline strategies for recruiting and retaining Indigenous healthcare professionals, and provide education and training for staff on cultural safety.

Some of the initiatives launched by Niagara Health include:

• Installing Indigenous artwork at all its sites.
• Allowing smudging ceremonies, which any patient or family member identifying as Indigenous can request. At the Marotta hospital, ceremonies can take place in patients’ rooms.
• Opening of an Indigenous community room, the Gathering of Good Minds, at the Marotta hospital. 
• Launching specialized training focused on cultural sensitivity and awareness.
• Planning an Indigenous healing centre at the new South Niagara hospital under construction in Niagara Falls. The hospital will also have an Indigenous healing garden.

Cultural sensitivity and awareness training

Beland said cultural sensitivity and awareness training began with top leadership, and has moved on to front line staff. The training is mandatory.

“Last I checked, I think we were at 77 per cent completion,” she said. “For a large organization we’ve had really, really good buy-in.”

Sean Longboat, chief executive officer of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres, acknowledged the efforts of Niagara Health. 

“We are encouraged to see the direction Niagara Health has taken to advance Indigenous health equity within their network system,” he said in a statement to CBC News. “Other hospital systems can and should learn from Niagara Health’s efforts.”

Other hospital systems can and should learn from Niagara Health’s efforts.– Sean Longboat, chief executive officer of the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres

But, “it will take time to regain Indigenous people’s trust, especially after losing a treasured family and community member like Heather Winterstein,” Longboat said.

Trust can only be repaired through sustained action and allowing Indigenous people to exert their autonomy and self-determination in the design and delivery of health services, he said.  

“More importantly, trust can only be regained when Indigenous people directly see the benefits of these initiatives on their lives and in their community.”

In 2025, Niagara Health entered a formal partnership with the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council to develop joint initiatives aimed at improving Indigenous health outcomes and addressing healthcare inequities. It was the first agreement of its kind with a hospital system, Niagara Health said.

The health council works with Indigenous primary healthcare organizations across Ontario to promote the health and well-being of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

“This partnership is an important step towards creating a healthcare system that is responsive and respectful of Indigenous needs,” Caroline Lidstone-Jones, CEO of the health council, said last year.

Beland said it’s important not to shy away from using terms such as racism and discrimination when describing the Indigenous experience in hospitals, as uncomfortable as that may be.

“If we don’t use the words and we don’t use the language… then we’re doing the work a disservice,” she said. 

Beland said it’s “been really inspiring and surprising” to see a major hospital system commit to and follow through on efforts to policies aimed at improving the Indigenous experience.

“Our driving force is really making sure that the approaches we’re taking and initiatives that we’re moving forward are based on what the community identifies as important to them,” she said.

Coroner’s recommendations

The coroner’s inquest jury made 68 recommendations, most of which target Niagara Health alone or in conjunction with other agencies.

Longboat said the inquest recommendations provide a “roadmap for meaningful change” that other hospital systems should take seriously, and said discrimination and anti-Indigenous racism must be confronted head-on. 

Longboat said the provincial government, which plays a key role in accountability mechanisms that govern healthcare, must commit to holding itself to a higher standard to ensure the healthcare system cares for everyone living in Ontario.

“We cannot have another death like Heather Winterstein’s.”

Niagara Health president and CEO Lynn Guerriero, who testified at the inquest that discrimination and biases are ingrained in the healthcare system in Ontario and Canada, said in a statement to CBC News in April that Niagara Health will move forward in a “careful and deliberate way” to implement the recommendations.

“We know that systemic racism exists in healthcare, and addressing it is essential to improving safety, trust and outcomes for Indigenous patients and their families,” she said.

The most comprehensive study yet of maternal health in Canada has found Black Canadians face a much higher risk of serious complications during pregnancy, labour, delivery and postpartum than white people — underlining the urgent need for better data tracking and tools to eliminate systemic anti-Black racism in our health-care system, researchers and advocates say. 

The research, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), looked at more than 108,000 in-hospital deliveries to Black people, and more than 1.3 million in-hospital deliveries to white people across the country between 2012 and 2023. 

Researchers found that severe maternal morbidity, encompassing complications such as pre-eclampsia, hemorrhage and sepsis, occurred at a rate of 47.8 out of 1,000 live births for a Black parent compared to 27.7 out of 1,000 live births for a white parent. 

