Newsletter May 2007

About us & our members

Conference and fact sheet on Mercury and Dental Amalgams

The European Environmental Bureau, in cooperation with the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and the Zero Mercury Working Group, held a Conference on “Dental Sector as a Source of Mercury Contamination” in Brussels on Friday 25th May 2007.
Read the NGO joint press release "A real mouthful: Why mercury fillings should be banned"
On this occasion, HEAL and HCWH launched the last fact sheet of the “Stay Healthy Stop Mercury” campaign on “Mercury and Dental (...)

HEAL and ELF fact sheet for children "Dirty air and your lungs"

A fact sheet specifically designed for children has been produced and published by the European Lung Foundation and the Health & Environment Alliance in May 2007. Dirty air and your lungs - Fact Sheet for children is now available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Polish, Russian.
The project “The Environment and Lung Disease”, carried out jointly by the Health & Environment Alliance, the European Lung Foundation and the European Respiratory Society, aims to (...)

HEAL new member organisation, May 2007

In May 2007, Ecobaby, a non -governmental organisation based in The Netherlands, was granted provisional membership of HEAL.
The main objective of Ecobaby is to promote the environmental health of pregnant women and children, particularly against chemicals, pesticides, POPs and heavy metals. Ecobaby also aims to start paediatric environmental medicine and support studies in this field, and bring science to (...)

HEAL Secretariat News May 2007

New staff
In May 2007, Janaina Topley Lira joined the Health and Environment Alliance for a six-month internship. Janaina will help the secretariat with the following tasks: drafting and editing of the forthcoming Primer on Environment and Health and future HEAL newsletters; follow-up of the “Stay Healthy, Stop Mercury” campaign; updating the HEAL website with news articles; and assisting the Secretariat with various communications and advocacy tasks.
New publications
Mercury (...)

WECF’s policy recommendations on indoor pollution for the UN CSD 15

Women in Europe for a Common Future, a HEAL member, presented policy recommendations on indoor air pollution at the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 15) on 11 May 2007.
Read the recommendations

Environment and Health Policy

Children’s environmental health in Europe: assessing progress since 2004

In June, government officials, local authorities, NGOs, scientists and young people will gather in Vienna for a series of activities looking at the progress made and challenges ahead for reducing environmental hazards to children’s health.
The meetings will take place against the back-drop of the WHO Mid Term Review of the Budapest Declaration on Environment and Health from 10 to 15 June 2007.
Intergovernmental Mid-Term Review (13-15 June)
The intergovernmental meeting, hosted by the (...)

Earth Portal: a new online source of scientific environmental information

In April 2007, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), a not-for-profit organisation working to improve the scientific basis for environmental decision-making, launched the Earth Portal, a new online resource for environmental information.
Compiling articles written by environmental experts from around the world, the Earth Portal is a comprehensive and unique store of articles, e-books and reports, the first to offer quality-control for the material published. It (...)

European Commission launches new human biomonitoring leaflet

In May 2007 the European Commission launched a Human Biomonitoring Leaflet focused on human biomonitoring (HBM) in the European Union.
The leaflet gives an brief overview what HBM is, how HBM can help policy makers, and brief information what the European Commission has been doing regarding HBM.

Women’s Health and the Environment: a new website by CHE and WHEI

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) Women’s Health working group, and the Women’s Health and the Environment Initiative, together launched the new website Women’s Health and the Environment . The launch took place in April 2007.
Providing information on the scientific links between women’s health and the environment, the Women’s Health and Environment website has a free downloadable Toolkit, packed full of information on how to prevent exposure to environmental (...)

Mercury and health

European Parliament votes to bring forward proposed mercury ban

In May 2007 the European Parliament’s Environment and public Health Committee adopted a report calling for the planned ban on mercury exports to be brought forward by seven months, to the 1st December 2010. The report also called for an import ban to come into force on the 1st July 2010 and for stricter rules on storage.
The Committee voted on draft legislation from the European Commission regarding mercury contained in both fever thermometers and blood pressure instruments, for which high (...)

Chemicals

"R" in REACH Workshop 21 June, Bonn

On the 21 June 2007, the German presidency, in collaboration with the European Commission, will hold a seminar to launch the REACH guidance and tools for pre-registration and registration of chemical substances. The workshop objective is to provide up-to date information on the tools to support companies who are preparing to register their substances, and on REACH guidance documents.
Providing practical information on REACH compliance, the workshop will be a good starting point for those (...)

Call for EU ban on dichloromethane paint strippers

A new report, published in May 2007 by consultancy Risk & Policy Analysts Limited (RPA) for the European Commission, has called for the chemical dichloromethane (DCM), also known as methylene chloride, to be banned in paint strippers produced for professional and consumer uses.
Dichloromethane is a colourless compound that affects both the central nervous system (CNS) and interferes with oxygen transport. Essentially, DCM mimics the poisoning action of carbon monoxide by forming (...)

