Newsletter September 2007

About us & our members

ARTAC new report on pesticides and cancer

Professor Dominique Belpomme, director of ARTAC, which is a HEAL member, presented his new report on pesticides and cancer to the French parliament on 18 September 2007. It describes the scandal of unregulated pesticide use in the French Caribbean, which may be related to increased levels of breast and prostate cancer in these islands.
The report is being promoted by some French MPs and has therefore hit the headlines in and throughout the French media.
By pointing to the use of a (...)

ERS / ELF Annual Award on respiratory health presented in Stockholm

On 15 September, Professor Brunekreef received an award for his outstanding contribution to respiratory health and environmental protection of people in Europe at the European Respiratory Society’s (ERS) Annual Congress. The European Lung Foundation Award is presented annually to an individual who has made a major contribution to the service of human health.
Prof Brunekreef, who is Director and Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht (...)

ERS publication reveals contradiction between science and policy on particulate matter

The European Respiratory Society (ERS), the largest non-profit making international medical organisation in its field and a HEAL member, has produced a report entitled Particulate matter, science and EU policy reviewing the latest findings on particulate matter (PM) that reveals a significant disparity between scientific knowledge and the EU political agenda.
PM is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air, the result of dust, volcanoes, forest fires, the burning (...)

HEAL and EPHA conference on Climate Change and Health, 2 October 2007

The Health & Environment Alliance and the European Public Heath Alliance organised a conference on “Climate change and the challenges for public health: priorities for EU Action” on 2 October 2007. As one of many effects of climate change is its impact on human health, health professionals and the wider health community have a key role to play in raising people’s consciousness about the health risks of climate change.
The European Commission will be adopting a communication on (...)

HEAL Executive Board Member wins prestigious award

The prestigious London Education Partnership Award was awarded to Carolyn Stephens, a HEAL Executive Board member and senior lecturer in International Environmental Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in recognition of her work in engaging young people from deprived communities in East London with science.
The London Education Partnership Award was launched by the UK Department for Children, Schools and Families and granted in June 2007 to honour London-based (...)

HEAL in the Media September 2007

PESTICIDES
MEPs vote to tighten draft EU pesiticide law
Euractiv, 12-13 September 2007
Quotes Monica Guarinoni and features HEAL position
Also in French.
Pesticide makers slam MEPs’ market approval vote
ENDS Europe DAILY 2385, 12 September 2007
Quotes Monica Guarinoni
CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH
Fragile future
Environmental Health Practitioners, 7 September 2007
Genon Jensen and Diana Smith report on action to cut environmental hazards that threaten childhood development (...)

HEAL is recruiting a Policy and Communication Intern December 2007 - May 2008

The Health & Environment Alliance is recruiting a Policy & Communication Intern for a six-month period December 2007 - May 2008 (starting date 1 December 2007).
The Health & Environment Alliance is an international non-governmental organisation advocating environmental protection as a means to improving health and well-being. It regularly hosts interns for its Brussels-based Secretariat. For more information see: www.env-health.org
Main tasks
Provide support for the management of the (...)

HEAL Secretariat News September 2007

New publications
Navigating REACH: An activist guide to using and improving the new EU chemicals legislation
Press releases
MEPs put health and environment at heart of pesticides regulation
Conferences and meetings
On 7 September, Christian Farrar-Hockley attended the final stakeholder conference on European human biomonitoring (ESBIO) in Brussels.
On 21 September, Christian Farrar-Hockley gave a presentation to a delegation from the UK Faculty of Public Health on HEAL activities and the (...)

Luxembourg Appeal: towards an international ban of mercury in Dental Amalgam,10 November 2007

AKUT together with the European Academy for Environmental Medicine will be organising a conference on the "Luxembourg Appeal: Towards an international ban of mercury in Dental Amalgam", on the November 10th 2007 at the Parc-Hotel in Luxembourg.
For further information please send an email to: info@akut.lu
A copy of the conference flyer can be found here.

Prof Belpomme says environmental role of cancer underestimated by French National Academies

Professor Dominique Belpomme, president of the French Association for Research on Treatments Against Cancer (ARTAC), a HEAL member, believes the role of pollution in the aetiology of cancer reported in the publication Attributable Causes of Cancer in France in the Year 2000 is underestimated. The report, co-authored by the French National Academy of Medicine, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Fédération nationale des centres de lutte contre le cancer attributes only (...)

WAVE conference: Women as the Voice for the Right to a Healthy Environment, 13 October 2007

Women in Europe for a Common Future will hold a high-level conference on Women as a Voice for the Environment in Belgrade, Serbia on 10 and 13 October 2007.
Women’s participation and experience are central to environmental management and sustainable development. Therefore UNEP brought women’s voices to the forefront of the environmental agenda in a landmark event, the Global Women’s Assembly on Environment “Women as the Voice of the Environment”(WAVE), which took place in (...)

Environment and Health Policy

7 proposals from the French medical community for the “environmental Grenelle”

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy has invited environmental NGOs and scientists to prepare the “environmental Grenelle”, an ambitious five-year plan to develop ways of measuring the country’s progress on meeting environmental objectives. However, doctors and health professionals are currently excluded from the very working group whose aim is to address health issues: Working Group 3 “for the creation of an environment that respects human health”.
Consequently, in (...)

Resources & Media

Book review: "Chemical pollutants: children in danger (Pollutants chimiques: enfants en danger)"

By Anne-Corinne Zimmer, 2007, Edition de l’Atelier
Wiebke Winkler, who is responsible for the Health and Environment campaign at the Centre national d’information indépendante sur les déchets (CNIID), Paris, has sent us the following review of a book entitled "Chemical Pollutants: Children in danger". In French.
Polluants chimiques : enfants en danger
Anne-Corinne Zimmer, journaliste spécialisée en environnement est l’autrice d’un ouvrage de 240 pages intitulé "Polluants chimiques : (...)

