The Health and Environment Alliance organises a webinar on the impact of pesticides on human health on the occasion of the Pesticide Action Week 2025. The webinar will see experts from the European Environment Agency and others present their work on this front.
Press note: HEAL together, with the other EDC-Free Europe coalition campaign partners, are calling on the European Commission to urgently propose the non-renewal of two harmful pesticides—fenoxaprop-P-ethyl and fludioxonil.
In the coming months, EU institutions will negotiate the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The MFF is the EU’s long-term budget, usually covering a seven-year period. It details the public spending for different areas of EU policies, including environment and climate action.
On World Cancer Day, representatives from the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) Poland attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Group "Rodzice dla Klimatu" (Parents for Climate). Experts from non-governmental organisations, the scientific community, and the healthcare sector discussed the impact of pollution on cancer and prevention. Olga Wdowiczak, environmental health policy specialist at HEAL, presented findings on how exposure to hazardous chemicals increases the cancer risk, particularly for children.
Against the backdrop of an ever-growing body of evidence on the health impacts and cost of people's exposure to pollution, HEAL is concerned that the Clean Industrial Deal misses the opportunity to set the EU on the path for swift and significant pollution reduction and disease prevention. To work for people in the EU and their health, the Clean Industrial Deal needs to be a zero pollution deal, with three principles at its core.
In the run up to the Second World Health Organization Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, HEAL has co-initiated a call urging governments, world leaders and decision-makers to commit to strong, bold actions to ensure clean air for all.
The EU Healthy Air Coalition has sent a letter to the European Commission concerning the Clean Industrial Deal, calling on the Commission to make the Clean Industrial Deal one which cleans up Europe's air, for better health for all - demanding a Clean Air Deal.
Today, the European Commission published its Vision for Agriculture and Food, outlining plans for the European agri-food sector for this 2024-2029 term.
To address growing concern about harmful chemicals in Poland and to raise awareness about the impacts of chemicals on health in Poland, HEAL in November 2024 has started publishing materials and articles on the matter and engage the Polish health sector.
HEAL has sent a letter to EU member states Permanent Representatives regarding the ongoing negotiations between the Council, Parliament and Commission on the revision of the EU Toy Safety Regulation.
Opinion by HEAL Poland Director Weronika Michalak: as the urgency to act on the triple crisis - climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss - becomes increasingly clear, I hope that the Polish Presidency of the European Union, which began on 1st January this year, will set the course for decisive EU climate and environmental policies aimed at protecting people's health across Europe.
In all mitigation and adaptation measures to 2040 which are currently being considered by EU decisionmakers (Proposal of a 90% CO2 reduction target for 2040; EU Climate Adaptation Plan), health needs to be at the core.
More than 40 non-governmental organisations, including HEAL, are calling on the Polish Prime Minister to enhance coordination among 12 ministries in preparing the National Energy and Climate Plan and implementing Poland's energy and climate transition.
Together with thirty non-governmental organisations, HEAL urged Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk to immediately resume Poland's successful and much needed Clean Air Programme. The programme saves an estimated 21,000 lives annually through its approach of replacing outdated heating systems and improving home insulation.
85 organisations including HEAL have in January 2025 published a roadmap for a pesticide phase-out: “A swift and just transition to phase out pesticides and safeguard biodiversity and people’s health must remain a top priority for the new European Commission. This goal should be central to the EU’s Vision for Agriculture and Food, which is expected on 19 February 2025.”
To raise awareness of the impacts of PFAS on human health, HEAL is organising a series of three webinars in October 2024, each focusing on a different health impact of PFAS. The first webinar on 10 October focuses on impacts on the immune system. The subsequent webinars will focus on cancer and the impacts of exposure in early life and pregnancy.
More than 90 organisations have written to EU Commission President Von der Leyen regarding the PFAS pollution crisis.
Repost in light of the European Parliament's plenary debate taking place on 22 January 2025 In light of questions raised in the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control (CONT) Committee on EU…
The ban of BPA in food contact materials will help protect people from these endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), that have also been classified as toxic for reproduction since 2006 under REACH. Exposure to Bisphenol A and other bisphenols is associated with breast cancer, infertility, early puberty, diabetes and obesity, and neurological disorders in children. But this restriction focuses on one area where bisphenols are widely used – the work to protect people's health from the group of chemicals, and in particular children is therefore far from over.
Press note: The Forever Lobbying Project investigation finds that the clean-up of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination in Europe could cost 100 billion euros annually. Health-related costs for PFAS exposure are estimated to reach up to 84 billion euros annually. With these revelations, combined with the mounting scientific evidence on PFAS’ grave health impacts, it is clear that the European Commission must ensure a robust EU-wide PFAS restriction and come up with a plan to address these costs as part of the Clean Industrial Deal.
