Welcome to the June 2007 issue of HEAL newsletter

Environmental health, especially children’s health, was high on the EU and Pan European political agenda in June. As extensively reported in this issue, health and environment ministers and stakeholders met in Vienna to assess progress within the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE). This was an important opportunity for non-governmental organizations to show-case some of their projects and activities to improve children’s environmental health across Europe. But it was also an opportunity to flag a number of concerns and problematic areas that still need to be tackled by national governments and the EU when adopting and implementing legislation, namely:

 Children’s physical vulnerability, particularly during the prenatal stage: Just recently 200 eminent scientists (Faroes Statement) from 5 continents declared that prenatal and early infancy exposure to common toxic chemicals may make babies more likely to develop an array of health problems later in life, including diabetes, attention deficit disorders, prostate cancer, fertility problems, thyroid disorders and even obesity. Governments now need to act to avoid important IQ deficits and related costs in the future (read the HEAL briefing “Chemicals compromising our children” and visit the Chemicals Health Monitor website).

 Inter sectoral cooperation: environmental health policy must reach out to more sectors. Better inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral cooperation between the energy, transport, industry, agriculture, planning, education and most importantly the finance ministries is needed to ensure a coherent, well-funded and consistent strategy can be put in place and real health improvements achieved.

 Environmental health inequalities: A brand-new country report by WHO illustrates the large disparities in health-related environmental conditions not only between countries within the vast European Region, but also within countries themselves. The poor and ethnically discriminated groups are clearly the most adversely affected by environmental harms. Within these groups, it is the children who suffer the most since they are more likely to lack access to safe and clean water, more likely to have air-polluted indoor environments at home and at school, and more likely to suffer the various effects of chemical pollution, or suffer from an accident (read the HEAL/CEPL publication “Making the case for environmental justice in Central and Eastern Europe). NGOs urged governments to adopt measures that simultaneously address environmental protection and human rights, not just for today, but for future generations as well.

In June, the EU also published its mid-term review of the Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010 which could offer some practical tools to monitor and prevent the adverse effects of chemicals on people’s health (specifically research results and biomonitoring) and to measure the magnitude of environmental health problems through indicators.

As we wait to see how this process develops, a concrete step forward was achieved this month with the vote on the proposed directive for the sustainable use of pesticides in the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). The ENVI Committee report contains provisions banning the use of pesticides in and around areas where vulnerable groups are more exposed (see the outcome of the vote). Environment and health groups will work hard to persuade MEPs voting in plenary in September to ensure that these measures are kept in the final legislation.