Book review: "Toxic Exposures: Contested illnesses and the Environmental Health Movement"

By Phil Brown, 2007, Columbia University Press/New York.
The “contested diseases” taken as examples of activist issues in this fascinating perspective on the environmental health movement in the US are breast cancer, asthma and Gulf War-related health conditions.
The stories are inspiring and the analysis is valuable. For example, he creates a three-dimensional model to represent the tensions in science today. On one axis is the struggle between lifestyle and individual risk (...)

Book review: The Secret History of the War on Cancer

by Devra Davis, 2007, The New York Academy of Sciences
Epidemiologist Devra Davis provides an exposé of how industrial, political and science leaders downplayed cancer prevention in favour of moneymaking treatment of symptoms.
Since the early 20th century, some people in the scientific community, government, industry and even cancer advocacy world have understood that most cancer is not born but made, arising as a result of the things that happen to people after their birth. Often steps (...)

Chemicals

Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety launches information website on substitution and alternatives

The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), designed to enable Governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to discuss new and emerging issues in the sound management of chemicals, has established a website providing information related to Substitution & Alternatives.
Born out of discussions for the next Forum VI session, the website represents a reference list of case examples, background information and useful tools in the field of (...)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency releases list of high production volume chemicals and their hazards

In September 2007 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its first list of high production volume chemicals and their hazards on its HPV Chemical Hazard Characterizations webpage. The list is the result of the High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program, under which companies were “challenged” to make health and environmental effects data on chemicals produced and imported into the US publicly available.
The Challenge Program was launched in 1998 after a (...)

Pesticides

Study links pesticide exposure to increased asthma risk

A US Agricultural Health Study of American farmers, by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has found that adults who come into contact with pesticides are at a higher risk of developing respiratory problems. The study, “Chemical predictors of wheeze among farmer pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study”, was presented in September 2007 at the European Respiratory Society’s annual congress in Stockholm.
The cohort study (...)

Climate Change

EU Commission proposes a Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) to support developing countries

According the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will be among those hardest hit by climate change. Consequently, the European Commission has proposed in September to build a new Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) between the European Union and the poor developing countries, to help those most affected by the impacts of climate change. Through this Alliance it is expected that (...)

Events on climate change and health in the EU, October 2007

European Health Forum Gastein
Main aspects of European health policy will be discussed from 3 - 6 October 2007 in Gastein at the European Health Forum with senior decision-makers representing politics and government at EU, national and regional levels; business and industry; health care funders and service providers; civil society; experts and researchers in health care and public health to develop potential solutions for the future. The opening plenary session will address Environment and (...)

Environmental diseases

New book: The Falling Age of Puberty in US Girls

In a review of the literature surrounding the timing of puberty entitled "The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know," ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber examines the changes in timing of sexual maturation. Commissioned by the Breast Cancer Fund, the report highlights the fact that girls in the US get their first periods, on average, a few months earlier than girls did 40 years ago, whilst their breasts develop one or two years earlier both of which (...)

Reed-Elsevier launches Oncologystat, a new cancer information portal

The world’s leading publisher of science and health information, Reed Elsevier, has launched a free cancer website called Oncology by OncologyStat, providing access to a multitude of authoritative cancer information sources. Funded by advertising, the new website is primarily aimed at healthcare specialists, offering following:
Access to current articles from over 100 Elsevier cancer-related journals, including The Lancet Oncology, The Breast, Lung Cancer, The American Journal of Medicine, (...)

More issues

Commission adopts Green Paper on Urban Mobility

On the 25 September 2007, the European Commission adopted a green paper on Urban Mobility, "Towards a new culture for urban mobility”. Its objective is to start off discussions on key urban mobility issues, such as: free-flowing and greener towns and cities, smarter urban mobility and an urban transport which is accessible, safe and secure for all European citizens. A consultation on the green paper will run until 2008. Based on the outcome, an Action Plan on Urban Mobility will (...)

EU Commission reviews toy safety measures following Mattel recalls

Following Mattel’s third major recall of toys made in China, the European Commission has launched a two-month review of the toy safety mechanisms currently in place in Europe.
The latest recall relates more than 800,000 Mattel accessory toys with “impermissible” levels of lead from the Barbie and Fisher-Price ranges. British authorities submitted notification of the recall through the EU’s rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products, RAPEX. Earlier this month Mattel (...)

European mobility week 2007

From the 16 to 22 September 2007 a series of activities intended to make sustainable travel alternatives viable will be organised under the EU’s annual European Mobility Week. The central theme of this year’s events is "Streets for people". It is expected that more than 133 million people across Europe, in over 1300 town, and cities, will take part.
The aim of mobility week is to raise awareness of:
The need for behavioural change in relation to mobility and in particular the use of the (...)

New warnings on health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF)

An international working group of scientists, researchers and public health policy professionals has released a report on electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health entitled the BioInitiative Report. The report raises serious scientific concerns regarding the health effects of daily exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs).
After the publication of the report, both the German government and the European Environment Agency cautioned against radiation from Wi-Fi connections and mobile phones. (...)

Threats and opportunities for children’s environmental health in Central Europe

An article by the Commission on Environmental Health of the German Academy of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine to be published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health highlights the negative impact of often overlooked environmental health risks to children such as UV light, noise, fine particles, tobacco smoke, legal and illegal drugs, and radon.
Entitled “Children’s environment in Central Europe: Threats and chances” , the article underlines the (...)