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.
HEAL Director Génon K. Jensen writes for EUobserver on the importance to reflect the heavy toll climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are taking on health in the EU Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 .
HEAL Programme Lead Health and Chemicals Sandra Jen writes for Social Europe: Toys are among the top products in the European Union reported for health-and-safety risks. They account for 23 per cent of all alerts for dangerous consumer products in the EU’s rapid-alert system. The position recently adopted by the Council of the EU on revision of the legislation on toy safety is thus concerning, notably in failing to support a bans on PFAS and bisphenols.
The revised Ambient Air Quality Directive is a great tool for the Polish government to swiftly shift from the costly smoggy past to a clear new era, with happier and healthier people in tow, Weronika Michalak, Director of HEAL Poland writes for Euronews.
The EU has a unique public health opportunity with the current revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive, and the newly elected Polish government can help ensure this. Watering the law’s ambition down with delays and exemptions would be a major, unacceptable setback for people in Poland - one of the countries with the highest economic burden to health from air pollution in the EU.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2), often used for its whitening capacity and found in daily products such as sunscreens and cosmetics, is suspected of causing cancer. But the hazard classification of the substance as a suspected carcinogen has been a long and winding road, with the scientific and political battle culminating in a legal row at the European Union’s highest court—to the detriment of citizens and workers - Natacha Cingotti writes for Social Europe.
Alors qu’une consultation publique visant à restreindre l’usage des « polluants éternels » a été lancée le 22 mars, des mutuelles et des organisations spécialisées en santé environnementale rappellent, dans une tribune au « Le Monde », l’urgence d’une actualisation ambitieuse du règlement européen sur les substances chimiques.
The increasing reliance on lithium compounds in critical sectors should be reason enough for European authorities to support a thorough investigation of their properties. They also demand a speedy agreement on how to communicate about them to workers and end-users. But instead, a scientifically-backed proposal to classify three lithium salts for their toxicity to reproduction under Europe’s harmonised hazard identification system is at a dead end.
Health groups call on the leaders of the Western Balkan countries to harmonize national air quality standards with the World Health Organization Global air quality guidelines. Health experts should be actively involved in these decision-making processes to ensure the timely integration of public health measures into environmental policies. Compliance with WHO recommendations brings multiple benefits – reduced incidence of chronic diseases and premature deaths, reduced overall health costs and, most importantly, better health and higher productivity of people.
By using the example of the ongoing assessments of five substances that have long been suspected to disrupt our thyroid function, HEAL's Natacha Cingotti and Angeliki Lyssimachou illustrate the extremely slow pace of and the related weakness in the implementation of Europe’s promises to protect people, animals and wildlife from effects associated to exposure to endocrine disruptors.
Therefore, the Belchatow closure announcement is a milestone for better health protection for the people in Poland and beyond, and shows that there is a growing recognition that coal cannot have a place in a healthy energy future for Poland, or elsewhere. At the same time, there’s no reason for leaning back, as we have not reached our goal of a coal phase out in the EU by 2030 yet - a date that is scientifically proven to be needed to slow down the climate crisis.
By Genon K. Jensen, HEAL’s Executive Director Adapted from speech given at high level event on 'A healthy environment for healthy lives', EU Green Week 2021 Almost 20 years ago,…
The launch of the first ever national Air protection Program in the Republic of Serbia with an Action Plan is a unique opportunity to bring down high rates of disease,…
Taking on the plastics challenge in a way that puts health and the environment first to deliver on Europe’s Zero Pollution ambition requires upgrading European regulations on chemicals and articles in which they are used, encompassing the entire lifecycle of plastics.
What kind of city do we want to live in? Normally we don’t think much about that in our daily lives, but with the COVID pandemic we’ve also had to re-think the ways we move about in our cities.
The EU’s recovery package is the not-to-be-missed opportunity to lead us to a healthier future and should not extend a lifeline to the pollution that is making us sick, writes HEAL President Peter van den Hazel in EURACTIV.
Recent revelations on major disagreements within the European Commission about the development of the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability suggest that representatives of the Department General for Internal Market (DG GROW) seek to fundamentally tone down the proposals, under the pretence of economic interests and overruling preventive actions on chemicals and public health, writes Natacha Cingotti in EUObserver.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has committed to address endocrine disruptors as part of “a cross-cutting strategy to protect citizens’ health from environmental degradation and pollution” to reach “a zero-pollution ambition”. If Europe is serious about delivering on its promises and regulating based on science, then the current evaluation of the EDC framework is a real opportunity for health, environment and our economy, writes Natacha Cingotti in the ECHA Guest Corner.
The Dutch government has been appealing the Urgenda verdict for 4 years - it should recognise that accepting and executing it will be a blessing, writes HEAL President Peter van den Hazel.