Even when researchers accounted for other factors like age, immigration status or other health conditions, Black people still had a 66 per cent higher chance of experiencing these potentially life-threatening complications. 

The data lines up with what advocates have been saying for years — that Black women have their pain dismissed and routinely face barriers when navigating maternal care. 

“It’s huge to finally have this, you know, so-called proof and evidence that we’ve been told that we need to have in order to really prioritize Black communities and reproductive health,” said Cheyenne Scarlett, co-founder of the Black Birth Project, a non-profit aimed at improving reproductive outcomes for Black people in Canada. 

She told CBC News that she has first-hand experience with the cracks in Canada’s maternal care: She once went to the ER with an ectopic pregnancy, and says she was sent home without receiving proper treatment. 

“This report is not at all shocking to me,” she said. 

‘Less equitable outcomes’

Official data shows Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women. They are twice as likely in the U.K., while a 2021 study from The Lancet found that Black women had a 43 per cent higher risk of miscarriage. 

But similar long-term demographic data has been lacking in Canada until now, despite years of calls for it.  

“As Canadians … we’ve been able to distance ourselves from the very real reality of the fact that although universal health care is so important, it still doesn’t mean universal access for everyone,” Giulia Muraca, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at McMaster University, told CBC News. 

The higher rates of complications for Black people persisted when researchers controlled for conditions that occur in different rates in Black and white populations, such as sickle cell disease, with authors noting in the study that the consistent disparity “suggests broader structural influences on maternal health.”

WATCH | Advocates fight for better data in 2021:

Calls for more data about health risks to Black women in pregnancy

Black women in Canada face more risks in pregnancy compared to other demographics, but there’s little data in this country compared to the U.S. and U.K. on what is causing the inequities.

And while a higher income correlated with an improvement in maternal outcome for white parents, the study found that rates of severe complications increased for Black parents along with their income — an example of a “diminishing returns” phenomenon, Muraca suggested, in which those who experience structural marginalization don’t receive the same advantages of an increased income.

The study didn’t look at causes, but its authors stress that these differences don’t stem from race itself.

“Being Black is not the cause of these differences,” Muraca said. The evidence that Black patients are experiencing “less equitable outcomes,” she said, should prompt us to start examining “inequities in access … differences in communication, in escalation of care, in differences in treatment, for example.

“These are things that we can start to now collect routine data on and hold institutions accountable for.”

‘We are dying’

The struggles Black people face in Canada just trying to access health care is something that community organizations have been studying independently for years.

“So me, as a Black woman, when I go into the hospital, when I’m in front of a practitioner, how are they responding to me?” Kearie Daniel, executive director and founder of the Black Women’s Institute for Health, said. “Are they going to see my pain the same way that they’re seeing someone else’s?”

A national survey released by the Black Women’s Institute for Health in 2025 looked at the experiences of nearly 2,000 Black women and girls with Canada’s health-care system. It found that 42 per cent avoid seeking medical care because they were afraid of how they might be treated. 

When it came to maternal care, some women reported fearing their children might be taken from them after staff summoned social workers with no justification, Daniel said. Others dealt with miscarriages at home rather than risk poor treatment at the hospital. Many reported their pain was ignored.

“They’re giving birth in the emergency bathroom, in the waiting room, they are being turned away,” Daniel said.

She said during her own pregnancy, her mother kept stressing she needed to dress well when going to the hospital, concerned that she wouldn’t be taken seriously. 

“Having to go into a system that really isn’t seeing your full humanity when you’re depending on them to do so for your survival and the survival of your baby is just so — ‘demoralizing’ is not the right word. It’s not a heavy enough word to really articulate just how excruciating it is.”

WATCH | Ancestral Hands Midwives opens its doors in this 2024 video:

Scarborough facility offers prenatal and postpartum midwifery care for Black families

Ancestral Hands Midwives is a new facility in Scarborough that offers prenatal and postpartum midwifery care for Black families. CBC’s Shannon Martin spoke to the team behind the organization to learn more about how they’re striving for better accessibility, education and empowerment around Black maternal health.

Government action needed: advocates

Research has shown that Black people in Canada often suffer higher risks of negative health outcomes, including with breast cancer and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enduring disparities have their roots in historical injustices that shaped modern medicine, according to a recent report in the Canadian Ethnic Studies journal.

