CBC Maritimes

NB's Conservation Council says there's a link between carcinogens released by big industry and cancer rates.

There's plenty of medical evidence to help us decide what to do and what not to do in order to reduce our risk of developing cancer. Stop smoking. Improve your diet. Exercise. But what if you've done all the right things and the community in which you've lived and worked all your life turns out to be a risk factor ?  The most recent study by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick points to several towns and cities which have much higher incidence rates of certain cancers than the provincial rate. We spoke with Inka Milewski, the  Health Watch Director for the Conservation Council.

The days when you could leave school in your teens and step into a job for life are history.
Whether you aspire to be an electrician, an accountant, a nurse or the manager of a franchise, you'll need - not only your high school diploma - but some post-secondary schooling. The question of whether a university education is worth the price is a more pointed question than ever because of labour shortages emerging in just about any occupation you'd care to name in the Maritimes. But there are broader issues about who has access to post-secondary education and what employers count as education. Ray Ivany is well-positioned to comment on both the community college and the academic university streams. He's a former President of the Nova Scotia Community College & now president of Acadia University. He spoke about the kind of post-secondary system we've inherited, who's traditionally been left out, and the gap that keeps many qualified people from finding their niche in the labour market.

Parents everywhere are hardwired to want to create more opportunities for their children than they had. They want their kids to prosper financially, and for many Maritime families, sending them off to university has been one way to better the odds of landing a good job. But students are graduating with massive debt loads attached to their academic degree, and no certainty they'll find work. On the phone in we asked: Is a university education worth the price ? Our guests were Peter Halpin is the Executive Director of the Association of Atlantic Universities, and Mark Coffin, the executive director of The Alliance of Nova Scotia Students' Associations.