HEAL was honoured to host renowned epidemiologist Dr. Shanna Swan in Brussels in May 2025. She met with different stakeholders to discuss impact of pollution to reproductive health. To specifically assess sperm decline, Dr. Swan has examined hundreds of scientific studies and conducted her own, which all indicate that sperm count is declining globally. This is the case even when controlling for all variables such as genetic and lifestyle factors.
HEAL, together with 35+ medical, health, environmental, public health civil society organisations has sent a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Timmermans, Commissioners Sinkevičius and Kyriakides, calling on them and their services to protect people’s health from air pollution, especially that of vulnerable groups such as children or patients already suffering from disease, and, in the upcoming revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive, to please come forward with a proposal to introduce binding EU clean air standards to fully meet WHO air quality recommendations by 2030 at the latest.
Read the full letter here
The letter was accompanied by social media cards showing the benefits WHO-aligned air quality would bring to cities across Europe:
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