About 18-thousand residents of Peel are being alerted of a privacy breach.

A secure digital card, containing personal health information, was stolen from the car of a Peel Region employee.

The card was not encrypted.

It contained names, addresses, birth dates, marital status and assessment information of clients in Peel Public Health’s ‘Healthy Babies Healthy Children’ program from March 2010 to August 2011, as well as a smaller number from earlier dates.

Anyone enrolled during that time can call the Region at 905-791-5202 or 1-866-888-9007.

Peel has already started contacting those affected.

There were no Social Insurance or Health Card numbers on the stolen employee’s card.