To ensure equitable maternity care, what’s needed now, Daniel said, is real action from governments and health-care organizations.

Better staff training is important, but it must be paired with the tracking of race-based data along with other socioeconomic differences, she said, to monitor if interventions are actually improving health outcomes for Black people. 

Although some regions began tracking race-based health data after the pandemic, it’s still fractured across the country.

“There has to be accountability,” Daniel said. “We are dying as a result of not having that.”

WATCH | Documentary digs into the need for race-based data:

Canada’s health-care system also needs to work with community organizations to create truly informed care, advocates say.  

Althea Jones founded Ancestral Hands Midwives in 2024, meant to help Black people get better pregnancy care. She said it’s frustrating to have to prove what community members have known for years, but she’s still hopeful this study might lead to more funding for interdisciplinary, Black-led care.

“I think people need care that reflects them,” she said. “They need to be seen and heard.”

Jenelle Ambrose Dash, chair of the Black Maternal Health Collective Canada, echoed the call. Every April, her organization runs Black Maternal Health Week in Toronto, bringing together groups like Ancestral Hands to share research and educate others.

She added that there needs to be more funding for health care in general, noting that the current “overwhelmed” system only exacerbates inequity.

When she heard about the CMAJ study, she saw her own story — a previous traumatic experience with pre-eclampsia — reflected in the data. She’s determined to ensure that no Black parent has to go through what she did. 

“There are real people behind the numbers,” she said. 

“I hope that something will be done coming out of this study. We’re well past the point of awareness. We are looking for accountability now.”

You may be having second thoughts about eating the berries in your fridge after CBC News spoke with a whistleblower who made a startling claim about the amount of chemicals on fruit that a U.S. company allegedly shipped to Canada.

David Harada, a former employee for California-based Driscoll’s, alleged in a lawsuit that about half of the company’s exports to Canada contained pesticide levels that exceeded Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) standards.

Driscoll’s supplies raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries that are largely grown in California and Mexico, but with some products coming from other places seasonally — including parts of Canada.

Harada says the excess chemical levels were due to over-spraying and the removal of food safety compliance parameters for berries sent to Canada.

The CFIA confirmed higher-than-permissible levels of pesticides on the company’s berries. Driscoll’s has said that it’s amended its controls to comply with Canadian standards.

But that may not be enough to put some Canadian consumers’ minds at ease, especially parents. Meanwhile, food safety experts say this has prompted an important conversation about the chemicals used on the produce we eat.

Here’s a quick look at what you need to know.

Are the berries in my fridge safe to eat?

Harada’s lawsuit alleges that millions of pounds of berries with chemical levels exceeding CFIA guidelines were imported between 2022 and 2024, so it’s highly unlikely those would have survived in your fridge since then — and you certainly shouldn’t eat them if they are still in there.

Maria Corradini, an associate professor in the University of Guelph’s food sciences department, says the chemical compounds sprayed on produce do degrade over time.

But the issue, she says, is ensuring that the right amount is applied and that enough time has passed so that there isn’t leftover residue come harvest time.

WATCH | Driscoll’s berries shipped to Canada with excess chemicals, lawsuit alleges:

Driscoll’s sent berries with excess chemicals to Canada: whistleblower

A whistleblower lawsuit in California alleges millions of trays of fruit containing non-compliant levels of pesticides and chemicals crossed the border between 2022 and 2024. The suit also accuses Driscoll’s fruit company of trying to cover it up.

Environmental toxicologist Daniel Green says that even if you actually consumed berries with higher than permissible levels of chemical residue, it probably wouldn’t be enough to harm you.

You would likely need to eat something like 19 kilograms of berries in a short period of time to really feel any adverse effects.

“This issue isn’t one serving of berries,” he told CBC Montreal’s Gloria Henríquez, explaining that it’s like “one speck” of the chemicals to which people are exposed in their daily lives.

What chemicals were found on the berries?

The three chemicals found were bifenthrin, iprodione and captan.

Iprodione is used to prevent and control mould, mildew and stem and root rot on a variety of crops. Captan is also a fungicide that is used on field, greenhouse and orchard crops.

Bifenthrin is an insecticide that accounts for more than a quarter of commercially used pesticides globally. In addition to various produce, it is used on certain flowers, shrubs and trees. It attacks insects by targeting their nervous systems, eventually paralyzing them and causing death.

