Health and Environment Alliance | News and Media

116 Scientists ask for revision of World Health Organization’s draft PFAS guidelines

15th November 2022

More than 115 scientists have asked the World Health Organization for a complete overhaul or withdrawal of the organisation’s draft drinking water guidelines for two of the most well-studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), namely PFOS and PFOA.

Open letter to the European Commission: Reuse and prevention at the core of packaging law to achieve circularity, decarbonisation and strategic independence

10th November 2022

29 NGOs call on EU Parliament and Council to support the Commission’s proposal on the SUR, despite attacks to weaken and delay its adoption

10th November 2022

29 NGOs strongly condemn attacks to weaken the ambition of the proposal for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation (SUR) and to delay its adoption.

Why melamine should be added to REACH’s blacklist of harmful chemicals

31st October 2022

Melamine's potential irreversible impacts on health and the environment warrant regulatory action now. Here are 6 things you need to know about this harmful chemical (and why we support Germany's proposal to identify it as a substance of very high concern).

Luftqualität: Gesundheit durch neue Standards schützen

28th October 2022

Luftqualität: Gesundheit durch neue Standards schützen Hohe Risiken für akute und chronische Krankheiten durch Feinstaub und Stickstoffdioxid Hannover/Brüssel, 28.10.2022. Die Gefahr ist unsichtbar: Luftverschmutzung ist ein großer umweltbedingter Risikofaktor für die…

Air pollution law revision can be a game changer for zero-pollution ambition

27th October 2022

Today, the European Commission released the proposed update to the Ambient Air Quality Directives (AAQD), the first one since 2008. As part of the Zero Pollution Package, this proposal has…

Reactions from the health community on the European Commission’s proposal on updating the Ambient Air Quality Directive

26th October 2022

The European Commission’s proposal on the revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive fails to address the urgency to act, to swiftly reduce the health burden. Reactions from the health community:

Environmental health groups urge national governments to play their part to ensure reforms of key chemical legislations make speedy progress

25th October 2022

HEAL and 14 environmental health organisations call on European governments to keep pressing the European Commission to deliver the promised reforms of the REACH and CLP regulations, and to support the proposal for a new pesticide reduction law.

HEAL at WHO Bonn Dialogue on Environment and Health: risk communication for environment and health

20th October 2022

HEAL’s Anne Stauffer spoke at the fourth of a series of high-level Bonn Dialogues on Environment and Health, held by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health (ECEH), under…

EU leaders: reaffirm Europe’s leadership in clean air policies

20th October 2022

Joint letter by C40, Clean Cities Campaign, European Cyclists' Federation, Transport & Environment and HEAL, calling to Fully align EU limit values for pollutants with the global air quality guidelines…

Health leaders speak out against pesticide pollution in Europe

19th October 2022

Health leaders across Europe are calling for urgent measures to reduce exposure to harmful pesticides following their participation in the citizens’ science project ‘the Pesticide-CheckUp’, results of which were published…

Letter to European Commission: Civil society vision on how the EU can deliver the European Green Deal and address the multiple crises we face

14th October 2022

The Green 10 wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vice President Frans Timmermans, Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, Commissioners Thierry Breton and Virginijus Sinkevičius to express their concern that the Commission’s Letter of Intent listing priority initiatives for 2023 failed to mention a number of the priority legislative files expected for the European Commission to publish in 2023 based on earlier plans by the European Commission.

Civil society groups urge the EU to keep their promises to ban ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS

12th October 2022

46 European civil society organisations urgently demand EU member states and the Commission to ban all PFAS in consumer products by 2025 and across all uses by 2030.

Webinar: Outside the Safe Operating Space of a PFAS Planetary Boundary

6th October 2022

Current pesticide reduction measures fail to protect vulnerable groups from pesticide pollution, new study from Italy shows

4th October 2022

A study carried out in the Italian province of Bolzano-South Tyrol reveals that despite measures taken by local authorities to reduce pesticide pollution, synthetic pesticides that can harm health and the environment are still detected in nearby children's playgrounds and schoolyards.

Joint letter to President Ursula Von der Leyen: REACH and CLP reforms

28th September 2022

EDC-Free Europe campaigners welcome the publication of the draft proposal for new EU hazard classes for endocrine disruptors

22nd September 2022

The EDC-Free Europe coalition, of which HEAL is a member, has welcomed the publication of the European Commission’s draft proposal for new hazard classes for the identification of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the CLP regulation.

100+ organisations call for stricter, WHO aligned EU air pollution limits

22nd September 2022

Exactly one year after the World Health Organization (WHO), after a systematic review of the science, published new Global Air Quality Guidelines with recommendations for maximum concentrations of the major air pollutants, more than 100 organisations in 17 EU countries have called on their health and environment ministers to save lives and protect nature from air pollution with science-based EU air quality standards.

International health organisations call for fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to protect lives of current and future generations

20th September 2022

Ahead of COP27 in November, more than 192 organisations have signed a letter that demands that governments lay out a legally binding global plan to phase out fossil fuel use.…

HEAL’s response to the public consultation on the EU Pesticide Reduction Law proposal

20th September 2022

Responding to European Commission’s public consultation on its plans for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation (SUR), the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) has welcomed the proposal but calls for more significant and faster reduction of pesticide use in order to protect health from the pesticide pollution across the EU.