Health dangers of Perfluoroalkyl Acids

Environmental Health Perspectives, a monthly journal of peer-reviewed research and news on the impact of environment and health, has given special attention to perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in its May 2007 issue .
Perfluoroalkyl acids including perfluorooctanyl sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are widely-used chemicals, utilized to repel stains, oil and water. Both ubiquitous and persistent in the environment, PFOS and PFOA have been found in animals and humans around the (...)

New study on toxic chemicals found in cars

The Ecology Center, a Michigan-based environmental group, has released a study entitled Toxic at any Speed - Chemicals in cars and the need for safer alternatives analyzing more than 60 different car seat models for chemicals. Chemicals tested for included: bromine (associated with brominated flame retardants); chlorine (indicating the presence of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC and plasticizers); lead; and heavy metal allergens. Such chemicals have been linked to major health problems such as (...)

The Faroes statement: Human health effects of developmental exposure to environmental toxicants

On 20-24 May 2007, the Conference on Fetal Programming and Developmental Toxicity brought together scientists from the areas of environmental health, environmental chemistry, developmental biology, toxicology, epidemiology, nutrition, and paediatrics, to highlight effects of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to toxicants, and their continued effect on an individual throughout their adult life.
Toxic exposures to environmental hazards are particularly dangerous for early infants and the (...)

Third Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

From 30 April - 4 May 2007 the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-3) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was held, in Dakar, Senegal. The meeting was attended by over 450 participants, representing more than 180 governments, UN agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
The principal topics discussed included: the continuous production and use of DDT for malaria vector control; measures to reduce or eliminate (...)

Too early to celebrate REACH, say NGOs

One week before the European Union’s new chemicals legislation - REACH - entered into force (1 June 2007), European environmental, women’s, health and consumer groups had warned in an open letter to the European Commission that REACH cannot be celebrated until it is strengthened to provide proper health and environmental protection.
Read the NGO media advisory and open letter to Commissioners Dimas and Verheugen.
A new publication by Chemical Reaction supported by many NGOs including (...)

Pesticides

German consumers want pesticide-free food but government weakens pesticide reduction programme

Two thirds (71%) of people questioned in a German survey on pesticides want their fruit and vegetables entirely free of pesticide residues, and only 2% of respondents saw no problem in there being pesticide residues present. Additionally, 22% of those surveyed did not want pesticide residues above permitted limits, and 89% thought fruit and vegetables shown to be particularly contaminated with pesticides should not be sold at all.
After analysing 576 conventionally-grown fruits and (...)

Climate Change

IPCC report in progress: mitigation and adaptation to climate change

The world’s leading scientists and world governments are to meet in Bangkok, Thailand from 30 April, ahead of the publication on 4 May of the third part of a key United Nations report on climate change. The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment report, has taken six years to compile, draws on research by 2,500 scientists from over 130 countries and should shock the world into taking urgent action to reduce global emissions.
Experts are expected to say that massive investment in renewable energy (...)

Third Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report says climate change mitigation affordable

The report published in May 2007 by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals a strong consensus among the world’s leading climate change experts on the availability and affordability of the solutions to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The UN study “Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change”, assesses the potential costs of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations at various levels in the atmosphere. It concludes that emission (...)

Air Quality

Czech study examines early childhood lower respiratory illness and air pollution

In May 2007, Environmental Health Perspectives published a new U.S. - Czech study on children’s health and air pollution in the Czech Republic. The study, entitled “Early Childhood Lower Respiratory Illness and
Air Pollution” examined rates of lower respiratory illnesses in preschool children in relation to ambient particles and hydrocarbons.
The study evaluated bronchitis in children from two Czech districts: Teplice, with high ambient air pollution, and Prachatice, (...)

US study shows ambient air pollution increases risk of low birth weight

A new Yale study, “Ambient Air Pollution and Low Birth Weight in Connecticut and Massachusetts,” published in Environmental Health Perspectives in May 2007 shows that the exposure of pregnant women to air pollution can increase their risk of having low-birth-weight infants. Researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Medicine found that the higher the level of exposure to nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter (...)

More issues

EU Parliament votes in favour of tough rules improving surface water quality

On 22 May, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a first reading of a report drafted by French Liberal Democrat Anne Laperrouze, strengthening proposed rules on improving water quality of rivers, lakes and coastal waters, known as surface water.
Increasingly, citizens are demanding that the EU increase its efforts to keep Europe’s waters clean. A poll of European citizens asking them to list the five main environmental issues they are worried about saw 47% of (...)