Bifenthrin is considered to be of low toxicity to humans, though large quantities can induce adverse effects, including headaches, dizziness or skin or nasal irritations when inhaled, or a sore throat, nausea and vomiting if ingested.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also classifies it as a possible human carcinogen, but only based on incidences of tumours in mice.

However, Corradini says that workers on berry farms would be more likely to face any sort of health risks from acute exposure.

Can I wash these chemicals off berries?

It may not do much, Corradini says, especially when it comes to berries, because of how soft they are and all of the tiny crevices in their skin.

She says there have been some studies showing that soaking them for a few minutes in a mixture of water and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) may help, but that there’s not enough evidence to conclusively say it’s effective.

Are organic berries better?

Buying organic is your best bet in avoiding these chemicals, but it’s not foolproof, Corradini says.

“If you are in a facility that is having half of the production organic and half not, well, there is always a risk that there is a mistake,” she said.

She also pointed out that chemical pesticides are why fruits and vegetables can be grown so plentifully and at a relatively affordable cost.

Organic crops, she says, may also be more prone to infestations. And like non-organic produce, organic foods are not immune to pathogens and parasites that can cause food-borne illnesses such as E. coli and norovirus.

WATCH | The parasite that caused a nationwide outbreak in the U.S.:

What is cyclospora? A diarrhea-causing parasite

A diarrhea-causing parasite has led to a growing outbreak in the United States that has sickened more than 1,000 people and sent dozens to hospital. As of Wednesday, multiple states had reported cyclospora infections, which can cause watery diarrhea, bloating, fever and nausea. While cases are common in the spring and summer, the current outbreak has led to an unusually high number, making it one of the largest the country has seen. No deaths have been reported.

Is Driscoll’s facing any sort of investigation?

Driscoll’s says that it “never knowingly shipped product that we believed to be unsafe.”

Harada’s lawsuit is still in progress and the company wouldn’t comment on it other than to deny his allegations.

Driscoll’s is also facing a separate class-action lawsuit filed earlier this year by six plaintiffs living in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois.

SFGate reported that the suit accuses the company of consumer fraud and deceptive practices by allegedly “greenwashing” the amount of so-called forever chemicals, known as PFAS, on its strawberries.

Scientists Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg ‌Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or ​Medicine for “discoveries concerning light-gated ​ion channels and optogenetics,” the award-giving body ​said Monday in Stockholm.

Optogenetics “makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary general of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska ​Institutet.

“This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal ​the brain’s mysteries,” he said.

Deisseroth, a 54-year-old American, Hegemann, a 71-year-old German, and Georg Nagel, a 73-year-old German, were all surprised to learn they had won, Perlmann said.

“All ‌three said the same thing, that they thought it was absolutely wonderful to receive the prize with the other two, and they call them … friends. That it’s such an honour to receive them together. So that’s something they conveyed,” Perlmann said.

The Nobel Prizes come with a prize amount of 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.7 million Cdn), which the three scientists will split. Deisseroth is based at Stanford University in California, with Hegemann at Humboldt University in Berlin and Nagel at Germany’s University of Wurzburg.

In clinical trials, researchers are restoring vision to people blinded by a condition called retinitis pigmentosa by inserting a light-sensitive protein in the retina.

Researchers also hope optogenetics could improve cochlear implants, allowing more precise stimulation of ​the auditory nerve than current electrical devices.

Advancements over decades

In the early 1990s, Hegemann investigated how the alga Chlamydomonas reacts to light in half a millisecond. He hypothesized that a single protein captured light and acted as an ion channel. Nagel tested this by injecting Chlamydomonas genes into frog eggs, discovering channelrhodopsin-2 — an ion channel that opens when exposed to light.

In 2003, they published that ⁠this protein could be introduced into human and hamster cells to generate electrical impulses using light. In 2005, Deisseroth demonstrated the technique in rat nerve cells, and the method was named optogenetics a year later.

Prizes for chemistry and physics will be awarded Tuesday and Wednesday, literature on Thursday and the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize will be announced Oct. 12.

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”

Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.

Nobel ‌died in 1896, with the first prizes bearing his name following five years later.

The Nobel prizes are presented to the laureates on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.