SKIMMING THE CREAM:

Future health rosier? (RITA DALY, 6/24/06, Toronto Star)

The new face of Canada smokes and drinks less and is more physically active than the general population, according to a sweeping poll examining the behaviours and social attitudes of immigrant Canadians.

For a country that loves its beer and bars, the results of the survey may sound sacrilegious.

But the poll, conducted by the Solutions Research Group, raises the welcome possibility that a population practising healthier lifestyles could eventually save the $100 billion public health care system millions of dollars in doctors visits and medical treatment for certain diseases, including lung cancer.

At the very least, experts say, the country's diverse immigrant population could shift the emphasis of medical treatment away from some illnesses to others. Tuberculosis, for example, has seen a resurgence among many immigrants years after Canadian doctors stopped having to treat the illness.

Immigration accounts for 70 per cent of population growth in Canada.